Would appreciate some advice!

chibbi_2

Hi everyone,

Hoping I can pick your brains for a little while on my current situation. I've spent a while browsing but some questions are hard to put into words!

I got myself into a mess financially a few (8 or so) years ago.
I called all my creditors before things got really bad, explained my situation and that I may not be able to pay. I was told by almost all of them that as I was up to date with my payments, they would not help me. This seemed ridiculous as they always say 'call us if you are having any difficulty!)

Anyway.

Long story short, I was out of work and a home, and all my money went towards surviving at that point. I had to stop my payments as no-one seemed prepared to help me.

I've had my head stuck in the sand for a very long time but am now in a position to start recovering from that period.

I have a CCJ which is unsatisfied (2k) that reaches 6 years on Monday.

I have several loans and cards at Default which were initially defaulted in 2008 but there are various 'updated' dates on my file that I do not understand as I have not been in contact with any of them - does this mean any drop-off period restarted from the updated date, or the original default date?

What should I do?

I can begin to pay back some of these but maybe not at once. I don't want to open a can of worms by contacting these companies, but feel morally that as I got into this mess, I should get myself out of it.

I'd really appreciate any advice or opinions or thoughts you can give me.

Chibbi

longtermplanner

Defaults drop off your credit file after 6 years. Nothing after the default date will make any difference to this.

CCJs also drop off after 6 years.

Things dropping off your credit file doesn't mean that you don't owe the money or that the debt is statute barred. But if you haven't had any contact with them since then, they will also become statute barred.

You could reasonably ignore the lot of them from what you have written. Keeping the lid on the can of worms has a lot to recommend it.

If morally you want to settle them, then I suggest that you should wait until they drop off your credit file and at that point make a low full&final settlement offer. You can do this one by one as you have the money, not all at once. Don't do this before they have dropped off, you don't want the creditor deciding to go for a CCJ and restarting the 6 year clock.

If these F&F offers are accepted, the debts will not reappear on your credit file as this article explains: http://debtcamel.co.uk/ff-credit-record/

Given your history I would expect them to accept 10%. Make sure your letter says that you have been offered money by a relative if it will allow you to settle the debts, also that you do not accept they are legally enforceable as they are statute barred. Put WITHOUT PREJUDICE at the top of the letter in capitals, so it can never be produced by them in court.