Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

Former_StepChange_Rory

pma13 wrote: »

hi hope this ok to post in here iam on a plan already but i have some money from overtime and want to clear a debt i have with barclays I only owe 140. on this account but I cant seem to find a relevant number all the correspondence I have on this account is old and no.s are out of date. It was a barclays current account and hasnt been passed over to a collections

Hi pma13,

It might be a good idea to speak to the provider of your plan for more information from them.

If your a client with StepChange then you can find details of how to contact us here.

Rory

Former_StepChange_Rory

mum2one wrote: »

Hi
i've already got a dmp with stepchange - asking on behalf of my parents, - my dad has been admitted to hospital seriously ill, the trouble is he's 75 miles away from home, any money is now being diverted to the petrol tank, up till now they have managed their bills, with the additional petrol costs thats eating into the budget, last week we did an extra 750 miles (5 journeys) got 4 this week (600 miles) week after not sure...


He has 2 credit cards, I've spoke to the one card (they have me on file as authorised to deal with the account - he gets confused when it goes option 1, 2 etc) theyve been great there freezing interest for 3 months and said instead of payments c£100 just to pay £10 per month now the other one are saying he has to pay full amounts.

Card 2 - I'm having problems getting to them as although I have spoken to them previously they now want to deal with the account holder only - bit difficult when he as been in intensive care... I'm at brick wall at moment - thinking of asking hospital for a letter confirming the situ so can go from there.

I'm in process of getting third party to his bank accounts so that I can help with the payments and managing the account (even thou joint with my mum, shes almost housebound and gets muddled up with accounts as there the traditional family man does all financies) plan is to set up online banking so I can access account and guide mum along.

My "I need help" - am I going the right way in getting around the accounts also by getting this third party access - is that going to show up on my credit files or course any problems with my dmp as i'm not benefiting from his money just managing it.

Cheers for any help in advance xxx

Hi mum2one,

I'm sorry to hear about the situation and your dad's ill health, I can imagine it's a really difficult time for all of you and I pass on my kind regards.

If you're looking at ways of becoming a third-party or power of attorney over the accounts then it might be a good idea to speak to the creditors as each will have their own process to set this up. You should be able to make arrangements with the creditors either temporarily or in the longer-term to make things easier.

Usually if you place an account in joint name then this can set up a financial link, but there are other ways of doing this such as power of attourney over the accounts and creditors should be able to help with this.

Looking after your dad's money is very unlikely to impact your DMP with us at all so please don't worry about that.

If the illness is causing your dad to fall behind then we can help. You can talk to us on behalf of him as long as we've got some authority such as a letter or a verbal confirmation that's fine with us.

Even if you feel that the situation is only short-term and you'd like to speak to creditors yourself then we can still offer our expert advice and help with dealing with the debts. The last thing you'd want to happen is for the situation to get worse especially with everything that's happened.

If you want to talk to us, you can speak to us by visiting our contact us page here. Alternatively you can use our anonymous Debt Remedy tool on behalf of your dad so we can offer our advice and solutions.

I hope this helps, we look forward to speaking to you soon.

Rory

Flynnble

Hi, wonder if you can give me some advice.. I had some debt problems about 9 years ago, I sought the services of a 'debt doctor' who helped me work out some full and final settlements. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, got on with my life, got married, moved house, had some children and never got in debt again. I have today been contacted (via phone) by a debt collection company who say they have been passed on a debt of mine from this time which was originally with Lombard Direct. It has an outstanding balance of over £7000! I don't have the original paperwork from my final settlements, I can not contact the original debt doctor I used, but the service still exists and altho they do not have my individual records say I do not have to prove I've paid the debt, they (the debt collection company) have to prove I haven't, is this so? they do not have my current address, can they enforce this after such a long time? What can/will they do? I imagine they could find my new address and surname quite easily if they want, I don't want to ignore this and find myself opening the door to bayliffs.. I am now a stay at home mum with no income of my own, my husband will probably divorce me if he finds out, he and our relationship is not in a good place right now as it is and I would prefer to sort this out without involving him if at all possible, especially as it relates to a debt and time he knows nothing about.. Any advice greatly appreciated

Former_StepChange_Rory

Flynnble wrote: »

Hi, wonder if you can give me some advice.. I had some debt problems about 9 years ago, I sought the services of a 'debt doctor' who helped me work out some full and final settlements. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, got on with my life, got married, moved house, had some children and never got in debt again. I have today been contacted (via phone) by a debt collection company who say they have been passed on a debt of mine from this time which was originally with Lombard Direct. It has an outstanding balance of over £7000! I don't have the original paperwork from my final settlements, I can not contact the original debt doctor I used, but the service still exists and altho they do not have my individual records say I do not have to prove I've paid the debt, they (the debt collection company) have to prove I haven't, is this so? they do not have my current address, can they enforce this after such a long time? What can/will they do? I imagine they could find my new address and surname quite easily if they want, I don't want to ignore this and find myself opening the door to bayliffs.. I am now a stay at home mum with no income of my own, my husband will probably divorce me if he finds out, he and our relationship is not in a good place right now as it is and I would prefer to sort this out without involving him if at all possible, especially as it relates to a debt and time he knows nothing about.. Any advice greatly appreciated

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum.

