Some advice please

VacantExpression

Hi,

I've decided to get my act together and sort my debts out and improve my dreadful creditscore, which I've pretty much ignored since 2010 when my life was in a bad place. Sorry for the long post but hopefully someone will be able to offer some advice.

I've owe money to several creditors and that includes a DCA - Lowells who I have been writing to me and who I asked to prove a catalogue debt. They sent a cca but wasn't very clear but I suspect it was from an account started in 2008. Either way I realise I need to take responsibility for it.

I owe the following (based on my credit file and letters)

£1100 - catalogue - Lowells (no payments since 2010)
£534 - old mobile - Lowells (recently got letter from lowells about this)
£1154 - cc - Capital one (figure based on default amount and no payments since 2010 I think)
£172 - Bank - Lloyds TSB (think old overdraft)
£2379 - cc - Sygma (this is in good standing no defaults, pay £77 p/m)

(The CC with Sygma is the one debt I have been paying without fail by DD and its not in default at all!)

I wrote to Lowells a few months ago to ask if they would accept an offer of £600 on the catalogue debt and refused. Now with the additional £534 for the mobile debt I want to clear this sooner rather than later. I have £150 p/m I can spare for this. How would I go about writing to them to clear this?

Any other advice please?

Many thanks

[Deleted User]

Any APRs for any of this?

VacantExpression

APR.. sorry?

EDIT: Sorry did you mean APR as in interest rates? In which case I don't know.

Tixy

What is the current situation with the capital one and lloyds debt? are you currently being chased for these? by the banks or by debt collectors?

Sygma - is the £77 you minimum payment? what is the APR on this card (it will be on your statement) - and are you still spending on the card?

If the sygma card has a high APR then you want to be trying to increase the payment to it.
If you agree with the amounts owed to lowells then I would write to lowells for each of those 2 debts to offer low monthly payments.

VacantExpression

Tixy wrote: »

What is the current situation with the capital one and lloyds debt? are you currently being chased for these? by the banks or by debt collectors?

Not that I am aware of. I know I've been stupid ignoring them and not paying. As I have moved a few times since, no statements or anything.

Tixy wrote: »

Sygma - is the £77 you minimum payment? what is the APR on this card (it will be on your statement) - and are you still spending on the card?

If the sygma card has a high APR then you want to be trying to increase the payment to it.
If you agree with the amounts owed to lowells then I would write to lowells for each of those 2 debts to offer low monthly payments.

Yes this is the min payment and recently went down from £82 on the DD. I don't have a statement to hand as moved house and need to update address. I plan to up the payment to £85 as that prob the most I can afford at the moment. No spending as chopped card up 2 years ago and they didn't send a new one.

I hate to admit it but yes I probably do agree with them. What would you suggest as a payment? I have £150 I can put towards this? Is there a template I can use.

Many thanks

[Deleted User]

VacantExpression wrote: »

Sorry did you mean APR as in interest rates?

Yes I did. APR is Annual Percentage Rate.

In which case I don't know.

Might be an idea to find out, so you know which one(s) to pay the most on.

Hudson1984

do you still have the £600 that you offered the catelogue company?

I assume these are up to date default amounts? if not I would request up to date settlement figures for each and ask to be supplied with a payment plan at as low payment per month as possible and go from there

Tixy

VacantExpression wrote: »

I hate to admit it but yes I probably do agree with them. What would you suggest as a payment? I have £150 I can put towards this? Is there a template I can use.

Many thanks

My guess is that your sygma card has a high APR and your debts with debt collectors are probably not charging interest. So I'd personally use a chunk of that £150 towards the credit card debt, and offer less to the debt collectors.

You can find template letters for offering reduced payments at national debtline website (some suggest sending an income & expenditure account - don't do this for debt collectors).

In total you seem to owe £5340, and can afford £150 a month plus the £80 to sygma, so £230 in total. If you split this fairly between your creditors (based on the balances) you offer

£1100 - catalogue £47
£534 - old mobile - £23
£1154 - cc - Capital one £50
£172 - Bank - Lloyds TSB £7
£2379 - cc - Sygma £103

However as a starting offer you could maybe try

£1100 - catalogue £30
£534 - old mobile - £15

which would leave you more to put to the sygma card.

VacantExpression

Hudson1984 wrote: »

do you still have the £600 that you offered the catelogue company?

I assume these are up to date default amounts? if not I would request up to date settlement figures for each and ask to be supplied with a payment plan at as low payment per month as possible and go from there

Unfortunately no as I had to use this towards getting our car repaired after a gearbox issue.

I got the amounts from lowells letters and credit report site.

VacantExpression

Tixy wrote: »

My guess is that your sygma card has a high APR and your debts with debt collectors are probably not charging interest. So I'd personally use a chunk of that £150 towards the credit card debt, and offer less to the debt collectors.

You can find template letters for offering reduced payments at national debtline website (some suggest sending an income & expenditure account - don't do this for debt collectors).

In total you seem to owe £5340, and can afford £150 a month plus the £80 to sygma, so £230 in total. If you split this fairly between your creditors (based on the balances) you offer

£1100 - catalogue £47
£534 - old mobile - £23
£1154 - cc - Capital one £50
£172 - Bank - Lloyds TSB £7
£2379 - cc - Sygma £103

However as a starting offer you could maybe try

£1100 - catalogue £30
£534 - old mobile - £15

which would leave you more to put to the sygma card.

Thank you for the advice, I'll have a look at the debtline website for the templates and put an offer letter together.