Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

StepChange_Allen

manue1970 wrote: »

Hello All

I am contacting you for some help.
I have debts up to 27k which are :
Barclay credit card: £13179
Natwest credit card : £5553
Natwest bank overdraft £6754
La Redoute £145
Freemans : £461
Next : £1107

I do not know what to do anymore to clear them, I have not defaulted on any and pay my mortgage on time.
I am thinking on going with a DMP but do I need to close my bank account down? I have also a mortgage with NatWest which is due for renewal in December 2019, Would this affect it? Will they charge me high interest rates?
My other question is that if I decide to close my personal account and transfer everything to my husband account which is with natwest as well, Could this be a risk for my husband?
Last question is , which DMP company to use?
Hope I am making sense with all this.
Many ThaNks

Thank You
Emmanuelle

Hi Emmanuelle

Thanks for posting.

In simple terms, if you can't maintain the minimum payments on your debts, or you can but they're not going down at all, it's likely you'd benefit from going into a debt solution. If you go into any debt solution, you're no longer paying the contractual payments, so your credit file will be affected by receiving defaults. These remain on there for 6 years.

This could certainly affect your re-mortgage; you may not get a new fixed rate or possibly face higher rates because you may be seen as a higher risk to lend to. It could be that you go onto the standard variable rate if no fixed deal is available.

In regards to banking, it depends on a number of things that we can discuss with you if you'd like to register with us. Things like whether you're overdrawn at the moment, who you bank with and so on. However, it's very likely that you can still have an account of your own so wouldn't need to use your husband's account.

Just to mention, a debt management plan (DMP) is one type of debt solution, but there are others too and we don't know what would be suitable for you at this stage.

We'd be more than happy to help you with your debts and we don't charge any fees for our advice. You can either complete our online Debt Remedy tool or call our Helpline; all details can be found here: www.stepchange.org/Contactus

I hope this is helpful.

Allen

StepChange_Allen

Robert666 wrote: »

Hi. I received a letter from Cabot Financial saying they had taken on my Providian Credit Card. To be honest I can't remember having one but went through a messy breakup back in 2004 where I was scrabbling for money. I thought I had all my debt sorted by 2008 but possibly I missed a card or a payment. I am loathe to contact them and confirm contact details as no doubt this will instigate a ream of letters etc. Any advice?

Hi Robert

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

If you haven't paid or acknowledged the debt in writing since 2008, then the debt could well be statute barred, which means legally unenforceable. Please have a read of this article on our website regarding this and what to do in this case: www.stepchange.org/debt-info/can-i-write-off-debt/statute-barred-debt

If it isn't statute barred, then I'd recommend calling them to find out more details of the debt and to confirm it's yours (you could possibly do this before the statute barred part if you definitely can't remember the debt). You can ask for a copy of the credit agreement for confirmation.

If it does turn out that you owe the money and you'd like some advice on dealing with it, you can register with us free of charge, details can be found here: www.stepchange.org/Contactus

I hope this helps.

Allen

Robert666

Thanks. The only thing this could refer to is a credit card. From what you said Im assuming its not enforceable? It could not be more than a couple of thousand and even then I dont think it would be that much. Should I contact them or not? I made arrangements with other debt collectors in the past and thougt they were all paid even if itnat a rate lower than the original debt but agreed on by the collection agency. I have new credit cards and credit since this but dont want something hanging over me..

tag30

Hi. thanks for taking the time to look at my dilemma......


Myself and my husband have acquired around £35000 credit card debt between us. Main reasons were being at uni, balance transfers - but not getting rid of the old cards - and having holidays we couldnt afford really.
We have quite a good combined income of around £70000 pa or £4000 a month and are committed to getting rid of this debt asap. We feel we'd rather have a really hard 2 years or so than 4 years of being a bit more comfortable. Ive been paying fixed amounts on the CC for a while but theyre not really moving much!



