DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

January,

I feel your pain, one of my old accounts was with capital bank.

They could not locate my credit agreement, nor could they produce a recon, don't ask me why ?

It was assigned to 27 seperate debt collectors within the space of 3 years.
Saw everyone of them off with a letter telling them it was unenforcable, eventually it was sold to Cabot, got a letter from them on the Saturday, sent my letter on the Monday, got a responce on the Wednesday saying they were "looking into my complaint", the very next morning another letter apologising and saying the account had been returned to the original creditor.

Never heard from them again !!

This may be a daft question - but after 6 years will your debt become statute barred? Or does the fact you are sending unenforceable letters count as 'acknowledging' the debt, in which case does it just stay unenforceable forever?

It's probably obvious, but I can't quite get my head around whether, eventually, both pieces of legislation (CCA compliance and statute barred) will come into play for this type of debt.

sourcrates

January2015 wrote: »

27 :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

OMG - what am I letting myself in for

It was getting stupid to the point of farse, it really was.

Nearly every month someone new wrote to me, half of them I'd never heard of before, real small town, back street DCA's, doubt very much that would happen nowadays, I'm going back 8/9 years !!

sourcrates

January2015 wrote: »

This may be a daft question - but after 6 years will your debt become statute barred? Or does the fact you are sending unenforceable letters count as 'acknowledging' the debt, in which case does it just stay unenforceable forever?

It's probably obvious, but I can't quite get my head around whether, eventually, both pieces of legislation (CCA compliance and statute barred) will come into play for this type of debt.

It may of counted as acknowledgement yes, but more than 6 years has elapsed now, so it would defenatly be SB by now.

Still got the original letters saying it was unenforcable though, as you never know !!!

Coinmachine

I am approaching two years in on my DMP with 6 years to go on present payments. I will be in a position to increase my monthly payment by £30, which is split over 11 creditors so a small rise for each.

the smallest debt I owe is £952 which is for an overdraft with First Direct. i sit a better option to make the £30 increase which will take a few months off the eventual end date of the DMP or start saving that £30 extra for year by which time the overdraft will be around £660 with a view to seeing if they would accept an offer of £360 (£30 x 12) to settle.

Is it better long term to seek to pay off all of the debt rather than agreeing reduced payments, is one method seen as better than the other with a view to future credit scores etc.

[Deleted User]

Coinmachine ,I can't answer your query, sorry, but I'm sure someone will be along with some helpful advice soon:)

[Deleted User]

I'd be very grateful if someone who's been down the CCA route could advise me please.

My 2 main debts are MBNA credit cards. A company called LINK are now handling this, I assume the debts were sold on to them. Has anyone had any experience of them? Are they reasonably helpful?

Would you advise just sending the one letter to LINK with my £1 Postal Order to cover both accounts or should I send a separate request for each debt?

Thanks:beer:

Haribo1

Hi I'm a newbie. Just got off the pc having filled in my income and expenditure on SC and they have advised a dmp. First question is what do I do first? I suffer severe depression and psychosis so am dreading all the phone calls and letters I'm about to start getting. Any advice welcomed. 😊

January2015

Haribo1 wrote: »

Hi I'm a newbie. Just got off the pc having filled in my income and expenditure on SC and they have advised a dmp. First question is what do I do first? I suffer severe depression and psychosis so am dreading all the phone calls and letters I'm about to start getting. Any advice welcomed. ��

First of all well done on taking the first steps and secondly - don't panic. I know this is much easier said than done.

If you have online access to your creditor accounts, such as credit cards, I would message them through the online secure messaging system for each account. I would advise that you are seeking support through the debt charity Stepchange who have advised you move to a debt management plan. Advise you are in the early stages of the process with Stepchange and will keep them informed of your progress. Advise that you will make token payments of £1 for the next few months whilst the DMP is organised. Advise that you under a great deal of stress at the moment and formally request that all communication is done in writing and assure them you will respond to communication in a prompt manner. If you don't have access to online secure messaging for any of the accounts send them a letter.

This will immediately put your accounts on 30 days 'hold. During that time Stepchange will have moved things along.

Don't rush to pay more than £1 per month but make sure you pay each of them £1 - it shows goodwill and commitment towards your creditors. I would recommend at least 3 months of token payments whilst you build an emergency fund. Stepchange are used to this and will work with you - but it's your DMP so take as long as you need to get a decent emergency fund behind you as you will no longer have any access to credit.

If you have any debts with your main bank - get a new basic bank account asap. Stop any standing orders/direct debits for debt payments. Contact your priority debts, such as mortgage, rent, gas, electric etc. and request a new Direct Debit form is sent to you so that you can set up new direct debts when you have opened the new bank account. I wouldn't recommend using a bank switching service for moving direct debits etc - you only want to set up new DDs for the bills you want.

As soon as you have new bank details contact your employer and change the payment details for your salary payments. Do the same with any other regular payments paid into your bank account (if any).

I can't say it enough - don't panic. It will get easier from this point on and you will be amazed how smoothly it will go. I was in you exact position one year ago and it was the best thing we ever did. My favourite line is ...life is good...and it really is since we sorted out a DMP.

January2015

carbootcrazy wrote: »

I'd be very grateful if someone who's been down the CCA route could advise me please.

My 2 main debts are MBNA credit cards. A company called LINK are now handling this, I assume the debts were sold on to them. Has anyone had any experience of them? Are they reasonably helpful?

Would you advise just sending the one letter to LINK with my £1 Postal Order to cover both accounts or should I send a separate request for each debt?

Thanks:beer:

No idea really, but if it was me I would send two separate requests with 2 x £1 postal orders - just to be sure. I would post them in the same envelope though and send them recorded delivery.

If the accounts are in different names I would think you would need separate requests anyway.

January2015

Coinmachine wrote: »

I am approaching two years in on my DMP with 6 years to go on present payments. I will be in a position to increase my monthly payment by £30, which is split over 11 creditors so a small rise for each.

the smallest debt I owe is £952 which is for an overdraft with First Direct. i sit a better option to make the £30 increase which will take a few months off the eventual end date of the DMP or start saving that £30 extra for year by which time the overdraft will be around £660 with a view to seeing if they would accept an offer of £360 (£30 x 12) to settle.

Is it better long term to seek to pay off all of the debt rather than agreeing reduced payments, is one method seen as better than the other with a view to future credit scores etc.

If you are on a DMP your credit reference file is shot to pieces anyway. Regarding future credit scores it will only really start to clear/improve once each debt falls off after 6 years.

I, personally, would save the £30 per month with a view to making a full and final offer as you have described. If the debt is now with a DCA as opposed to the original creditor you are more likely to have some success (although nothing to same original creditor wouldn't negotiate as well).

Good luck with it all :beer: