Starting University in September and have £7000 of debt.

custardy

sisbod wrote: »

I am in a bit of a different situation but I can genuinely say that creditors would prefer a £1 a month payment than you ignoring them - remember that every payment just continues the time span of the 6 year rule!!!
I personally have got a similar agreement with my creditors and although they dont like it much they accept that blood out of a stone is not possible and that at least I am trying!
I admit that I am perhaps less than happy about increasing my payments too much as there is a common consensus that if you increase one you should increase them all and that is not possible so I have just let them ride at that whilst I try to pay off one in its entirity every now and then!

maybe but being offered £1 a month with little hope of that changing for 4 years is a different matter

BigCraigJohn

I think theres a few comments in this thread that are a little off the point. Far to much morals towards creditors.
I agree that if you need to get these qualifications then go for it. At the end of the day in a few years time you will be in a position to get a better job and it should guarantee you work for a time after.
Circumstances change, why should that debts you had when you were a kid stop you from going where you want?, imo it shouldnt.
If it was me I would go for it, pay them a pound a month and explain your change in circumstances, you are not avoiding the debts but as you are going back to full time education will not be able meet the agreements. Any that have not already will default you, the debts will go to dcas who you can continue to pay a pound to. If they do get a ccj you'll only pay the same anyway until you earn more.
If you want them to stop ringing thats just a matter of a correctly worded letter.
Have you considered a debt relief order?
If your credit is screwed and providing you have no assets to protect.

Personally being 3 years your senior and with a lack of qualifications I say go for it, deal with the creditors as they come, they are not gonna like it but they wont like it any more if you are unemployed. Just my view

Heyman_2

Understand where you are coming from BCJ, that's why I tried to balance up my points/advice. I guess it's just that I (and others here) don't really see what he has to lose by deferring a year.

It's not a decision I'd take lightly - with the CCJ thing for example, if it happens right near the end of the Uni term then it'll take 6 years to come off his credit file, in the meantime his chances of buying a house etc are screwed.

BigCraigJohn

I see your point definitely but my point was do not let a relatively small amount of debt ruin your future. Whats to say you wont get on the course or you lose that inspiration and dont do it in the future.
However nasty dcas can come across, I think if you get them in agreement which in my experience will happen once they realise they are not going to get any more from you they will not take any action. For example I have a £4k debt with Moorcroft, i'm paying £5 a month with the view that should my circumstances change I pay more. I insisted on this in writing also so I doubt any judge would be very happy if they then went and took action providing the agreement had been kept. It is of course different if you own your own place as you have very much more to protect.

I spent 8 years trying my damn hardest to keep up with ever more unreasonable creditors while being stuck with my parents, Cap 1 upping a £10k debt to 35% apr was the end. It was all the fear of what might happen as this is what society teaches us but ive just changed mind set to take it 1 day at a time. Sure my credit record is wrecked but ive got my own place(rented) and my business is doing ok again.

You cant go through life living in fear of things that might happen as they most likely wont and if they do then they do.

pmf63

Heyman wrote: »

It's not a decision I'd take lightly - with the CCJ thing for example, if it happens right near the end of the Uni term then it'll take 6 years to come off his credit file, in the meantime his chances of buying a house etc are screwed.

I don't have any experience really but just to add another point ... depending on what the OP wanted to do at Uni having a CCJ may even get him more trouble that it was worth on the course. Some qualifications require you to be a 'fit and proper person'

Some one else mentioned the Open University! If the OP is unemployed or on a low income he will get most, if not all, of the courses free. OU degrees can take a little longer that all.

notafan

binaryuniverse wrote: »

Hi all,
I'm 27, starting Uni in the autumn and as the title says, have £7000 worth of debt. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to shift by that time as jobs are very hard to come by in my area and I can just about pay off £1 a month.

However, I'm still getting stung with charges and constant phone calls from Indian Call centres who have no idea what it is I'm trying to tell them and I am sick of having to explain to them over and over that I'm going to be out of work for 4 years or so. (I'll get a part time job when at uni but I'll be needing to pay the bills with that).

Is it possible to get the charges/calls stopped and pay off £1 a month to each creditor (debt is spread over 5 creditors) and not have to reexplain my situation every couple of months?

Hi i went to Uni with 7k debt when i was 21.

I'm not criticising but how can you only afford to pay £1 when you get to uni? You'll get student loans and grants classed as an independent at your age - worth around 6k per year +. Yes living costs are a big chunk but it wont leave you with just £1 per month.

I had a loan which i paid every month at £200 for the full 3 years i was there there. Its really hard dont get me wrong and its miserable when all your uni mates are out all the time and you have to sacrifice nights out, new clothes. Even the odd pint at the union can be out of the question.

I got a job and worked my !!! off to keep money sorted. Its tough but its doable. You'll be at Uni less then 10 hours a week sometimes even less then that. You'll have the rest of the 168 hours of the week to fill up and as you'll have no money if you dont work its a lot of time spent doing nothing but sleeping.

I dont buy all this stuff when uni's say dont work more then 16 hours per week, or people saying they'll have too much on to get an extra job - and im really not having a go at you. Theres loads of wasted time at Uni - i dont know anybody that studied the same amount of time they actually had lectures and classes let alone more then that.

I worked full time through some parts of Uni (most of the second year) when i had too and 20-30 hours normally, plus i still had time to spend ages in bed, watch CBBC, and the regular uni stuff, even if it is less then others.

Just saying its perfectly doable but compared to every other student whos going without debt you've got it tough from the word go.

Also it wont take that long for at least some of them to get on a similar par debt wise as you.

If you want to go then your going to have to work, at uni and at a job because its bad enough living on whatever loans and grants you get for 3 years let alone with debt as well.

Why don't you use your student loan to pay your debt and work for your living costs? Granted it'll still be student loan debt at the end, but at least you wont be chased for it and when you have the money they'll take an affordable amount when you start earning it.

You'll soon figure your not the only one with a mass of debt stuck round your neck and that it wont go away on its own, you also wont be the only student who needs and has to work.

If you really want to goto Uni and make a good go of it your gunna need a job and with 7k debt your gunna be working equally as hard outside of uni and more hours then people who owe that 7k out.

Good Luck

birkee

Seems to plenty of advice from people about ignoring creditors, and doing your own thing.
O.K. so be it!

(Speaking as a pretend moneylender.) O.K. we won't lend any more money to people without the assets to cover the debt in the case of default!

So. by defaulting on your debt, you are also driving lenders towards sticking two fingers up at other people like yourself who need to borrow money.
My guess is, that with borrowers like yourself increasing, they are going to start wanting you to have assets as security at some time in the future anyway.
These posts are then going to be full of whingers saying "I owe them X thousand pounds, and they are going to take my house/car/whatever from me. Too many people are willing to live off money they don't have to spend. A car loan is one thing, but a car, foreign holidays, mobile phones, TV's, etc etc etc only goes down one route. Misery. (Except in cases like the OP, who is going off to college to forget it all..... Borrow it and run man!)

No doubt there are going to be many who tell how dire their situation was / is when they borrowed money, but how do you keep repaying a debt when the problem was your lack of money in the first place?
Lack of a large sum of money in one go, may justify a loan, but surely, that needs clearing, before digging multiple holes for yourself?