Debt has finally caught up with me

DebtFreeWannabe27

I've also just received my first letter saying "This is a default notice" so glad you've raised the question of how to treat these on your thread. @sourcrates - thanks for the advice. Sounds like no action for now.

andy26599

Into my third month of missed payments now. Had a letter from Admiral Loans saying I've got 7 days to pay up or I'll be defaulted.

My Community Bank aren't being as black and white about it, threatening to send in external debt collectors after 1 month missed payment (as sourcrates mentioned above they are a credit union so may deal with things differently).

Updraft (x 3) are still sending me letters saying "You've missed a payment"...Just get on board that I'm not going to pay it yet and default me !!!!!!.

Same with Novuna, they're still hoping I'll pay what owed and catch up.

Credit cards have barely even contacted me, is this the norm @sourcrates  

Credit rating went from 899 to 435 in two months, but as I'm not going to get credit, I suppose that doesn't matter.

The only issue that has arisen that I didn't expect was that my Security Clearance for working on sensitive data expires in October, and I had to disclose my financials in my renewal, so hoping it doesn't screw me over as they may see me as susceptible to bribes due to my financial situation. I've been totally honest with my situation, so hopefully that's in my favour.

RAS

OK, with the work issue and knowing what's happened with one or two other people, it may be worth communicating with Community Finance, not the rest of them. They may not be prepared to issue a default.

How much do you have borrowed from them?

Some Credit Unions play dirty, and aim to wreck your credit record rather than just doing what main stream lenders do. 

Re Admiral, have they sent the letter demanding repayment within 14 days yet. Otherwise this is just bluster.

sourcrates

Some companies pursue debts more vigorously than others, Capital one for example just send emails for months on end, others sell your debt after one missed payment.

There is no conformity to debt collection, you take it as it comes.

andy26599

RAS said:

OK, with the work issue and knowing what's happened with one or two other people, it may be worth communicating with Community Finance, not the rest of them. They may not be prepared to issue a default.

How much do you have borrowed from them?

Some Credit Unions play dirty, and aim to wreck your credit record rather than just doing what main stream lenders do. 

Re Admiral, have they sent the letter demanding repayment within 14 days yet. Otherwise this is just bluster.

I've just read this message, and I've also just had a Notice of Default letter from My Community Bank saying that they intend to default my account if I don't pay within 14 days, they'll stop interest, require full payment (ha ha) pss my account on to external company who may pop round for a brew and a chat, and raise the default with credit agencies.

So I think I now have my first default. 

My question now is when it's defaulted and passed on, do I then start talking to the debt recovery company and set up a token payment and then set up my DMP Payment plan once ALL accounts are defaulted? 

DisabledDan

andy26599 said:

RAS said:

OK, with the work issue and knowing what's happened with one or two other people, it may be worth communicating with Community Finance, not the rest of them. They may not be prepared to issue a default.

How much do you have borrowed from them?

Some Credit Unions play dirty, and aim to wreck your credit record rather than just doing what main stream lenders do. 

Re Admiral, have they sent the letter demanding repayment within 14 days yet. Otherwise this is just bluster.

I've just read this message, and I've also just had a Notice of Default letter from My Community Bank saying that they intend to default my account if I don't pay within 14 days, they'll stop interest, require full payment (ha ha) pss my account on to external company who may pop round for a brew and a chat, and raise the default with credit agencies.

So I think I now have my first default. 

My question now is when it's defaulted and passed on, do I then start talking to the debt recovery company and set up a token payment and then set up my DMP Payment plan once ALL accounts are defaulted? 

Thanks for keeping the forum updated, it is helpful for others going through the same journey.

DisabledDan

One thing I would advise is to get a new mobile number and a new email, then contact each provider and update your records with those new details.  Do not take calls on your old number from anyone who is not on your phone book or number withheld. Get a cheap £15 non smart phone for the new sim and take calls from it, reply to email on the new email account but not the old.  You can use a mail rule to auto file the messages from debtors.

Then after 2 months of non payments you make a GDPR request for them to not contact you by phone, SMS or email and only via snail mail, this can be for stress and you could also ask for breathing space.

