What now?

lillypoo

Hi everyone.

So I stopped paying my creditors in June ( 3 credit cards one overdraft) . I've finally just been informed that the final card is going to be defaulted. Nothing has been mentioned about the OD yet.

The first bank involved already got westcot to handle it for a few months.  Last I heard from them was about November.

The second bank who i have 2 CCs with and the OD has written today saying they've closed the two CCs abd will either get debt collectors to chase me or sell the debts on.

In an ideal world I'd like to not pay them anything yet as my emergency fund has taken a bashing with genuine essential emergency spending on house and car repairs. It's been a hellish few months but definitely highlights the importance of the EF.

Anyway I suppose my question is , at what point do I HAVE to start making payments and set up my self managed dmp? So far none of them have had any response from me either to calls texts or letters.

Thank you

Floss

You can't make payments if you don't know who you're paying.

Sit tight & save your £s until you have letters to advise who has your debt. Then you can engage with them.

lillypoo

Lol hadn't thought of that!
Thanks floss 

BadDebtor

Keep the default letters, see Myths pinned at top of forum.

No rush, what will happen next is you will get two letters for each debt, one from creditor and one from new owner saying it has been sold and will be managed by X company. 

You will get a cycle of letters for each debt, some play nice, some make meaningless threats, they are just a cycle of template letters based on your credit profile, some may make an offer to settle for less, but the longer you leave it the lower the offers will be

Then between 3 and 6 months you will get another letter from a new debt collector saying they have been appointed by new debt owner or sometimes from the company appointed to manage it.  Same thing happens, a series of letters for each debt, sometimes different tactics, I had the fake law firms before they were banned and I even had a real law firm who got a CCJ at a very old address.  

I chose not to engage with anything from any of them, I am not suggesting this for you, I just decided to ride it out for the 6 years as I was never going to have credit again and I have nothing to lose.

Only one of many consumer debt claims went on to get a CCJ, bizarrely it was the cheapest debt.

There is no High Court enforcement for consumer debt and nobody has a right to come into your home.

I recommend a Ring Doorbell, the wired one is on offer a few times a year, you can still ignore them but you will have a funny video of them looking awkward for YouTube, most of them just turn around the moment they spot the video doorbell.

Get yourself a lever arch file with a separator for each debt, then just file every letter in the file, you will soon see the pattern.

I suggest you login to their system or contact each creditor with a new pay as you go number and say please note my new phone number and email address.  This way if they pass on the debt it will be to a number you don't check. 

I also suggest you send a GDPR letter removing your consent to be contacted by SMS, Email or phone, specify you only want to be contacted by Royal Mail.

Remember you do not have to account to these companies, nor justify your spending or anything.  Just focus on what is important to you