Debt Advice Required

hugh1964

Good morning

Coming up on 4 years ago I finally admitted I had severe debt problems, the crux of the issues being revealed when my employment circumstances changed.

As a result, I ended up with 4 defaults and 2 AP's on my accounts, and a substantial strain on my marriage as I'm sure others have encountered.

In total I had 11 accounts totalling in the region of 60k of debt. In hindsight how I ever thought this was either acceptable or manageable is beyond me, but I was a very different person back then.

Fast forward 4 years and I've repaid circa 60% of that debt and now have 5 accounts remaining in the following:

2 accounts with DCA showing defaults in late 2011/early 2012.
2 accounts with Barclaycard showing AP on low interest
1 account with a finance company that had a balloon payment I couldn't meet. (This is a strange one, I make monthly payments but account is flagged as OK with no AP marker)

Long story short, things are on the up and with a fair wind all debt will be cleared in 2016. I'm managing this whole thing myself after some VERY bad experiences with both commercial and charity debt helpers, and I got most results by speaking with my debtors directly and being transparent with them.

I have a few questions though:

On my default accounts (those sold), these were for CC's. In both circumstances the agreements were taken out with one company, but the card provider changed prior to my difficulties, and I don't recall any new CCA. Would it be worth submitting a CCA request? In my position, what would/could this achieve?

On my AP accounts, I'm reading the AP can be more damaging than the default. Let me clarify that I have no intention of applying for new loans or CCs ever again, but I would like to move house, and with a growing family that might be sometime in 2017 (assuming I am debt free). So, from an AP relating to mortgage application perspective, what are my best options to put me in the best position for approval? (I get that this will not be a high street lender). Clear the debt in full ASAP? Ask Barclaycard to convert the CRA AP entries to a default around the same dates as above (is that even a thing)? What should I do here?

I should mention that I have had a mortgage for the duration of these issues with a flawless history if repayment. Any recommended mortgage specialists in this are would be a big help also.

Thanks for any help.

H

fermi

hugh1964 wrote: »

Long story short, things are on the up and with a fair wind all debt will be cleared in 2016. I'm managing this whole thing myself after some VERY bad experiences with both commercial and charity debt helpers, and I got most results by speaking with my debtors directly and being transparent with them.

When were those agreements/cards first taken out? Before or after April 2007?

CCA can give you extra leverage on lender/DCA to do a settlement, depending on what it turns up

hugh1964 wrote: »

On my AP accounts, I'm reading the AP can be more damaging than the default. Let me clarify that I have no intention of applying for new loans or CCs ever again, but I would like to move house, and with a growing family that might be sometime in 2017 (assuming I am debt free). So, from an AP relating to mortgage application perspective, what are my best options to put me in the best position for approval? (I get that this will not be a high street lender). Clear the debt in full ASAP? Ask Barclaycard to convert the CRA AP entries to a default around the same dates as above (is that even a thing)? What should I do here?

It is perhaps worth a go.

ICO advises this to it's case workers.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3172602

CRA Arrangements to pay - fairness of them registering a default

As stated in the old default guidance, where an arrangement to pay breaks down, a default may be filed when the total value of the arrears is equivalent to three monthly payments under the original terms. However, this should not result in the customer being placed in a worse position than someone who had made no effort to pay whatsoever.

Whether an individual has been left in a worse position or not is something that we will have to consider on a case by case basis. However where we feel that the arrangement to pay has left the individual in a worse position than someone who simply stopped paying, we would normally consider this to be unfair under the first principle and ask the lender to amend the default so that it was the same as if the individual had simply stopped making payments without entering the arrangement to pay.

hugh1964

Apologies for the delay in replying. All agreements were prior to 2007.

I haven't spoken to Barclaycard re converting the AP to a default instead, I'll speak to them at some point this week to see what the options are.

I have submitted CCA requests to the DCA's, one holding letter back so far effectively saying they will manage the dispute between myself and the CC company, I am still planning to make the payments I have been to date as I don't want the circumstance to get worse.

Finally, can anyone recommend where I should start looking or talking to to see what the mortgage situation will be? I had a look on uSwitch which have a bad credit list of lenders. YBS came top of the list with a ludicrously low rate which surely cannot be right. I don't want to probe any further with YBS at this stage as I don't want unnecessary searches at this stage, but have requested a callback so hopefully can discuss options with them.