Advice for a Newbie please.

Britlady

Hello Everyone,

I am a first time poster so I thought I would give you some brief information about my position first before I give you my S.O.A as it may affect how you advise me.

First of all I need to tell you I do NOT live in the U.K and I have lived abroad for around 3 years now. I have continued to pay my debt back since I been away but now I am not earning anywhere near as much as before and I can not continue to pay the minimum amounts any more.

When I realised I had a problem I done a search and found this forum which is great and if only I looked earlier as I can not believe how much savings I could of made in the past.

Here goes then!

S.O.A

Monthly Salary

Total 480 pounds

Outgoings

Rent 100

Electric 20

Food 80

Petrol 20

Phone 15

Satallite 5

Total outgoings = 240

Money left to pay debt = 240

Debt

Halifax Visa A.P.R 21.9% Balance 7550 (limit 9000)

Halifax loan A.P.R 8.3% Borrowed 8k over 84mths (have 42 months left 129 pound per month).

Barclaycard Visa A.P.R 21.9% Balance 3250 (limit 3300).

Barclaycard Visa A.P.R 21.9% Balance 2700 (limit 2800)

Yorkshire Loan A.P.R 8.5% Borrowed 10k over 60mths (have 18 months left 211 pound per month)

Total debt aprox. 23k

Have managed to pay in the past but now not able too only have around 240 pounds left a month. I am already late with my loan payments and my Halifax visa.

I have thought of asking Halifax and Yorkshire to recalculate my loans over a longer period to cut down on my payments is this the right thing to do? What are my best options? I prefer dealing with creditors myself by phone.

I can not get new credit cards for 0% balance transfers as I do not do not live in the U.K.

Is there anyway of stopping interest?

Thanks

angelavdavis

Please see the attached link to nationaldebtline. Its a letter asking them to take a fixed payment and freeze the interest.

I know you aren't living in the UK, but it would be worth completing an SOA and splitting your payments between the creditors and offering them a fixed amount every month.

They will initially refuse it, but continue making payments to them anyway. Usually they just freeze the interest and allow you to continue, very very rarely it goes to court, and the court (because you have been upfront about your SOA and have been making payments) just fix it to what you have been paying.

It won't stop them bugging you to pay up, but you just stick to your guns.

Effectively this is partially what CCCS, etc do on behalf of other people. The only difference here is that you aren't in debt crisis yet, so it would be worth following this line in the interim.

My advice anyway for what its worth!

Britlady

I have tried phoning Barclaycard to ask them to reduce the rate and I said I will transfer balance otherwise but they said no. If I send a letter it will take 6 weeks to get to the U.K from where I live.

If I just let it go to default is this not the easiest way for them to stop interest? It saves me trying to get through to them.

I have spent all day phoning the U.K to try and sort things out with my creditors and I have had no luck with any them mainly because I am getting passed from one person to another :mad: .

I phoned my Yorkshire branch to get the phone number for Yorkshire loan late payment department and I was put through to a call centre who give me a number to ring. I tried to get through to this number for 2hrs before I finally got through and then the guy told me this was the department for loan applications and he could not put me through to the right department and that I had to contact my Yorkshire branch :mad: ! What a bunch of idiots!

I have actually spent my day CHASING THEM to sort out ways to pay my debt back! No wonder they keep hassling people with phone calls as they do NOT listen when you contact them.

I will try again tomorrow and if I do not have any luck then I think they can come and find me. I will gve them my address though to make it easy for them and I will even pick them up at the airport if they phone me in advance. IDIOTS! :mad:

Lucy1982_2

Sounds like you've had a hard day.

What part of the world do you live in now? Is there anyway you can fax letters to them?

It's just an idea and it would be quicker.

Good luck

misspoppy

Hi

I'm sorry to hear that you are having such a bad time trying todo the right thing. I think it would be a good idea to contact national debt helpline as the poster above suggested. I presume that for some reason you are unable to increase your income and so these problems may continue for some time.

angelavdavis

I really think you should stick with the original plan - even if it takes six weeks to get there, but ensure you can track and prove delivery of the letter.

Britlady

Ok I have calmed down a bit and have looked at my situation again so please advise.

I got through to the Halifax loan department and I told them I can pay 20 pounds now and they agreed but they would not agree to give me a long term lower payment each month. What they said was I needed to phone them each month to pay what I can afford. I cpould only afford 20 pounds this month as they have put 67 pounds worth of charges on my account for late payment and for not pay the initial late payment charge.

Halifax credit card department though are just plain rude and threatening but I am going to pay a fixed amount each month although they do not agree but I think it seems advisable looking at other posts.

For my Barclaycard Visa and my Barclaycard Mastercard my brother has offered to balance transfer them to his credit card to as he will get 0% finance for 12 months. I am still not sure if this is wise to do?

My Yorkshire loan I will ask to recalculate the loan to put it over 5 years again and this will drop my payments to around 70 pounds a month, is this advised or NOT?

The above will help me considerably but how long will the Halifax loan accept these payments?

How long will it be before Halifax visa try to do something to me?

As I do not live in the U.K I am not to concerned about paying them pro-rata amounts as I will do what is the best for me not for them although they might not agree.

By doing it this way I will get 3 creditors off my back and then only have the Halifax to deal which I do not mind. To me the Halifax staff need some training on customer relations and customer service.

Please Please tell me if this sounds ok?

I am hoping this is only a temporary solution as I do have an asset which is worth around 15k but unfortunately I have been told I can not get the money from it until later next year. I can not use this asset as security either.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

angelavdavis

Well done for your progress so far.

Regardless of the success/failures with the creditors, please please put your agreement in writing - refer to the phone call and if they were not in agreement, simply repeat the offer in writing and attach your SOA so you can prove your income has changed.

The reason for this is that if it goes to court, you will have some proof that you have attempted to stay on top of your debts.

The companies will refuse your offer - most do, however if you persist, put it in writing and pay them regularly as promised, they tend not to progress - although it won't stop them selling the debt to a debt collection agency.

Payplan will advise you and act on your behalf if necessary. I don't normally advise people to contact payplan while they are fairly in control as really Payplan are aimed at people who are in debt crisis. They are a charity and have information here about people who live abroad but have UK debts. There is a contact number there for them. Good luck.

Britlady

Thanks Angelavdavis for your help.

The Halifax loan have only agreed for me to phone up every month and offer an amount and this is short term by the sounds of it but not sure how short term.

The Halifax visa is the biggest problem as they were not happy and were quite threatening which I do not take kindly too. I will try this one again and hopefully get a better operator.

With the Yorkshire loan I am hoping just to get a straight forward loan with them just recalculating my loan and putting it over 5 years.

My Barclaycards will be transferred to my brothers 0% credit card and this will safe me interest for year which I would like to think I will get paid off.

So basically is 3 creditors down and 2 more to go hopefully.

So really they is nothing to put in writing as agreed yet as I will only have to do this with Halifax which I am still working on.

Britlady

Hello Angelavdavis,

I decided to contact Payplan last night for some advice nad help as I was not getting anywhere with the Yorkshire loan in regards to them changing my loan period to drop my monthly payments. They have already passed it on to the collections department after only one late payment and when I asked about changing my loan at the loan department they told me I had to go through collections through a premium rate number.

I have contacted to Payplan to ask them to assist me with the Hlaifax and Yorkshire and will still transfer Barclaycard to my brothers 0% interest card for 1 year.

I am hoping Payplan can assist me in this soon as I am starting to get a bit worried about these payments now that I have missed.