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GQM

Hi ive recently become unemployed and have 4 credit cards with around 20k debt spread across them i was currently paying around £500 interest to cover all of the payments (which i have been doing for the last 3 years) at the end of the month last month was the last time i managed to make the minimum payments, this month as i have no job i am not going to be unable to make my usual £500 payment to meet the minimum, what do i do now? and what are my options ? as i have no idea thx

k_moor25

I have just got back of a 2 week holiday to come home to a letter from moriarty law instruced by merligen investments LTD to recover this debt. £61.89

I paid this debt in 2012 but dont have proof what do I do as they have charged me £80 court fees/solictors costs/interest

Ballance £141.63

StepChange_James

GQM wrote: »

Hi ive recently become unemployed and have 4 credit cards with around 20k debt spread across them i was currently paying around £500 interest to cover all of the payments (which i have been doing for the last 3 years) at the end of the month last month was the last time i managed to make the minimum payments, this month as i have no job i am not going to be unable to make my usual £500 payment to meet the minimum, what do i do now? and what are my options ? as i have no idea thx

Hi GQM,

Thanks for posting. It can be quite daunting going from paying debts to not paying debts but sometimes it's the only realistic option. If you do things the right way then you can minimise the hassle and make things easier.

The first thing I'd recommend would be to get in touch with one of the free debt advice agencies approved by MSE: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help. We're one of them and if you'd like to get online advice you can use our Debt Remedy tool here: http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp or you can give us a call: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx.

If you use us then we'll help you plan an income and expenditure budget and then offer advice based on that information. Once we've got your details we'll be able to give detailed and specific recommendations about the best way to proceed.

I wouldn't want to speculate too much about the best advice for your circumstances but if you're out of work then I'd guess any money you're receiving will mostly (if not entirely) need to be used to support your basic living costs. If there's any money left, even if it's not much, you can offer as a temporary reduced payment to your creditors and ask them to freeze interest and charges (though they don't have to agree to this).

If you're expecting a long term lay off and are unsure you'll be able to repay these debts in a reasonable timescale then it could be worth looking at longer term debt solutions. If it's likely to be just a short term issue then it's often possible to make reduced payments for a while and then to go back to full payments when things improve.

Whatever the right way forward I would suggest accepting that your credit history is going to take somewhat of a knock. The only way to preserve it is to maintain full payments on your debts and if that's not realistic then it's often worth accepting you'll receive some negative information on there and just trying to work out the best way forward. The amount of negative information and what kind will vary depending on how you approach things, any good advice agency (like the ones linked to by MSE) will be to talk you through the pros and cons of any strategy you go for.

If there's anything you're not sure of please post again.

All the best

James

StepChange_James

k_moor25 wrote: »

I have just got back of a 2 week holiday to come home to a letter from moriarty law instruced by merligen investments LTD to recover this debt. £61.89

I paid this debt in 2012 but dont have proof what do I do as they have charged me £80 court fees/solictors costs/interest

Ballance £141.63

Hi there,

It's tough to say what the best option is here without knowing the full details.

If at all possible it would be good to get proof you made this payment. While you might not have a receipt, if you paid using a card then it's likely there'll still be records on old statements. If you don't have these it's likely the bank or credit card company would be able to send you duplicates or let you access them online.

You mention that you've had some court fees applied, that makes me wonder if they've applied for a county court judgment (CCJ). If that's the case then I'd suggest trying to work out stage this is at and making sure you know where you stand. Our helpline advisors can give advice on how to deal with CCJs if that is what the court fees relate to. Here's our contact details: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx.

Kind regards

James

lance1954

Hi,
I'm a total newbie, first post.
I had a business overdraft with NatWest - in May 2013 they asked for it back, it then stood at about £9000. I had never been over the £10K agreed amount. My LTD. business (cutting a long story short) was struggling and had gone into IVA about a year earlier. At the time, NatWest didn't seem bothered but finally decided to pull the plug and the business was wound up. As sole Director I had personally guaranteed the overdraft repayment. The bank had not communicated with me for a whole year and I contacted the Ombudsman. After a long period of time, they partially found in my favour and the bank awarded me £150 !! Not much for winding up a 30 year old business. Natwest have since passed my debt, now £6000, to Apex who, to be fair, have been easy to deal with and (almost) helpful up to now. This morning I told them that I am also being pursued by HMRC for £4500 in tax credit over payments. My family have raised £4K to help me out. I offered all £4K to Apex but had an angry rant at them, I just lost it !! I've been under enormous pressure and it just spilled out. They wanted me to fill in their 'in/out' form and I told them to shove it. To accept my offer pretty quick as a full and final settlement or I would use to cash to pay off HMRC. They said, 'could I just clarify a couple of things.....' I just said, 'No ! ring back when you have an answer, accept it and you get the money, reject it and I'll see you in court.' I then hung up. Made me feel a whole lot better but was probably the wrong thing to do ! Should I now put my offer in writing to them or should I wait to see if they contact me? Many thanks.