You now have a way to instantly cut off the stress for a day, a week or forever, your contact info will be passed on, but if a debt agency emails me I report it as spam.  Some mail providers will soon stop allowing them to mail, they bounce the email so you do not see it.

These firms then learn that they should send things by post, you can put these in a lever arch file and compare them.  Soon you will be able to predict what comes next. They are all a series of letters, some threaten hard but then try to make you contact them so they can work things out, some make an offer then if not taken they go full on again to give you FOMO then they come back and offer the same.  The best offer comes just before they pass the account back to the organisation the debt was sold to.

During this time you are waiting I would be using the wealth of money saving measures on this website to cut back your spending, I have no experience of a DMP, my cousin was in a similar situation to yours and he just waited for 60% discount on debt.

I often compare with him and we compare the absurd credit limits we were offered.  His son has credit limits totalling £130k but only £30k owed, he does zero percent transfers and has the £30k in an account paying 6.5% with easy access.  He has an emergency fund to cover 3 months salary and adds 20% of income every month, he earns good money and gets a bonus, his partner earns as well. Still all it takes is a couple of serious bumps in the road or a recession and that extra £100k of credit would be used..

What gets me is the money spent on weddings, it seems to me one could buy a small house in the North for what some spend and that small house would generate an income.

DisabledDan

andy26599 said:

RAS said:

OK, with the work issue and knowing what's happened with one or two other people, it may be worth communicating with Community Finance, not the rest of them. They may not be prepared to issue a default.

How much do you have borrowed from them?

Some Credit Unions play dirty, and aim to wreck your credit record rather than just doing what main stream lenders do. 

Re Admiral, have they sent the letter demanding repayment within 14 days yet. Otherwise this is just bluster.

I've just read this message, and I've also just had a Notice of Default letter from My Community Bank saying that they intend to default my account if I don't pay within 14 days, they'll stop interest, require full payment (ha ha) pss my account on to external company who may pop round for a brew and a chat, and raise the default with credit agencies.

So I think I now have my first default. 

My question now is when it's defaulted and passed on, do I then start talking to the debt recovery company and set up a token payment and then set up my DMP Payment plan once ALL accounts are defaulted? 

IMO I think you wait for a time when you know the position of EVERY debt, you can wait until they ALL default, the benefit of this is they see the other defaults and so they assume you had a big fall and so they might as well give up on you.

It is not so clear with some companies that they have defaulted, for example one passed their debt to a debt collector for a year before they gave up.

I did not do DMP so take advice from others on that, but for my debt I knew debt was sold when I got a formal letter saying the debt had been assigned in accordance with some Act, rather than your debt has been passed to XYZ for collection.  It is hard to remember all of the companies but I remember Capquest were a debt collector on one debt and they bought another debt.

One of the things that might influence them is the CRB spending they see, for example do not take out a new mobile phone contract and if your bank says it wants to reduce your overdraft but needs to do a credit check, then ask to end the overdraft.  If they see your bank giving you a new overdraft they can think "well they see his salary so they must think he can pay" and they change their approach.  I am certain that when my bank reduced my overdraft in that way it made one firm actually go get a CCJ, it made no difference to me as I did not find out for 2 or 3 years.  Regarding your bank account I would open a basic bank account with a new bank, just in case.  Also consider using one of the Bank Transfer deals on MSE, you get a couple of hundred quid. 

Having now read the whole thread you can see why my change of contact number and email is good advice.

The way to approach your other half is to sit them down and say "I need to let you know that I have had a huge problem, the good news is that I have taken professional advice and am well on the way to dealing with it, but I need your moral support."

Having read your story I think you can pin this on the break up and the withdrawal of the mortgages leading you to make the decisions you made.

I don't think any of this is your fault, they should not have lent you so much but they were greedy and thought they had you by the short and curlies.  It is nothing to them because the money never existed in the first place, they will sell the debt for as little as 5p in the pound and register the default with the central bank.  That allows them to find to invent the same amount to lend to the next unsuspecting punter.

RAS

andy26599 said:

RAS said:

OK, with the work issue and knowing what's happened with one or two other people, it may be worth communicating with Community Finance, not the rest of them. They may not be prepared to issue a default.

