Confused and suffering from information overload!

CremeBrulee

I've been reading these boards for some time and I learned a lot about priority debts and things like that, some years ago I got court summons for council tax (twice!) and all the electric bills were red as I never used to pay them on time but I kept paying the credit cards. Now I know how it all works.

Reason i'm posting now is i'm confused and my head spins i spent almost all night reading through the forums that were mentioned yesterday and dont know which way to turn. A case of information overload!

A lot of people on this board seem to be on a CCS DMP and it seems to be the recommended course of action. I did their debt tool online a couple of times neither with good result. Then i read on the boards they don't get the interest frozen. Payplan wanted at least £250/mth last time I looked (not recently). CAB made me take a day off for an appointment only to give me a 20 page form to fill out and not speak to anybody even when they were advertising debt clinics.

Then I read that thread on the other board about unenforcablity and looked at the sites they were talking about and got even more confused! Ouch! Some tell you to pay £1/mth to all your creditors which is no big deal but then the others say if you don't do that the debts will not be time barred in 6 years.

The boards get mixed reviews and people were getting quite excited about it all. Also that guy with the funny name 'Never-in-doubt' (or is it Never-in-debt, can't remember what NID stands for after all that) seems to stir up quite a bit of controversy. But many people were saying his methods work...?????

Now I can't even find the thread where I saw all this, I must really be losing it!

It's all a long story but to cut it down, I lost some money on the dot.com crash in 2000 and then my then partner's business went bust in 2001 (he was in IT and it was a very bad year). I took out loans and had no money left so i used credit cards for everything. The loans got paid (I think, if not they would be too old to recover now) but i kept using the cards and the banks kept increasing the limits. The cards are all from the early 2000s and I haven't looked at my credit files as some people may have the old address. I haven't paid them and don't always look at the post (too scared!). If they ring don't answer unless I know who it is. So far so good but for how long...

Now I really really really don't know what to do. Should I send a CCA request to see if the cards are unenforcible (what a word!) or just start paying £1/pcm to keep them happy? will they keep raking up interest? Maybe if I prove them unenforcible they'll stop and one day I can F&F them. Or what's exactly is the point of making them unenforcible? I wish someone could explain in simple terms, I've been to that site but it's way over my head I'm afraid!

Tixy

Hi - I've posted some comments to your post below.

CremeBrulee wrote: »

A lot of people on this board seem to be on a CCS DMP and it seems to be the recommended course of action. I did their debt tool online a couple of times neither with good result.
What do you mean, not a good result? what did it recommend? did it say a DMP was suitable? did it say that you didn't seem to have enough money to be able to enter a DMP or what?
Then i read on the boards they don't get the interest frozen.
No DMP advisor (CCCS, Payplan or fee charging) can guarantee that your creditors will freeze interest. As that is your creditors decision, but they often will if they can see you cannot meet your monthly repayments, are paying all you can afford through a DMP and are being advised by a professional debt advice organistation.
Payplan wanted at least £250/mth last time I looked (not recently). You mean you went through an income & expenditure statement with them and this is what they recommended you could afford to creditors? or that you've read that somewhere on their website?
CAB made me take a day off for an appointment only to give me a 20 page form to fill out and not speak to anybody even when they were advertising debt clinics. CAB are very overstretched at the moment. Giving you a form to fill in that contained all the information they would need to know would be the starting point and once they had that infor they could then start to advise you on what might be suitable in your situation.

Then I read that thread on the other board about unenforcablity and looked at the sites they were talking about and got even more confused! There was a lot of history behind that thread so it wouldn't make a lot of sense to people new to the forum Ouch! Some tell you to pay £1/mth to all your creditors which is no big deal but then the others say if you don't do that the debts will not be time barred in 6 years.
If you cannot even afford enough for a DMP and this is a short term problem then sometimes paying a £1 token payment is recommended, either because a person hopes their position will improve, or perhaps because they are saving up a fee to go bankrupt or a fee for a debt relief order.
If a person only has benefit income they often cannot make more than token payments to their debts.

