Running away from debt....

jimmy900

Thanks.

I'll try and start setting something aside this is very good advice.

National_Debtline

hohum wrote: »

I was convinced I had a CCJ for non payment of council tax. There were plenty of reasons for me not to pay that debt -it was joint with my ex boyfriend, it was incurred because the benefit system assessed my student loan as income that should be supporting my unemployed partner, the system couldn't accommodate my weekly part time pay so it was probably worth appealing against. However when they got in contact with me a year or so after we split, I had the money and paid it off. It was the cost of freedom, and not having to think about that period or my ex regularly again. And recently when applying for a mortgage, turns out there was no record of a CCJ.

Council Tax is different from consumer debt, and will follow you around in a much more persistent way. However I do urge you to think through what potential decisions will cost you, not just in financial terms.

Bit of a tangent from Jimmy's original post, but I just wanted to point something out re: hohum's post further above.


Council tax debts never result in CCJs - they are enforced using a different process to civil debts such as bank loans and credit cards. The only way that council tax could conceivably affect your creditworthiness would be if the council were to make you bankrupt - extremely rare, not least of all because you would need to owe them a minimum of £5K.


Dennis
@natdebtline

enthusiasticsaver

That Noddle credit score is not too bad and if there is nothing showing re judgements etc you may be ok. I would build up some savings if you can in case they catch up with you.

On_my_way

I hope you're not serious.

I got into debt thanks to my youthful, exuberant ex boyfriend who put a lot of pressure on me to buy things. It has taken me 7 years to pay it back but I have.

Jo3y83

Can't be bad can it? Just ignore it. Why should you pay it back after all?!


Your attitude to this is appalling. Accept responsibility for the mistakes you make and pay back what you owe.

jimmy900

Having got the advice and information I needed I guess this will be my last post on the thread.

I'm aware my "won't pay" response was going to polarise but "can't pay" was where I began the running away back 12 years ago.

I've turned my life around and making a success of it, I have a young family and money is very tight but if legally forced to I could probably start to make repayments on these long ignored overdrafts but to initiate this myself right now would be quite stupid.

These mistakes are no longer affecting my credit record or my ability to obtain credit and thanks to advice and direction I've had here I have confirmed that, for now, they hold no power over me. I am following the advice above to start to make an emergency fund but will not be ringing DCA’s, mostly forgot which company was pursuing which debt, and asking to settle statute barred debts.

Thanks to all who have helped and sorry to all those who think I’m a terrible person, you're probably right.

If it makes any difference Jo3y83 I can tell you the past 12 years have been no picnic and it has taken me a lot of struggling to get through in life whilst having this debt behind me. Building from the bottom up, living on benefits, struggling to look for work in recession with young children, accepting all kinds of jobs just to put food on the table and using pre-pay and basic accounts due to past stupidity.

I accept I made mistakes when I was younger but for the record and for what it is worth, I have never left a utility company, council or landlord in the lurch with money owed - ever. Likewise I have never borrowed from a friend, family member or co-worker.

So thanks to all and sorry to those who feel let down by the choices I’ve made, I said on another thread recently how much I respect and admire those who take control and responsibility for their debt and I wish I had that strength 12 years ago. I do now and repay all my current debt obligations but the prospect of actively seeking to repay a statute barred debt not on my credit file just does not compute.

EssexHebridean

Whilst absolutely not defending Jimmy's stance on avoiding paying the debt back (My post at the start of the thread made that clear, I think!) I do think that this has given him a lot of food for thought, and by all accounts appears also to have changed his attitude towards it somewhat.

For anyone who reads his OP and thinks "that's a good plan" - then read his post above, also. As he says - 12 years running hasn't been enjoyable - in fact I would imagine that having just knuckled down and faced it would have been preferable - and that isn't just going to go away overnight of course, as he knows there is always the chance of getting a letter through the door, and having to go through the whole "it's statute barred" process on that. He's been left with an average credit score according to Noddle - I can't imagine the others will show things a lot differently, either, so that will continue to cause him problems for some time.

Perhaps the moral of the story here is if your "youthful exuberance" leads you to feel that your lifestyle, at someone else's expense, is a good way to proceed, then take note, it REALLY isn't. Pay your bills kids, and live within your means.

For now though, I'm not convinced that bashing the OP any further is going to achieve anything. It actually took a lot of courage to climb down from the brash stance in those first posts, IMO.

Vikipollard

As tempting as it is, I will avoid the morality angle.

Just to say, you said your debts were with three different banks. Be very careful to NEVER try to bank with any of them or their 'family' of banks. Their corporate memory is long.

I could be wrong but I believe it is possible that they could offset any monies you have in there against the debt if it was returned to them?

sourcrates

Vikipollard wrote: »

As tempting as it is, I will avoid the morality angle.

Just to say, you said your debts were with three different banks. Be very careful to NEVER try to bank with any of them or their 'family' of banks. Their corporate memory is long.

I could be wrong but I believe it is possible that they could offset any monies you have in there against the debt if it was returned to them?

Most banks only keep records for 6 years, as that's all there required to do.
Some keep up to 7 years, such as the Halifax.

Any longer than that I doubt records will still exist.