Former_StepChange_Laura

lance1954 wrote: »

Hi,
I'm a total newbie, first post.
I had a business overdraft with NatWest - in May 2013 they asked for it back, it then stood at about £9000. I had never been over the £10K agreed amount. My LTD. business (cutting a long story short) was struggling and had gone into IVA about a year earlier. At the time, NatWest didn't seem bothered but finally decided to pull the plug and the business was wound up. As sole Director I had personally guaranteed the overdraft repayment. The bank had not communicated with me for a whole year and I contacted the Ombudsman. After a long period of time, they partially found in my favour and the bank awarded me £150 !! Not much for winding up a 30 year old business. Natwest have since passed my debt, now £6000, to Apex who, to be fair, have been easy to deal with and (almost) helpful up to now. This morning I told them that I am also being pursued by HMRC for £4500 in tax credit over payments. My family have raised £4K to help me out. I offered all £4K to Apex but had an angry rant at them, I just lost it !! I've been under enormous pressure and it just spilled out. They wanted me to fill in their 'in/out' form and I told them to shove it. To accept my offer pretty quick as a full and final settlement or I would use to cash to pay off HMRC. They said, 'could I just clarify a couple of things.....' I just said, 'No ! ring back when you have an answer, accept it and you get the money, reject it and I'll see you in court.' I then hung up. Made me feel a whole lot better but was probably the wrong thing to do ! Should I now put my offer in writing to them or should I wait to see if they contact me? Many thanks.

Hi lance1954,

Thanks for your message and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling under pressure because of your situation, but you’ve come to the right place to ask for information.

You mention that you offered £4000 to Apex to pay off the £6000 debt over the phone. If you want to make a full and final settlement offer, it’d be best to send Apex your offer in writing. Creditors have different policies when it comes to accepting full and final settlement offers, and as you’re offering less than the full amount they are within their rights to refuse it. You can read more about full and final settlements here: http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Debtsolutions/Settlementoffers.aspx

I’d suggest you get in touch with us and speak to an advisor, who’ll be able to look at your circumstances in more detail and work out the best way for you to deal with your debts. They can also put together a budget that you’ll be able to send to Apex instead of their ‘in/out’ form. If you mention to the advisor when you call that you’ve also got tax credit debt then we’ll be able to factor that in when calculating your budget. You can find out how to get in touch with us here: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Laura

lance1954

Thank you Laura. I have spoken to Step Change now.

DinoL

Me and my partner live together and put all our money together I.e we put our wages together and pay for everything out of the pot

We don't have any financial commitments or products in joint names I.e we've never had a joint credit agreement loan bank account etc.
We do sometimes use the same address and contact details for each others accounts but not anything officially joint.

My partner is about to go bankrupt because she has wrecked up massive debt which she can't afford and has been advised by step change to consider bankruptcy. However I have about 5k in savings which of course I would not want to pay towards her bankruptcy. We put our money together in one of my accounts informally so no one can take it off her I.e her creditors.

Can the insolvency service or anyone at all come onto me for my money, take my money or freeze my money to pay for her debts?

Former_StepChange_Rory

DinoL wrote: »

Me and my partner live together and put all our money together I.e we put our wages together and pay for everything out of the pot

We don't have any financial commitments or products in joint names I.e we've never had a joint credit agreement loan bank account etc.
We do sometimes use the same address and contact details for each others accounts but not anything officially joint.

My partner is about to go bankrupt because she has wrecked up massive debt which she can't afford and has been advised by step change to consider bankruptcy. However I have about 5k in savings which of course I would not want to pay towards her bankruptcy. We put our money together in one of my accounts informally so no one can take it off her I.e her creditors.

Can the insolvency service or anyone at all come onto me for my money, take my money or freeze my money to pay for her debts?

Hi DinoL,

As long as the Official Receiver (OR) is satisfied that the money is yours and not your partners then there’s usually nothing to worry about.

As part of any bankruptcy the OR will usually make checks on accounts and financial affairs and they can also look back historically to check that everything is in order so that it doesn't affect the bankruptcy.

If you’re still concerned about this then your partner can talk to us and we’ll be happy to offer our advice. It might also help as we’ll have details of your partner’s situation so the advice will be more specific.

Hope this helps,

Rory

Brad1991

Hi all new on here !

I'm after some advice.

I'm currently on a DMP with StepChange and they have been great even when i had a bad few months and they reduced the payments which helped me, now im back on track with my full payments which im happy about.

The question i have is that i've just got back from working away and recieved a letter from DWF saying they are collecting on behalf of a client missed payments from a contract i had for my laptop via currys. They state on the letter i need to make the payment of £347.57 by 26/10/14 and if the payment isn't made court action will be taken.

Now i don't really want to reduce my november payment from my DMP as i've already made a few reduced payments to my DMP but i was thinking if i could reduce my food/transport in order to pay as much as i can towards my DMP aswell as paying the balance from DWF. I tried contacting DWF to see if i could arrange a small payment i.e. minimum payment but they refused due to the late contact ?

I don't know what really is the best ?
Should i contact StepChange and inform them whats happened and inform them that i'll do my best to pay my DMP payment ?

Some good news though is that i've been informed by my boss a bonus will be paid to us before xmas which i would use towards my DMP when i receive this shall i contact Stepchange to make a payment to them to divide between my creditors ?

Sorry for the long message i'm just stuck and i feel like i'm messing StepChange about recently