Opinions please on my first steps I need to make with debt

[Deleted User]

RAS said:

Do you have any joint accounts with hubbie? If so you need to separate your financial accounts so that your action doesn't affect his credit record and vice versa.

And 2021rdsunshine pointed out, estate agents and landlords can only check your records to the extent that you allow. In practice that usually means the public registers of insolvency and CCJs. 

Do bear in mind that novice adults are very vulnerable as newbies. You and hubbie need to talk to them about future arrangements. You collectively don't want either or both parents making decisions on things like housing without understanding what the youngsters want, realistically. Which might not be a secure home in both parent's new homes, but if things remain amicable, the possibility of stopping over or swapping rooms with another sibling. And they are dang expensive because you can't claim any help for them but the system assumes they will remain dependant on their parents. 

Thank you for the reply, No we don’t have any joint accounts with anything apart from the rent of the house. It’s all very amicable so if we was to do the DMP we’d both do it at same time and help each other get it planned out and sorted.

Thats great about the renting as hadn’t realised about that until sunshine mentioned it also. 

Yeah the children are kept up to date with everything and we all have chats together when need to discuss any plans and the future. 

[Deleted User]

Rob5342 said:

An SOA is a good starting point. It can feel very frightening when you are in debt but there is always a solution and thousands and thousands of people get themselves out of it. I got into £42,000 of debt and spent years trying every trick I could to meet the minimum payments as I was terrified of the consequencea. I convinced myself that this was just a bad year and id be able yo get some paid off next yesr, but that just repeated every year and things just got worse. I eventually started a dmp and yhat turned things round immediately as I had money to live on again. I gradually built up the confidence to look at different ways of tackling it. Three years later I am down to £1800 of enforceable debt, achieved through a combination of paying debts off, refunds from affordability complaints and creditors being unable to supply the cca. I have four defaults on my credit record but these will start dropping off next year as i had one backdated as part of an unaffordabiilty complaint.

Remember that DMPs are informal arrangements with no set rules and you can change them at any time. if you run one yourself then it's simply a case of telling the creditors what you'll be paying them each month and making that payment, there is no need yo give them any other information. You could each start your owm now and then just adjust the payments when you get your own houses. When my wife stopped working I just said yhst due to a change in circumstances I'd be reducing my payments and that was that. 

Wow that sounds great you’ve done so well! I hope I can achieve this too. Can I ask what does ‘enforceable debt’ mean? Apologies if that’s a silly question. Does it mean forced by the courts?

Thats what we have been doing saying it will get better each month or year and it doesn’t. Needs sorting now really. My credit card company has increased their interest to 46% due to me not paying boosted payments any more so I need those sorting as nothing is getting paid off hardly. 

Thank you so much for the reply and information! 

stu12345_2

this 46% card will be too much, you need it to default ( by not paying  them anything)then interest will stop.
 enforceable debt is imo consumer debt like loans and cards that have proved the contract is legal and legit.

you see some contracts are lost, eg the credit agreement you signed when you take out  a loan or credit card.

they are normally " lost" so to speak when the creditor gives up on you and sells the debt on to another debt company that fancies it and hopes to make some repayments from you.

and if push ever came to shove they could get a ccj and that's about as far as they could get as the debt is enforceable but they can't if the creditor has lost or not got the agreement or a copy of the loan agreement you signed many years ago

imagine it as you losing the receipt for something you bought , the shop says no receipt, no refund lol.

no credit agreement, no legal debt exists 

and again that enforcement can be years away 

sourcrates

[Deleted User] said: Can I ask what does ‘enforceable debt’ mean?
Apologies if that’s a silly question.
Does it mean forced by the courts?

No.
Once you stop making your regular contractual repayments to your debts, and enter pretty much any debt solution, most original creditors lose interest in you as a customer, and will either assign your account to a debt collector, or more likely, sell the debt to another company.

These companies write to you all brazen and large as life, saying we have bought your debt, you must pay us now.

Well, yes and no, they can`t just rock up and ask you to pay a debt without providing proof that they have the legal right to ask you for payment.

