statute barred debts-how do you know?

princess84

Hi there, as a newbie/lurker i am reading with interest posts about statute barred debts. I live in Scotland, so understand it is 5 years before it can be declared statute barred. Is this 5 years from when the account was opened, or a default was put onto the account or last contact? Do the company decide the statute barred status or can we state this? Does a lawyer/other professionals need to be involved if we are stating it ourselves. Thanks for any help!

pure_dead_dopey

in Scotland a debt become statute barred after 5 years when you haven't admitted the debt in writing or paid anything towards it. In Scotland the debt is extinguished and your credit report will look as if its never been there, you don't still owe the money and no one can chase you for it. This is the law, so the CRAs will automatically drop the debt at the right time. You may have to point out to a couple of thick DCAs that it is SB but that is all you have to do, and you don't need a solicitor, just a good SB letter.

princess84

So 5 years after no payment? Not since opening account? As i paid a little towards it after opening it but then got too much so i couldn't and have since moved address and they have not contacted me

pure_dead_dopey

five years since the last acknowledgement by you either paying (which is acknowledgement) or admitting the debt in writing.

fermi

What sort of debt is this? It can depend a little.

In general the 5 years first starts at the first time the creditor could take action against you non payment or not keeping to the agreement. On some types of accounts that is typically 1 month after the 1st missed full payment.

After that, every time you make another payment or acknowledge the debt, that resets the 5 years clock once again.

princess84

Its a Welcome Finance loan, don't know if you have heard of them but all i can say is I was at a desperate point and took out a loan making huge repayments which i ultimately couldn't afford. This was in Feb 2007. I think i made payments until the August. I moved cities and have not heard from them since thats why i have not included them in my signature as if it could be statute barred next month that would be great. Its still showing on my credit report as 'in arrears' though as opposed to defaulted. What do you think?

fermi

Whether it;s been marked as defaulted or not has no bearing on it.

Presuming that the loan required monthly payments, then the 5 years would run from one month after your missed payment in August.

So would most likely be statute barred sometime around Sept 2012?

princess84

Well having just updated my current address with Equifax, I'm hoping they don't start chasing me now as i really couldn't begin to pay it back. Just keep my fingers crossed til the end of the year then Thanks for everyones help