Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

triga2005

Hi Sorry if this post is wrong in regard to etiquette I'm not good at this sort of thing.
I was wondering if somebody can assist please?
Long story short,Business went down in credit crunch 2008.
Had a business loan of xx thousand pounds.
Last payment was December 2007 no written communication from myself or payment from that date, subsequently house in partners name was taken by mortgage provider I was named guarantor on unsecured loan. we where homeless with young family and had no money at all. I found new job to start again. The Bank formally demanded the loan in June 2008 and then Aug 2008 which I did not reply, they wanted to merge all the loans together and take a further security on the property that did not happen.
I had a personal loan with same bank as we had with business loan which I paid of to a third party at £50 a month for five years this was resolved in June 2013 to the penny outstanding, the bank in question did not contact me while this personal loan was being paid back and knew where I lived.
May i state for the record the personal loan had nothing to do with business loan.
In April 2014 I got a letter from the bank saying there was a issue regarding £20.00 on the personal account.
I contacted bank and complained about the fact I had no account with them and personal debt resolved they then mentioned actually they wanted to talk about outstanding XX thousand pounds business debt and can they have that back now please.
I did not acknowledge as I had forgot all about it and had started my life again and thought with the house being taken it was all finished and all business debts written off.
They investigated after I complained and admitted liability in delay of communication due to a" system error" and actually sent me a cheque for a couple of hundred pounds compensation which I have not cashed or acknowledged, however without my written consent or acknowledgement they have made a payment from my old personal account (which I had no access to or knowledge as they demanded my personal debt to be paid off and thought it had been shut down due to paying off personal debt with third party) of £22.00 nearly a year after that debt was paid off into a business account I have no knowledge of and are claiming it is now " a right of set of credit funds" on the business Loan which apparently does not constitute statute barred on the debt and that I have to pay it now. That was in April 2014, I heard nothing since thinking it was statute barred apart from a letter asking if I had cashed the cheque yet which I will not and ignored.
They are threatening court now via solicitors (ascent) in June 2015, I have checked my credit file and my credit rating is excellent with no historical CCJS ever or Gone absent on address.
Please can somebody help, am I liable? Is the debit statue barred? Can the bank just pull a £20.00 payment from one magical account into another for which I have not authorised or physically paid and then claim I am still liable for the debit?
I'm getting very sick over this and would welcome any help or advice
Many Thanks

Mark_and_Cath

My daughter has just had a breakdown over her debt problems. The annoying thing is that I would have happily paid it all off for her but she was to proud to ask Dad for help. Guess I did something wrong.

Long story short, the amount is about £16,000 owed to MBNA and Barclays. She defaulted many months ago, the debts have been sold on the 3rd party companies and it is their harassment that has led to my daughters current condition.

If she had told me when it was still with the main lenders then I would have simply paid them, they lent the money in good faith and they are entitled to expect it to be repaid, but these rat bags that have bought the debt I am far less inclined to deal with.

I know I have to deal with them to give my daughter a fresh start but my question is how much do I offer these rat bags? If they purchased a defaulted debt they can't have paid more than pennies in the pound but where do I start ...

Thanks in advance.

Former_StepChange_Laura

Florida15 wrote: »

Hi, hope you can help. We have been with stepchange (brill) for about a year and a half now, yesterday we received a letter from Barclaycard stating section 87.

They have up until now accepted our payment plan.

Do we need to do anything?

Thanks for any help given.

Hi Florida15,

Thanks for your message. This is a letter your creditor has to send you if they are going to formally register your account as being in default.

If you’re on a plan with us and you’re paying less towards your debt than was specified in your original agreement with your creditors, it’s not unusual for your account to be registered as being in default. This shouldn’t have any impact on whether or not your creditor continues to accept your payment plan, it’s just something they need to make you aware of by law.

If you have any other questions then I’d suggest you give our Client Support team a call on 0300 303 5300. They’re open from Monday to Friday from 8am until 6pm and will be able to answer any other questions you might have about the letter.

