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StepChange_James

Scarlett136 wrote: »

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

Hi Scarlett,

As Anondebtadvisor has said, if you're making regular payments on your debts then they are enforceable. It's only six years have passed without any payment at all that this becomes an issue.

With this in mind, I suspect this debt changing hands is just part of the standard debt collection procedure.

I'd recommend letting your creditors know your current address and also getting an up to date copy of your credit report (you can get one for free using www.noddle.co.uk).

It's better to have accurate address details held by your creditors as you'll then know what they're up to and be able to deal with them better. I'd also recommend you check the court judgments section of your credit report to make sure you've not got any CCJs that you don't know about.

I completely understand the worry getting back in touch with debts will cause, but when I've spoken to people in similar situations in the past they tend to feel a lot better once they're back in contact with their debts.

When you've got a bit more information about where you stand with these debts I'd recommend getting in touch with us for advice. We can talk you through the options and give you all the support you need to get on top of things.

You can do this online using our Debt Remedy tool (http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp) or by giving us a call (http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx).

Kind regards

James

unclepotter

Hello

The question(s)I ask is regarding my stepson who is in a bit of financial difficulty.
He has 7 payments left on car finance and is struggling to meet them,he also has mobile phone contracts that he is defaulting on.

He tried to get a personal loan with the Post Office for £2k but was turned and he also visited the local credit union in Lincoln where he lives but all they offered him was £300.
They only loan they can get is a whopping 62%...He doesn't know what to do,he can't manage without the car as he needs it for work and has 3 children under 6 years old..
Any advice would be very welcome

Phil.

StepChange_James

unclepotter wrote: »

Hello

The question(s)I ask is regarding my stepson who is in a bit of financial difficulty.
He has 7 payments left on car finance and is struggling to meet them,he also has mobile phone contracts that he is defaulting on.

He tried to get a personal loan with the Post Office for £2k but was turned and he also visited the local credit union in Lincoln where he lives but all they offered him was £300.
They only loan they can get is a whopping 62%...He doesn't know what to do,he can't manage without the car as he needs it for work and has 3 children under 6 years old..
Any advice would be very welcome

Phil.

Hi Phil,

It sounds to me like your step-son might be better offering lower payments towards these debts. This is likely to be a better option than taking out a loan at a whopping interest rate.

Generally creditors are willing to be flexible on payments if they can see that the person is having a tough time affording the full amount and they're offering a reasonable figure.

So putting together an income and expenditure budget and offering a lower payment can be a way to get things more manageable. Many creditors will freeze interest and charges in these situations.

With the car finances, I'd recommend looking into what kind of finance agreement it is. Does the lender have the right to take the car if payments are not maintained? If so, then that debt is a higher priority than the phone contracts. If not it can be treated as of similar importance.

I'm not sure if any or all of the phone contracts are still running. If payments have been missed then the phone service may have been shut down. If so then it's a matter of treating the outstanding bill as a debt and perhaps using a cheap pay as you go SIM.

If your step-son still has some of these phones then he could perhaps sell them to help with the situation. I don't know enough about his finances to say for sure, but it's worth giving some thought.

I'd recommend that he gets in touch for some more in depth advice. We can help him try to get the debts to be a bit more manageable. This can be done online using our debt remedy tool (http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp) or by giving us a call (http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx).

Hope this helps.

James

unclepotter

Thank you James,

I shall forward your reply and website address to him so he can get in touch and supply a more in depth account of his finances.
We live in Sheffield and him in Lincoln so email and telephoning him is the best option for us.

Regards

Phil.

Scarlett136

Anondebtadvisor wrote: »

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

Thanks for explaining, i'll contact them
Scarlett136

Scarlett136

Thank u James, appreciate your advice and will continue to pay as im doing.
Scarlett136

onyablue

have started the first step to getting my debt in order have done my stepchange SOA and hopefully can now sleep at night

StepChange_James

onyablue wrote: »

have started the first step to getting my debt in order have done my stepchange SOA and hopefully can now sleep at night

Great news! Congratulations on taking the first step on the journey to becoming debt free.

Good luck!

James

Jo1507

Hi,
I have recently cleared all of my debts :j I did so using a debt management company so also ended up paying a lower amount on a loan that I had 6 years ago. The loan that I took out also included PPI which I wasn't aware of at the time so I think I am entitled to reclaim the PPI that was included but my debt management company has advised me not to put a claim in as the bank will argue that they have given me a reduced settlement figure so that will cover any PPI that I could claim. Just looking for some advise as to whether I should bother pursuing it or just be happy that I am finally debt free???

mum2one

onyablue wrote: »

have started the first step to getting my debt in order have done my stepchange SOA and hopefully can now sleep at night

Sounds dact saying congratulations, but your on a new start to your life and one where every penny is making a difference xx