Help needed - being pressurised to pay my Credit Card bill in full

Potsdamerplatz

Hello everyone,

I am hoping someone can give me some good advice over an old credit card bill which has come back to haunt me. I am now being chased for repayment of the whole balance.

For the past 2 years I have been paying £40 a month to the Clydesdale Bank for an old credit card. The present balance is £6340 and the monthly interest has been frozen as long as I keep up the payments which I have been doing.

Today I received a letter through the door from NCO - a debt collection agency. Apparently the Clydesdale Bank are no longer happy with this monthly payment and has assigned NCO to collect the balance in full.

The payment plan is reviewed by the Clydesdale Bank every 6 months and they have obviously decided not to renew it this time.

Fortunately I am in a position to resist payment (I hope):

1.) I stay with my parents and none of the property is in my name.
2.) I am at college and also receiving Income Support. I am not working so there are no wages to arrest.
3.) I have no other hard assets, such as a car which they can impound.
4.) My credit rating is trashed already so they can't use emotional blackmail as way of making me pay.

Can anyone advise on what best to do next?

I am really angry at the Clydesdale Bank. For the past 2 years I have been paying the agreed monthy sum without fail (sometimes at great financial hardship to myself). I was brought up to believe that if you rake up debts then you should repay them but now I am starting to wonder....

What do I have to lose by phoning up the Clydesdale Bank and NCO and telling them to take a running jump for their money?

What would be the consequences of this?

What can they do next if anything?

Thanks to everyone for reading this and hope someone can help with some good advice.

foxwales

You have borrowed the money and therefore you should pay it back.

They could legally take anything worth value that you own to recover the debt.

As you are on benefits it would be worth your while in constructing a financial statement which shows all your income and your expenditure, submit this to your creditors with a realistic amount that you can afford to repay them. If they reject the offer at the first stage (which is the usual practice) then resubmit it to them.

Take responsibility for your actions. Bad debtors are crippling this country slowly.

Megatimbo

Hello Potsdamerplatz,
First thing is not to panic over the NCO letter,these people are just trying to use scare tactics to increase your payments or get an unrealistic promise to pay the debt off.

Your circumstances are such that its probably all you can afford to pay the bank and unlike the previous reply you are paying back the debt,but i think its the speed the debt is reducing which is the problem to the bank.

Looks like they dont want to have the debt on their books and its probably going to be passed onto a DCA that will "purchase" your debt for a bargain price.

Even if it gets to court no judge in the land will force you to pay more than you can afford and the fact that you are paying the debt back is evidence enough.

I would seek advice from your local cab or a debt advice agency that doesnt charge you to sort it out.

Also ask the bank for a copy of your credit agreement for a £1 fee they are obliged to do this,and send it by recorded delivery (post permitting)

Also have you a record of the payments made to date and a letter saying the interest had been frozen etc.

Good luck regards M

madmalteaser

foxwales wrote: »

They could legally take anything worth value that you own to recover the debt.

foxwales, your comments are not exactly helpful. First of all what you have said in the quote above is entirely incorrect. Credit card debt is "flexible" debt and I have been reliably informed that, under no circumstances can a credit card company turn up on your door and start claiming your possessions in order to clear the debt.

Then you tell Potsdamerplatz that they should pay the money back. Is this not, in fact, what they are actually already doing? They have agreed to pay a fixed sum every month at the agreement of the credit card company, therefore I think this means they have every intention of paying the money back!

Your final sentence is, in my opinion, both rude and unhelpful. This person has already taken responsibility for their actions. Why are you saying this person is a bad debtor? At least they haven't ignored the debt entirely and have been paying it off for the last 2 years. Finally, I don't think it's bad debtors crippling this country - what about our government, the taxes and duties we pay on fuel, the lack of money being put into our education systems and the NHS, I think that has a far more devastating effect than those affected by debt.

foxwales

madmalteaser

Suggesting to simply ignore the debt and tell the creditors where to go is certainly not the way.

If the creditor passes the debt over to a debt collection agency, then yes they have a legal right to recover the debt by taking posessions.

And yes, they should pay the money back. It's called taking responsibility and regardless of the change of circumstances, a payment should be made towards the debt, even if it is a token offer.

And im not going to get embroiled in a political conversation with you. Irresponsible lending and bad debtors are crippling this countries economy. That's a fact.

m00m00

the debt collection agency has NO legal right to take possessions.

that right is only assigned to baliffs who are appointed by the court following a court order.

catw75

foxwales

No debt collection agency has any legal right to recover a credit card debt by taking possessions!

Only a County Court Bailiff could do so,and as Megatimbo stated, a judge would set an affordable payment rate for the debt if it went to court and the OP cooperated by providing info on their means to pay. Only if payments under a court order are not maintained, could the creditor ask the court to send bailiffs.

Sending NCO a financial statement with a reasonable offer, i.e. what the OP is currently paying, which actually sounds a large amount for someone on Income Support and probably more than a judge would order under the circumstances, will most likely mean that the matter goes no further as NCO will realise that court action will not help them recover the money faster.

Only if the OP ignores the situation and any consequent court action would bailiffs become involved. Of course, some debt collection agencies like to make people think that they have the powers of bailiffs i.e. to remove goods, but such threats are false and should be reported to Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading.

Dylanwing

I can only echo what the helpful posters have said. Prepare a statement of Income & Expenditure and sent it to both Clydesdale and the Sharks. You will get lots of threats, but I don't think they can actually do a lot without a Court Order, and as long as you keep communicating and are not hiding assets, that should not happen. It might be worth talking to CAB, see what they recommend. Good Luck! And I won't be blaming you for the collapse of the UK, Corporate Vultures, Tax Dodgers and shop assistants who chew gum whilst serving are doing that!

debtdestroyer_2

foxwales wrote: »

You have borrowed the money and therefore you should pay it back.

They could legally take anything worth value that you own to recover the debt.

As you are on benefits it would be worth your while in constructing a financial statement which shows all your income and your expenditure, submit this to your creditors with a realistic amount that you can afford to repay them. If they reject the offer at the first stage (which is the usual practice) then resubmit it to them.

Take responsibility for your actions. Bad debtors are crippling this country slowly.

You sir are a waste of bandwidth.

Let me tell you something for definite:

Baliffs can only have the right to force entry to a home if the debt has been subjet to an order from a magistrates (criminal) court.

In the case of credit card debt and court involvement would result in a CCJ (County court - civil). Baliffs have no right to force entry to a property to enforce this debt.

Aside from foxwales and his/her criminal misunderstanding of social-economic-political problems in the UK the rest is good advice.

inmypocketnottheirs

Some helpful advice here.

For what it is worth, here is my two pence worth.

If you have been making payments that have been agreed by your creditors than any court will throw out action brought against you under the Civil Procedures Act, see this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Procedure_Rules_1998

This act was largely brought about to prevent the scenario you are presenting, i.e. to prevent a court from litigants bringing action where defendants have attempted to resolve issues without going to court.

I would suggest that NCO are trying to bully you into paying more than you can afford. Just maintain your payments and prepare a standard letter saying that you are already paying more than you can afford. If they take you to court (not at all likely) then you stand much more than a fair chance that the case will be thrown out.

cm233lh

Dylanwing wrote: »

And I won't be blaming you for the collapse of the UK, Corporate Vultures, Tax Dodgers and shop assistants who chew gum whilst serving are doing that!

Some would argue that it's the taxes, not the tax dodgers that are crippling our economy. I'm with you on the chewing gum.