Help please on letters to creditors before DRO

oldnfat

I’m hoping that you helpful and knowledge people could help me please.  I’m helping someone (let’s call them Person A!) with their debt situation because of their current mental health problems. Where I’m at at the moment is – all details on SOE have been completed, all creditors had agreed to put accounts on hold (2nd time ending this month so 60days in total but not breathing space).  They have 2 priority debts (council tax and UC advance) totalling just over £800; 12 non-priority debts totalling just over £30,000;  just started a new job on minimum wage which gives them a surplus of £20pm; sold their car giving assets of £4000.  Have worked out pro-rata payments for all 14 creditors reducing Person A's assets to £2000 - National Debtline says that is acceptable for applying for a DRO.  They told me to send letters to all the creditors asking if they would accept a single payment of xxx as a contribution to the debt outstanding and also to continue the hold. ND also said not to pay anything to them until I'd got a reply.  Herein lies my problem - Person A has no money to pay for postage and cannot face all those phone calls again that went on for ever and a day so I thought it would be easier to either email or copy and paste my letter into their online chats .....easy yes?? ...not at all no! Most of them don't have email addresses; I've searched the web for any workable formats and sent speculative messages to things like info@xxxx help@xxxx etc to no avail;  some I've sent to their complaints email or online form with an apology and a request to forward it to the relevant department and some on their online chat.  Got very little joy from any of it. I'm rapidly running out of ideas and the will to live. The ideas I'm left with are:
1. Send the letters addressed to "Financial Hardship" at their head office address without a stamp
2. Just pay the pro-rata amount without asking if its acceptable - I'd suggested this to the ND advisor but he said no in no uncertain terms
Can anyone suggest anything else please?

stu12345_2

the advice I got when applying for a dro was to write a generic letter to creditors saying you are getting debt advice from eg national debt line, and I offer £1 a month whilst they come up with a solution to my debt problem.

of course you can give them nothing and just state you are getting debt help from national debt line 

if you email, you can find their email address in any paper bills, demands, statements

can you explain what you mean prorata payments reducing assets to £2000 , I don't understand that.


assets of a car of value of £4000 is low enough to qualify.

what cash does he have on top of this, he can also have cash of £2000 as well.
normal monthly payments do not reduce assets, they are living costs, 
in a dro its what's left over after normal bills and expenses, not what's left after bills, expenses and creditor payments

oldnfat

Hi thankyou for replying.  They all already know we're getting help from National Debtline and have put holds on the accounts twice for 30days each.  Not feasible to offer a monthly amount at the moment.  The pro-rata payments to all creditors means no one debt is taking precedence over another ie all treated equally so £2000 in total to all creditors leaves £2000 in assets which apparently is allowed for a DRO.

Oh and no, there's nothing but phone numbers and postal addresses on either correspondence or websites

Hope I've explained that all properly

stu12345_2

I'm sure you can find email on any paper correspondence from the creditors. debts I owe always have how to contact us written on any debt letters I get.

plus he can have a car of £4000 and cash of £2000.
if he sold his car to get it to £4000 cash,I see why he's giving bulk creditor payments to get it to £2000

I'm not sure if that's a form of deprivation of assets in order to get himself into a worse financial position so he fits into a dro.
cos there was no obligation to make such a high payment , this would affect him if he was applying for full bankruptcy,as it may put restrictions on his bankruptcy.

but this is a dro, a form of bankruptcy, so will have to read into , if it is allowed to put yourself into a worse position so you are eligible for a dro.

there are dro restrictions, drro, you can get that last beyond the 12 months dro, and perhaps he will get one,but it will only affect him if he's going after certain jobs, positions etc

why did he sell car if it was worth £4000, the allowable car value limit

and if push comes to shove write 12 hand written letters, post them with second class stamps 

oldnfat

No I'm afraid there's no email addresses anywhere for the majority, have also had that confirmed on online chats etc or replies from bounced back emails.

Had been trying to sell the car for a while before I became aware of the extent of the problems as was struggling to keep up with monthly finance payments, can do without a car at the moment.

stu12345_2

he can buy another car up to £4000, say a £2000 one, then he has £2000 cash all allowed .then he has more expenses that means he is likely not to have £20 surplus which gives him more wiggle room if he does overtime.


thus at end of dro he still has a car , rather than dumping £2000 cash into creditors now in order to fit the rules to get a dro and having nothing at end of the 12 months dro

the only creditor I could not get an email for was capital one, they only had a po box address, live chat or phone number.

