SOA - Please be Kind!

makingendsmeet_2

Can I just ask. Why do you see Bankruptcy as a problem?? It may well be a ideal option for you. If you speak to either Payplan of the CCCS and they advise bankruptcy then I would say go for it. It isn't half as bad as some people make out and will give you a totally fresh start. You couldn't include your student loan though. If your nor sure of any of the aspects of bankrutcy then head on over to the bankruptcy board, there a friendly lot and will help you with any questions you may have.

flis21

Why do I see bankruptcy as I problem? I don't want to offend anyone with my answer.

Firstly, don't like the social stigma of it. I know that it gets put in the local paper and that.

Secondly, worried about other half's job, as he handles money and not sure how his employers are going to feel about br.

Thirdly would rather pay my debts off really, it is my own silly fault that I am in this mess, so would like to get a sense of achievement by getting myself out of it.

With the amount of surplus income we have I know that we would end up with a BRO thing, where we have to pay quite a bit into it anyway. Worked out that roughly we would be paying about £500 a month into BRO, might as well pay off debt if have that much to spare!!

flis21

Have just done CCCS thing again and it comes out as either an IVA or a debt management plan. Just need to sit down with hubby now and decide which way to go.

Already have one failed IVA on our credit history, might try the DMP and see if we can get all this lot paid off maybe.

tomterm8

At the moment, looking at the figures, I don't think either a IVA OR a bankruptcy is necessarily in your interest.

People will come here to advise you, give you places to cut back, BUT I think what you have there should allow you to pay your debts back reasonably quickly.

Arrange repayment plans with creditors who are calling - be firm, and make sure they suspend interest.

It might be time to send a letter to each of the creditors you owed money to at the IVA asking if they still own the debt, and if not who they sold it to. By now it'll have been sold off. While it is in DCA hands the interest should have been suspended. At the moment it's probably being passed around debt collection agents - probably be bought by 1st credit or McKenzie Hall. Save up as much money as you can, 'cause when these guys come calling you can often do a F&FS for less than 50% of what you owe. Knowing how these things work, it'll probably take them 2 years to be organised enough to bother contacting you.

briona

flis21 wrote: »

Ok,

So from what you are all saying there is a chance we can pay this off and not have to go bankrupt.

Have been trying to work with the figures. If we can get £600 a month spare, we can put £300 each into our debts.

Hi Flis

You can definitely pay this off but it will take time and require discipline – this means cutting cards up NOW and not continuing to spend on them and closing accounts like Next etc.

By my reckoning, if you can find that £600pm and put it towards the debt, then in around three months you could clear SIX debts – the five little ones (partner's B/card, Ace, two Next accounts, Argos) and partner's HSBC (£679.72) reducing your total debt by £1318.18 PLUS God knows how much interest! The Next, Ace and Argos accounts are likely to have the highest APRs (around 29%) so are also the most sensible ones to clear first. I would also write letters to your creditors offering them token payments and/or asking them to freeze interest.

While it makes sense to pay a little of each debt, if the following month's interest is greater than the payment you have just made, then you will neither see the benefit nor reduce the debt.

Personally I found it easier to make minimum (but still greater than next month's interest) payments on several debts and concentrate on clearing one or two smaller debts, e.g., your partner's Natwest debt is just over £1000 so by throwing the majority of your £600 available at that you could clear it in around 2-3 months whilst still making minimum payments on at least some of the other debts. To me it felt a lot better to be able to say I had, say 7 debts instead of 8!

Obviously if any of these debts are overdrafts you would need to arrange with the bank to reduce the overdraft as you pay it off or you will just end up back in it!

Whatever you decide to do, the very best of luck to you.

Briona

makingendsmeet_2

flis21 wrote: »

Have just done CCCS thing again and it comes out as either an IVA or a debt management plan. Just need to sit down with hubby now and decide which way to go.

Already have one failed IVA on our credit history, might try the DMP and see if we can get all this lot paid off maybe.

Why not set up a small DMP for a few months until you are in more of a position to decide whats best for you. Thats what I have done, it gives me some breathing space to consider the options. F&F are ok in theory but they arn't always what they seem, some companies will accept 30% others 50% others are just not intrested if you are paying them.

flis21

Ok,

Have drafted up a letter to send to the creditors. How does this sound?:


Dear Sir / Madam,

We are contacting you regarding an outstanding debt we have with your company. We realise this debt has been outstanding for some time and can only apologise for the situation.

We have taken debt advice from CCCS and are now trying to deal with the situation.
As such we enclose with this letter a copy of our current creditors and amount owed to each creditor. We have worked out what percentage of the debt is owed to each creditor. We also include a copy of our Statment Of Affairs, which shows our current incomings and outgoings.

We can afford to make total payments of £600 per month between all our creditors. As such, we have used the percentages to work out fairly how much to give to each creditor. As you can see from the table, the monthly amount we can afford to pay you is: figure.

We also request that no further interest or charges is added to this account to allow us a fair chance of paying off these debts.

We trust this is acceptable to yourselves and as such we request that you send a payment book or similar so we can start to make these payments.


Yours Sincerely,

Do you think this sounds ok? Is there anything else I should add?

tomterm8

Erm, if CCCS is representing you, then YOU don't write the letter, you get them to do it. A SOA with an offer from CCCS should be accepted by most DCA's / companies. Eventually.

Also, you need to find out who actually owns the debts... it won't be the original company by now.

(The CCCS will also make sure your SOA is water tight - it isn't at present.)

briona

That looks fine to me BUT it is very important that if you approach them offering them x amount per month that they do actually get it from you.

Do you have a second account that you could move £600 into each month as soon as your wages go into your current account and then pay all the creditors from that account? e.g., if you and your partner have separate accounts, could you use one purely for paying creditors from?


EDIT: Ooops! Somehow missed the "going through CCCS" bit – luckily there are others on here who are sharper than me! Please ignore my advice!!! :-D

flis21

Ok,

How about this letter for starters to each creditor:

Dear Sir / Madam

We are contacting you regarding an outstanding debt we have with your company. We realise this debt has been outstanding for some time and can only apologise for the situation.

We have taken debt advice from CCCS and are now trying to deal with the situation.
As such can you please advise if you still own this debt? If you do still own the debt can you also confirm the current total outstanding amount. If not can you confirm the name, address and reference number of the company the debt has been sold to and the amount outstanding when sold?

Once we have received figures from all of our creditors we will put together a Statement of Affairs and make offers of payment to each creditor.


Yours Sincerely,