Please god help, 60k in debt and feeling suicidal

eleanorl89

RAS said:

You do not want your parents' credit records wrecked by your financial association. So close that account immediately. 

Thank you, we are partners in the business though as they invested, what should I do in this situation? As i’m assuming we need a bank account. We’re all still classed as sole traders but it’s a partnership. Should i transfer all DDs to my new account for now, close the natwest business one and go from there? 

RAS

Doesn't matter if you don't have a business bank account for a few days, just let you parents know. Close it.

I think you can also open business accounts in Monzo, but maybe get your parents to do that first as they probably already have joint accounts.

kimwp

eleanorl89 said:

Emmia said:

eleanorl89 said:

Thanks guys, again much appreciated as always. Just had a default notice letter from Natwest so just want to check the wording from this please. They have also threatened court action, no threatening of selling the debt (only passing it on) and also threats of setting off funds from any accounts held with them

I know it was mentioned by several people in an earlier comment to change my bank accounts, who are currently with natwest. I have organised to switch to HSBC on the 20th January. The date on this letter has a deadline of 24th jan so should be fine?

however, as they have mentioned this as a threat, does it mean they are taking my case more seriously as i owe nearly 20k? Do they know I have personal accounts with them? (I Have a little over £900 total in my bank accounts). Or again do high street banks just include this as standard in their default notice letters? I’m expecting their actual default letter to sound scary too. Here’s what it said…..

“If the action required by this notice is taken before the date shown, the action below will not be taken in respect of the breach.

If you do not take the action required by this notice before the date Shown then the further action set out below may be taken against you.

Action to be taken if breach not remedied:

If you do not take the steps set out above to remedy the breach, we will terminate the Agreement and may demand immediate repayment of the monies due, plus any interest due. In addition, we may exercise our right of set off over any of your funds held elsewhere with us. We may also assign your account to a Debt Collection Agent or take Court action to recover the debt.

If you are not sure what to do, you should get help as soon as possible. The Government's Money Advice Service can help you find free debt advice and support, or you can contact the organisations listed in the Financial Conduct Authority's information sheet, which is provided alongside this letter. This information sheet also contains important intormation about your rights. If it is not included, you should contact us to get one.

If you have difficulty in paying any sum owed under this agreement, you can apply to the court for an order to give you more time to pay any sum owed or take any other action required by this notice. The free advice services referred to in this notice and in the Financial Conduct Authority's information sheet can help you explore this option.

We need to let you know that if we took legal action against you and a court decided you must pay us the money owend under the agreement, you may end up paying more than just the money owed under the agreement”

It does seem scarier than the other letters

Thank you!

Hi, I think the usual advice is to open a new basic bank account, not to switch your account(s).to another lender.

Opening a fresh account means you leave the debts with the previous bank who will then default you etc. and then you start afresh with a new bank where you don't have debts or a previous relationship. 

I just want to clarify (so you get the best advice) are you doing/trying to do a formal switch through the usual auto switching mechanism? Or just opening an additional account, and moving your essential direct debits manually?

I also expect banks will have linked your personal and business accounts they hold in some way, (at the back end) even if you have separate log ins for personal and business banking.

HSBC offered a switching service, so I chose fhat. Should I not have? Would it be too late to cancel fhis and just open a new basic account? Will Natwest decline the switch?

thank you

Opening a new account and manually transferring the income and bills you want to keep paying means you avoid the use of "right of offset" by the bank (see link below) and there's a clean break from the debt direct debits, so there's no chance your creditors will debit anything from your new account. It's a sensible "belts and braces" approach, that won't be needed in most cases, but it's best to avoid the risks.

https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/debt-collection/right-of-offset.aspx

ManyWays

The default notice  isnt just "standard wording" most of it is actually defined in legislation so a creditor has no option to vary the language (see https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1983/1561/schedule/2/made)
No one at NatWest sat down and thought about what to write to you, it was churned out by a computer. 

