Advice please! Debts not showing up on credit files...

therewasatime

Hi,

My wife and I have been paying DCAs and some original lenders in a DMP for the last 6 years (between us we owe £74,000). We went with Eurodebt who told us originally that after a couple of years they'd most likely be written off because there was a tax loophole that the lenders could get money back from the government (or europe or something) once the debt was written off. They showed us a hundred letters of settlement agreements where the amounts were around £1 or £2 - implying that we could get them written off one way or another.

Obviously we thought it was great and forked out lots of money (which to be honest we didn't have) to start their service. Since then we've been paying around £70 (including their now £41.50 charge) to be split between our 11 creditors.

Now, clearly the magic write off has never happened (feeling very foolish and naive about believing all the lies)... and we're considering new options, including bankruptcy, to move this forward.

We've tried writing to all the creditors and asked them to consider writing the debts off as it's causing us stress and we can't afford bankruptcy etc. to no avail. Only 2 of them wrote back with a reply.

The other day we signed up to experian and equifax to take a look at our credit files and were shocked to see that only a couple of the debts are on there, with no sign of any of the others...

Firstly, is this normal? We've moved a fair few times in between then and now and maybe they haven't updated their address as we've always asked eurodebt to do this...

The latest for us is that we've been advised by the CCCS to go bankrupt - which frankly is what eurodebt should have done 6 years ago... we're currently not paying eurodebt and have cancelled with them and sent a letter of complaint (hearing nothing back of course!). We're also not currently paying back our creditors - to see who contacts us to get a better picture of things.

What we're wondering is whether to pursue the credit agreement route for some or all of these... all the debts began between 2000 and 2003 so time wise everything is fine.

Is it worth waiting to see if we are contacted by any of the companies for non-payment? What happens if some of them don't write to us? Is it possible that because they don't appear on our credit files (even though we've been paying them through eurodebt) that they don't report the accounts any more?

Lastly, is there anything that can be done about Eurodebt - frankly if we'd gone bankrupt 6 years ago we'd just now be coming free of the 6 years of it being on our credit file and wouldn't be facing another 6 years of it all.

Any insights, advice or support is greatly appreciated.

Tixy

The debts are probably not on your file for one of 2 reasons. 6years after a default is entered the debt will no longer show on your credit report (you would still owe the money but the debt just would not appear).
The alternative is that they didn't know your address. What sometimes happens is the first time you geta credit file and give your previous addressess for the last 6years all the debts are not there, but after that your creditors are able to link your old debts to your current address and so they may appear after a while if you request it again.

Have you formally written to eurodebt to stop your DMP? most commercial DMP companies require 4 weeks written notice to cease your agreement with them.

The companies will almost certainly contact you once payments stop, you will still owe the money even though they are not on your credit file. The problem with not contacting them is that if they don't have your current address they could take you to court without you knowing about it.
Actually I'd suggest you contact them yourselves to say not to deal with eurodebt anymore and that you will currently offer token payments of £1 to each creditor whilst you seek advice from CCCS. This should keep them off your back for a month or so whilst you explore options.

This is a template letter you could use/alter though you need to add in about eurodebt - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=21937969&postcount=52

The other thing you could possibly consider (depending on the level or debts you now have and what you can afford) would be to make full& final settlement offers to some of your creditors. if your debts have been sold on to third part debt collection agencies they sometimes accept F&Fs of as little as 20%.

Regarding looking at unenforceability that too might be an option if you are looking at bankrupty. Would all of your debts be covered by CCA? Eg overdrafts are not covered.

therewasatime

Thanks Tixy,

I suppose it's a bit odd that they don't know our address and we've been paying them for 6 years in a DMP! What you have said is kind of what I'd suspected would happen...

We wrote to Eurodebt to tell them that we were not dealing with them any further and asked them to supply all the details of the accounts and the latest owners of the debts. We also included our complaints in the letter (to make ourselves feel better). As yet we have had no response to either the request for information or the complaint.

The vast majority of the debts would be covered by CCA - which to be honest would be better than bankruptcy. It seems a pretty complicated procedure... what is the success rate like?

Lastly, I'm a little concerned about going bankrupt because the OR can take umbridge to certain things which might affect our case. 2 in particular make me suspicious:

1. That you have knowingly continued trading when you are unable to pay your debts (we are a partnership and have perhaps being doing this for 6 years?? not a limited company though...)
2. That you have favoured one creditor over another - well we've been paying the full amount for a loan and credit card with our bank where we also had business banking (as of July we are no longer paying these because we can't afford them)

I know that in these cases it's possible for them to extend the term of your bankruptcy to up to 15 years... not a very good prospect. Does anyone know how these rules apply?

Cheers and thanks for the continued help, it's very much appreciated.