Debt collection agency?

fatbelly

Administration orders:

kim03 wrote:

To be able to apply you must have at least one County Court (or High Court) Judgement issued against; At least 2 creditors; and Your total debt must be less than £5,000

I have more then 2 creditors and my debt is under £5000 but i don't have a CCJ Can i still apply?

No, you can't get an administration order without a CCJ. So until/unless one arrives, the CCCS route looks favourite here, with the CAB an alternative possibility.

Let us know how this one works out. Best of luck.

Kimberley

Well your right i need at least one CCJ, so what i'm going to do is force one of my creditors to apply to the court for one. The rest i'll pay them £2.50 each a month so that the court can see i'm paying off something. The one i will not pay anymore money to is Littlewoods as they have said they will transfer my debt to a credit collector anyway. So i'll let them do that and i'll wait until the debt collecting agency applys to the court for non payments.

I will then give my case and ask for both the admin order and the Composition order.

I have no choice but to go through this route as yesterday my bank charged me for going over my overdraft limit..this happens every month and it's costing me a fortune.

fatbelly

Good plan! Especially going for the composition. For the uninitiated, that means the court will write the debt off after a certain proportion has been paid.

However, I bet it takes a long time for Littlewoods to send off for a CCJ. You'll still need to be under £5000 total at that time.

Kimberley

Well at the moment the total is £2250.67..so i should be safe..mind you the other 3 charge interest so if i only pay £2.50 a month to them the interest will add to my arrears..

Malestrom

You have to be very careful going down this route Kim03, its not unheard of for debt collection agencies to add on sufficient charges and interest to take you over the £5000 limit and prevent you from doing what you're intending to. As you say, you should be safe but I would agree with the earlier poster that a DMP through CCCS or National Debtline would be a much better idea. I hope it works out for you.

Kimberley

Yeah but going through the CCCs i will have to pay more then the £10 a month i can afford. Surely a debt collection agency cannot add on more then £2500 in charges can they?

Malestrom

If you go through the CCCS then you will have to work through a budget and they will see how much you can afford. They send you a pack first and it has the Income & Expenditure sheet in it so you can work your budget out. Inflate a couple of items to give yourself a bit more free cash if you feel you need to although my CCCS counsellor actually did this for me as she said I didn't have enough to live on!

There was a thread on this site some time ago where a debt collection agency had added over £2000 to a debt of £3000 to just take it over the £5000 limit, so yes, they can do it. I'm not saying they will but its a possibility.

Remember, you can arrange an interview with the CCCS and if you don't feel comfortable with their arrangement then you just walk away from it before they contact your creditors, no fee's at any stage. You do have to cover all your debts with a DMP, not just one or two.

Kimberley

Yeah ok i'll look into the CCCS..but this Littlewoods debt that is being put over to the debt collection agency is £700, so can they still add £4300 to it then? My total debt is £2500 with four catalogues you see..

Surely by law the debt collection agency cannot add thousands to a debt? Thats illegal surely

and surely if the court see's how much the debt agency have added they would just wipe that off..

Malestrom

Its total debts of less than £5000, thats the problem. You're current total debts are £2500. No, its unlikely that they will add a further £2500 to a £700 debt but these companies are leeches and you never know. Late payment charges, administration charges, interest - it all adds up. Also, you have to put up with all the phone calls that you will undoubtedly receive if you simply stop paying them, and these can be quite nasty sometimes.

If you did get into court before your debts went over £5000 then yes, more than likely the judge would wipe out most of the excess charges that had been applied but if your debt is over £5000 then you won't actually get into court in the first place, so the judge wouldn't be able to help you.

I wonder if its too late to contact Littlewoods and ask for a copy of your signed credit agreement (which they won't have). If they can't produce it then legally you don't have to pay them as you have no agreement with them. People here have been advised to write off catalogue debts like this before, perhaps someone else can post with more info as i'm not too sure on the details.

Kimberley

I've been told that with Littlewoods as i don't have a signed agreement then i don't have to pay them, but i have said this in a letter and they just said it's getting transferred to a debt agency, so i'd still have to pay them..I'll wait until i get the letter from the debt agency. As they wouldn't know about my other debts then all they will know about is my £700 with Littlewoods and like you say they wouldn't add thousands to a debt..

But yes i will call the CCCS tomorrow in the meantime