Where do I go from here? Advice please

janey183

A long story, try to make it as short as possible.

Debt with Simply Be £1084.67, started DMP with Harrington Brookes back in 2005, paid religiously until Dec last year when I looked deeper into account (which I know I should have kept on top of, but I didnt:cool:)
Simply Be had not frozen any charges so debt (after 6 years of payments-never missed a month) was now approx £4200:eek:
"Sacked" Harrington Brookes for mis-managing my accounts, took back all debt. Wrote to all companies offering them X amount each month, which I have to say, they were all more than happy about, except Simply Be.

I wrote and explained situation and that I thought the charges were unfair and to be blunt I could NEVER pay off even if I lived to be 150 years old:cool:
I said I was more than willing to pay the original debt (which by my calculations would be around £300 by now) but could not pay all the extra charges.
They WILL NOT BUDGE! In fact since Feb they have added another £400 to the account which now stands at £4600:eek:
They said pay it in full (I dont have that kind of money) or pay £400 per month (I dont have that kind of money) or baliffs:(

What can I do? They just keep piling charge after charge on this account and I just cant keep up.
The most I can afford is £20 per month on the original debt, which is substantialy more than HB were paying them (£8 per month)

I have written to HB demanding some explanation as to why this was allowed to happen and they will not respond to me.

Any advise would be greatly recieved, thanks
x

Tixy

Have you ever looked into asking for the CCA for this debt? to see whether it is enforceable?
If not you might want to consider looking into this. If it was unenforecable or if they couldn't supply a CCA then you could either choose to stop paying, or use it as a bargaining tool to get them to stop interest and certainly if its unenforceable then you'll be able to ensure they don't obtain a CCJ against you and so definitely would not be able to send bailiffs.


If it is enforceable then it sounds like all you can do is continue to offer them the amount you can afford per month, if thats £20 then make sure that you pay it each month regardless of whether they say you have to pay more or not.

As I expect you are aware they are allowed to continue to charge interest on a defaulted account if they choose. Have you checked that the interest & charges they are adding are in accordance with the original agreement?

They certainly can't send bailiffs to you unless the first go to court to obtain a CCJ against you. Even if they did commence court proceedings if you can demonstrate to the judge that you are paying all you can afford the judge will not order you to pay any more than you can afford and should allow to pay in monthly installments.

Its depressing to think that the balance is increasing however you might well find that at some point they'll sell it on to a debt collector and you might have more luck with them agreeing to freeze interest & charges.

Or you might get to a position where you have paid off your other debts and then might be able to save up enough to offer a full & final settlement on the debt.

Gimpsdad

Are you a homeowner or tenant? How much were you paying to HB? How much can you afford to pay back in total? How much does your total debt stand at now?

May be easier to give you hints when we know those answers.