I wrote to them explaining things, they pleasantly wrote the debt off!!!

moorcroft, wescot, Tesco bank, link financial,pra group are my creditors and all have email addresses in any letters they have ever sent me

like I said do letters with second class stamps if push comes to shove

fatbelly

Can we not think of better ways to fritter away 2k rather than throw it at creditors who are headed for a DRO?


Is National Debtline actually taking you on to submit the DRO? They can do this but it's unusual. If you will be going to Money Wellness or CA, then you just say here's the situation: no car, assets under 2k, debts under 50k, surplus under 75, not a homeowner.

oldnfat

stu12345_2 said:

he can buy another car up to £4000, say a £2000 one, then he has £2000 cash all allowed .then he has more expenses that means he is likely not to have £20 surplus which gives him more wiggle room if he does overtime.


thus at end of dro he still has a car , rather than dumping £2000 cash into creditors now in order to fit the rules to get a dro and having nothing at end of the 12 months dro

the only creditor I could not get an email for was capital one, they only had a po box address, live chat or phone number.

I wrote to them explaining things, they pleasantly wrote the debt off!!!

moorcroft, wescot, Tesco bank, link financial,pra group are my creditors and all have email addresses in any letters they have ever sent me

like I said do letters with second class stamps if push comes to shove

yes Tesco is one of the 2 creditors i could get a relevant email address for, none of the others

oldnfat

fatbelly said:

Can we not think of better ways to fritter away 2k rather than throw it at creditors who are headed for a DRO?


Is National Debtline actually taking you on to submit the DRO? They can do this but it's unusual. If you will be going to Money Wellness or CA, then you just say here's the situation: no car, assets under 2k, debts under 50k, surplus under 75, not a homeowner.

This has been in the "making" for 2mths now, he originally wanted to give the whole £4000 to creditors - feeling guilty/ashamed etc he's let it get to this - but I managed to persuade otherwise.  @st@stu12345_2 wasn't to fit the rules, think he just wants to try to accept a bit of responsibility

Yes, National Debtline said they'd go for DRO once assets down to £2000.  Not sure if I could persuade him to start the process over again with someone else - its been a real nightmare to get to this point!

stu12345_2

he can buy things like a new couch, cooker,  carpets, bed , mattress , fridge adding up to £2000, keep receipts ,rather than dumping£2000 into the pockets of creditors.
cos once he gets a dro his credit file will be shot and he won't get any credit for 6 years.

national debt line will want a list of creditors, wage slips or bank statements to show what he earns.

that's about it

they aren't looking at what he has spent the money on, just that his balance is £2000 max in a SAVINGS account, cos if it's in a current account , then the balance is a revolving balance, eg it is used up monthly for living costs, then topped up again at end of month with wages.

only in bankruptcy application, the IP will look at 5 years of bank statements to see if you've hidden money or been reckless, eg a trip to last vages in the weeks before you go bankrupt.

but a dro is more simple and doesn't involve those checks

plus he will then have wasted £2000 into creditors pockets when he could rightfully used that cash to pay for things he is rightfully allowed to buy.

this happens alot and is the norm for folk going insolvent eg dro or bankrupt, and they need to use up cash legally and within the rules before making the application

forget the being ashamed, the creditors, the banks , got  their original money out of fresh air anyway from the FIAT system of helicopter money

I'm applying for a DRO and I've been on weekends away with wife over the last few months, no way are the creditors getting that money, I'm well below the £2000 in savings

oldnfat

stu12345_2 said:

he can buy things like a new couch, cooker,  carpets, bed , mattress , fridge adding up to £2000, keep receipts ,rather than dumping£2000 into the pockets of creditors.
cos once he gets a dro his credit file will be shot and he won't get any credit for 6 years.

national debt line will want a list of creditors, wage slips or bank statements to show what he earns.

that's about it
they aren't looking at what he has spent the money on, just that his balance is £2000 max in a SAVINGS account, cos if it's in a current account , then the balance is a revolving balance, eg it is used up monthly for living costs, then topped up again at end of month with wages.

plus he will then have wasted £2000 into creditors pockets when he could rightfully used that cash to pay for things he is rightfully allowed to buy.

this happens alot and is the norm for folk going insolvent eg dro or bankrupt, and they need to use up cash legally and within the rules before making the application

forget the being ashamed, the creditors, the banks , got  their original money out of fresh air anyway from the FIAT system of helicopter money

yes I get your point thankyou but I don't know how I get him to this. He's in rented, furnished accomodation so can't justify any of the expenditure you mentioned, has all of the clothes etc he could EVER want (hence all the debt!), not getting a car so I don't know what's left.

Sorry I don't understand what this means "the creditors, the banks , got  their original money out of fresh air anyway from the FIAT system of helicopter money"