Huge debts for my position, want to know how to tackle it

kyza1m

Was young and got into debt up to the age of 21 roughly around £10,000. i'm now 25 and have no idea were to start. I earn 17k a year and have a pittance left after I have paid my bills. I have had no contact with any of my debts for min 3 years.

Any advice would be great, the older I am getting there more it is becoming a burden to me and I need a solution, I have a child on the way and I don't want to be in this position at 35 and still not be able to obtain credit in the future.

Thanks in advance!

paulindebt

Hi kyzalm, I think the first port of call for you is to get some professional advice. There are charity companies that you can find on this site that will help you. Get in contact with them, they are free and there to help you.

sourcrates

Hi,

Not a lot you can do if you've had no contact in 3 years

You could hope they stay quiet for another 3 years, and they become statute barred.

Are you actively been chased for these debts or not ?

National_Debtline

Hi

Your options depend on your circumstances. Potentially you could negotiate affordable repayments on your debts by yourself, use a free debt management company like Stepchange to help you make payment arrangements, or possibly use a form of insolvency to have the debts written off if you don’t have any assets to lose or any other good reason not to.

If you aren’t currently being contacted by a creditor or debt collection agency you could also wait to see what happens. For most types of credit debts if 6 years pass (5 in Scotland) without you making a payment, acknowledging the debt in writing or you don’t receive a court judgement the debt would become statute barred. This means it’s then unenforceable in court.

In terms of your credit file, the defaults will drop off after 6 years of originally being put on there regardless of whether you pay them or not. The only risk to future credit referencing is if you choose to not pay the debts and a creditor takes court action as you would then have a CCJ on your credit file for 6 years. Also, using an insolvency option such as going bankrupt or applying for a debt relief order would show for 6 years.

It’s a good idea to complete a statement of affairs initially so that you can see how much you could realistically afford to pay towards your debts if you went down that route.

James
@natdebtline


EDIT - Cross posted with sourcrates

kyza1m

1 has recently appeared I have never seen before Moriarty law apart from those I am not actively being chased by anyone as far as i know

sourcrates

kyza1m wrote: »

1 has recently appeared I have never seen before Moriarty law apart from those I am not actively being chased by anyone as far as i know

Difficult to advise if the creditors aren't writing to you.

I would suggest writing and asking for proof the debt exists, do this with anyone who writes to you about an outstanding account.

You could check your credit file, that will show who you owe money too in most cases, you would then need to decide weather to deal with all your debts together, or individually as and when they contact you.