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What happens if I don't pay?

124

Comments

  • !!! wrote: »
    Post a SOA on the Debt-Free WannaBe board.

    Cut your outgoings, reduce TV packages and phone packages etc and throw more money at the problems instead
    I have already done this


    nic_c wrote: »
    Assuming you stop paying the Credit Cards. You would default, marked on your credit file for 6 years. It may get sold to a Debt Collection Agency, who after inundating you with letters that you ignore could apply for a CCJ before the 6 years is up, which goes on your credit file for another six years.

    Maybe upto 12 years of bad credit doesn't bother you, but the CCJ can be enforced. Usually a bailiff will be employed, sure you can refuse to let them in, but a Warrant of Control isn't the only enforcement option. An Attachment of Earnings could be done, and whilst you can refuse to let any debt collector know where you work, refusing to tell the court is a lot more serious. So it could then be taken from your wages, or would you then stop working!
    How likely is a CCJ? Thank you for telling me this
  • How likely is a CCJ?

    Guaranteed if you stop paying and don't engage with the lender
  • Ok thanks for the useful info on this I'll give it some thought
  • Thank you

    Just to clarify the purpose of this thread was to ask:
    'what would/could happen if I didn't pay'

    I did not ask for any advice on what to do regarding my credit cards as I already know this but what would happen if I didn't pay i.e. what can they do to get me to pay and judging from the very few answers I got regarding my original question not very much!

    You asked 3 questions.

    1. What might happen if I simply stopped paying?
    2. What have I got to lose?
    3. What could they do?

    The fact that you've had few answers that you believe address points 1 and 3 is not an indication that 'they' can't do much. It simply means some forum contributors actually care for your plight and want to help and some just don't know.

    Anyway, you've had an answer that has stirred you up a bit now, so it is time to turn your attention to point 2 and think about that for yourself. Don't you care about your family or what you may be about to put them though or the example you are setting them?

    So, are you going to let us into the secret of what you bought with your credit cards to get you into this mess - none of my business, I guess, but if you derived any fun, enjoyment, satisfaction or value out of those purchases then remember that avenue of funding will be denied to you for a very long time if you carry on with your proposal.

    And if those purchases were essentials for daily living, then how will you manage to get by without that bit of extra buying power?

    And finally, if someone here managed to give you a path through this mess that brought you through unscathed, improved your creditworthiness, helped pay off your debts, created some savings and improved the financial quality of life for you and your family, would you be so quick to tell them that you didn't ask for that sort of help and shut them out?
  • How likely is a CCJ? Thank you for telling me this

    They are now part of normal debt collection process. 315,000 issued in the first quarter of 2018, up from the 298,000 issued first quarter of last year and almost double the 160,000 from first quarter of 2010 ( source: https://www.trustonline.org.uk/press). The Debt Pre-Action Protocol that came into effect in Oct 2017 did slow the number of CCJ's applied for but only for a few months.
    The average value of debt a CCJ was requested for has fallen over time (just in case people reading think their debt of a few hundred pound isn't worth a CCJ).
  • Although it's been a bit annoying, living with a poor credit score has been possible for me, so unless you do need to protect it and you said yours is messed up anyway, don't stress about the urges from others to protect it. If the card people land you with a ccj and you don't pay that, you could end up with bailiffs coming round. Do you want to hide for years?! Set up a £1 payment and live in peace.
  • tastyhog
    tastyhog Posts: 854 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 9 September 2018 am30 2:02AM
    from personal experience not a lot will happen, some letters and a few phone calls from fake disposable numbers that you just block, some will even try using 'local' to you numbers, then after a couple of years they quit chasing you, then when the debts are just about to become statute barred they will write offering some great time limited offers of massive discounts.

    this was on credit cards and the like from mainstream lenders, so not from the sub prime market, the biggest around 4k from barclaycard

    as for wrecking your credit rating for 6 years, it's just mumbo jumbo, it's more like 3 years, providing you still have some bank accounts and maybe other things like a mobile contract, broadband / phone contracts going to get those green ticks on your file.

    of course this is just personal experience, your mileage may vary, but it's what happened when I done my ostrich impression and thought f**k it, if they want to collect it they know where the courts are.

    not a single company took me to court, not a single 'debt collector' turned up on the doorstep, not a single thing other than some threat'o'grams and recorded messages.

    just don't respond to any letters or answer / reply to phone calls, they go for the low hanging fruit of those that contact them to pay, once you start acknowledging the debt or making payments the 6 years for court action resets.

    after 3 or so years, still with plenty of defaults on my file I got mainstream credit cards and overdrafts from the likes of Halifax

    i'm not saying to go down that route, but I did and a bunch of nothingness happened, other than ending up debt free.

    if you want to do it the 'proper way' go for a £90 debt relief order and after a year the debts will no longer exist.
  • jimbo26 wrote: »
    How likely is a CCJ?

    Guaranteed if you stop paying and don't engage with the lender


    Complete and utter tripe just more nonsense im in the same boat as the OP with £17k of debt 18 months in all defaulted, as yet no CCJs emails and calls and the odd letter but nothing to taxing.


    So I own Piggy bank £50 and have had not contact are they going to take court action and enforce a CCJ? I very much doubt it.


    Ride the storm OP and see how it goes mate if they do decide to take action you will have enough notice to prevent attachment of earnings ETC or as somebody else suggested go down the DRO route obviously with some crafty accounting.......
    FAUGH-A-BALLAGH
  • 18 months is nothing. They can apply for a CCJ right up to the day of the 6 year default anniversary.

    Telling someone to ride it out is a stupid suggestion as well as using “crafty accounting” to hide your available funds
  • tastyhog wrote: »
    from personal experience not a lot will happen, some letters and a few phone calls from fake disposable numbers that you just block, some will even try using 'local' to you numbers, then after a couple of years they quit chasing you, then when the debts are just about to become statute barred they will write offering some great time limited offers of massive discounts.

    this was on credit cards and the like from mainstream lenders, so not from the sub prime market, the biggest around 4k from barclaycard

    as for wrecking your credit rating for 6 years, it's just mumbo jumbo, it's more like 3 years, providing you still have some bank accounts and maybe other things like a mobile contract, broadband / phone contracts going to get those green ticks on your file.

    of course this is just personal experience, your mileage may vary, but it's what happened when I done my ostrich impression and thought f**k it, if they want to collect it they know where the courts are.

    not a single company took me to court, not a single 'debt collector' turned up on the doorstep, not a single thing other than some threat'o'grams and recorded messages.

    just don't respond to any letters or answer / reply to phone calls, they go for the low hanging fruit of those that contact them to pay, once you start acknowledging the debt or making payments the 6 years for court action resets.

    after 3 or so years, still with plenty of defaults on my file I got mainstream credit cards and overdrafts from the likes of Halifax

    i'm not saying to go down that route, but I did and a bunch of nothingness happened, other than ending up debt free.

    if you want to do it the 'proper way' go for a £90 debt relief order and after a year the debts will no longer exist.


    Well played sir, well played :beer:
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