County Court Proceedings

malarky

Now before I start I know that the problem I have found myself in is completely my fault and I dont expect any sympathy but just hoping if anyone can give me any words of comfort for whats going to be a bad week it would be appreciated.

2 years ago, i took out another student loan to pay for my last year at uni. I proceeded to use the 1700 overdraft up and leave the account stale for over 2 years. In which time i managed to lose my mobile phone(their contact number for me) and moved address several times. I went for the ostrich tactic of sticking my head in the sand for the past 2 years and didnt get in touch with them to organise any kind of payment plan.

But after discovering this site and slowly getting other finances in order I decided to bite the bullet and get in touch with Natwest who informed me that it has gone on to a debt collecting agency. I rang them and they said that they will send me out a letter and you can decide how much you can pay us and get back in touch. Which all seemed fair enough. The letter came on Saturday saying that County Court Proceedings have been taken against me and that the whole sum of 1700 needs to be paid by Friday to stop this happening.

I dont know why they would say to me that I could pay it off in instalments and then send this out. I am planning on phoning them at lunchtime to see whether they are going to negotiate payments with me or whether Im completely screwed. I have no chance whatsoever in getting hold of that kind of money by Friday so really dont know what to do.

Any help, kind words would be appreciated.

Mark.

CLAPTON

Work out what you can afford to pay.... make sure you can stick to this for the full period

Offer them that amount of money ........... do not negotiate and donot change your mind.

To take you to court they will need to have a summons issued against you. You can then attend court and the judge will decide how much per month you need to pay... the fact that you have offered payments will help your case and the judge will often agree this sum.
The DCA know this of course and so are relatively unlikely to actually go to court as it will cost them money and they will probably simply end up receiving the same payments you proposed.


However, if courty court proceddings have already been taken (i.e. you already have a CCJ) the situation is a little different... can you clarify the situation?........

jonesMUFCforever

If the worst comes to the worst you will have a CCJ against your name which will be on your credit files for the next 6 years even if you repay the debt.

If you can live with that - fine - let them do their worst. A court will only force you to pay what you can afford to pay.
If you can prove that you have actively tried to negotiate a repayment plan they would be pretty stupid not to stop the court action for this week.

However when a repayment plan is in place make sure that you keep up with the payments and pay on time.

If a CCJ is likely to impact on your future plans (eg mortgage application etc) then I would do my utmost to get the money from somewhere.
Would your parents be able to help at all?

malarky

Thanks for the replies.

CLAPTON wrote: »

However, if courty court proceddings have already been taken (i.e. you already have a CCJ) the situation is a little different... can you clarify the situation?........

Clapton the letter says that they are preparing documents for county court proceedings against me for this Friday Im not sure if that means its been taken or not??

My mum might be able to help but unfortunately for me she is in New Zealand at the moment celebrating her 50th birthday and so cant saddle her with this and my dads credit rating probably compares to mine so wouldnt be able to get a loan for me and doesnt have that kind of disposable cash.

I would obviously prefer not to have a CCJ im 25 now and although im not looking to get a morgage in the next year or so after that then it probably will be time for me to be start looking into this.

I think i could afford £100 a month, but not sure if they will accept this.

Cheers,
Mark.

malarky

Okay so i spoke to the Debt collection agency and i have agreed a £50 a month DD with them. And I am aiming to put in extra when i can, as at that rate it will take me 3 years!

The letter was a scare tactic and obviously worked, but hey im finally going to start dealing with this worry that has been following me around for the past 2 years so thanks to all you folks on MSE for showing me the error of my ways.

Cheers,
Mark.

jonesMUFCforever

Thank you for not whingeing about this and that and taking responsibility for your actions.

Others who post on here should take note.

Mikeyorks

malarky wrote: »

....this worry that has been following me around for the past 2 years .....

That's a long time to be an ostrich ..... welcome back to the upright position;)

Good result for you .... just don't let the arrangement slide.