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nicola302

Anondebtadvisor wrote: »

nicola302 - if the IVA is your partners they wont be able to touch your redundancy money.

The reason he will not get a remortgage is due to the current market and he is in an insolvency.

Your husbands share of the equity is £21,000. £220,000 x 85% = £187,000 minus £145,000 divided by 2 (If jointly owned) = £21,000 equity

Thank you that has put my mind to rest a bit...

Anondebtadvisor

Try not to worry i am sure the IVA will be extended by 12 additional months - it is common practice as there are many people in the same position, with equity they cannot release in an IVA.

StepChange_James

nelson1601 wrote: »

Hi

I am looking for some advice. Many years ago I had a credit card with citicard. Aprox. 4 years ago I moved out of the marital home and filed for a divorce against my ex-wife. My payments to Citicard would be paid each month by direct debit automatically. As its a new year I wanted to try and sort out my finances and noticed that I have payments going out to a company called Opus? I immediately cancelled the direct debit and eventually received a phone call from a rather determined Opus member of staff. I asked just who Opus were and how they got my number but they simply responded saying they needed to run some security checks with me before speaking any further. I have never set up any security questions with them, contact ended. I decided to write to them giving them my full address in a bid to find out what was going on.

Needless to say they wrote back saying I owed approx £7k and were demanding a couple of missed months payments. Given the fact that I had no idea who they were I decided to write to them confirming that I would not pay a penny to them unless I receive a copy of the original credit agreement using a template from here. I sent a cheque for £1 and approx a month later said cheque had been cashed and I have today received from Opus an envelope which provides me with generic copies of letters they allege was sent to me in April 2010 informing me that my account had been transferred from Citi to CC Asset Management and a further copy generic letter that was apparently sent to me October 2010 saying account was now with Opus.

Having moved out of the marital home in November 2009 I received none of these letter and or the credit card/pin number they also allege was sent out.

Opus have sent me a copy of my executed Opus credit agreement under Sect.78 and they are stating that this document is in response to my request to constitute a true copy of the agreement. They go on to say the copy agreement does not include the signature box, signature or date of signature in accordance with Regulation 3(2)(b)(ii) of Consumer Credit (Cancellation Notices and Copies of Documents) Regulations 1983; as permitted by these regulations we are not required to provide them.

They confirm that they to date have been unsuccessful in obtaining the original document but will keep searching and will send on if found.

Their parting line is as we have confirmed that you have received the credit facility in relation to this agreement, you remain liable for the debt. You should continue to make you contractural payments in accordance with the terms of your agreement.

Apologies for the ramble but I don't believe this is enough to satisfy me that my debt is with them. Surely I am entitled to a copy of the original credit agreement I signed if they say they bought the debt? The reason I ask is the Opus interest rate is far higher than what I was paying with Citi and if I had been aware of the transfer then I would have transferred the balance to a 0% card.

Can anyone advise how I stand? and what I should do from here? Opus are continuing to add interest to the debt as well as late payment charges so each month the debt amount is increasing. I obviously don't want this to increase but in the same time want to be happy that I do actually owe this debt to them.

Help.....

Hi Nelson1601,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Disputing liability of debts isn't our area of specialism. I think it's fair enough to want proof that you actually owe money to this company.

I'd recommend copy and pasting your post onto the CAB board on MSE here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=241. They can give you more detailed advice and will hopefully be able to tell if you if the laws quoted by Opus in their letters are correct.

If it turns out that this debt is something you'll have to pay back and you'd like some advice on coming to an agreement then please get in touch with us and we'll do everything we can to help.

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

jgw123 wrote: »

Last year I entered into a voluntary agreement with my creditors (via debt advice at local council) to pay £300 per month towards paying off our 22k debt.

Allied International Credit (Tesco Loan) 5.5k, Aktiv Kapital (MBNA Credit Card) 4.8k, Metropolitan Collection Services 3.6k (HSBC Credit Card), Metropolitan Collection Services 3.6k (HSBC overdraft) and Santander Loan 4.3k.

I have been using pay day lenders to get by each month (1200 a month no arrears) and want to stop doing it. I have not paid the £300 last month and I don't want to each of the next three months to be able to stop relying on payday lenders.

Are the creditors likely to start adding interest again (when it had been frozen after agreeing a repayment) and how likely are they to obtain a court summons?

If they do take us to court how much are the likely costs I will have to pay for it going to court. Can they add interest on the court judgement?

If it is not likely to go to court immediately how long will they normally wait before proceeding to court (our previous debt advisor said it was high unlikely and would probably wait years before they pursued through the courts however the new advisor has suggested they might straight away).

I would be really grateful if you could offer any assistance on any of the matters I raised.

Thanks


J

Hi J,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Just to clarify, I'm assuming that you're currently paying £300 a month into something like a Debt Management Plan (you pay what you can afford every month until all the debt is repaid). If you're on an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) then ignore what I'm about to say and get in touch with your IVA provider straight away.

The first thing that seems clear is that the payment plan you're on can't be working that well if you're needing to use payday loans to support yourself.

The payday loans are the first thing to sort out. Firstly not taking out any more and secondly stopping the payments on your current loans to make sure that they can't take full payments from you.

We've a blogpost that will guide you through how to cancel the payments here: http://moneyaware.co.uk/2012/07/how-to-cancel-a-continuous-payment-authority-cpa-on-a-payday-loan/.

Once you've done that it'll be worth taking a look at your wider situation. If your DMP is with us then give us a call and request a review and explain what's going on.

