Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

stuartduncan

Sign up to noddle.co.uk it's free and it will give you all the info about who you owe money to and how much you owe. I'd say that would be your best start

polycom

ello ill try give you a quick history of whats been happening. I received a letter threatening a court claim from 'shoosmith solicitors' acting on behalf of '"Cabot financial" claiming i owed £2200 (or roughly around that amount). I was advised to send a CCA request which i did and i got a letter claiming it would take so many days to obtain the documents. Many a days passed and i never got any other letters assuming they couldn't find the documents. However, 11th January i received a court claim from shoosmith. I once again sent a CCA request to Cabot financial and a request made under the provisions of Civil Procedure Rule 31 .14 to shoeesmith. i received a letter back yesterday from shoosmith . ill try upload a photo of the letter(i cant figure out how to upload a photo) it says "Thank you for your letter dated 11 Jan 2016. We will ask our client to provide copies of the documents you have requested as soon as possible.
However please not that CPR part 15.4 makes no provision for the deadline for the filing of your defence to be extended as a result of your request made under part 31.14. We therefore expect you to file your defence within 29 days of service of the claim form failing which we will make a request for judgement in default to be entered against you."


I am at a loss on what to do. My partner and I are complete amatures when it comes to this and are clueless on where we begin to write a defence. We are unsure on what this debt relates to but are pretty sure it is SB and they cant provide the original agreement but they are stil going ahead with the claim?


Any help on what to do next would be most appreciative as i have to file my defence before the end of the month.
Thank you

antithesis

We've been accruing debt on credit cards and balance transfers to the point where we are now in about £20k's worth of debt. As it stands, the juggling is working in the sense we're not paying a lot of interest, however, since having a baby we've accrued a lot more debt than we've paid off. It's spread over several credit cards and a loan. We know we need to sort out our spending. We don't spend 'willy nilly' but need to say no to ourselves more often which we are going to do.

My question is this: as it stands we own a 50% share of a property with part rent/part buy. If we were to sell up and rent, we could very probably cover our debt and have a small chunk leftover to restart our savings. Is this a wise option? More than anything, I want a mind clear of debt worry. I think I want that more than I want to be a house owner (or half a house in our case!). I think I'd like to buy a house again in the future but would rather do it in the 'black' and with a deposit big enough to afford a whole mortgage.

Our credit score is pretty good considering and we always make payments etc.

Lorena0819

I have an account with Halifax which I'm always in the overdraft limit. I pay £15 p/m for insurances I don't need and to be able to have £300 overdraft limit, as I need that amount. (Sometimes abit more) i feel uneasy having to pay £15p/m to just be able to have that overdraft amount. Are there any other bank accounts I could have at least £300 overdraft without having to pay any charges? Thank you

Sarah6493

Hello,

I don't have a huge amount of debt but want to nip this in the bud before it gets worse. I owe £1729 altogether. £877 is on a Very.Co.uk account, I only pay the minimum so interest is being added (30% I think??), abd recently ive struggled with that so have gone into arrears. Then I've got £600 I owe to the national design academy, I started an online college course and couldn't complete it so ended up owing the full amount of the course. Also £252 to my daughters old nursery and that will go up if I don't pay by February. I know it doesn't seem alot but I'm 22 with 2 children under 2 and dont want it building up but as I can't pay what I need to right now I don't know what to do.

1974nicola

Hello. I have two credit cards. Started wY back in 1996 and 2004. Been on a dmp from 2011 - 2015. Lost my job. Stopped payments. In most Recent correspondence with DCA, I was informed they have no credit card agreement. Are these un enforceable without CCA?

Thanks
Nix

annoyedboy80

Hi, i was wondering if anyone can help me with a dispute i have?
My ex got a loan out in her name for something i wanted i was paying the debt back to her each month but when we split i stopped paying her as she got the car( that we was both paying for) and the majority of the furniture when we split up. But then i got a solicitors letter saying she wanted the rest of the money for the loan she took out so went to the CAB and they said she could just be trying it on so i ignored and moved address unknowingly to me i got a court letter at my old address and it went to court and she won as i didnt even know i was due in court so i ended up with an attachment of earnings the court date was 2011 the debt was satisfied in 2012. Is it right that i've ended up with CCJ over a civil matter? My credit rating is still good even with that on my record as i have never missed any payments but some lenders wont touch me because of it. Is there anyway i can get quashed and taken off my file?

