Historic debts on long term repayment plans
Hi have a question regarding long-standing historic repayment plans. I would appreciate the advice of the community!
Some background - In 2012 loss of a job and huge reduction in income meant that I needed to renegotiate a lot of unsecured debt. At the time the organisations agreed to a small monthly repayment and over time as my circumstances improved, these were increased to £40 per Month for all 3. The debts are no longer managed by the original companies - One is with Link and the other two are with Wescot. I have never missed any payments and am happy to continue paying until the debts are cleared (Balances are very roughly now at £4K, 7k and £10K) interest is frozen on them all. - So you can see they are quite decent agreements.
None of these items appear on my credit Karma credit report as either old defaults or open agreements
Periodically I get asked to carry out affordability reviews and there is a possibility I could pay more based on their interpretation. (They don't chase very hard tbh) The question I have is what power (if any) do the organisations have to make me pay more money per month?
Thanks,
James
Some background - In 2012 loss of a job and huge reduction in income meant that I needed to renegotiate a lot of unsecured debt. At the time the organisations agreed to a small monthly repayment and over time as my circumstances improved, these were increased to £40 per Month for all 3. The debts are no longer managed by the original companies - One is with Link and the other two are with Wescot. I have never missed any payments and am happy to continue paying until the debts are cleared (Balances are very roughly now at £4K, 7k and £10K) interest is frozen on them all. - So you can see they are quite decent agreements.
None of these items appear on my credit Karma credit report as either old defaults or open agreements
Periodically I get asked to carry out affordability reviews and there is a possibility I could pay more based on their interpretation. (They don't chase very hard tbh) The question I have is what power (if any) do the organisations have to make me pay more money per month?
Thanks,
James
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If they got too fed up with waiting, they could potentially go for a CCJ, putting them back on your files for another 6 years.
Clearly I don't want a CCJ on my record though.
Clearing the debts would obviously improve your credit worthiness.
Would it not be better, if you're in an improved situation, to just up the amoungt or even pay it all off if you are able?
Additionally, while as zx81 says, the original lenders are likely to have paperwork, they don't always, and in some cases historic debts aren't enforceable if they don't have adequate records.
It might be worth posting in the debt free wannabe part of the forum. They have more experience in this area.
It possibly might be worth contacting them and asking for full and final settlement figures (which might be a substantial discount) otherwise it sounds like they are happy with the token repayments you are currently making so maybe don't rock the boat. Personally I'd rather get these debts sorted so I can move on, but everyone's circumstances are different.
They can request you up your monthly payment, you are equally free to say no.
As your accounts are fairly old now, its unlikely they will still retain compliant legal paperwork, so the threat of any court action diminishes with time, but lets for example say it did happen, a court will base its judgement monthly payment according to your budget, as affordability is everything these days, so not even a court can force you to pay more than you can afford.
You may want to send CCA requests to your creditors (use Google if your unsure of that term) failure to comply with an information request renders accounts unenforceable, so you may be able to agree settlement terms on a more favourable basis.
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