It is correct that if you pay £1 token payments for years your debts will not become statute barred - but for most people its not a sensible plan to stop all payments, and to hope that nothing happens for 6years and that no creditors obtain CCJs against them. If a person is in this position they would be better considering bankruptcy or a DRO perhaps.

The boards get mixed reviews and people were getting quite excited about it all. Also that guy with the funny name 'Never-in-doubt' (or is it Never-in-debt, can't remember what NID stands for after all that) seems to stir up quite a bit of controversy. But many people were saying his methods work...?????
Mixed opinions on this issue certainly. For some people who are unable to pay their debts, and in some certain circumstances this may be an option to explore if your debts are ones covered by the consumer credit act.
But its always best to seek advice from one of the debt advice charites first. Or you could post about your debts and financial position on here and people could give you some suggestions as to what may be sensible options for you to explore. It would be useful to know if you are homeowners? if you are earning etc? How much you owe, how long since you last paid them.

Now I can't even find the thread where I saw all this, I must really be losing it!

It's all a long story but to cut it down, I lost some money on the dot.com crash in 2000 and then my then partner's business went bust in 2001 (he was in IT and it was a very bad year). I took out loans and had no money left so i used credit cards for everything. The loans got paid (I think, if not they would be too old to recover now) but i kept using the cards and the banks kept increasing the limits. The cards are all from the early 2000s and I haven't looked at my credit files as some people may have the old address. I haven't paid them haven't paid them since when? and don't always look at the post (too scared!) so you don't know if any have obtained CCJs against you?. If they ring don't answer unless I know who it is. So far so good but for how long...

Now I really really really don't know what to do. Should I send a CCA request to see if the cards are unenforcible (what a word!) or just start paying £1/pcm to keep them happy? will they keep raking up interest? Maybe if I prove them unenforcible they'll stop and one day I can F&F them. Or what's exactly is the point of making them unenforcible? I wish someone could explain in simple terms, I've been to that site but it's way over my head I'm afraid!

angel_rainbow

A DMP will not be for everyone. There are other solutions out there. I was in an IVA, for example. This does freeze interest and can wipe off up to 75% of your unsecured debts. I think you need to get hold of your credit file and found out how much you owe and to who and start opening the letters and answering the calls. Scary, I know...but the feeling of getting through all that and having a solution in place is wonderful.

BlushingRose

Hiya Creme,

Tixy has made some excellent comments (she always does!!) on your post and I think you need to start being methodical about this.
Perhaps do a statement of affairs so that people here can advise you - open your mail, you can't sort it if you don't know what's going on. You can get advice here about what to do with what you mind as well.

CremeBrulee

Thanks for all your replies, i'll have to look at all this in more detail as there is a lot to consider!

As for income, i work on a freelance basis so it's on and off, which makes it difficult to make any commitments. Payplan said on the website something about you should have at least £250 i think it was to be considered. CCS i checked more than once. When i had no work I was claiming JSA, etc. so it was a negative balance and i didn't have any money for creditors, however, i wasn't going to consider BR as it wasn't going to last forever (well hopefully not).

Then i went back and i had work so i entered the figures i had at the moment and it came up with 'you can afford to pay your contractual amounts' or something like that. But i had already stopped paying and defaulted and i knew the work was not forever, not like i had a perm job or anything.

I would have thought if they had CCJs i would know about it...

I looked into IVAs as it sounded like a perfect idea when i thought it was just debt management then i found it's a form of insolvency that gets recorded like BR and causes a lot of problems in the future from what I hear and people always talk about it.

Because of irregular income i thought maybe if some debts are unenforcible then when i have extra work as it happens sometimes i can offer a low F&F and get rid of them.

BlushingRose

CremeBrulee wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies, i'll have to look at all this in more detail as there is a lot to consider!

As for income, i work on a freelance basis so it's on and off, which makes it difficult to make any commitments. Payplan said on the website something about you should have at least £250 i think it was to be considered. CCS i checked more than once. When i had no work I was claiming JSA, etc. so it was a negative balance and i didn't have any money for creditors, however, i wasn't going to consider BR as it wasn't going to last forever (well hopefully not).

