What to do for the best??? :-(

Carlyt

Hi all,

Thanks for reading. I'm 25 and from the age of 18-20 I was young and irresponsible and racked up alot of debt, around 20k I think. I burried my head in the sand and ignored it all, not paying anything.....the consequences been I have 3 or 4 CCJ's and several defaults. I have currently lived alone for 6 years and I have to admit I am shocking at managing my money....STILL!!
So some of the debts are now 6 over 6 years old or are approaching the 6 year mark. I now pay monthly to access equifax as I am eager to start repairing my credit file. About 4 defaults have dropped off my file in the last 4 months and another 3 due to drop off in the next 3-4 months which will leave me with 1 default for £230 which is still outstanding and won't drop off until 2014.
I have a vanquis account with a small £500 limit which I have paid on time every month for the past year to try and build my credit history, I also have my phone contract on there, showing as paid on time evry month for the last few years and several bank accounts, I only use a couple of them, 1 for salary, 1 for bills.
I also have CCJ's, the last one is due to drop off in January 2015.
I also got into a mess with payday loans over the last 18 months, I am in a payment arrangement with Wonga which is due to be paid off in february. I have stopped taking these loans out now and just about seem to be getting myself straight.
Therese a few reasons why I have posted....
The first one been I am ashamed to say I haven't attempted to pay any of my defaults/ccj's, some i still get letters for once every now and then but others I don't hear from (some now dropped off). A few month ago i contacted national debtline and they advised me that it seems the defaults maybe statue barred or a close to been statue barred and they advised me not to make contact or pay anything and to basically ignore them forever....is this the best option???
Also should I contact the Courts regarding the CCJ's and arrange to pay something?? Will they stay on my file another 6 years from when I start paying???
I can't get credit anywhere so If i carry on managing my credit card well will this eventually improve my credit score???

Another reason I want to get all this sorted and make the right decisions is I am moving in with my partner next month, I am moving in with him and we are saving to rent somewhere from the new year. He is very good with money, has a good bank account, credit cards, mortgage etc. By moving in with him, I should be able to clear my smaller most recent debts by the new year when we rent somewhere. He has an idea of my financial situation, but not to the extent of my defaults and CCJ's (I don't think hes very clued up on it all).
Another thing is I was considering getting a joint account for bills etc when we rent somewhere.....is this a bad idea??? I don't want to effect his credit history.

In summary I was hoping someone could help with advise on the following.

1. Shall I continue to ignore my old debts (defaults and ccj's) all defaults apart from one will be off my file this year.
2. Shall I arrange payments with CCJ's and will they stay on my file 6 years from arranging a payment?
3. Shall I open a joint account or will it affect my partner.
4. Debt collectors have never turned up at my home (fingers crossed) I am petrified that they will turn up at my partners when I go on the electorall roll. What are the chances of this happening if the debts are quite old/possibly statue barred?

Thanks in advance x

dancingfairy

The ones that are about to expire in the next few months you may want to leave. The thing with CCJs is I believe that they have 6 years to enforce the judgement (otherwise they have to go back to court and ask the judge for extra time and demonstrate what efforts they have/haven't made to get payment in the 6 years - I'm not sure how common it is for creditors to pursue a CCJ over 6 years old (I would assume it's fairly rare as I've not heard of it but maybe others will know more)?
Maybe you could move in and wait a few months before you update the electoral role?
In terms of getting a joint account this is a very,very bad move - why damage your partners history uneccesarily? One of you is going to need decent credit in order to be able to rent privately.
Not sure what the chances of a debt collector turning up are - these things are quite often threatened but generally rarely carried out. However you could always be one of the unlucky ones - in this case I'd read up on your rights on debt collectors and I'd be tempted to confess all to your OH (before you move in).
As some of your CCJs are going to be there for a while I would try and deal with them rather than hiding until 2015. I'm not sure whether you can make payment arrangements directly or whether you have to apply to the court to make arrangements to pay based on what you can afford (based on your current circumstances).
If you owe 20k still would it be better considering something like bankruptcy and giving yourself a fresh start (obviously this depends on your career path etc but it doesn't sound like you have many/any assets right now to worry about - no mortgage, car or anything like that.
Maybe have another chat with National Debtline?
Best of Luck
df

Carlyt

Thanks for your response....

So I will avoid getting a joint current account then, what about a joint savings account? Will that financially link us?
My OH is aware that years ago I got in a mess and I have told him briefly about the statue barred situation and that I haven't paid all my debts etc and he seemed a little confused and said "its fine but I don't want any nasty suprises, just aslong as I know".... I feel ashamed to talk about it as I don't want him to think I am irresponsible now, there is a number of reasons why i got into debt but thats now irrelevant, pus he doesn't really understand the whole credit score/file and what it means etc.
I don't think bankruptcy is really an option as I will have a fair bit of disposable income left after I have cleared these smaller debts. I should have gone bankrupt years ago and don't want to be doing it now.

Also does anyone know if payday loans on credit file look really bad? They show on experian but not on equifax. Also some CCJ's show on equifax but only one shows on Experian......odd.

TakingControl

Any joint accounts will link you I am afraid, so a joint savings account will too. I also hate to be the barer of bad news but with CCJ's, you might find that you won't pass a credit check with letting agents as CCJ's are public.

Carlyt

Yeah I'm assuming this will be the case, I moved into my current property in Deecember and told them in advance I had CCJ, they wanted a guarantor, however I said this wasn't possible and they were OK with it due to my income etc. I'm hoping if I be upfront and honest about it and my partners income and credit history is clean then hopefully we shouldn't have a problem.....fingers crossed anyway.

billinghamfan

will a joint saving link you as saving accounts don't show up on your credit file?

Bravehearted_2

Your file is severely trashed and it doesn't help that none of the bad stuff was settled or satisfied.

PDL are bad on credit files - some mortgage lenders wont lend with them on your file.

Do your partner a favour and dont be financially linked.

Call the debt line again and at least settle the stuff you can - I doubt you'll even be able to rent with that file.