Son's Credit Card

MingVase

Many thanks everybody

enthusiasticsaver

I cannot comment on what would happen in Scotland but I would not think it would be vastly different to England.  If he cannot pay his debts he will have to default.  Unsecured creditors (which credit cards are) have very little teeth and would be unlikely to take any sort of legal action but the defaults will show on his credit record which could make it difficult for him to borrow in the future.  Other than that very little will happen. The defaults stay on his file for 6 years.  They may sell his debt on and he could make arrangements when he is in a position to make lower payments.  That still shows as a default though.  If he has health issues make sure he claims all he is entitled to in welfare benefits. 

RAS

Ming

A couple of pointers.
 
1. In Scotland if no payments are made are made (and I presume no written acknowledgement made?) the debt is written off after 5 years. Unlike England, where creditors can keep asking for you to pay but can't take legal action to enforce payment, in Scotland, they have to stop asking.

2. The Scottish version of the DMP is the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which is administered by a debt advisor; in England you can DIY them. Stepchange organise a lot of DMPs, and DPPs (the payment plans on a DAS). In both cases, the debtor would eventually pay back all is debt over time. But interest and charges are frozen and the creditors can't chase for payment during the process.

The below explains the English rules, so your son would need to research the Scottish equivalent.

What several people on MSE recommend is that the person intending to do a DMP stops paying altogether for a while. This allows them to get together an emergency fund, and live to a realistic budget for a while.

It also encourages the creditors to default the debt quickly. If you pay dribs and drabs or make token payments, they often mark the credit record as Arrangement to Pay. Defaults drop off the credit record after 6 years from the date of default; AP markers only drop off 6 years after the date of the last payment so can affect credit records for decades in some instances.

And in England some debtors eventually save up enough to offer full and final settlements at reduced rates. To do this they have to DIY their DMP as stepchange require every creditor to be treated equally.

In some circumstances, creditors will write off debt, see one forumite's experience below:

Debt write off for mental health — MoneySavingExpert Forum

MingVase

Awesome help, thanks both  xx

sourcrates

As others have mentioned, credit card debt is unsecured, and is regarded as a "non priority" debt, which basically means if after all essential bills are paid, there are no funds for the credit card repayments, then so be it.

As long as he keeps his creditors informed of his circumstances, there is no point in them trying to enforce there rights through the courts, if he has no money, then no amount of legal action can change that.

Depending on his situation, the Scottish Government provides a number of statutory debt solutions to tackle problem debt with, if he were to find himself unable to pay the bills, then a first step would be to get advice from a reputable source such as Stepchange (Scotland) or National Debtline.org -

StepChange Debt Charity - Free Expert Debt Advice.

Debt advice | Free debt advice | National Debtline | National Debtline

My main piece of advice would be to not respond to those social media adds, that claim to write off a large percentage of your debt, they are simply lead generators for IVA companies, who just want to sell you there one solution, as it makes them big bucks in standard fee`s, avoid these people like the plague, only take debt advice from a reputable source, such as the links I provided above.

MingVase

Great help, thanks sourcrates!