Credit Card Debt

Behind

Hi

I have about £15,000 over 2 credit cards. This came about due to my costly divorce 6 years ago when i wasn't awarded what i thought i would be.

It has now got to the stage where i am struggling to meet monthly payments. I do want to clear the debt and was considering writing to them and offering to freeze the accounts and offer £100 to each card company per month until cleared. Am i wasting my time?

Thanks

CLAPTON

Behind wrote: »

Hi

I have about £15,000 over 2 credit cards. This came about due to my costly divorce 6 years ago when i wasn't awarded what i thought i would be.

It has now got to the stage where i am struggling to meet monthly payments. I do want to clear the debt and was considering writing to them and offering to freeze the accounts and offer £100 to each card company per month until cleared. Am i wasting my time?

Thanks

better to post on the debt free wannabe board
lots of support and advice there

fozmcfc

I would post on the debt free wanabee boards for more advice on this.

In general, yes you could do, but if they accept you, you'll end up with an arrangement to pay on your credit files, which will trash your credit status.

If they refuse, then your options are, either continue to pay more than the minimum or transfer the balance to a 0% balance transfer card, if you can get one.

The final option, would be to stop paying, which then means the card will go into default, in which case, they may be more likely to then accept a repayment plan. But if you do that, then again, your credit record will be trashed.

If you have a lot of debt, then a debt management plan may be better for you, using Payplan or Stepchange to assist you.

As I say, post on the debt free wanabee section of the forums, where you will find many with the same/similar problems.

John1993_2

You need to know that this is going to be marked as a default on your credit files, even if they accept it. This is something that you want to avoid.

Also, if £100 is less than your minimum payment, it'll never be cleared, the interest will keep outstripping your payments.

sourcrates

Hi,
How old are the creditcard debts ? do they originate prior to 2007 ? if so the agreements may be unenforceable, they may also not have the correct paperwork still in existence, if they are more recent then this will not apply.

Behind

Thanks for replies. 1 of the cards is from about 2004, that has about 9k on it and it's with Capital One.

Just abit unsure if where to go for help as quite a few too good to be true stories out there!

John1993_2

Behind wrote: »

Thanks for replies. 1 of the cards is from about 2004, that has about 9k on it and it's with Capital One.

Just abit unsure if where to go for help as quite a few too good to be true stories out there!

What sort of help are you looking for? You'll find great advice here about which order to tackle your debts in, how to make savings in living expenses, and how to get the debt onto as low an APR as possible, but your mentioning "too good to be true" hints that you want to find a way not to pay them back at all.

If that's the case then you are likely to be disappointed.

Behind

As I mentioned initially, I want to pay the debt off in full with minimal impact on credit file. The 'too good to be true' comment I made refers to these companies who claim to wipe out 70% of debt etc which I am not looking to do.