Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

ConfusedMiss

Hello

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

Joint debts become 'completely' statute barred when neither party has made a payment to the debt for a period of 6 years at any stage, and also when neither of you have acknowledged the debt in writing during that period either. If your ex-partner acknowledged the debt in writing before 6 years elapsed, but didn't make a payment, the debt would be statute barred to you. In other words, the creditor wouldn't be able to take legal action against you, but could against him.

So in the scenario where you've had no contact with your ex in 9 years I'm guessing you may not know if he's done anything with the debt in all that time. You can write to the creditor claiming the debt is statute barred (I'd suggest using a template letter - we can provide one if you wish) and if he had paid it to stop it becoming statute barred they'd have to show you the evidence of that.

I hope this makes sense, please let us know if we can help further.

Allen




Hi Allen,


I followed your advice; downloaded and completed the template letter, sent it recorded delivery and received 4 letters today to say that the debts were statute-barred and that there would be no further attempt at recovery. To say that I am relieved is an understatement!


I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to reply to me and give me the advice you did.

StepChange_Allen

ConfusedMiss wrote: »

Hi Allen,

I followed your advice; downloaded and completed the template letter, sent it recorded delivery and received 4 letters today to say that the debts were statute-barred and that there would be no further attempt at recovery. To say that I am relieved is an understatement!

I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to reply to me and give me the advice you did.

Hello

Thanks for posting this.

I'm really happy that my advice worked for you and that it's given you so much relief, what great news. It's kind of you to come back on here to say thank you.

Good luck with everything in the future.

Allen

curtley99

Hi

I'd be grateful for your advice on the following:

I have agreed what I believe to be a full and final settlement payment with Tesco (re. an old credit card). The letter I have received states "settlement" but does not say "partial" or "full" or "final" settlement. My debt is over 6 years old, so I am not worried whether it is considered partial or full, however what I don't want to do is to pay the agreed figure and then find they try to recover the balance at any time in the future. I rang Tesco and asked if they would re-send the letter adding the word "final" but they advised that it was a standard template and therefore were not able to. They did confirm verbally that this is considered final

The calls are all recorded (apparently), but I don't have a recording so it's not something I can rely on

please advise, I am keen to get this paid and forgotten about!

Lolz_2

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice please. I have £5,580 in debt spread across 3 credit cards. I am now at the point where 2 out of my 3 cards my 0% periods have finished so I am paying interest and hardly paying off the balance, and the last card will finish it's 0% in April. I would like to consolidate this into one payment with a set interest rate (as low as possible) I am thinking that as this is too high to shift all of the debt to another credit card so will need to take out a loan.

If you agree that this is the best way forward, would I be better getting a loan from the bank or one that I have identified as a strong chance through the eligibility checker on this website?

I hope that you can give me some much needed advice please so I can get this paid off and debt free as soon as possible.

With thanks in advance,

Lara

Former_StepChange_Richard

curtley99 wrote: »

Hi

I'd be grateful for your advice on the following:

I have agreed what I believe to be a full and final settlement payment with Tesco (re. an old credit card). The letter I have received states "settlement" but does not say "partial" or "full" or "final" settlement. My debt is over 6 years old, so I am not worried whether it is considered partial or full, however what I don't want to do is to pay the agreed figure and then find they try to recover the balance at any time in the future. I rang Tesco and asked if they would re-send the letter adding the word "final" but they advised that it was a standard template and therefore were not able to. They did confirm verbally that this is considered final

The calls are all recorded (apparently), but I don't have a recording so it's not something I can rely on

please advise, I am keen to get this paid and forgotten about!

Hi there

Thanks for your post.

You're right to question this as it can be the case that creditors will sometimes pursue the remainder of a debt after a settlement offer is agreed. To be sure, try and get in writing that the settlement is full and final or, get them to confirm in writing that they will not pursue you for the outstanding balance. You could reply with your own letter that states this and ask them to confirm in writing that they agree before you make your payment.

Let us know if you need any further help.

Richard.

Former_StepChange_Richard

Lolz wrote: »

Hello,

I'm looking for some advice please. I have £5,580 in debt spread across 3 credit cards. I am now at the point where 2 out of my 3 cards my 0% periods have finished so I am paying interest and hardly paying off the balance, and the last card will finish it's 0% in April. I would like to consolidate this into one payment with a set interest rate (as low as possible) I am thinking that as this is too high to shift all of the debt to another credit card so will need to take out a loan.

If you agree that this is the best way forward, would I be better getting a loan from the bank or one that I have identified as a strong chance through the eligibility checker on this website?

I hope that you can give me some much needed advice please so I can get this paid off and debt free as soon as possible.

With thanks in advance,

Lara

Hi Lara

Thanks for your message.

Consolidation loans are not something we recommend to help people with their debts. There's two main reasons for this; first is that they are a big risk. If for any reason you become unable to pay the loan as agreed, you will have more debt to pay back than you started with at an unaffordable rate. Secondly is that it is a big risk, for the lenders. It's because of this that consolidation loans are hard to come by and these days they are usually very expensive.

The better method is to review your own budget and look at what you can afford to pay. If you can afford to pay these credit cards once the 0% interest rates end, do this and if possible, pay extra to bring them down as fast as possible.

If you're not able to pay your minimum payments on these cards then you can use our free advice service to look at the best ways to deal with your situation. A good starting place is to use our Debt Remedy tool on our website. This will help you to build a budget and identify if you can afford your credit cards. If you can't afford them, the website will then give you advice on the best ways to deal with them.

I hope this helps.

Richard

Lolz_2

Hi Richard,

Thank you for coming back to me and for clarifying that a loan would not be the best option. Do you think trying to do a balance transfer to another 0% card and then getting rid of the previous card or cards (depending on the amount I can transfer to a new card) would help to make a saving or do you think that as this would likely be rejected as 4th card at the time of application?

Many thanks
Lara

curtley99

I've just noticed that on their letter it also states that they will close my account and contact the credit agencies to amend my file"... and

" this will show that the debt has been partially satisfied and that no further monies are due"

would you consider this to be sufficient?

thanks

Former_StepChange_Richard

Lolz wrote: »

Hi Richard,

Thank you for coming back to me and for clarifying that a loan would not be the best option. Do you think trying to do a balance transfer to another 0% card and then getting rid of the previous card or cards (depending on the amount I can transfer to a new card) would help to make a saving or do you think that as this would likely be rejected as 4th card at the time of application?

Many thanks
Lara

Hi Lara,

I can't say for sure about the liklihood of you being accepted for a credit card unforunately, as I'm sure you know, creditors will decide on each application individually.

If you were to do this it would offer you a longer period without having to pay the interest, but this doesn't solve the problem of having to pay the debt back. There may also be the tempatation to use the credit cards again.

Try using our Debt Remedy tool to see what options you have available and to find out what you can afford to pay back towards your debts. From here, you'll know if you can afford to pay your creditors what they want, of if you need help with your situaiton. If you do need help, the Debt Remedy tool will suggest the best action to take.

Hope this helps.

Richard.

Former_StepChange_Richard

curtley99 wrote: »

I've just noticed that on their letter it also states that they will close my account and contact the credit agencies to amend my file"... and

" this will show that the debt has been partially satisfied and that no further monies are due"

would you consider this to be sufficient?

thanks

Hi there

I would ideally like it state the terms as we discuss before, but by them saying "no further monies are due", this implies that you are not expected to make any further payments.

I would try once more to get them to confirm in writing as we mentioned previously, but if you feel happy with this it's up to you to proceed.

Richard.