How much do you have borrowed from them?

Some Credit Unions play dirty, and aim to wreck your credit record rather than just doing what main stream lenders do. 

Re Admiral, have they sent the letter demanding repayment within 14 days yet. Otherwise this is just bluster.

I've just read this message, and I've also just had a Notice of Default letter from My Community Bank saying that they intend to default my account if I don't pay within 14 days, they'll stop interest, require full payment (ha ha) pss my account on to external company who may pop round for a brew and a chat, and raise the default with credit agencies.

So I think I now have my first default. 

My question now is when it's defaulted and passed on, do I then start talking to the debt recovery company and set up a token payment and then set up my DMP Payment plan once ALL accounts are defaulted? 

OK, sounds like the next letter is going to be in 2-3 weeks confirming the default. Since this is a credit union, even though yours plays ball, it may be wise to start a payment plan once you get the default. Maybe confirm that they've actually registered the default before setting up the payment plan.

How are you doing with your intended budget? Have you included all the annual stuff like Christmas, birthdays and holidays? Use the next fortnight to hone the budget. Ideally you need a full Statement of Affairs with all the household costs in. And to look at what you've spent on over the last year.

Don't know what percentage of the debt is owed to My Community Bank, but you decide what you can afford to pay towards your debts and set up an SO or make a bank transfer for percentage of your repayment amount.

andy26599

RAS said:

andy26599 said:

RAS said:

OK, with the work issue and knowing what's happened with one or two other people, it may be worth communicating with Community Finance, not the rest of them. They may not be prepared to issue a default.

How much do you have borrowed from them?

Some Credit Unions play dirty, and aim to wreck your credit record rather than just doing what main stream lenders do. 

Re Admiral, have they sent the letter demanding repayment within 14 days yet. Otherwise this is just bluster.

I've just read this message, and I've also just had a Notice of Default letter from My Community Bank saying that they intend to default my account if I don't pay within 14 days, they'll stop interest, require full payment (ha ha) pss my account on to external company who may pop round for a brew and a chat, and raise the default with credit agencies.

So I think I now have my first default. 

My question now is when it's defaulted and passed on, do I then start talking to the debt recovery company and set up a token payment and then set up my DMP Payment plan once ALL accounts are defaulted? 

OK, sounds like the next letter is going to be in 2-3 weeks confirming the default. Since this is a credit union, even though yours plays ball, it may be wise to start a payment plan once you get the default. Maybe confirm that they've actually registered the default before setting up the payment plan.

How are you doing with your intended budget? Have you included all the annual stuff like Christmas, birthdays and holidays? Use the next fortnight to hone the budget. Ideally you need a full Statement of Affairs with all the household costs in. And to look at what you've spent on over the last year.

Don't know what percentage of the debt is owed to My Community Bank, but you decide what you can afford to pay towards your debts and set up an SO or make a bank transfer for percentage of your repayment amount.

Hi there, yes I have everything in a spreadsheet with current debt totals, how much I used to pay, how much I can pay, and percentages worked out based upon how much I used to pay. I've been running on a budget for the last 3 months. I used to pay out £1700 roughly towards debt, leaving me about £200 for everything else, which was gone by the start of the second week after payday in fuel and food shopping.

I've been putting £1k into emergency fund, leaving me £900/ month left over for everything else, I've been having to go back into office recently so have had extra parking/fuel costs (125m round trip each day I need to go in, but this is only temporary hopefully as I've been WFH for the past 4 years with no issues). I have pretty much stuck to the budget, however had a home emergency which meant I had to spend almost a months worth of fund (would've been screwed if i'd not gone down this route as I wouldn't have had the funds, or credit available, to sort it.

My plan is to get to at least £5k into my emergency fund over the next few months before allocating £800 a month towards my DMP (I'd estimate that my DMP term at that payment would be about 6 years, but I'd hopefully be able to shorten that as my wages increase year on year and I'd use that increase to pay off early, £1200 to mortgage, £645 to Child maintenance (which will reduce to £430 in 3 years, and then to £215 in 5 years when my two oldest hit 18 respectively) then continue to put £200 a month into savings and the budget of £900 to use for day to day stuff.