Creditors stopped contacting me. Now what?

BadTemperedBear

Due to various reasons, I have been under a pile of debt for the last six years or so. These are made up of three banks and three credit cards, and total around £25k.

Over the years I have tried to make payments when possible, and have fought off debt collection agencies and countless threatening letters and phone calls on a weekly basis. We all know how stressful that is. However, about 5 months ago everything seemed to go quiet. A couple of debtors who were putting lots of pressure on I wrote to and made a monthly payment offer. Never got a reply. I also stopped getting any statements by post. (I havn't moved btw so the address and all other details are unchanged).

For instance, after 3 months of not getting any statements or threats from Barclaycard (who had always been the most aggressive) I wrote, asked for statements to continue, and included a cheque in case they were planning on taking me to court for no payment. The cheque was cashed but I never received a response or any statements.

So what do I do now? I would love to 'assume' they have all given up and written the debts off but how can I know that? Do I continue to write to them and risk "waking them up" again, or stay quiet? Is there a limit to how long they can chase debts?

Is there any way I can find out if the debts are still 'live' or written off without having to get the info from the debtors themselves? I look online at credit reference agencies and they want £10+ per month for such info.

I am sorry for such a long post but after years of trying to placate these creditors and keep out of court, I find the silence even more frightening. Thanks for any help and advice.

give_them_FA

Let sleeping dogs lie.

I have a feeling they will be back, but I really don't think that they will take you to court, they NEVER do if you have shown some willingness to pay, in my experience.

A shame you did not seek advice sooner, the better policy is to ignore all these people rather than suffer what you have, they generally give up and go away if you make no contact, it is just a vast bureaucracy that relies on feedback from you... try that next time they re-start, there are 100 threats issued for every one carried out.

Had you NEVER paid, the debts would by now have been statute barred, i.e. uncollectable. But each time you made a payment the six year clock restarted, unfortunately.

happy_bunny_2

you can get a copy of your credit report for £2, so can do it say once a month.

With equifax, you can do it online and then download the pdf to keep if you like. No reason to pay £10 per month+

As for the debts. How old are they? Have you asked each company for a copy of your CCA?

You can either leave it until they catch up with you, or do some prep work (credit report, CCA requests). If you do want to pay, then you could send them a formal complaint, in writing, signed for regarding ignoring your letters when you are trying to resolve the issue. Will look bad on them if they have enforceable agreements and do take you to court.