Kind regards,

Laura

Former_StepChange_Laura

Mark_and_Cath wrote: »

My daughter has just had a breakdown over her debt problems. The annoying thing is that I would have happily paid it all off for her but she was to proud to ask Dad for help. Guess I did something wrong.

Long story short, the amount is about £16,000 owed to MBNA and Barclays. She defaulted many months ago, the debts have been sold on the 3rd party companies and it is their harassment that has led to my daughters current condition.

If she had told me when it was still with the main lenders then I would have simply paid them, they lent the money in good faith and they are entitled to expect it to be repaid, but these rat bags that have bought the debt I am far less inclined to deal with.

I know I have to deal with them to give my daughter a fresh start but my question is how much do I offer these rat bags? If they purchased a defaulted debt they can't have paid more than pennies in the pound but where do I start ...

Thanks in advance.

Hi there,

Thanks for your message and I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s situation. We regularly hear from clients that it takes them some time to acknowledge that their debt is a problem, but the good thing is that your daughter has taken that step and is now at a point where she wants to deal with it.

You mention that the debt has been sold on, which is a normal part of the debt collection process. Regardless of how much the third party has bought the debt for, your daughter would normally still be liable for the full outstanding amount.

I’d suggest your daughter gives our helpline a call and has a chat with one of our advisors. They’ll be able to take a look at her financial situation in more depth, put together a sustainable budget, and recommend the best way for her to deal with the 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.

If you would like to help her pay off the debt then this is something your daughter can discuss with the advisor in more detail. Sometimes creditors accept reduced settlement amounts towards debts, but this is entirely up to the creditor and they don’t have to accept this. We’ll be able to discuss whether offering a full and final settlement is something we’d recommend in her circumstances.

Our helpline number is 0800 138 1111. It’s free to call from landlines and major mobile networks, and is open from Mon-Fri from 8am until 8pm and Saturdays from 8am until 4pm.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Laura

Former_StepChange_Laura

triga2005 wrote: »

Hi Sorry if this post is wrong in regard to etiquette I'm not good at this sort of thing.
I was wondering if somebody can assist please?
Long story short,Business went down in credit crunch 2008.
Had a business loan of xx thousand pounds.
Last payment was December 2007 no written communication from myself or payment from that date, subsequently house in partners name was taken by mortgage provider I was named guarantor on unsecured loan. we where homeless with young family and had no money at all. I found new job to start again. The Bank formally demanded the loan in June 2008 and then Aug 2008 which I did not reply, they wanted to merge all the loans together and take a further security on the property that did not happen.
I had a personal loan with same bank as we had with business loan which I paid of to a third party at £50 a month for five years this was resolved in June 2013 to the penny outstanding, the bank in question did not contact me while this personal loan was being paid back and knew where I lived.
May i state for the record the personal loan had nothing to do with business loan.
In April 2014 I got a letter from the bank saying there was a issue regarding £20.00 on the personal account.
I contacted bank and complained about the fact I had no account with them and personal debt resolved they then mentioned actually they wanted to talk about outstanding XX thousand pounds business debt and can they have that back now please.
I did not acknowledge as I had forgot all about it and had started my life again and thought with the house being taken it was all finished and all business debts written off.
They investigated after I complained and admitted liability in delay of communication due to a" system error" and actually sent me a cheque for a couple of hundred pounds compensation which I have not cashed or acknowledged, however without my written consent or acknowledgement they have made a payment from my old personal account (which I had no access to or knowledge as they demanded my personal debt to be paid off and thought it had been shut down due to paying off personal debt with third party) of £22.00 nearly a year after that debt was paid off into a business account I have no knowledge of and are claiming it is now " a right of set of credit funds" on the business Loan which apparently does not constitute statute barred on the debt and that I have to pay it now. That was in April 2014, I heard nothing since thinking it was statute barred apart from a letter asking if I had cashed the cheque yet which I will not and ignored.
They are threatening court now via solicitors (ascent) in June 2015, I have checked my credit file and my credit rating is excellent with no historical CCJS ever or Gone absent on address.
Please can somebody help, am I liable? Is the debit statue barred? Can the bank just pull a £20.00 payment from one magical account into another for which I have not authorised or physically paid and then claim I am still liable for the debit?
I'm getting very sick over this and would welcome any help or advice
Many Thanks

