Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

mostlyconfused

Hi, I posted this last week and didn't get a reply - I don't know if that's because it was missed or you're unable to help but if you could please let me know that would be great.


Hello,

I was advised this was the place to come for some help. I'm not entirely sure where I stand and if there's anything I can do but I'm hoping someone can help.

Years ago (about 9) I got an overdraft with Halifax. I was young and stupid and spent it all without putting any money back in the account. Through CCCS (now stepchange) I went on to a payment plan and started to pay this back with a token payment of £1. I have been doing this ever since and had actually forgotten all about it. Now I'm trying to get to the bottom of it but I don't have any paperwork for it.

I've checked my credit rating and it's listed as a default and is being dealt with by Cabot Financial. I rang them who said they don't have any information other than the following dates I think all of these dates were in fact earlier than I've been told):
Account opened with Halifax - 3/1/2006
Account passed to Cabot - 5/3/2012
Defaulted - 22/10/10

I have looked back through emails and have nothing. But I have just spoken to a very friendly man at my bank who confirmed the standing order for £1 was started on 30/9/2009. I also recall for a fair amount of time before this i went in to the Halifax and physically paid £1 so the repayment plan started before September 2009 for sure.

My first confusion is that I believe the default should have actually occurred earlier due to the fact my repayment plan was before the and, as a result, fallen off my credit rating. Is there any way of a) finding this out and b) if so, get my credit rating updated?

The second is, I'm not sure how long I've been paying the £1 and therefore don't know how much is actually left to pay.

Lastly, if Cabot don't have any information about the debt. what should I do about that?

Apologies for the VERY lengthy post - I thought it would be best to get everything I could think of down in the hope I might get a reply.

any advice would be very much appreciated

StepChange_Jen

mostlyconfused wrote: »

Hi, I posted this last week and didn't get a reply - I don't know if that's because it was missed or you're unable to help but if you could please let me know that would be great.


Hello,

I was advised this was the place to come for some help. I'm not entirely sure where I stand and if there's anything I can do but I'm hoping someone can help.

Years ago (about 9) I got an overdraft with Halifax. I was young and stupid and spent it all without putting any money back in the account. Through CCCS (now stepchange) I went on to a payment plan and started to pay this back with a token payment of £1. I have been doing this ever since and had actually forgotten all about it. Now I'm trying to get to the bottom of it but I don't have any paperwork for it.

I've checked my credit rating and it's listed as a default and is being dealt with by Cabot Financial. I rang them who said they don't have any information other than the following dates I think all of these dates were in fact earlier than I've been told):
Account opened with Halifax - 3/1/2006
Account passed to Cabot - 5/3/2012
Defaulted - 22/10/10

I have looked back through emails and have nothing. But I have just spoken to a very friendly man at my bank who confirmed the standing order for £1 was started on 30/9/2009. I also recall for a fair amount of time before this i went in to the Halifax and physically paid £1 so the repayment plan started before September 2009 for sure.

My first confusion is that I believe the default should have actually occurred earlier due to the fact my repayment plan was before the and, as a result, fallen off my credit rating. Is there any way of a) finding this out and b) if so, get my credit rating updated?

The second is, I'm not sure how long I've been paying the £1 and therefore don't know how much is actually left to pay.

Lastly, if Cabot don't have any information about the debt. what should I do about that?

Apologies for the VERY lengthy post - I thought it would be best to get everything I could think of down in the hope I might get a reply.

any advice would be very much appreciated

Hi there,

Thanks for your message.

I’m sorry no one got back to you previously, it looks like we may have missed your post.

Normally you can ask your creditor for information about your account. As you didn’t receive the information you needed it’d probably be worth getting in touch with both Halifax and Cabot with another request for information about the debt and your accounts. To help with this we have a template letter you could use that requests specific information about the account, interest and charges along with how much you have outstanding to pay. You’ll need to pay a £1 fee, sent with the information request.

http://moneyawarecouk.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/StepChange-Debt-Charity-Right-to-information-request.pdf

It’s not clear from your message if you’re still one of our clients. If you are, you could give us a call with your information and client reference number (if you have one) and we may be able
to let you know when you started your plan and how much you have left.

You can find out how to get in touch with us here: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

I hope this helps and if you’ve got any more information please let us know.

Jen

christof77

Hi, i have just over £13k debt over 4 credit cards and i am wanting to clear them so much. Ive had debt most of my adult life. is there a way without affecting my credit rating that i can reduce some of the debt?

Former_StepChange_Laura

christof77 wrote: »

Hi, i have just over £13k debt over 4 credit cards and i am wanting to clear them so much. Ive had debt most of my adult life. is there a way without affecting my credit rating that i can reduce some of the debt?

Hi there,

Thanks for your message. It’s good to hear you’re wanting to clear your debt, and getting in touch with us is great first step towards dealing with it.

I’d suggest you could benefit from some free debt advice. We can take a look at your financial situation in more depth and discuss the best options for you to deal with your debt. Our debt advice is free and we offer a range of debt solutions which you can read about here: http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou.aspx

There are a couple of ways you can get in touch with us. You can give our helpline a call on 0800 138 1111 and speak to an advisor. It’s free to call from landlines and major mobile networks, and is open from Monday to Friday from 8am until 8pm and Saturdays from 8am until 4pm. Alternatively you can use our online Debt Remedy tool, which takes you through the same process as an advisor would over the phone. You can access Debt Remedy here: http://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx

It’s understandable that you’re concerned about the impact that a debt solution might have on your credit file, but we would generally advise that it’s best to look at clearing your debts first and then looking at ways to build up your credit file. Once you’ve had an advice session with us, you can speak to an advisor about any concerns you might have about the solutions we recommend to you, including the impact a debt solution might have on your credit file. MoneySavingExpert also have a list of things you can do to improve your credit file, which you might find useful to have a read through: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score#boost

I hope this answers your question.

