what is the least amount a creditor will take you to court for?

olivia84

hi there,

just out of curiosity - how much does anyone think is the least amount a creditor will take you to court for?

i know that leagally you could be taken to court for £1 if someone wanted to but realistically how much would it be worth a creditors while doing so?

also how likely is it that a DCA will take you to court rather than the original creditor? bearing in mind that they probably only paid a few quid for the debt?

i am just being curious and trying to suss out how serious threats of court action actually are.

also how do you know you are actually being taken to court and it is not the usual empty threats? when the summons arrives on your doorstep whaen it's too late to negotiate any more with them?

sorry for going on just wondered what other people's experiences are regarding court action.

we have a couple of creditors who are refusing our offers of minimum payments and although a judge would decide what is fair and correct i would still like to avoid court action.

many thanks xx

Tixy

I've a friend with a CCJ for about £100 quid. I've seen other people post on here with CCJs for just under £100 or so.

How do you know? - blue court papers through the post for you to complete (assuming they have your address of course).

These difficult creditors - are you still making the payments you have offered (despite them saying they won't accept them)?

thechippy

Yep, there is no telling.

Both OC's and DCA's are inconsistent in their actions / reasoning.

I have a mate who owes RBS over £55k in a combination of loans and cards and apart from a few calls and letters when he stopped payments, he's heard nothing literally for a year. This is despite the fact he owns his property which does have equity.

Another mate owes RBS £2k on a card and is hounded to death.

Go figure?..........

olivia84

yea we are still paying what we can afford to them but i'm still quite worried about going to court as i read somewhere that if a creditor is awarded a ccj against you they are entitled by law to arrest your wages for a certain percentage? however i've also read on forums like MSE that a judge will decide what you pay? going by the table on national debtline if a creditor was awarded a ccj against me they could legally take £100 per month from me - if all 6 creditors did this to me i would never be able to afford it! i would probably have to go bankrupt. but it's still quite confusing that a judge can tell you to pay what you can afford - does that mean that a judge wouldn't award the ccj for them to be able to arrest your wages - just order you to pay a certain amount that you can afford?? if that makes sense!

thanks again xx

thechippy

A Judge will only make you pay what you can afford each month taking into account your other outgoings / creditor payments as well.

You won't get an attachment of earnings unless you default on the payments and the creditor will still have to apply to the courts for this.

Tixy

If you got court papers then you would (I suggest) complete the box that asks to pay in installments. Then the judge would decide what you could afford to pay looking at your income/outgoings etc and would then grant the CCJ and order you to pay X amount per month.

Only if you didn't keep up with the ordered repayments could a creditor try to take enforcement action against you (such as bailiffs or an attachment of earnings etc).

(sorry chippy, I hadn't seen your reply)

thechippy

Tixy wrote: »

If you got court papers then you would (I suggest) complete the box that asks to pay in installments. Then the judge would decide what you could afford to pay looking at your income/outgoings etc and would then grant the CCJ and order you to pay X amount per month.

Only if you didn't keep up with the ordered repayments could a creditor try to take enforcement action against you (such as bailiffs or an attachment of earnings etc).

(sorry chippy, I hadn't seen your reply)

Your forgiven........:rotfl:

olivia84

ahh that makes a bit more sense now! thanks very much - feel a bit easier now - i thought just having a ccj against me would allow a creditor to arrest my wages! phew it's awful complicated :-(

xx

thechippy

olivia84 wrote: »

ahh that makes a bit more sense now! thanks very much - feel a bit easier now - i thought just having a ccj against me would allow a creditor to arrest my wages! phew it's awful complicated :-(

xx

Stop worrying, you have us on MSE..........;):beer:

olivia84

aww thanks - the info and support on here is invaluable - even for lurkers like myself xx

thechippy

olivia84 wrote: »

aww thanks - the info and support on here is invaluable - even for lurkers like myself xx

Well stop just lurking then!.......:p