Credit card debts might be sold to Debt Collection Agency

kennelman

Hi,
My elderly parents are in a real financial mess. They spoke to their first credit card company yesterday and managed to get their monthly payments down from £80 to £30 for 6 mths. After this time scale if they still can't pay the full monthly amount they have been told that the debt will be sold to a debt collection agency. I have two questions:

1) If the debt is sold what happens next. Do they get heavy handed debt collectors on their doorstep demanding money? At 70 odd years old they don't need that and as they live in a caravan in my garden I don't need it!

2) They have 4 credit cards, a personal overdraft and a partnership overdraft from a failed business, total debt 24k with just £1267 a month coming in from pensions. With so few creditors to contact should they carry on doing it themselves or should they be in touch with somebody like CCCS?

Thanks.

Hannah_10

Getting in touch with a proper source of help would be the best thing they could do. There are a lot of sharks out there, avoid them by picking from the list of known safe organisations here: Debt Problems: What to do & where to get help

You could get them to do a statement of affairs (see this) and post it here and so on, but to be honest if they are open to oing through someone like the CCCS or Payplan then that's fine, that'll save the bother of asking here too. Unless you want a wider cross section of possible solutions that is... We can advise on things the CCCS/Payplan/National Debtline generally can't be doing with as well as the mainstream stuff.

kennelman

They seem ok about speaking to CCCP or Payplan but are also ok about ringing creditors themselves. What is really bothering them is debt collectors on their doorstep etc if the debt is sold on.

Hannah_10

Never, ever, ever phone. ESPECIALLY not if you are a vulnerable older person. See this too.

SOT2011

I am only repeating the advice I have seen elsewhere, but agree with earlier poster, it is always said to be better not to ring, they have much experience of trying to persuade you to agree to more than you can afford.

Although I am lucky enough not to have needed to go down that route myself, I would reiterate the advice to conact CCCS or Payplan in the first instance. They can negotiate on your parents behalf for a longer term solution - 6 months is a great start but it wouldn't be long before the worry would re-start about payments going back up etc and they may well be able to negotiate to stop interest and charges etc being added as well.

On top of this the debt charities will ensure that the budget allows your parents sufficient to live on, but also that creditors are all treated fairly, which gives them less of a leg to stand on. Selling on the debt is not necessarily a bad thing, but can result in a whole new set of phone calls asking for more payments etc, if they go through one of the debt charities it will be easy to refer them to them and to decline to speak to them.

Which ever way you & they choose to go, wishing you the very best & hope it can all be sorted and start to settle down soon. x

PS - I think Culex just has a slightly unusual sense of humour, no offence intended I'm sure.

kennelman

ok thanks all. Think i'll get them to ring CCCS or Payplan this morning!