EssexHebridean

Yes - keep reminding yourself of that - nothing is personal, the name at the bottom of the letter may not even be a real person, and even if it were there is no way they are manually producing each of the thousands of letters which probably get sent out signed by them on a daily basis! That letter you've got? With the exception of the personal details literally hundreds of others get one of those every single day that is precisely identical. 

Nomunnofun1

eleanorl89 said:

RAS said:

You do not want your parents' credit records wrecked by your financial association. So close that account immediately. 

Thank you, we are partners in the business though as they invested, what should I do in this situation? As i’m assuming we need a bank account. We’re all still classed as sole traders but it’s a partnership. Should i transfer all DDs to my new account for now, close the natwest business one and go from there? 

If it’s a partnership, as in accounts are prepared and declared on a partnership return, you are not ‘classed as sole traders’. 

Each partner would be jointly and severally liable for any debts relating to the business. 

eleanorl89

Nomunnofun1 said:

eleanorl89 said:

RAS said:

You do not want your parents' credit records wrecked by your financial association. So close that account immediately. 

Thank you, we are partners in the business though as they invested, what should I do in this situation? As i’m assuming we need a bank account. We’re all still classed as sole traders but it’s a partnership. Should i transfer all DDs to my new account for now, close the natwest business one and go from there? 

If it’s a partnership, as in accounts are prepared and declared on a partnership return, you are not ‘classed as sole traders’. 

Each partner would be jointly and severally liable for any debts relating to the business. 

Yeah sorry i’m not savvy with this sort of stuff, our accountant does it all. Either way the business has no debts and i’ve closed the account related to it today, so hopefully that’s that issue dealt with for now

eleanorl89

Can I ask guys, if we decided to sell the house and have my husband be the only applicant on the new property (spoke with mortgage advisor today who said was doable with our current lender), it may free up a bit of money for me to service the debts. My Husband suggested this plan to me today & it does make sense

Not enough to cover all debts but ideally around 10-15k depending on what profit we managed to sell for. I’d ideally need to retain 2-3k for estate agent / solicitor fees, but would want to put the rest towards servicing my debts 

Question is, if we managed to sell in the next couple of months before it got to ccjs etc (if it ever did get that far), would the DCA’s or original creditors be able to demand I pay all the spare cash to them (which wouldn’t equal half as my husband put bigger deposit down). Or could they potentially stop us moving or even try to get a claim on the new house even if it was just in my Husbands name? Or could they demand ALL my equity, as in they wouldn’t even allow the 45k we had in this house, to be moved to a new house. Which would leave my husband short of a deposit for another property

Would this be seen as me trying to reduce my assets or something? I’d willingly give whatever I had left towards the debts, though as I say it wouldn’t be enough to cover all. But it could act as that settlement pot for when they come in from the DCAs? 

For reference bought the house for £310k, mortgage left is £265k approx.. Could likely sell for £325k-£330k after comparing similar properties

We spoke about it this evening & our mortgage is astronomical at £1400pm, after increasing when the whole Liz Truss thing happened…. we can’t afford that with current circumstances. So would like to move somewhere smaller & cheaper if possible. He would also like to completely separate all our joint interests. Although supportive, he is still very uneasy about being financially linked to me with the house & his credit file being affected if anything should ever happen between us (as in split)

I don’t even know if any of this makes sense as i’m so sleep deprived! 

eleanorl89

1am & i’m sat downstairs with my newborn really thinking this conversation with my Husband through. The more I think about it, i’m sure this is his way of preparing for a separation. It sure feels like it

So if he does decide he wants to separate, I may need my money from the house to set me up somewhere else. God knows where as my credit file will be trash. Will I be forced to give all the money away at this point to creditors anyway?

At that point I am completely lost. Sorry, I’m such a drainer

eleanorl89

Sorry posting again. 4am, still up with my 5 week old and so incredibly sleep deprived, I think i’m a bit delusional and the little sleep i am getting is consumed by dreams / thoughts of debt and money

I’ve been trawling the posts on the site to find anyone in a similar situation to myself who hasn’t lost everything, I can’t see a way out of this where I don’t lose everything