Still owe more than I originally borrowed!

alnumber4

I've posted this on the 'loans' forum too.

I took out a loan for £7500 with GE Money in 2006. Worst decision of my life!!!! I started struggling to pay in 2008 and although I was honest and open about this from the outset and continued to pay as much as I possibly could every month (never paid less than £65, but should have been paying £160), GE refused to negotiate on any level and despite my repeated requests for help, they kept adding non-payment/late charges and heaps of interest. They eventually built the debt up to £9760 before selling it on to Link financial.

Link immediately got a CCJ against me and I was ordered to pay £100 a month. I continued to pay £250 a month because I was being charged 22% interest and the £100 didn't even cover that. Link tried to get a charging order against my property, but I fought it and won!! I also got the interest reduced to 6%.

Following this I asked for a full statement of this account and it eventually arrived today (only 4 months after I requested it). Having done my calculations I can see that I have paid back £7836 since I took out the loan and still have £7532 left to pay - more than the original loan!! OMG

Is there any way I can get the amount I owe reduced? Could I take this to court or ask for the CCJ to be reconsidered? It seems SO unfair that I have tried very hard to play fair and have never missed a month without paying something towards the debt. I have repaid more than I borrowed in the first place and still have more than the original debt to repay.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thanks so much

DS4215

I didn't think they were allowed to add interest on after the CCJ was issued - usually they add the interest on at that point and chase you for the total debt (or that is what happened to me).

alnumber4

There's some loophole that let's them add interest if they write to you every 6 months to tell you that's what they're going to do and also tell you that you can ask the courts to set the amount of interest. I guess they're banking on not many people going to all that trouble.

fatbelly

Yeah,, interest charges after ccj is a complex area.

Factsheet | Interest charges on a Consumer Credit Judgment

This is a difficult one. Have you tried running this past National Debtline? There may be some clues for you at the end of their factsheet about the way forward for you.

alnumber4

What I really need to know is can the total outstanding debt be reduced? I see that there are some guidelines around fair vs extortionate interest rates and being badly treated by financial establishments. Does anyone know about these?

Boris_Allen

You might want to consider taking out some other kind of loan so you can clean up this mess entirely and "start again" as it were. If your credit rating has taken a slash, I'd seriously look into negotiating for a reasonable rate from a pay day loans company.

fuzzybear01

Boris_Allen wrote: »

You might want to consider taking out some other kind of loan so you can clean up this mess entirely and "start again" as it were. If your credit rating has taken a slash, I'd seriously look into negotiating for a reasonable rate from a pay day loans company.

'Reasonable rate' and 'payday loan company' are surely mutually exclusive?

fatbelly

What else can I do?
•If a county court judgment has been made without a time order it is important to check both the amount owing on the county court judgment and any separate contractual interest that is being added.
•Creditors may keep these two sets of figures in two separate accounts or add them together in one account, ‘to make it easier for customers’. If all the information is held in one account, you need to get a separate breakdown of both how much you owe on the county court judgment and the amount of contractual interest that has been added. Phone us for advice.
•Once you have paid the judgment balance, you should write to the creditor stating the judgment has been paid off.
•You should then apply for a certificate of satisfaction on the judgment from the court. There is a £15 fee to pay for the certificate of satisfaction. If you have problems in obtaining this, phone us for advice.
•If you have had a charging order made on your property and you have paid the county court judgment off completely the charging order should be removed from the Land Registry.

Paying off the county court judgment and further action for added interest

When you think that you have paid the county court judgment in full, you should check this with the creditor. Where the county court judgment has been paid in full you could choose to stop paying. You should write to the creditor explaining why you consider the judgment balance to be paid off. If you did not pay anything further the creditor would have to take you to court again to get the interest back.

Warning

If your creditor wanted to recover the interest from you where this has not been included in the county court judgment, we do not think that the creditor can do this. Your creditor may say they will take you to court again for the interest. We do not think they can legally do this and are not aware of any cases where this has happened. It may be more common for creditors to take further action to recover the interest on judgments made after 1 October 2008.

It is very important to get further advice if your creditor says they will go to court again to recover the interest. Phone us for advice.

Warning

If you do continue to pay, the creditor will accept your payment as being towards the interest they have added on to the original judgment. It may be worth trying to negotiate a small settlement figure with the creditor instead.

These are quotes from the National Debtline factsheet. Your situation is quite unusual and I think they would be interested in it. Give them a ring.

alnumber4

Thanks fatbelly. The National Debtline looks like my best bet I think. Their fact sheet is the most helpful thing I've come across so far.

Boris - with my credit rating there's no way in a gazillion years I'd get a loan and I don't want anymore credit as long as I live!!!

I have a debt management plan which is working really well. The thing is, ALL my creditors have really tried to be helpful and negotiated about repayments etc, GE were the only ones who flatly refused to play ball and when they sold the debt to Link, they were the same.

Does anyone know if I'm entitled to know how much Link bought the debt for?