On request they should provide you with a copy of the original default notice, copy of the notice of assignment, and a copy of the original credit agreement, together with a statement of account.

Failure to provide these documents can render the debt unenforceable in court, there is a bit more to it than that, but that is the gist of it.

You are not at this point in proceedings yet, you are only at the beginning of the process, so this is not applicable to you just yet.

Rob5342

If a creditor wants to take you to court to enforce payment of a debt then they have to provide the credit agreement that you agreed to when taking out the load, or a copy of it. If they can't produce a copy when you ask for it then they can't take any court action to make you pay it and you can simply stop paying if if you choose.

Asking for the CCA and making affordability complaints can help reduce the length of a DMP but there is no guarantee of the outcome and the process can take some time. To start with I'd concentrate on getting yourself into a sustainable position that allows you to pay everything off fully. Once you have that sorted you may want to consider making CCA requests or affordability complaints to speed it up.

Take it step by step, you've made a great achievement by accepting that it's not sustainable, it took me about 8 years to get to that point. It won't be long before you start to feel in control and on your way to becoming debt free.

[Deleted User]

stu12345_2 said:

this 46% card will be too much, you need it to default ( by not paying  them anything)then interest will stop.
 enforceable debt is imo consumer debt like loans and cards that have proved the contract is legal and legit.

you see some contracts are lost, eg the credit agreement you signed when you take out  a loan or credit card.

they are normally " lost" so to speak when the creditor gives up on you and sells the debt on to another debt company that fancies it and hopes to make some repayments from you.

and if push ever came to shove they could get a ccj and that's about as far as they could get as the debt is enforceable but they can't if the creditor has lost or not got the agreement or a copy of the loan agreement you signed many years ago

imagine it as you losing the receipt for something you bought , the shop says no receipt, no refund lol.

no credit agreement, no legal debt exists 

and again that enforcement can be years away 

Thank you. That makes sense. Never knew that! 

Yeah the 46% card needs to stop and sorted I have high balance too so most of it is gone on interest and no balance paid off. 

Thank you for the information.  

[Deleted User]

sourcrates said:

[Deleted User] said: Can I ask what does ‘enforceable debt’ mean?
Apologies if that’s a silly question.
Does it mean forced by the courts?

No.
Once you stop making your regular contractual repayments to your debts, and enter pretty much any debt solution, most original creditors lose interest in you as a customer, and will either assign your account to a debt collector, or more likely, sell the debt to another company.

These companies write to you all brazen and large as life, saying we have bought your debt, you must pay us now.

Well, yes and no, they can`t just rock up and ask you to pay a debt without providing proof that they have the legal right to ask you for payment.

On request they should provide you with a copy of the original default notice, copy of the notice of assignment, and a copy of the original credit agreement, together with a statement of account.

Failure to provide these documents can render the debt unenforceable in court, there is a bit more to it than that, but that is the gist of it.

You are not at this point in proceedings yet, you are only at the beginning of the process, so this is not applicable to you just yet.

Thats great. I understand now. All a learning curve lol. This helps a lot so thank you! Think I just need to get started with it now. No more dragging it on 

[Deleted User]

Rob5342 said:

If a creditor wants to take you to court to enforce payment of a debt then they have to provide the credit agreement that you agreed to when taking out the load, or a copy of it. If they can't produce a copy when you ask for it then they can't take any court action to make you pay it and you can simply stop paying if if you choose.

Asking for the CCA and making affordability complaints can help reduce the length of a DMP but there is no guarantee of the outcome and the process can take some time. To start with I'd concentrate on getting yourself into a sustainable position that allows you to pay everything off fully. Once you have that sorted you may want to consider making CCA requests or affordability complaints to speed it up.

Take it step by step, you've made a great achievement by accepting that it's not sustainable, it took me about 8 years to get to that point. It won't be long before you start to feel in control and on your way to becoming debt free.

Thank you. Yes I’m already feeling there might be a light at the end of the tunnel after all. Was feeling I had no way out of it but found so much info here don’t feel as hopeless now.