advice and guidance needed with regards to debt

lucysugden

hi there,

So I've been struggling with debt for quite a few years and been burying my head in the sand. But ive admitted to my partner about how much i owe and starting to address it.
Currently i owe
£2703 in council tax arrears
£86 to akinika for scottish power
£147 to EE
£270 to Capquest for catalogue debt
£1790.63 to lowell for debt with JD williams Simplybe

the above are those that are defaulted on and most have passed to DCA.
I also have £1800 in overdrafts, £2000 on credit cards and £900 left on a career development loan, these have never been defaulted on and payments up to date.

I have approached the DCA's with settlement proposals. And i know that council tax should be a priority and i have a third party whos willing to help me, starting with council tax.

However i did receive a very quick response from lowell when i offered them £850 ( i started low so that hopefully the amount they will accept wont be too bad). There reply stated that they have recently offered a 40% discount on the debt meaning that they will accept £1074.38 for the £1790.63 debt. they say i can pay this by installments or in one go.

I really wasnt expecting a response within 24 hours. This debt doesnt show on my experian report or clearscore credit reports. Ive checked the age of the debt and it dates back to 2013/2014. I hadn't had contact from them for a few years but i think because I've updated my address and started trying to address my situation that they have found my new address.

so my question is specifically should i try to get lowell to accept my original offer, is this normal practice for them to suddenly offer 40% off. and why is this not showing on my credit report if they are chasing for it.

And any other general advice is very much appreciated. im currently waiting on responses from akinika and capquest about those debts. also EE have confirmed they wont budge on payment amount if i want it cleared from my credit report.

kink_bosslady

In regards to EE, they won't shift I am assuming due to it being an active account. The way it works is they have that outstanding amount on your credit file that hasn't defaulted yet and that is what they will want. It's very different process with active accounts... I am assuming it hasn't been defaulted yet? If it hasn't I would suggest you pay it in full as it will stop another default being registered against you.

In regards to discounts with debt companies they don't have to offer you anything, however in certain circumstances as an incentive to get you to pay or at least discuss it with them. I am sure anyone being sent a letter with that amount on would be more likely to respond if a portion of it has been taken off. I would suggest if you are wanting a further discount to contact them by phone, explain to them your situation. Provide them with the information you have above and they should be able to go through things with you.

Hiddenidenity

Don't pay lowell off yet. Stop and think.

Your council tax debt needs to be your priority this has serious consequences if you don't sort this. This must must be your first priority.

Next do a SOA. Make a realistic budget, stick to it, then see where you can cut it back.

If you feel it will help speak to one of the free debt charities. Don't pay for one.

But before paying any of the non priority debts you need to sort the council tax, either by clearing the arrears or coming to an arrangement.

kink_bosslady

That's a true statement. Priority bills are labelled priority for a reason! If you manage to get that all sorted into a plan and you still have funds left over to sort out other bits and bobs then look at the other bits. What I would suggest until you have sorted out the council tax dilemma is to contact the DCAs and advise them
About the priority bill issue and see if they can place the accounts on hold for a bit.

lucysugden

thanks for all the replies. The council tax will be getting paid off in full. My boyfriends family are going to help me out so that we can get my credit score up. So i am addressing that first.

the EE is old defaulted account from 2013/2014. I initially called EE/orange to find out which dca the debt had been sold to. But they told me that it had now been written off and the only way to clear it from my credit report was to pay them the £147.

the other DCA defaulted debts my third party are also going to help me with which is why im trying to get them to come to some sort of settlement so we can pay as little as possible.

after my initial offer of £850 they came off saying offering 40% discount which makes me think it make worth phoning them to ask for a settlement of maybe £900. explain further my situation that a third party is willing to pay £900 settlement so long as we have it in writing that they will not come after any further payments and it will mark it as satisfied on my credit account. although it currently doesn't show on any of my credit reports which i find a bit strange.

kink_bosslady

That with EE is a bit odd, I would have that checked. the info they have given sounds completely off. It wouldn't surprise me if they had sold on and maybe a dca has wrote it off? Does it show on your credit file as satisfied or outstanding balance? In regards to a discount it will show as partially satisfied never satisfied when a discount goes through

lucysugden

thanks it shows on credit file as outstanding

kink_bosslady

If it shows as outstanding it's definitely gone somewhere. If a balance is written off after a default it wouldn't show as outstanding it would show as satisfied

lucysugden

thanks kink_bosslady do you know any way to track it down, would experian know?

kink_bosslady

Experian should be able to advise where it's gone Hun

lucysugden

thank you,

experian seem to be having issues this morning so I'm not able to access my account i will try and call them and ask who has the debt