What should I prioritise?

ram_man_2

Hi Everyone.

I'm after a bit of advice if possible.

Firstly, my back story.

Up until around 2007 everything going along swimmingly, and then following the break up of a relationship and some medical problems I found myself falling further and further into debt.

I ended up in the same viscious circle as a lot of you guys, whereby I was obtaining more credit to try and maintain payments on what I already had. I also ended up ignoring the brown envelopes as they kept on dropping through the door as I couldn't face the pickle I had got myself into.

Eventually, things reached the point of no return, and in 2008 I had my house repossessed. I spent the next 18 months or so living with friends / family etc and therefore the various creditors I have were unable to locate me.

Since then, my life has turned itself around, and I decided this week to face up to my reponsibilities and sort out my debts.

I obtained my credit report from Equifax, and it is showing the following outstanding for me (Dates are either default date or judgement date):

CCJ - Personal Loan - Norwich & Peterborough - 02/04/08 - £12502
CCJ - Credit Card - Egg - 15/10/08 - £3746
CCJ - Credit Card - RBS - 13/05/08 - £1686
Arrow Global (Card) - 07/11/07 - £1484
Arrow Global (Card) - 17/01/08 - £3559
Mint - 18/07/08 - £1817
Arrow Global (Orange mobile) - 21/04/08 - £587
Lowell (Card - Capital one? - 21/06/08 - £1312
Virgin Media - 28/05/08 - £291

Therefore a total of £26,984!!

I am in the fortunate position to be recieving a large bonus from work at the end of april (It will be around £10,000 - I am unable to provide the exact amount currently but should know soon). I should also receive the same next April. In addition, I should be able to earn / save an additional £3000 over the next year.

My question to you guys is where should I start? I want to clear these debts as quickly as I can. Partly because I want to get my credit rating back up to a level where I could possibly look to buy a new house in around 18 months time, but mainly because I know that these debts are my responsibility and I HAVE to clear them.

Many thanks

Ram

Tixy

Hi and welcome to MSE

You say you've got that list from equifax - do you know those are all your debts that you have outstanding? or could there be other debts from what you can remember (not all creditors report to all 3 of the credit reference agencies, and some creditors don't report to any).

You say you had your house repossessed - did you have a mortgage shortfall at that point? have you paid it off or been chased at all for it?

In terms of the debts listed - have you paid anything to them in the last couple of years? are you being chased by debt collectors currently? (if you are not you may find that now you have given an updated address to your credit report that they start chasing again).

Are some of the above CCJs?

You may well be able to get some of your creditors/debt collectors to accept reduced full & final settlements against your debts, so worth reading up on that see here - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=24_full_and_final_settlement_offers

If you are unsure if this is all your debt, or if you think there may be some missing you might want to get copies of your credit files from experian and possibly callcredit as well.

ram_man_2

Hi Tixy

I have only checked Equifax currently but will get on to the others later Today.

The first three listed are CCJ's.

As I moved address a few times over the past four years, I have made no payments at all towards any of these debts, nor have I received any chaser letters from any Debt Collection agencies etc.

When my house was reposessed, there were quite a few missed payments on that. I also had a secured load on it, but the equity I had in the house appeared to have cleared both of those. They are both showing as "Satisfied" on my credit report with no flag for partial payment.

ram_man_2

Sorry to double post but wanted to bump....

ram_man_2

I've doen some research on F&F settlements.

Does anyone know if any of the creditors I have listed have accepted F&F and at what level?

I have worked out that I would be able to offer around 45% to all creditors.

Ram

fatbelly

Is it possible that one or both of the credit cards with ccjs have been bought by Arrow and you are therefore counting them twice?

ljb2011

You should give them all a call, if they think they are going to get there money, they will be a little more leniant and extend time periods, lower interest rates even maybe reduce the debt. Afterall them getting some money is more important than them getting no money.

fatbelly

You've linked your address history by doing a credit search. If they want their money, they'll contact you.

Even then, don't phone. Writing preserves a record of who said what and when.