Decided to investigate Unenforceable Route

DNW_2

I think we've decided to say stuff it - we've paid most of our creditors huge sums of interest in the past, so if we can reduce some of our debts by the unenforcable route, then we would be a fools not to at least try.

At what stage do I start writing to our creditors with the CCA request? 10/14 have been defaulted or are on their way to default, but we've not really had too much hassle as such yet apart from a few snotty letters (which have received snotty replies) and one door step visit which we weren't home for anyway. Most have had the 'don't bother ringing or personal calling as we'll only deal with you in writing' letter and all is relatively quiet at the moment.

Do I need to find out the age of credit agreements before we send letters, or is it worth sending to everyone anyway? Some of them are fairly recent, at least 2 are less than a couple of years old but I'm sure there are a few older ones lurking amongst the newer ones. Also, is it better to wait until they've all been receiving token payments for quite a while (only been 5 months so far) or does it not matter?

Thanks in advance.

thechippy

Send the cca requests and continue token payments for the moment.
You have a legal right to gain copies of the agreements, in which they have 12+2 days for you to receive.

Which lenders are pre april 2007?

When you get the agreements, remove all personal details, account numbers etc and post on here. I'll tell you if they are u/e or not.

DNW_2

A couple of the creditors are post 2007 would I be right in assumeing there's no point wasting my postage to send a CCA request to those?

Possibly (I've not seen my credit report for years so need to check that for actual dates) pre 2007 are:

Barclaycard (in various guises - old goldfish account, gold master, platinum visa)
Barclayloan (I'm really not sure if this is pre or post 2007, I think probably post though as I signed up online using a pin sentry thing instead of signing paperwork)
Egg x 2 (I'm fairly sure mine would've been pre 2007 but not sure about OHs)
HSBC (years old)
Marbles (ancient)
MBNA (fairly old, used to be someone else before it transferred to MBNA)
Mint (no idea how old)
Santander (again, I think this was under a different bank at the time but no idea who it was or when)

thechippy

The post 2007 ones, it still may be worth cca'ing purely to see the terms.

The others,

Barclaycard
Egg
Hsbc
Mbna

....Very likely to have u/e agreements...;), but cca all the pre 2007 ones.

Edit.

Marbles is probably u/e as well.

thechippy

Sorry,

Do any of them have ppi?

Charges may be worth looking at as well, as dca's are not allowed to add charges unless the original agreement specifically allows this once sold on (they rarely do) - therefore, there could be a lot of unlawful charges / interest.

DNW_2

No PPI, we never (to my knowledge) took any PPIs on any CC/loans.

DCA's haven't added any charges on yet as it's mostly all being dealt with by original creditors so far, quite a few have actually stopped adding interest and charges now that they've registered the default so the majority of additions were in the first 3 or 4 months.

The only letters we've had from DCAs were 'acting on behalf of' rather than having been sold on (I guess the debts are still relatively young for this happen?).

Naf

I'm surprised we've not had someone on already telling you what an awful person you are for trying to avoid your debts instead of paying; that's usually the way it goes on here, especially when the word 'unenforceable' comes up...
I'm not fond of the 'unenforceable' argument myself either; you did take the agreement, use it and get the benefit of the money after all so paying at least a good amount back would seem much more ethical. I know my debt is only 10% of yours, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was unenforceable; its not a path I've looked into myself. I'm making payments.
My suggestion; take all the advice you can get before they start laying into you.

pure_dead_dopey

there always has to be one

thechippy

Naf wrote: »

I'm surprised we've not had someone on already telling you what an awful person you are for trying to avoid your debts instead of paying; that's usually the way it goes on here, especially when the word 'unenforceable' comes up...
I'm not fond of the 'unenforceable' argument myself either; you did take the agreement, use it and get the benefit of the money after all so paying at least a good amount back would seem much more ethical. I know my debt is only 10% of yours, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was unenforceable; its not a path I've looked into myself. I'm making payments.
My suggestion; take all the advice you can get before they start laying into you.

They've already paid "a good amount" of it back through interest and almost certainly other inflated charges.

It's not always a case of debt avoidance...
People find themselves in circumstances where they may not be able to meet their obligations in full.
If the lender doesn't want to play ball, then the cca route can give leverage.

chanz4

It doesnt make the debt go away, the site shouldnt support this type of issue as its the consumers that pay that are hit the most. If people cant afford look at IVA's bankrupcy or DRO's

DNW_2

Naf wrote: »

I'm surprised we've not had someone on already telling you what an awful person you are for trying to avoid your debts instead of paying; that's usually the way it goes on here, especially when the word 'unenforceable' comes up...
I'm not fond of the 'unenforceable' argument myself either; you did take the agreement, use it and get the benefit of the money after all so paying at least a good amount back would seem much more ethical. I know my debt is only 10% of yours, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was unenforceable; its not a path I've looked into myself. I'm making payments.
My suggestion; take all the advice you can get before they start laying into you.

Oh don't worry, I'm ready for the bashing - I'm just surprised it's taken until post #7 for it to start

IF i hadn't been laid off, and IF I was able to find another full-time job that fits around my 2 part time ones (or 1 full time that pays more than minimum wage and still allowed me to continue at least 1 of my part timers), and IF my OH (and me part time) didn't work in the public sector and have wages frozen 2 years running despite the cost of living rises then MAYBE we could have carried on robbing peter to pay paul and making minimum payments for the rest of our lives. BUT the creditors that I will be sending CCA requests to, have had a lot more than their moneys worth out of us. Yes we borrowed the money in the first place, and yes we have more than paid the capital spending back.

If people don't like that I'm looking at the uneforcable route then they are more than welcome to simple move along - their posts don't worry me any more than the daily letters from the banks and DCAs do.