My main question is, what cards should i prioritise paying more onto? the higher interest ones with only £1000 on or the 18.9% ones with around £10,000? although we havent missed payments or technically have bad credit we are unable to get any further cards to balance transfer on with 0% due to affordability so we are paying interest on almost all of them:mad:. this may change once we chip away at some but need a plan for the short term too

I have tried creating a spreadsheet with formulas to help me solve this but have been unsuccessful.


any suggestions?
thanks again

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for getting back in contact.

It comes down to whether you believe it is statute barred or not, if you believe it's statute barred then you can send a letter to state this, which means they wouldn’t be able to chase the debt through court. If you contact them but the debt for some reason isn’t statute barred then they could rush it through the court to set a county court judgement (CCJ). Only you would know if you’ve made contact and acknowledged the debt within a six year time period.

Like Allen mentioned in the previous post you could ask for them to send you the original agreement to confirm the debt first. This is unlikely to count as acknowledgement of the debt as you’re asking for confirmation rather than confirming the debt is yours.

A creditor collecting for a debt would have to have the original agreement to be able to take further action to collect for it.

If you feel you’re struggling with the credit outstanding and want more in depth advice regarding finding a solution, including the possible statute barred debt then you can find our contact information here.

Thanks
Rachael

Robert666 wrote: »

Thanks. The only thing this could refer to is a credit card. From what you said Im assuming its not enforceable? It could not be more than a couple of thousand and even then I dont think it would be that much. Should I contact them or not? I made arrangements with other debt collectors in the past and thougt they were all paid even if itnat a rate lower than the original debt but agreed on by the collection agency. I have new credit cards and credit since this but dont want something hanging over me..

Lisamfinn

We are trying to get rid of our car which is on pcp. We have a loan and credit card that we are trying to clear as since having our baby we are struggling to make all payments. We have looked into selling our house to get debt free but We don’t think we would get another Moorgate as we have both reduced our hours. Is there anyway we can get out of pcp deal. We only have the car 4 months

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your message.

I appreciate it can be difficult and frustrating when you’re making a real effort to clear the debt but the interest rates are high and making it difficult. If you’re finding that the minimum payments are affordable without having to continue to use credit within the month and there is money left to pay the balance it might be a good idea to first target the higher interest ones. Once these are cleared concentrate on the lower interest rate ones. If you aim to pay more of the higher rates and these are cleared sooner it’ll lower the interest paid over all.

You’ve mentioned creating spread sheets which is a good step to understanding your finances. By creating an income and expenditure form it might also help to see where you can realistically cut back and what can be freed up towards the debt. As you mentioned, by bringing down the debt total and meeting the contractual payments this is likely to continue to improve your credit file and may mean in the future lower interest rate credit balance transfers are an option. There are some useful pages on the MSE forum about reducing interest rates.

You can use Debt Remedy to help you create a budget to help work out your income and expenditure. If at the end we’d recommend any alternative debt solutions these will also be available to view.

Hope this helps,
Rachael

tag30 wrote: »

Hi. thanks for taking the time to look at my dilemma......


Myself and my husband have acquired around £35000 credit card debt between us. Main reasons were being at uni, balance transfers - but not getting rid of the old cards - and having holidays we couldnt afford really.
We have quite a good combined income of around £70000 pa or £4000 a month and are committed to getting rid of this debt asap. We feel we'd rather have a really hard 2 years or so than 4 years of being a bit more comfortable. Ive been paying fixed amounts on the CC for a while but theyre not really moving much!



My main question is, what cards should i prioritise paying more onto? the higher interest ones with only £1000 on or the 18.9% ones with around £10,000? although we havent missed payments or technically have bad credit we are unable to get any further cards to balance transfer on with 0% due to affordability so we are paying interest on almost all of them:mad:. this may change once we chip away at some but need a plan for the short term too

I have tried creating a spreadsheet with formulas to help me solve this but have been unsuccessful.


any suggestions?
thanks again

Mint_Sauce

Hi

Newbie here, thankful for any support! We have an outstanding debt with Hitachi (via DFS). To give you a brief back story, my partner and I both had successful careers until 5 years ago. My partner had an accident requiring spinal surgery, rendering him disabled. He can no longer work and lives on an ill-health pension which isn't much given his 11 year stint with his previous employer. I care for him, working part time self-employed to bring in a bit of income. We only have enough to keep a roof over our heads. Our debts were dealt with through StepChange and we offered each creditor a token £1 a month until we can afford more.

