Any advice appreciated

markhull

Hi everyone, Im hoping you can offer me some advice on my situation, please.

I owe;
Tesco personal finance - £5542
Cahoot - £9055

I stopped paying my loans to Tesco personal finance and Cahoot nearly a year ago after having to leave my better paid job for health reasons and i was just not able to continue with my repayments. I have had various letters from Tesco as the debt has been passed on to a collection agency and one came this morning saying it was a final notice before they take proceedings further hinting at county court. Im not sure what to do, should i call payplan or something and ask them for help or is it too late for that now?
Also I was moving house at the time I stopped making my payments and despite writing to cahoot to inform them of my new address I have never heard anything at all from them. Does this mean that they can go through with a CCJ against me without me even knowing?

All in all im really not sure what to do. Is it best to contact payplan or ccs or try and arrange something myself. Im concerned because I can only really afford to repay about £30 a month and it seems pretty doubtfull that they will accept this, or do you think they will? I know I should have sorted it all out sooner but ive just been burying my head in the sand with worry and have now finally realised i need to deal with this.

I would greatly appreciate any advice.

artic_fox_2

welcome mark

congrats on taking your head out from the sand and having the courage to post here

have a read of southernscousers sticky on SOA statement of affairs and hopefully some nice people here will be able to advise on other money saving areas and then you might be able to offer more money

have a word with ccs or cab the advise will help

did you have any payment protection on the loans i dont know if its too late to do anything about that now

take care and good luck

markhull

Thanks for your quick reply. I feel better now by starting to deal with it. I didnt have any payment protection but I dont think i would have qualified if i did as i am still working but just on a lower wage.

frugalpam

markhull wrote: »

Thanks for your quick reply. I feel better now by starting to deal with it. I didnt have any payment protection but I dont think i would have qualified if i did as i am still working but just on a lower wage.

I think half the battle is acknowledging there's a debt problem - I had my head in the sand for a long time, and ignored any letters I didn't like the look of
Well done posting here, and I'm sure you'll get some good advice.
Do speak to someone who's got the background to help you eg CCCS or CAB, as has already been suggested. They'll help you put a plan together on how to deal with this.

all the best
Pam

kittyminx

Hi Mark

When I was in a very similar position to you and I got the same letter I was too scared to ring them up and talk to them so I wrote to them instead, explained my situation about my job and drop in salary and explained that I was going to get help via the cccs to help me sort out a DMP and then I offered them £10 a month...all I could realistically afford at the time...they wrote back within the week accepting and that was that..my salary has now improved greatly and i pay back a lot more than that now but the relief in knowing that the interest was frozen and i was doing something about it...rather than ignoring all the letters...was immense and i started o be able to sleep at night.

If you don't feel ready to ring them then do write to them, even if you are going through CAB etc as these things take taime and it sounds like you're well on your way to a CCJ..If you can catch it before it comes to that then you'll save your self more costs as well as the CCJ on your file. If you do end up with a CCJ then you'll not be made to pay more than you can afford.

Good luck and let us know how you get on

Kitts

markhull

Thanks for your very kind reply kittyminx, it has made me feel a lot better. I will write to them tomorrow then and offer £10, fingers crossed!

I am a bit worried about my other (cahoot) loan too and would really like to know if they can go for a CCJ against me without me knowing. I did write to them to inform them of a change of address but they never replied to me.

kittyminx

Glad to help Mark.....

As far as I'm aware....and it's just something I've read here which may be wrong...you can't have a CCJ issued against you without yourknowledge..something about the right to a counter claiim...but I'm not 100% sure so please don't rely on it.

If you're writing to them tommorow it may also be worth doing what others have done and send them a pound and a statement about being committed to paying off your debts...if you ring someone like CCCS they will give you a reference number which you can quote on any letters you send..i think they take you more seriously if they see you are seeking professional help.

Best wishes
Kitts

markhull

I will definately ring CCCS tomorrow and then write to the creditor with a token payment explaining the situation.

Ive just been reading some other posts and noticed that payplan etc. might not take on my case if i cant offer at least 1% repayments of the debt which I cant at the minute so what other options do i have or is it best to just go it alone if that is the case. Has anyone gone onto a DMP plan with any of them for small amounts like £50 or less?

markhull

Just wanted to bump my thread up in hope that someone may be able to offer any more answers?

lonely_2

Hi Mark, from what I have read (and this isn't based on anything more than that), it seems that CCCS are more likely to take you on with smaller payments - so try them before Payplan. But there is no harm in phoning both. many people who couldn't go with Payplan or CCCS have chosen to do their own DMPs with pretty much the same results - it may just take a bit longer and a bit more effort on your part, that's all.

artic_fox_2

if you are sending a letter to the company with a cheque staple the cheque to the letter that way if they cash the cheque you know they got the letter