where to start

fishfinger1

So I have a week off work and finally decided to tackle my debt, im currently sat here with loads of letters from creditors stating that im in arrears and my accounts are to be defaulted, I just don't know where to start or what to do, I have £22000 of credit card debt, spread over 6 creditors the highest 2 with Barclaycard £5674 and £6809 the others are NatWest £2337 Yorkshire bank £1705 £nationwide 2007 and virgin £3776 I haven't paid the minimum payments on any of the cards for approx. 4 months been paying £2 to each of the barclaycards and about £30 each to the others, any help or guidance would be much appreciated

twiggy86

Hi FishFinger!

Coming on here is a good place to start! Normally people recommend posting an SOA so that you/we can see where your money is going and any potential areas that can be cut/reduced.

If you can't afford your repayments, a lot of people find StepChange very helpful so may be worth giving them a call, although I haven't dealt with them myself.

Good luck x

fishfinger1

twiggy86 wrote: »

Hi FishFinger!

Coming on here is a good place to start! Normally people recommend posting an SOA so that you/we can see where your money is going and any potential areas that can be cut/reduced.

If you can't afford your repayments, a lot of people find StepChange very helpful so may be worth giving them a call, although I haven't dealt with them myself.




Good luck x

Thanks for the reply im currently doing an online budget through national debtline so I will post it up as soon as ive finished

sourcrates

Hi fish finger,

Best thing you can do if have a look on the stepchange website.
They have an online "debt remedy tool", this will give you an idea of what your options are.
Don't worry about been defaulted, that's par for the course now.

You could write to your creditors explaining your situation, tell them you are consulting stepchange, they are obliged to give you 30 days grace before starting any recovery action.

As long as you keep them informed, little else will happen, until you have decided on a plan to tackle this.

Edit, National Debtline just as good !!

fishfinger1

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi fish finger,

Best thing you can do if have a look on the stepchange website.
They have an online "debt remedy tool", this will give you an idea of what your options are.
Don't worry about been defaulted, that's par for the course now.

You could write to your creditors explaining your situation, tell them you are consulting stepchange, they are obliged to give you 30 days grace before starting any recovery action.

As long as you keep them informed, little else will happen, until you have decided on a plan to tackle this.

Edit, National Debtline just as good !!

My main concern at the moment is being taken to court which I really do not want at all, im just so confused by it all and find myself going round in circles, ive nearly finished the budget tool on national debtline so I will post it up

blisteringblue

fishfinger1 wrote: »

My main concern at the moment is being taken to court which I really do not want at all, im just so confused by it all and find myself going round in circles, ive nearly finished the budget tool on national debtline so I will post it up

Not going to happen, if at all it will be a long way off. As long as you keep in touch and are paying something, even if the current £2 a month they will sell the debt to a DCA before taking you to court. If you are 4 months into token payments you are a good way to defaults anyway (this is good).

fishfinger1

blisteringblue wrote: »

Not going to happen, if at all it will be a long way off. As long as you keep in touch and are paying something, even if the current £2 a month they will sell the debt to a DCA before taking you to court. If you are 4 months into token payments you are a good way to defaults anyway (this is good).

I haven't been in touch with any of them, ive just been sending the payments that I can afford every month is it still unlikely they will take court action? can I ask why its good to be defaulted?

sourcrates

fishfinger1 wrote: »

I haven't been in touch with any of them, ive just been sending the payments that I can afford every month is it still unlikely they will take court action? can I ask why its good to be defaulted?

A default draws a line in the sand so to speak, you know that 6 years from that date, the default will be gone, paid or not.

Most creditors just pass on bad debts to DCA's for collection, debts can be passed around many DCA's sometimes, this process can take many months, even years.

When they get fed up, they sell the debt on to a specialist debt purchaser, such as Lowell, or Cabot, who then spend another 6-12 months trying to get you to pay, it's usually at this point when legal action can be a possibility, but usually only if you haven't paid, or made an arrangement to pay.

The system takes a long time to play out, nothing happens quickly with consumer debts, I would not panic if I were you.

rockabillygirl

Hi Fishfinger1, just wanted to say well done on taking the first step to tackling your debt. It can be very hard facing the reality, but you will feel so much better once a plan is in place to manage things. X

make_the_change

I too am at the start of my journey and it's very scary. But this board has been a life saver for me and if you have any questions, there are lots of people here to help and offer great advice. I also find posting on the thread about daily DFW things helps me stay focused and there are lovely people around to talk to should you be having a bad day. Good luck x

fishfinger1

sourcrates wrote: »

A default draws a line in the sand so to speak, you know that 6 years from that date, the default will be gone, paid or not.

Most creditors just pass on bad debts to DCA's for collection, debts can be passed around many DCA's sometimes, this process can take many months, even years.

When they get fed up, they sell the debt on to a specialist debt purchaser, such as Lowell, or Cabot, who then spend another 6-12 months trying to get you to pay, it's usually at this point when legal action can be a possibility, but usually only if you haven't paid, or made an arrangement to pay.

The system takes a long time to play out, nothing happens quickly with consumer debts, I would not panic if I were you.

so if I have received account termination letters does that mean I have been defaulted? how will I know if its been passed to a DCA im guessing I will receive a letter through the post, I have a letter from Natwest saying they require full payment within 14 days if they don't receive payment it will be passed for further recovery action, is that basically saying it will be passed to a DCA?