I’m out of my mind with worrying about debt. Need advice

Rob5342

Post the SOA as mentioned and we can advise further. Bailiffs are the very last resort at the end of a long process and as long as you dont completely ignore the debts you shouldn't get anywhere near that. 

Ziggyy123

Will do, thank you !

Ziggyy123

Hello again, I am still trying to get information together but have a few questions if that’s ok.

1. Is it best to include all my debts or try and pay one or 2 ?
2. I have a Nat West Account and can’t see any links to anyone I have debts with , so I assume, I transfer all my essential direct debits over to them ? This could take some time as I believe I cannot transfer Direct Debits, so have to get in touch with everyone.
3. Once notified of defaults, I believe there is a letter that I should not ignore later in the process. What is this and what will I need to do ? 

Reading all the posts I can see that some people manage themselves once in default, but I think I might find too stressful. 

Thank you for your help.

RAS

Ziggyy123 said:

Hello again, I am still trying to get information together but have a few questions if that’s ok.

1. Is it best to include all my debts or try and pay one or 2 ?
2. I have a Nat West Account and can’t see any links to anyone I have debts with , so I assume, I transfer all my essential direct debits over to them ? This could take some time as I believe I cannot transfer Direct Debits, so have to get in touch with everyone.
3. Once notified of defaults, I believe there is a letter that I should not ignore later in the process. What is this and what will I need to do ? 

Reading all the posts I can see that some people manage themselves once in default, but I think I might find too stressful. 

Thank you for your help.

It very much depends on which debt solution you choose and we don't yet know which you might be eligible for, in the absence of the SOA.

Regarding the letter before action, that can't be issued until the default is registered. Prior to the default, creditor have to send you a letter demanding repayment of the full debt within 14 days. Come back here when you get that.

Ziggyy123

Ok thank you. One of my loans was taken over by a different company so looking for the information prior to completion of SOA.

Will get back to you asap.

sourcrates

Don`t do anything in haste, or imagine possible fantasy scenarios here.

You could stop paying all your unsecured, non essential debt today, and there`s an 85% chance of it all reaching the statute barred stage in 6 years time without any formal action occurring, or anyone knocking on your door.

The bark is far worse than the actual bite in most cases of debt collection, so you need to alter your mind-set from them calling the shots to you doing so, make that your starting point, and the pressure just evaporates away.

enthusiasticsaver

Given your situation and without seeing the soa which would be helpful I would suggest that you default as you have stated your salary does not cover your bills.  Is that why you cashed in your pension as tax wise this is quite disadvantageous to you?  If you need the £10k to cover essential bills then you have no choice other than to default.  

Rob5342

Ziggyy123 said:

Reading all the posts I can see that some people manage themselves once in default, but I think I might find too stressful. 

Stepchange have their uses but they also give some incredibly bad advice, they act in the creditors best interests at your expense. If you decide to do a DMP then don't involve them until the debts have defaulted, they can then be useful in managing the payments. You can leave them managing them or move to doing it yourself whwn you feel confident enough. Whatever you do, dont involve them if you have a lump sum you can pay off. They will want you to pay as much as possible to everyone instead of clear some of them at a reduced amount. 

SPM87

stepchange are awful, I have zero idea why anyone would recommend them, they work for creditors, they will strip you of any spare money to give back to debts and likely leave you with a damaged credit file for longer than if you ignored your debts and just responded to any legal claims to avoid CCJ. they are NOT a real charity... not sure why it would be hard to pay what you want to these debts? simply manually pay to the details from the letters chasing you AFTER you have defaulted on them? personally speaking, I am not sure what the benefit of paying back defaulted unsecured debt is? UNLESS you get a Letter of claim and they send proper enforceable documents to you...emphasis on PROPER.. then I fail to see much point. 

Anyone feeling any morality to this stuff, go research 2008 when banks more then defaulted and was on the verge of literally bringing down the entire economies of the West and borrowed out of your hardworking taxpayers money to stay afloat so they could continue forcing people to pay defaulted debts like us, they did not lose their lines of credit, didn't go bust and didn't suffer ANY consequence.

you are already going to be "punished" for 6 years by not being able to borrow any money.. tbh this is a good thing. 

just my view at the moment being in similar situation

Ziggyy123

Thank you for all your advice. I am struggling to get some loan information, so still not managed to get an exact amount that I owe as yet. 

The 10k was withdrawn because I can’t pay all my bills and when I’m short I dip into it. Although I did pay 2k off a credit card recently (probably shouldn’t have), so I can use the card later if necessary.
My main bank is Halifax and have debt with them, but have another account with Nat West and no Debt, but not a basic account. Should I move to Nat West ? I was thinking of paying the Halifax debts and another bank they link with so I don’t have to swap, as feel too stressed to sort out all my direct debits at the moment.