Hi triga2005,

Thanks for your message. Having read through your message a couple of times, I’m not sure I fully understand your situation. You mention you have a number of debts, including a business loan and the unsecured loan that you were a guarantor for. As one of your creditors is now threatening court action, I’d suggest you give us a call to have a chat through your situation in more depth. Once we know more about your circumstances we’ll be able to give you appropriate advice regarding whether or not the debt could be statute barred, and how you might like to proceed.

You can call our helpline on 0800 138 1111. It’s free to call from landlines and major mobile networks, and is open from Mon-Fri from 8am until 8pm and Saturdays from 8am until 4pm.

Kind regards,
Laura

Chris_e1986

I've got 5k credit card debt and struggling to pay it off with current outgoings.

Any basic guides that could help me?

StepChange_Jen

KrystianOCO wrote: »

I've got 5k credit card debt and struggling to pay it off with current outgoings.

Any basic guides that could help me?

Hi there,

Thanks for posting.

I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling to pay off your credit card debt at the moment.

You might find it useful to have a look at our credit card debt page: http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Typesofdebt/Creditcarddebt.aspx

However from what you’ve said I think you’d benefit from some free debt advice. As a charity all of our advice and support is free, confidential and impartial. We’d be happy to take a look at your situation and discuss any possible debt solutions with you.

There are two ways you can get help from us:

You can use our online advice tool, Debt Remedy. Debt Remedy is an anonymous tool that is available 24 hours a day; it will guide you through the process of completing a budget and then offer you the best advice for your situation. You can find Debt Remedy here: https://www.stepchange.org/debt-remedy

Or if you’d prefer, you can give our Helpline a call and talk to one of our advisors. It would be helpful to have some information about your budget when you speak to us as this will save you some time. You can find out how to contact us here:

http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

If you’ve got any more questions please let us know.

Jen

Rosylee

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask. Is it possible, like with credit cards, to close the account while there is still a balance and just pay it off? I know it's easy to say just don't spend on it, but sometimes the temptation is there. If not, can I at least ask them to reduce the credit limit or will this affect me negatively in some other way. Thanks

otb666

HI
I HAVE JUST complted your step change tool-why does it have incorrect monthly amounts on credit cards payments as this makes it hard to work out whether a dmp is required

DJimbo

Hi, looking for some advice on the best way forward with my unsecured debts. At this stage the debt is not a problem and the monthly payments are being met, we have a young baby and reviewing all our finances to see if my wife needs to go back to work part time.

After all bills and committed spend we are left with around £350 for food and non essentials, I have not factored in my wife's maternity pay or child benefit.

Unsecured Loan - £24,000 (6 years to run)
Unsecured Halifax CC - £6500 (making minimum payment)
Unsecured Tesco CC - £2500 (making minimum payment)
Unsecured RBS CC - £2000 (making minimum payment)

The loan is a big commitment but I can live with that as I know it is being paid and will eventually be finished, we pay £200 per month to all the cards which doesn't make a dent in them and will never go down.

We have agreed if my wife returns to work we will target the credit cards but with lack of family around us and cost of childcare it may not be worthwhile her returning to work as she earns minimum wage and has a 30 mile daily commute.

Is it possible to get another loan to cover the 11k credit card debts or would I be better trying to find 0% deals and pay as much as we can afford.

The £350 left every month is with all non essentials cut from our budget so can't really save any more.

Any help much appreciated.