Anyway. On 20th September, we received a Notice of Issue of Warrant of Control. The Creditor is now Cabot Financial. The very next day, I sent a completed N245 to the court named on the Notice (Boston) and a letter to Cabot explaining our situation. I have received a letter back from Cabot headed "For Your Information" thanking us for providing an update. Then, on 29th September, we received a second Notice of Issue of Warrant of Control for the same debt, naming the same creditor but this time from a different court (Southend).

Is this legal? I stated how vulnerable my partner is having tried to take his own life following his accident and subsequent depression. We have nothing of value that we can sell in order to pay off the debt, which is little over £1000. I am sending another N245 to Southend this time today, but I'm wondering whether I should be having to do this or not?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Booth0102

Hi, Due to a few missed payments I am stuck in the situation of being over run with debts my credit rating is to poor for a loan I already used a balance transfer card which I have now fallen behind on, I also lent my credit card (which I originally transferred the balance of) to my sister(she missed payments for the past 6 months due to work next month is starting to pay back I hope...) so now in my name it is around 7 grand of debt. I work full time and have the advantage of living at home with my mum but my monthly rent is £350 I am also a single mother so putting all my wages onto my credit cards each month isn't something I can do, there are to many separate debts for me to pay and all the credit cards are now over due I'm getting phone calls every day, I am literally stuck with around £200 spare a month but it won't take me back to my original balance on my card and I could do with paying of other debts that aren't over the limit with that £200 which is currently what I do, I've quit smoking to try and pay of more debts, but then parking tickets, nursery bills, car insurance and other things crop up so by quitting smoking i'm only just keeping my head above water... I'm trying to earn as much as I can but I haven't got the time for a second job (already tried this) I am also studying at college so I can be a qualified profession but I am also worried my debts will prevent me from getting the job I want so again this is another stress added on,
Any advise would be really useful.
Thank you

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your message.

I’m sorry to hear you and your partner are going through a difficult time, it can’t be helping with the added pressure of this debt.

Once a debt goes to a county court judgement (CCJ) the creditor can enforce further action to collect for the debt unless there is an affordable payment in place set by the court. As you sent the N245 back this should have been acknowledged by the court and an affordable payment put in place, even if this was as little as £1 a month as a token gesture.

A debt shouldn’t go through the court as a different judgement. Only one CCJ can be set per debt. I’d suggest contacting Cabot and the court explaining you’ve already dealt with this debt and make a complaint.

As long as the agreement the court sets in place from you sending in the N245 is maintained, then the creditor can’t use further action such as enforcement agents or an attachment of earnings to collect the debt.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Rachael

Mint_Sauce wrote: »

Hi

Newbie here, thankful for any support! We have an outstanding debt with Hitachi (via DFS). To give you a brief back story, my partner and I both had successful careers until 5 years ago. My partner had an accident requiring spinal surgery, rendering him disabled. He can no longer work and lives on an ill-health pension which isn't much given his 11 year stint with his previous employer. I care for him, working part time self-employed to bring in a bit of income. We only have enough to keep a roof over our heads. Our debts were dealt with through StepChange and we offered each creditor a token £1 a month until we can afford more.

Anyway. On 20th September, we received a Notice of Issue of Warrant of Control. The Creditor is now Cabot Financial. The very next day, I sent a completed N245 to the court named on the Notice (Boston) and a letter to Cabot explaining our situation. I have received a letter back from Cabot headed "For Your Information" thanking us for providing an update. Then, on 29th September, we received a second Notice of Issue of Warrant of Control for the same debt, naming the same creditor but this time from a different court (Southend).

Is this legal? I stated how vulnerable my partner is having tried to take his own life following his accident and subsequent depression. We have nothing of value that we can sell in order to pay off the debt, which is little over £1000. I am sending another N245 to Southend this time today, but I'm wondering whether I should be having to do this or not?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.