I would suggest contacting the debt collection company and asking them to send you details of any payments, interest and charges on the account.

This should give you a clearer picture of the situation which might help. You can use our template letter available here as a guide.

It's then up to the creditor to send the information back to you so if you don't receive a response then you can follow-up with another letter or make a complaint to them. Most of the time though, the creditors send this information to you.

It might also help by checking your credit report to see if this has any other information about the debt. You can do this free or charge by visiting https://www.noddle.co.uk.

You also mention that these debts were dealt with 9 years ago which could mean that the debts are no longer enforceable. We have an article on our MoneyAware blog here that explains this.

Try not to worry about enforcement agents (bailiffs) as they usually only become involved for these types of debts if it has been enforced through the courts. We've also covered what action creditors can and can't take in this article here.

Finally, once you have the information about the debt, if it is something that you need to repay then we can help. As a charity we offer our free, impartial and confidential debt advice and solutions to help you deal with debt.

Please don't feel you need to deal with this on your own.

You can contact us for further advice by visiting the StepChange website or by using our free, anonymous Debt Remedy tool.

I hope this helps,


Rory

Flynnble

Thank you so much, that has made me feel much better, I will get on with your suggested steps and take it from there.. I will be in touch for more advice when I get to the next step I'm sure, thank you.

ynnub

Hi

I was going to start a new thread but thought it best to ask you guys.

If I were to move, do you tell creditors the new address or is that something I have to do after I have told you?

Cheers

icebergx

Hi all,

I'm writing on behalf of a friend.
He's in debt to the tune of £9,000 appx and has a bad credit history dating back a 2-3 years. This includes things like late payments on credit cards, Hire purchase agreements, car lease payments, etc. These were accrued when he was running his own business, which he has now abandoned.
Most of the debt is owed to friends/family and he'd like to take out a loan to repay this. He's now on a health salary of £40-45k per year, so he won't have any problem making the appropriate monthly repayments, but it's sourcing the cheapest loan possible that appears to be the challenge.
What procedure would it be best for him to go down to get his debt under control.

Thanks.

StepChange_James

ynnub wrote: »

Hi

I was going to start a new thread but thought it best to ask you guys.

If I were to move, do you tell creditors the new address or is that something I have to do after I have told you?

Cheers

Hi Ynnub,

As far as I know we don't get involved in updating addresses with creditors. If you give us your new address we'll update our records but then it'll be a matter of getting in touch with each company.

I know it can sometimes be a bit daunting talking on the phone to creditors so a letter would be fine to let them know your new address.

Good luck with the move.

James

StepChange_James

icebergx wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm writing on behalf of a friend.
He's in debt to the tune of £9,000 appx and has a bad credit history dating back a 2-3 years. This includes things like late payments on credit cards, Hire purchase agreements, car lease payments, etc. These were accrued when he was running his own business, which he has now abandoned.
Most of the debt is owed to friends/family and he'd like to take out a loan to repay this. He's now on a health salary of £40-45k per year, so he won't have any problem making the appropriate monthly repayments, but it's sourcing the cheapest loan possible that appears to be the challenge.
What procedure would it be best for him to go down to get his debt under control.

Thanks.

Hi there,

Thanks for posting.

I'd say that the best advice on how to go about getting a good loan deal is probably this page on MSE: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/cheap-personal-loans. There's also some really good advice on improving credit ratings here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score#boost.

It sounds like your friend probably has quite a bit of negative information on his file, so he won't be able to make it look great but some of the tips in the article above are useful for getting small improvements when it comes to applying for credit.

You mention that your friend has a well paying job and is doing better financially at the moment, which is great news. I'd still recommend planning out a budget with them and being absolutely sure any new loan commitments are manageable and won't leave the risk of relying on credit to get by.

The alternative to a new loan would be to try and get agreements in place with the people he already owes money to and repaying them through instalments. This might not be pratical in the circumstances but it could be a way to avoid interest charges.

I hope this helps. If your friend needs more in depth advice then there are links in my signature for our service which he might find useful.

Kind regards

James

icebergx

StepChange_James wrote: »

Hi there,

Thanks for posting.

I'd say that the best advice on how to go about getting a good loan deal is probably this page on MSE: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/cheap-personal-loans. There's also some really good advice on improving credit ratings here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score#boost.

It sounds like your friend probably has quite a bit of negative information on his file, so he won't be able to make it look great but some of the tips in the article above are useful for getting small improvements when it comes to applying for credit.

You mention that your friend has a well paying job and is doing better financially at the moment, which is great news. I'd still recommend planning out a budget with them and being absolutely sure any new loan commitments are manageable and won't leave the risk of relying on credit to get by.

The alternative to a new loan would be to try and get agreements in place with the people he already owes money to and repaying them through instalments. This might not be pratical in the circumstances but it could be a way to avoid interest charges.

I hope this helps. If your friend needs more in depth advice then there are links in my signature for our service which he might find useful.

Kind regards

James

Thanks for this, James.
What are your opinions on Credit Unions? I was going to suggest that he approach one or two of them for a loan, as their "position" appears to be more sympathetic/understanding of those with a bad credit history.
Alternatively, which lenders (in your experience) appear to be more sympathetic of my friend's circumstances?

Thanks.