With Cccs but now being taken to court :(

harrisc0

hi well what a shock this morning opened the post to receive a letter from lloyds tsb taking us to court if we don't pay £3450 in 14 days we have been with Cccs for over a year now and lloyds never helped us, they accepted the minimum payment of £25 but then charged us £65 a month in interest! So we owe about £1500 more than when we started with them. They were very un helpful and rarely responded to letters asking for help. Now fretting and worrying even more as we could be liable for court charges as well what to do as Cccs are shut till Monday so got a weekend of worry now!

barbiedoll

Don't worry too much, it sounds as though they are taking you to court to obtain a County Court Judgement (CCJ) to ensure that they will get their money. The fact that you have sought help from CCCS and you have been making regular payments that you can afford, will sit well with the judge. If you get a CCJ against you, it's unlikely that the judge will order you to pay more per month than you are now paying and you may get the interest and charges taken off if you ask, especially as your debt has grown since you have been in financial difficulties. Is this debt for an overdraft or is it for a loan/credit card? If it is one of the latter, do you have a valid Consumer Credit Agreement (CCA)? If the loan or card was taken out before 2007, you may even find that the agreement is invalid and they cannot get a CCJ for it. I don't know much about the court processes and the timescales involved, one of the others should be along soon to help you out. CCJ's are par for the course if you have bank debts, I'm expecting one myself sooner or later. It's not the end of the world, as long as you make regular payments as ordered by the court, you can just carry on as before. Good luck!

DarkConvict

All they are doing is securing there debt against you.

Do not let the DMP company handle the CCJ paperwork - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2045387

Just take forward the information into court, that you are on a DMP with CCCS (a known charity) and they had accepted the payments made. This is the most that you can actually afford. Furthermore LLoyds were unhelpful and continued to add charges and interest meaning the debt actually grew in size over the last year.

It may actually do you well you get a CCJ in the end, even if you do defend. So hopefully lloyds will be unable to add further charges.

harrisc0

Thanks for the reply it is a credit card bill in my husbands name and the Cccs is a joint one for all of our debts, currently sitting at around £34000 as some of the companies won't help us, barclays and lloyds! So our debts have in fact increased around £2000 since starting the dmp one year ago !

saltnvinegar

Hi

Easy to say I know but first try not to stress about this. These letters are deliberately timed so they arrive on Fri's / Sat's to stress you out over the weekend as they know there will be little guidance/assistance.

Second are you sure that they are actually taking you to court? What is the exact content of the letter? If they use words like may/could/possibly then its likely that its nothing but bluster to try to get you to pay up.

In the event it does get taken to court well the judge is not going to take to kindly to Lloyds not co-operating with CCCS, especially if all your other creditors have played ball and frozen interest.

The other thing is should they get a CCJ against you its likely the interest will be frozen so Lloyds can forget that £65 a month they have been adding!

If you're already in a DMP plan then I assume you already have default notices on your credit file? If this is the case a CCJ isn't going to really compound things for you in terms of credit scoring.

So thats the worst that can happen? - A judge is not going to order you to pay more than you can afford which is what CCCS will have already offered them.

The only way you would be forced to pay more is if you have not declared any additional income etc.

Remember - they want you to worry. They will want to put pressure on you so you prioritize your debt over your other creditors. Don't let them.

SNV

I_luv_cats

National Debtline could put your mind @ rest. Open Saturdays until 1pm

0808 808 4000

• Monday – Friday 9am-9pm
• Saturday 9.30am-1pm

Perhaps LLoyds are just threatening to apply for a CCJ.

Marisco

Hi Harris, also take in a SOA (all nice and neatly done;)) so the judge can actually see that you are unable to pay any more. And as the others have said, don't worry, you are on a DMP and have been making an effort to get to grips with your debt. Good luck.

winner12

Hi there I have a large credit card debt with lloyds and they have frozen interest and charges and I get letters about court action and so called official solcitors acting on their behalf but when I contacted them they said its standard procedure all I do is reply telling them I will carry on paying pro rata offer and upto now nothing has happened not sure if it helps but as someone else said its the wording on the letter that counts and the ccj paperwork will come direct from the court

RAS

harrisc0 wrote: »

hi well what a shock this morning opened the post to receive a letter from lloyds tsb taking us to court if we don't pay £3450 in 14 days we have been with Cccs for over a year now and lloyds never helped us, they accepted the minimum payment of £25 but then charged us £65 a month in interest! So we owe about £1500 more than when we started with them. They were very un helpful and rarely responded to letters asking for help. Now fretting and worrying even more as we could be liable for court charges as well what to do as Cccs are shut till Monday so got a weekend of worry now!

This sounds like a default letter? if so, it says court action may be taken, not that it wuill be taken.

Can you post up the words please, with personal info removed.

The good thing is that once defaulted the interest charges should stop.

BigCraigJohn

Did it look like this?
http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af299/badgercraig/lloydsdfn001-1.jpg

As RAS says its not such a bad thing. A lot of people find once defaulted they can actually go about clearing otherwise untouchable debts because the balance is frozen + there is a chance they accept a lower offer. Not saying everyone should go around defaulting debts though ofcourse, credit rating gets screwed etc but chances are it will in time anyway if you cant afford repayments.

Hannah_10

I was also going to say that this might all be a lot of hot air to intimidate you, as saltnpepper has already said very well.

If it's not a lot of hot air and they do get the case to court remember court is a two way process, it's not the case that they draft stuff the judge stamps it, you get your chance to defend and present your circumstances.

Most of all, don't let them wear you down and scare you. We're talking about an entry on a file that no one will see unless you say they can, not about bread and water while shackled to the wall in The Tower of London. No matter how awful they make it sound it isn't worth letting them or what is happening upset you.