Dealing with £39K debt

bcs7

Bit of an update:

Credit debt - £792 - (monthly £4)
Bank overdraft - £1,188 - (monthly £6)
Credit card 1 - £1,584 - (monthly £8)
Credit card 2 - £4,752 - (monthly £24)
Credit card 3 - £10,098 - (monthly £51)
Bank loan - £17,226 - (monthly £87)
TOTAL - £35,640 (monthly £180)

As you can see I reduced the monthly payments, mainly as with energy prices increasing I had to anyway.
I used the opportunity to restructure the payments so all debts are now getting the percentage of the available money that corresponds to how much I owe them.

I have sent off CCA requests for all except the bank overdraft and am now awaiting responses.

With all of them I have cancelled the direct debits and am paying manually each month.
I have noticed with Intrum they are still giving offers and now have it on their account page, I think to try and encourage people to take it up. The latest is 22% (£614) of the debt but I'm leaving it until it hopefully keeps decreasing.

The only issue I'm currently having is the biggest debt which I reduced from £100 per month to £87 seems to have gone below some limit and they were chasing me for £8. I said I can only afford the £87 per month so they have cancelled the previous agreement but said I'll be contacted to try and set up a new one.

Just after this I have been getting calls from Cabot and then a text message asking me to contact them.
They haven't said that it's to do with Link Financial but I assume it is this debt.
Is it likely they have handed my debt over to Cabot or are Cabot involved with Link and possibly chasing on their behalf?

sourcrates

Both Cabot financial and Link financial are stand alone debt acquisition companies, completely separate from one another.

No doubt they will write to you in due course and tell you what they are after, but its quite likely some of your card accounts have been sold to them.

bcs7

sourcrates said:

Both Cabot financial and Link financial are stand alone debt acquisition companies, completely separate from one another.

No doubt they will write to you in due course and tell you what they are after, but its quite likely some of your card accounts have been sold to them.

I suppose the other possibility is that Intrum have handed their debt over as that's the one that they've been trying to get me to accept offers on?

bcs7

2 weeks later and I'm still receiving a few calls from Cabot asking me to contact them and going straight to answer machine. I've also received several texts asking me to contact them, one of which claims they've written to me but I've not received anything in the post.

As most of these debt companies seem to be cheapskates with postage, I suspect they've sent something 2nd class and it won't arrive till January.

sourcrates

bcs7 said:

2 weeks later and I'm still receiving a few calls from Cabot asking me to contact them and going straight to answer machine. I've also received several texts asking me to contact them, one of which claims they've written to me but I've not received anything in the post.

As most of these debt companies seem to be cheapskates with postage, I suspect they've sent something 2nd class and it won't arrive till January.

Much more subtle than that, they say they have written to you and got no response, when in reality, they haven`t written at all, just sent a few cheap texts or emails, they are hoping you will think, "I haven't received any letters from Cabot?" and immediately call them.

Its a way to encourage contact with them, all these texts/emails/letters etc, are all designed to get you to call them to discuss the debt and arrange payment, its all geared to that end.

bcs7

Yes, they are still calling and leaving voicemails at least once a week which I'm ignoring.

Also getting texts asking me to call them.

The latest said:

Hi ******* - Cabot here - we have sent you a letter regarding a personal matter. Please click the secure link to view now - https://formfor you to fill in!!

It then takes you to a webpage where you have to fill in your details to see the letter. 
Yeah, I'll pass thanks. Send me a letter in the post if it's that urgent!!! :lol

bcs7

Another update:

Credit debt - £764 - (monthly £2) - best offer 60%
Bank overdraft - £1,146 - (monthly £3) - best offer 90%
Credit card 1 - £1,528 - (monthly £4) - best offer 55%
Credit card 2 - £4,784 - (monthly £12) - best offer 77%
Credit card 3 - £9,741 - (monthly £25.50) - best offer 60%
Bank loan - £16,617 - (monthly £43.50) - best offer 90%
TOTAL - £34,380 (monthly £90)

Just logged into my smallest debt account (£764) this morning and there is a new offer of 40% to pay.
I had made an offer of £240 (31%) about 6 weeks ago, but they were sticking to 60% so it's a pleasant surprise it's now dropped to 40% and I am tempted to take it but may leave it for another few months to see if it goes down further.
Due to family circumstances changing, I have had to recently drop all my monthly payments by half which will be starting next month so I'm hoping that may encourage some more better discounts later in the year.