Debt amounts in DRO

haggis0073

hi everyone, asking on behalf of a friend, she is struggling to get hold of her CAB advisor so thought i would ask here in the mean time

Her DRO application has been semi filled out and she has the barcode ready to make payment, she was told she could exaggerate the amounts she owes to each of her creditors, so that if any interest etc gets added on in the mean time she will be covered, does this sound correct??

Also she is having huge problems with water company, she has had lots of different letters saying she owes £4000, then another letter saying she owes £600 etc, when she contacted them, all they said she owed was £1200. So the question is can she just put down say £6000 just to cover herself incase another water debt pops up down the line?

Hope that makes sense lol

Also on 2 of the debts showing on her credit report dont show the full account number/ref number, is that gonna be a problem also?

fatbelly

Where you cannot establish the exact amount owed, you are allowed to estimate it and that can allow for interest still to be added. Provided the debt is listed, the balance can be amended. But if you omit a debt completely it cannot be added later.

Similarly if you do not know a reference number it is ok to put not known (ref numbers are not passed on to creditors anyway).

Having said all that it is best to be accurate and water is one of those debts where you can actually owe a lot more than you imagined and over several accounts. A water authority may well argue that the debt you put on your DRO does not include a particular account. It would be well worth 5 minutes on the phone running through previous addresses to establish what you do owe.

haggis0073

cheers fatbelly and will let her know

just for my own curiosity.....is it the original creditors you add? or if its been sold on do you add the debt collectors details?

I never realised how more exact you have to be with DRO's over bankruptcy

fatbelly

Yes, that last point is quite important. Bankruptcy can be a better option if it's a case of 'I know there are a lot of debts out there but I can't get the details.

You need to put the present owners of the debt - that will usually be the organisation reporting to the credit reference agency.

Some dcas just work for the creditor whereas some are actually debt buyers and so become the new owner. Lowell and Cabot seem to be the biggest at the moment.

If you get that wrong it's not fatal to getting the debt written off but the email from the DRO Team will go to the wrong place and so the debt will keep getting pursued for a bit.