Should I stop paying the CCs?

goldenoldiegirl

Hi, I have decided to go BR and currently preparing for it. This is the first month I have not paid my CCs and I have just received a letter from my MBNA card requesting payment.

I'm not certain what I should do, should I ignore it and just not make any payments, or should I write to my creditors and make a payment? I have looked at the template letters on National Debtline website and there is one to ask for no action or interest for 30 days, should I use that?

egrescrimp

If you've made the decision togo bankrupt then theres little point paying them If you aren't comfortable with not paying them, make a token payment of £1 to each creditor until you've been to court.

I wouldn't tell your creditors that you plan to go bankrupt, that will only make them hound you more for the money.

You also don't even need to contact your creditors if you don't want to ignore their calls and letters, they can't do anything as you are going bankrupt anyway

Helpmeoutofthismess

goldenoldiegirl wrote: »

Hi, I have decided to go BR and currently preparing for it. This is the first month I have not paid my CCs and I have just received a letter from my MBNA card requesting payment.

I'm not certain what I should do, should I ignore it and just not make any payments, or should I write to my creditors and make a payment? I have looked at the template letters on National Debtline website and there is one to ask for no action or interest for 30 days, should I use that?

How long do you think it's going to take before you have got the fee together? it took me about 8 months to get the money together, in that time I received a lot of letters threatening this and that but not really doing anything. I unplugged my phone because it was the relentless calls that made me the most anxious, I don't really like speaking on the phone at the best of times!

It was a long 8 months but I didn't contact my creditors at all, I knew that if I spoke to them they would guilt trip me into paying them what little money I had.

Its up to you what you do but if you are going bankrupt soon you may as well just ride it out, it will be over soon enough.

H x

goldenoldiegirl

Thank you both so much for your reply.

I hope to have the fee ready by the end of May, so I have another couple of months of non-payment. I don't have a landline, only my mobile so I was thinking of only answering numbers I recognise - I too hate answering calls at the best of times, and the thought of speaking to creditors makes me feel ill!

Thanks again, I won't write any letters yet and just see how things go.

Helpmeoutofthismess

goldenoldiegirl wrote: »

Thank you both so much for your reply.

I hope to have the fee ready by the end of May, so I have another couple of months of non-payment. I don't have a landline, only my mobile so I was thinking of only answering numbers I recognise - I too hate answering calls at the best of times, and the thought of speaking to creditors makes me feel ill!

Thanks again, I won't write any letters yet and just see how things go.

I stopped calls coming through to my mobile by signing in to the online banking for my creditors and changing my number on there to a payg sim I bought for a £1 in tesco's, I then stuck the sim in the bin lol

H x

TheGardener

If you are certain you will go BR within the next couple of months there is no point paying any debt creditor CC's, overdrafts, loans(but do keep paying priority bills like rent and utilities for now) or as others have said - pay an equal token amount to all of them.

dancingfairy

Personally I can't see the harm in using the I'm asking for help from a debt charity letter. It might give you 30 days peace and quiet, on the other hand if you think it won't really matter and 1 month is much the same as 2 months and you feel strong enough to handle calls/just ignore them then save yourself the postage.
df
edit: there isn't much they can really do. They *could* take you to court and try and make you bankrupt or get a charge or something, but it's highly unlikely anything like that will actually happen in the next 2 months (yes, they will hint at it and threaten it, but to actually go through all the hoops, it's very unlikely).