Newbie looking advice

Mountainwalker

(That was meant to say "Newbie looking for advice" :undecided

Hi all,
I have posted a thread in the BR forum but since then I have found some info on DRO's. I must admit that before today I didn't know they existed.

I have a couple of questions if somebody wouldn't mind helping out.

Does it matter what my income is, or does it only depend on what is left over after expenses (£50 or less)?

It has been a little over 4 years since I paid a debt and in that time I have forgotten who I owe and how much, if I get a report from equifax will that list all of my creditors?
Does it matter if some of those debts have been sold to collection agencies by now or do I just need the initial creditors details?

I owe less than £15k (If I remember correctly it was about £12k when I stopped paying) but I need to make sure I find all of the creditors.

Thanks everyone.

Tixy

A report from equifax won't necessarily list all your creditors.
Even if you get copies of your files from all 3 agencies it still may not show all your debts.

How long ago did you originally run into payment difficulties? as debts only appear on your credit file for 6years from the date a default was registered.

And depending on the types of places you owed money to they may not all have ever shown on your credit file. e.g some overdrafts may not show, older utility accounts often don't show etc.

Also remember that your creditors may well have been adding on interest & charges to your debts so you may owe more than the defaulted balance on your credit file, and if you think you owed £12k its possible that this could now be higher than £15k.

If you haven't already it would be worth contacting one of the debt advice charities for some advice and information on DROs to see if you might qualify. List of debt charities - IMPORTANT - Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts.

With regards to what your income is - no that doesn't matter for a DRO, but the less than £50 left must be only after 'normal living expenses'.

This is quite a useful link for some basic info on DROs - http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/personal-insolvency/dro-debtors

Mountainwalker

Thank you for that Tixy.
I went through some old paper work found out a list of most of my creditors last night, I called a couple and they informed me that the debt had been sold on and what the balance was when it was sold.
After adding most of them up it seems the figure is closer now to 20k.

I called CCCS last night and will be ringing again tonight to speak to a counsellor.

The last payment I made to all but one of my creditors was the end of 2007 so just over 4 years ago, one of the cards I continued to use for a few months after that.