If you're not currently a client of ours then get in touch with us and we'll go through your finances and give you advice about how best to manage things at the moment. You can do this online through our Debt Remedy (http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp) service or by calling our helpline (http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx).

Whether a creditor can charge interest on a county court judgment (CCJ) is a bit complicated. If the debt is under £5000, regulated by the Consumer Credit Act and there was nothing in the small print of the agreement to waive the right then interest can't be applied. Otherwise interest can be added.

If you've not been making full payments to your debts then your creditors may want to apply for a CCJ. Most would prefer to avoid using the courts to come to agreements over payments without involving the courts. If you've stopped paying all together and haven't been in touch with them then it probably increases the chances of them going through the courts.

Even paying as little as £1 per debt a month can discourage creditors from going for a CCJ. If you get in touch with us we'll help you plan a budget based on your current circumstances and talk you through the best way forward.

Hope this helps.

James

jgw123

Thank you James.

I got paid today and my repayment to the payday lender has been made in full.

I have arranged to speak to the council's money advice centre tomorrow about reducing the monthly repayment to my creditors and hopefully I won't need to use the payday lenders again.

Thank you for your advice and time.

J:)

StepChange_James

MarieC5575 wrote: »

First of all a big thank you to everyone on here, the support makes this whole process a lot easier to deal with.

I have a couple of times regarding setting up a DMP with Step Change and the help has been fantastic. There are just a couple of things I wanted to check before going any further.

My main worry is whether I should be on a DMP or DAS as I live in Scotland. James on here from Step Change advised to phone the help line which I have done and both people I spoke to advised to go on the DMP and if it's not suitable then to think about changing to a DAS. However before speaking to Step Change I had contacted a private debt advisory who advised a Trust Deed but I chose not to go down that road as I'd rather pay the debt off. They called last night to ask if I had changed my mind and I advised them that I had been in touch with Step Change and was in the process of setting up a DMP. Straight away he said that I shouldn't be on a DMP as this is the English system and that being in Scotland I should be on a DAS. As far as I am aware a DAS is a formal arrangement and a DMP is an informal arrangement - can anyone advise further?

I'd also like to know if I should take all the money I have out of my accounts with overdrafts and allow the bank to charge me while they are waiting to hear from Step Change, I'm worried that I'll be charged for charges and that this will mount up and I'll end up paying even more?

Lastly I've read on here that the process can be a bit rough in the first few weeks and I was wondering if anyone could advise me what to expect.

Again thanks for all the advice, it is much appreciated.

Hi,

If you could PM your reference number to StepChange Private Messages I'll pass your details onto one of our team in Glasgow to have a look at and get back to you.

Just to clarify something Anondebtadvisor said, DAS is formally supported by the Scottish government which means that interest and charges are guaranteed to be frozen and your creditors can't take legal action while it is running. However you are not legally binding on the person in debt - they can cancel the arrangement at any time.

Hope this helps.

James

StepChange_James

jgw123 wrote: »

Thank you James.

I got paid today and my repayment to the payday lender has been made in full.

I have arranged to speak to the council's money advice centre tomorrow about reducing the monthly repayment to my creditors and hopefully I won't need to use the payday lenders again.

Thank you for your advice and time.

J:)

That sounds like a good idea. There's no point being on a payment plan if the payments are too high for you to manage.

Kind regards

James

coolcait

StepChange_James wrote: »

Hi,

If you could PM your reference number to StepChange Private Messages I'll pass your details onto one of our team in Glasgow to have a look at and get back to you.

Just to clarify something Anondebtadvisor said, DAS is formally supported by the Scottish government which means that interest and charges are guaranteed to be frozen and your creditors can't take legal action while it is running. However you are not legally binding on the person in debt - they can cancel the arrangement at any time.

Hope this helps.

James

Sorry, but the BiB is not correct.

You can't just cancel your agreement to be in DAS. It is also legally binding on you.

If you break the conditions - like not paying - then it can be revoked.

If you sign a trust deed, or make yourself bankrupt, then it will be revoked.

If you wake up one morning, and think "I'd rather not be in DAS, I'll just cancel it", you're in for a disappointment.

Scarlett136

hi, yesterday I received 2 letters (both identical) from a company called Pace Forward. It is addressed to me at my current address. Looking at this forum I now know its a "fishing" letter so I will ignore it. However this has raised a couple of questions for me that I'd like some advice on... On checking my records (since March 2006 as this is as far back as I can find) I have been paying these and other creditors minimum amounts of £20 per month and I'm still paying them now, never defaulted on arrangement! Last lot of payments left my account Feb 2013, due again Mar 13... I also have investigated and assume the Pace Forward letter is in connection with Rockwell, one of my creditors... Can you confirm if my debts are either about to be written off or will have already been written off as its approaching/over 6 years? Wondering if this is why I've been sent this letter. We did move house last April 2012 and I did not notify all of my creditors as they were the reason why we left our own property and moved into rented and we were stressed to death with the threats of repossesion. I was about the apply for a copy of my credit ref file through experian but dont want to alert these idiots of my new address (we just dont want the stress). Sorry for long post but this is my first time on here and not quite sure if this is correct proceedure.. any advice would be welcome, thanks

Anondebtadvisor

Scarlett136 - I am afraid if you have been making payments to the creditors (however small) these debts will not be or about to be statute barred as you mention.

Debts can only beome statute barred if you have not made a payment or acknowledged the debt in any way for 6years