Really not sure :(

harrisc0

Hi - well long story short we have two children (7 and 3) And my husband is going to be made redundant which loses us £34500.00 pa and I get £5,500pa. We are with a debt management company and have debts of £28,000.00 obviously my concern is the huge loss we are going to hit - I bring home £489 a month he brings home £2190- mortgage on it's own (interest only) is £582 so straight away we have a problem his redundancy will pay all our debts off (which I am loathed to do as that is our living money but then our fault we are in debt and it needs paying back) - what would you do?

- write and offer everyone less than you owe them and see if they will accept it and if so how much less would you offer

Or

- inform Our debt company we have lost the income and pay the minimum offer of a £1 and then live on the redundancy? (not even sure if we can do this it's a thought we have had)

king100

Personally go for full and final settlements on all debt?

Do you know if any of them have valid CCA that perhaps you could challenge?

harrisc0

Sorry what is CCA

king100

Consumer Credit Act

The Consumer Credit Act 1974 requires most businesses that lend money to consumers or offer goods or services on credit or engage in certain ancillary credit activities to be licensed by the OFT. Trading without a licence in such cases is a criminal offence and can result in a fine and/or imprisonment.
For information on consumer credit licensing, including application forms and relevant guidance, go to the Licensing area of the site.
The Act also regulates the way in which consumer credit licensees carry on business. For example, there are rules on advertising, pre-contract disclosure, credit agreements and post-contractual information. In addition, the Act confers certain rights on consumers, including in relation to withdrawal from a credit agreement, early settlement, and section 75 (joint and several liability).

Its the part of the credit agreement that makes the agreement valid.

Unenforceable credit agreements

Borrowers and hirers are able to ask creditors to send them information about their credit agreements. If information is not provided within 12 working days, the debt becomes unenforceable until they get the information they asked for.
Sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 outline the information creditors must provide to debtors under fixed-term, running account and hire agreements.


Under these sections a debtor can pay £1 to get:

• a copy of their agreement
• copies of some of the other documents mentioned in their agreement
• a statement of account.

If this information is not provided within 12 working days the debt becomes unenforceable. This means a creditor:

• cannot:
  - make the debtor pay the debt before they're supposed to
  - get a court judgment against the debtor
  - take back anything hired or bought on credit, or take anything used as security in the agreement.
• can:
  - ask debtors to pay what they owe
  - send a default notice
  - pass information on to a credit reference agency
  - pass information on to a debt collector
  - sell the debt to someone else
  - take the case to court.

YOu can ask for your credit agreement if they cannot provide you with a signed copy of your original agreement then you can dispute the account.

As stated it will put a default on your account and your credit file for 6 years but you wont have to pay the money.

brokeinlondon

If you do decide to go for full & final settlements, make sure you keep some of the redundancy money as a buffer. With the way things are going at the moment, your husband could be unemployed for quite a long time, and the last thing you need is to run out of money in a few months' time if he's still looking for work..

Is there a possibility of you being able to do more hours at your job?

harrisc0

No I don't think so - we have been with debt agency 2 years and they are all large agents - Lloyds, barclays, virgin, Argos, egg etc and we have both had default notices now put onto our files

harrisc0

I work part time in a school and find out myself in April If I have a job if I could get more hours I would grab them but I doubt it - we are both looking for jobs to try and sort us out of this situation

king100

harrisc0 wrote: »

No I don't think so - we have been with debt agency 2 years and they are all large agents - Lloyds, barclays, virgin, Argos, egg etc and we have both had default notices now put onto our files

Ok

What are they loans, credit cards?
When were they taken out? Pre 2006?

dancingfairy

I hope it's with one of the free debt management places - such as CCCS or National Debtline - if you are paying for this service you should ditch them and go to one of the free places.
Do you have mortgage protection insurance in case your husband was made redundant? can you claim on this?
df

harrisc0

We are with a free agent thankfully but no mortgage or redundancy protection, couldn't afford them

brokeinlondon

harrisc0 wrote: »

I work part time in a school and find out myself in April If I have a job if I could get more hours I would grab them but I doubt it - we are both looking for jobs to try and sort us out of this situation

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I really hope you both get really good news soon xx