credit card and loan advice

mark_s

Around 10 years ago I lost my business meaning I couldn't keep up repayments on my debts. I made my last payment around 6 or 7 years ago and I've had no contact with any of the companies since. In this time I've moved a few times and had the odd phone call and letter from the finance companies. I had 4 cards on which I owed about 19K and a loan to the bank of also about 19k. I checked my credit score last night and found out that I had a ccj against me for one of the cards. I'm not in a position to make repayments for any of the debts at the moment but it would be nice to know of my situation with any of the companies I owe money to. Do they write a debt off after a certain amount of time? I don't want to contact them for risk that they start chasing me again. What can I do?

National_Debtline

Hi Mark


Debts will not be written off automatically, but it is possible for them to become statute barred. That means when the creditor runs out of time to collect the debt, giving you grounds to defend a court claim.


For a credit card or unsecured loan, they will become statute barred once there has been 6 years (from when court action could have been taken) where no payments have been made towards the debt, you have not acknowledged it in writing and court papers have not been issued.


Some of your debts may already be statute barred, but if a CCJ was obtained for the credit card within 6 years of the date court action could have been taken, it will not be. It's best not to contact a creditor unless you are confident the debt is definitely statute barred, but be aware correspondence could be going to an old address.


I'd recommend contacting one of the free debt advice agencies to talk through your options in more detail.


Best wishes


Susie
@natdebtline