Kind regards,
Laura

Bollard

Hi Hi to the exceedingly useful StepChange people and other forumites.

I have been on a DMP with StepChange for a good few years now, as has my partner. We both have debts with Nationwide Credit Cards, who put a charge on our property linked to the debt. We have now moved house and have some cash to lessen our debts, but my girlfriend has just been made redundant again, so we want to tread cautiously. I spoke with Nationwide recently and they agreed to accept a lump sum of 65% of my debt to clear the arrears, which I have now paid. My partner however who owes more to Nationwide than I did, but less overall, has been offered an amount of 75% of her debt to clear the arrears. Any ideas why it is higher and is there anything we can do about it ??
Thanks for any responses.
Mark

Former_StepChange_Rory

Bollard wrote: »

Hi Hi to the exceedingly useful StepChange people and other forumites.

I have been on a DMP with StepChange for a good few years now, as has my partner. We both have debts with Nationwide Credit Cards, who put a charge on our property linked to the debt. We have now moved house and have some cash to lessen our debts, but my girlfriend has just been made redundant again, so we want to tread cautiously. I spoke with Nationwide recently and they agreed to accept a lump sum of 65% of my debt to clear the arrears, which I have now paid. My partner however who owes more to Nationwide than I did, but less overall, has been offered an amount of 75% of her debt to clear the arrears. Any ideas why it is higher and is there anything we can do about it ??
Thanks for any responses.
Mark

Hi Bollard,

Thanks for your kind words! We're glad to hear we've been able to help you.

While it's often possible to offer a reduced settlements to repay your debts, there is usually some negotiating to do with creditors to see how much they'll accept. Creditors don't have to accept any reduced payments if they choose not to and the amount they do sometimes offer as a settlement can vary depending on many different factors.

I think you're right by being cautious about offering settlements during what can be a difficult time with your partner's redundancy. We'd usually recommend making sure you have enough left to cover your main priority household bills and living costs before looking to deal with any remaining unsecured debts.

If you're on a plan with us at the moment, it might be useful to ask us for advice on this by calling us.

I hope that helps,

Rory

BabyRay11

Hi
Could you tell me if my child's DLA will be considered as income to pay off my debts on a DMP please? I use the money purely to pay for her extras that she needs and save any left over for future big expenditure that I know she will need. I have been told her money would be considered my income as its paid to me. Could you please advise me.
Thanks

berbatova998

Hi guys


I have got nearly £20,000 worth of debt. It is made up of several credit cards, payday loans (yep I know). One of the credit cards (HSBC Bank) have been pretty vile. I turned to various debt management companies who all appeared to have ripped me off and I have more debt now than when I first joined the first debt management company 10 years ago.


Anyway I lost my mum last year and am selling her house so I will be able to clear my debts entirely and wondered two things:-


1. What is the best way to clear debts with these people. Presumably not through the debt management company who I should probably cancel as soon as I am in funds. Can I contact each one individually and ask for a settlement figure and will they be generous and lose some of the huge interest accrued.


2. How do I get rid of the County Court Judgment I have which HSBC have got against my name. This happened without my knowledge as the debt management company overlooked to tell me.


Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks.

Kel8603

I've been in paying my creditors a reduced amount (but religiously every month - never missed a payment). I'm paying via a company (Gregory Pennington).


I've just taken voluntary redundancy and have some money that I wish to pay off the remainder if my debt - it's about £7000.00.


I've been in touch with Gregory Pennington (GP) and they advised that if they negotiate a reduced settlement with my creditors, I would need to give GP the full amount first, they would then negotiate on my behalf and whatever savings they were able to make they would take 50% of.


Or I can negotiate myself...but I don't really know where to start with this and what I should be saying to my creditors. Can I use the fact that I don't have any employment lined up in my favour?


Or should I use the GP service? Just seems a little steep for them to take 50%, especially since I've been paying a management fee to them for almost 10 years.


Thanks for any advice.

jojororo

Hey Guys,

I'm looking for some advice.

In 2009 I had built up £54k worth of debts (4 x cc, 1 x loan, 1 x OD)

I took out a DMP with PayPlan and have been paying this for last 6 years

Total amount owing is now down to £40k (mainly due to one of cc's totally writing off amount owed)

Currently paying £115/m so end date is somewhere after 2040

I recently checked my credit history and was expecting to see that the 5 remaining debts would be due to drop off this year.

However default dates ranged from 9/09 to 7/11

I thought that once I entered the DMP and companies agreed to accept low monthly payments that this would be when account officially "defaulted"

Additionally I am in a position where I might be able to "borrow" £10k from a family member if I can clear the debts entirely.

So my questions are....

1. Can I query the default dates and get them to change them to 2009 when DMP was taken out ?

2. Can I write to the creditors directly myself with F&FP offers or do I need to go thru' PayPlan ?

3. What chances that any creditor will accept 25% F&FP offer ? [NB two of debts have been sold on]

4. Should I try and get default dates "fixed" before a F&FP offer or do it at the same time ?

5. Should I try sending a CCA Request ? And again should I do this before the other issues or at the same time ?

Regarding the bank overdraft - this is not showing as defaulted on my credit history but is showing as unpaid [I think I owe £2350 when original OD was £2000]

6. Can debts of this type be "defaulted" - obviously want to avoid this being added now ?

7. If I pay in say £500 so that the account is back under the OD limit should the "black mark" disappear from my credit history ?

8. Should I treat this differently from other debts when negotiating with the creditors

Thanks in advance.
Jo