Debt free

Bossofmoney

                                  

sourcrates

Are you been chased for any of these debts ?

Remember, some of them become expunged in a year or so’s time, as your in Scotland, the limitation period is 5 years, after which they are gone for good.

Galloglass

If you have no paperwork, the first step is to get the paperwork.
How you start building your credit rating is to repay the debts that need repaying but you won't know which these are till you get the paperwork. A few stamps, calls or emails can start the process

Galloglass

Remember, some of them become expunged in a year or so’s time, as your in Scotland, the limitation period is 5 years, after which they are gone for good.

As SC has pointed out above, some are nearing the end of being on your credit record. Best to understand if any are collectible.

Have you any court action in progress?

louisa29

Hi

First of all well done for reaching out and ready to face it...

Write each debt down smallest to highest.
search each company on google and get their number give them a call and ask for a reference number and total outstanding on their system. 
Ask the minimum monthly payment they'll take (although they cant refuse £1 per month for now if you want to offer that, slight high ones I offer £5). Set up a direct debit/card payment. Lowell have a way of setting up your account on their website so you can keep an eye on it and manage your account online. 

On my spread sheet I put all debts under £500 in green, £500-1k in orange and anything over 1k are in red. I attempt to pay off my greens and when the £500-1k go under £500 they get changed to green. I've now gone down from 12 to 5 creditors this way with 3 of them being green. If any of your debts are a certain amount of years as above they'll drop off your report anyway.
This is just my personal way of dealing with mine, also seek professional advice, once you've written up your spread sheet (include columns for reference number and telephone number for easy viewing) you could always call a debt free management company who will go through your expenditure and arrange a 5yr payment plan.

All the best 

Mandaloiian

Bossofmoney said:

Bumping this upto the top in the hope of some more advice as iv no idea what my best option is or how to start rebuilding my credit rating while I cant even get a credit card etc to do so.

I believe there are credit building cards that may help and if I remember correctly there is a pre paid card with a tiny limit but it reports back regular to the credit agencies so it’s good.

monetxchange

Is your credit rating important right now? They're just numbers made up. You only need a decent credit file if you're looking for more credit which you don't need to even think about. Not sure taking out another credit card (likely to be sub prime) would help at all right now. It'll be so tempting to run debt back up on. That's the reason why I don't have any - history tells me I can't trust myself.

Bossofmoney

The idea of credit rating is long term. Now iv finally got my head sorted out and I'm taking action to clear my debts off, the credit rating is going to be needed further down the line. Surely the sooner I start rebuilding it, the better? I am thinking 7 or 8 years down the line we will be applying for a mortgage to buy our forever home.
My partner has around £60k in savings, rising every month. In 7 or 8 years once iv cleared everything I owe and saved some money up aswel, we will definitely be in a position to buy. Don't want to go through all that to be turned down as I haven't rebuilt my credit rating as good as possible. 


Also next year on the agreed contracts iv got, should be a lump sum of £5k or so in April 2021 from a tax rebate as all mine is docked at source. This can go straight to paying a F&F if need be, whatever is best to clear some of these debts.

Galloglass

This can go straight to paying a F&F if need be, whatever is best to clear some of these debts.

You're on the right track and good luck with the journey.

Bossofmoney

Thanks. Feels like my mindset has completely changed already. 
Looking forward to that silly £120 a month phone bill dropping.

meefrono2222

Hi, just wanted to commend you on pulling your head out of the sand. I’m in a similar situation as you but with lower amounts and the hardest thing is to take the first step. 

I ignored calls and letters for so long that it made me panic when I finally started taking steps to understand the extent of my debt. 

What I did was exactly what you have. Then I signed up for a free 30day trial on Checkmyfile. This shows all the debts registered with the 3 credit reference agencies. It also gives you the information on who owes the debt which was helpful to me as I had no idea who to call. 

I then called each of them and explained my situation and told them how much I could pay. I set a token amount of £5 for most of them and then I overpay each month with whatever disposable income I have left. 

For the smaller debts I found great satisfaction in paying them off sooner and I have seen my credit score rise little by little each month. 

It’s an uphill struggle but don’t get discouraged as these companies also want you pay what you can. They’d rather you pay a little then try to commit to paying lots and then reneging on the agreement. 

I have a lot of defaults too but I should be debt free by mid 2021, and the last default should be removed by April 2024.  My Husband and I should have a deposit together by then so we hope to get a mortgage. 

Wishing you the best