advice on old debts please

whistler114

Hello! Firstly I would like to say what an excellent site this is. I have spent hours searching the forums for people in situations similar to my own but as my debts are quite old, there is not much information available. Here's a run down:

- I am £25k in debt (Lloyds loan and overdraft, HSBC overdraft, Lloyds and Egg credit card).

- These debts are from my student days (my father died during my first year so I had to support myself while remaining at uni - banks offered me money when I had little income, I was desperate and the rest is history). I am now 25 years old.

- Interest was frozen when I defaulted in 2003. I sought advice from the CAB, I made offers of what I could afford but they were all rejected.

- I do not own a home, my excess income is around £100 a month, I currently have just under £600 to my name and I work full time.

- Lloyds put a CCJ on me in May 2006 for £11,000 but I haven't heard anything since then! (isn't this a little odd?)

- All of the other creditors sold their debts and they have all been sold on at least 3 times to various collection agencies. I have been receiving the usual threatening letters demanding payment and I replied to the first few but they just kept sending the same letters over and over so they went in the bin. The letters are becoming so infrequent that I'm beginning to think some of them may have forgotton about me!

- I'm not really concerned about this anymore, but I would like to clear them so I can get a mortgage sometime in the next few years.

- As the interest has been frozen and my credit rating is at rock bottom, the longer I leave it the less valuable the debt becomes.

So what is my best course of action here? I do not want to give them all of my excess income (£100 right now) every month for the next 30 odd years. Someone suggested filling out the bankruptcy forms and sending the creditors a copy along with a token payment to create a kind of "here's £200 each, take it and write the debt off or leave it and get nothing at all" situation. They will probably take offence to that won't they? Bankruptcy does seem to be the best option if they refuse.

I was thinking about doing a credit check on myself to see if all the debts are still there because I haven't heard from a few creditors for at least 2 years!

Floss

I would suggest that you obtain your credit record from one of the agencies.

You need to find the original paperwork (if you still have it) or at least work out a rough idea of how old each debt is, as this may be important.

A CCJ will stay on your credit record for 6 years from it's court date (i.e. 2006), even if satisfied.

Bankruptcy is a massive step.

whistler114

thanks for the reply Floss

I really want to avoid bankruptcy I don't want the I want the collection agengies to know that

what are my other options? I've read that 6 years after the default the debt becomes unenforceable. Is this true? I assume it remains on my credit file though? (which means no mortgage for me) or will they simply "go away" after 6 years?

I genuinely have no other way of paying back £25k with just £100 a month of excess income. Even if I negotiate them to say 50%, I'll still be paying them back for 10 years! And then I won't have any savings.

As it's gone this far I'm inclined to just carry on as I am. The longer it goes on, the less valuable the money becomes and hopefully they'll be more willing to accept a token payment.