Thanks

melky

Hi can someone please help me in 2008 I took a loan out with welcome finance for 2000 pound by April 2009 I was struggling so I called a debt line to help for the next 6 years I paid 110 pound eferymonth only to hear that they were going to clear 1500 of to them of a now 3579 pound loan I asked where the rest was as my other debts were 1300 pound I never got a proper answer so I stopped paying my debt has now been handed over to pra group who are hounding me for 2575 pounds .I have statements to prove this but surely I have paid this off.i need help I don't know where I stand this is going on for 6 years and I can't afford it anymore

Former_StepChange_Laura

ScarletMouse wrote: »

Hi there,

I am not sure if this is the kind of question you can help with but I hope so.

I am 26 years old, when I was 18 to around 21 I wasn't in the best place and made many silly mistakes money wise which I am starting to really worry about; I was pressured due to my situation/people I was associated with, to take out pay day loans and not be able to pay them back, use a credit card to the limit and not make the payments etc. I know it has affected my credit as when I got to a better place in life I wasn't able to qualify for things I applied for etc.

Basically, I have stuck my head in the sand and avoided and hidden and tried not to think about the issue for a long time; letters will be sent to my current address and I had been in the awful habit of just throwing them away. I know it is awful, I do, but I need to do something about it now as it is causing me major stress and anxiety, I am so worried someone will turn up at my house or contact my work. I know I am likely to have CCJs from the people who have, I imagine, given up trying to reclaim the funds, and others are still trying to contact me.

The issue now, I have lived at my current address for 2 years, I finally have my dream job paying currently £18,000 a year but that will rise a lot as I become more experienced/qualify however the career I have, which followed a degree and a post graduate course, requires you to be able to say you have 'financial responsibility,' as a way of proving you are 'of good character'; from what I have seen that means to not be bankrupt or have been bankrupt but it is still a worry.

My question is, how can I find where these debts have been sold on to? I have no idea how much I owe, who to etc. and I need to figure it out and a way to sort it out. Do I need to use one of those debt reconciliation organisations, and if so, who would know about that?

Any advice you could offer would be seriously appreciated.

Many thanks.

Hi there,

Thanks for your message and welcome to the forum. I’d agree with Stuart – taking a look at your credit file is a good place to start. You can check Noddle for free, and see whether you have any CCJs against your name and what debts are still outstanding.

Once you’ve checked your credit file and have a better understanding of the situation, you’ll be able to take steps to deal with it. I’d suggest the next step would be to give us a call. We’ll be able to offer you free and impartial advice about how you can best deal with the debts, and recommend any ways we might be able to support you. You can find out more information and how to contact us here: http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou.aspx

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Laura

Former_StepChange_Laura

polycom wrote: »

ello ill try give you a quick history of whats been happening. I received a letter threatening a court claim from 'shoosmith solicitors' acting on behalf of '"Cabot financial" claiming i owed £2200 (or roughly around that amount). I was advised to send a CCA request which i did and i got a letter claiming it would take so many days to obtain the documents. Many a days passed and i never got any other letters assuming they couldn't find the documents. However, 11th January i received a court claim from shoosmith. I once again sent a CCA request to Cabot financial and a request made under the provisions of Civil Procedure Rule 31 .14 to shoeesmith. i received a letter back yesterday from shoosmith . ill try upload a photo of the letter(i cant figure out how to upload a photo) it says "Thank you for your letter dated 11 Jan 2016. We will ask our client to provide copies of the documents you have requested as soon as possible.
However please not that CPR part 15.4 makes no provision for the deadline for the filing of your defence to be extended as a result of your request made under part 31.14. We therefore expect you to file your defence within 29 days of service of the claim form failing which we will make a request for judgement in default to be entered against you."


I am at a loss on what to do. My partner and I are complete amatures when it comes to this and are clueless on where we begin to write a defence. We are unsure on what this debt relates to but are pretty sure it is SB and they cant provide the original agreement but they are stil going ahead with the claim?


Any help on what to do next would be most appreciative as i have to file my defence before the end of the month.
Thank you

Hi there,

Thanks for your message.

From your message and the wording of the letter you quote, I’m concerned that your creditor is currently in the process of taking action to issue a County Court judgment against you. If this is the case then it’s important that you stick to the timeframes they set out.

To respond to the CCJ claim you’ll need to fill in either the N9A form to admit the debt, or the N9B to defend it. There’s more information about completing your CCJ paperwork on our website: http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Whatyourcreditorscando/Courtaction/EnglandWalescourtaction/CCJ.aspx

I hope this helps, but please let me know if you have any questions.

Kind regards,
Laura