Then i went back and i had work so i entered the figures i had at the moment and it came up with 'you can afford to pay your contractual amounts' or something like that. But i had already stopped paying and defaulted and i knew the work was not forever, not like i had a perm job or anything.

I would have thought if they had CCJs i would know about it...

I looked into IVAs as it sounded like a perfect idea when i thought it was just debt management then i found it's a form of insolvency that gets recorded like BR and causes a lot of problems in the future from what I hear and people always talk about it.

Because of irregular income i thought maybe if some debts are unenforcible then when i have extra work as it happens sometimes i can offer a low F&F and get rid of them.

I think what you should do is ring CCCS and chat with them, explain about the freelance income thing and they will probably say to go a DMP and when you income is low to pay token payments and when it's decent to pay a lower (but higher) payment.
My advice would be - ring them.

Standingtall

A few quick words of advice. CCCS and Payplan are likely to expect you to pay a similar amount of your income towards a DMP, a few variances maybe but not a lot. When you provide them with your outgoings therefore, make sure you give them the maximum so that the end figure ( which will be used for your DMP) is affordable for you. Also make sure you include everything. Do not include any overtime or bonuses as you are not supposed to - it should be based on your monthly take home net salary.

I notice you say your salary fluctuates and this may make it harder to gauge. One point to note therefore, Payplan did NOT ask to see my payslips. Therefore you may have a little more flexibility there too. Do not lie but just err on the side of caution.

CremeBrulee

I don't have a salary or payslips, I invoice for the work I do. There are times when there has been no work, also people don't always pay on time/at all! I'm still waiting to be paid for work I did in 2009 but that's another story.

CremeBrulee

I thought if you went on a DMP with a recognised organisation like CCCS you'd be OK, now i see you can still get a CCJ when you are on a DMP. I can't post links but this is the thread title: What happens to CCJ when Charging Order issued?

can't CCS do anything about it?

can you submit a defence that you are paying a DMP when you go to court to stop them?

endora

CremeBrulee wrote: »

Because of irregular income i thought maybe if some debts are unenforcible then when i have extra work as it happens sometimes i can offer a low F&F and get rid of them.

You don't say what type of debts you have. If they are unsecured loans or credit cards taken before 2007 then some of them could be unenforceable. This wouldn't apply to secured loans or when they've already obtained a CCJ against you.

You could send a CCA request to each one of your creditors and see what they come back with. If the debts are old and/or have been sold on to a DCA some may not be able to produce anything, others could just manage a poor recon. Either way they would be unenforceable. If they are unenforceable you wouldn't have to offer them anything, if any turn out to be enforceable then you could try the full & finals with those.

CremeBrulee wrote: »

I thought if you went on a DMP with a recognised organisation like CCCS you'd be OK, now i see you can still get a CCJ when you are on a DMP. I can't post links but this is the thread title: What happens to CCJ when Charging Order issued?

can't CCS do anything about it?

can you submit a defence that you are paying a DMP when you go to court to stop them?

Unfortunately a DMP is not legally binding so creditors still have the option to go to court. Being on a DMP is not a defence, however, failure to produce a valid agreement IS! So while a lot of people will suggest a DMP, you have to consider your options, such as finding out whether the debts are enforceable first, then you could do the DMP with the enforceable ones.

jon1965

Hi
I would echo Endora. Even if you can not go down the UE route by setting up a diary and sending CCA requests to your creditors (by ecorded delivery and enclose a postal order for £1 do not sign the letter as they can "lift" your signature ) it will give you a breathing space. Once you have sent off the request they they have 12 days to reply, if they don't then the debt becomes unenforcable until they provide the necessary documents.
You might want to list your debts in a way so people can help saying who it was with and what (CC or loan), when it was taken out, how much you owe, who you are paying at the mo and when you last paid.
Do have a look at Never in doubts site, really is some good stuff on there as well.