£31,000 Credit Card Debt and My Anxiety is Unbearable

tigergambit

You have done so well to get this far you should be very pleased with yourself.

I would still await confirmation on your defaults but if you have confirmation in writing have they asked you to start paying yet or are they still deciding how to handle your debt?

It is more than likely that at least some of it will be sold on to third parties and there is no point in you commencing payments before that point. So hold firm until you receive full details and start with small payments then.

RAS

Once the defaults are issued the creditors will decide whether to sell the debt, assign it to a debt collector  or, less often, retain the debt and collect themselves.

You think about your personal debt. They have thousands of accounts and the decision may depend on whether a whole bundle is more or less valuable, has a ready buyer or they have capacity to manage inhouse.

That decision may or may not be made promptly and if it's not kept in house the new creditor/collector may take a few months to tell you what they want you to do. That letter will include their reference number and usually the account code for payments. 

Often you can just log in and make payments on line. Sometimes they will try to get you to call them to discuss payments. This is about affordability which is key to the rules today, both whether you can afford what you offer, but sometimes whether you can afford more.

Once you have the account details you can set up standing orders if you wish, to reduce the admin load.

Or you could ask a debt charity to take over the distribution to reduce the load on you?

Rob5342

There's no need to rush here. Wait until the defaults show on your credit report, then when someone has written to you about payments then engage with them. As mentioned they should provide the details for paying or have a website you can set them up on. With Barclaycard for example I got a letter from PRA saying the debt had been sold to them and asking me to make payments, they provided bank details on the back of the letter and gave an email address to contact them on, along with their website address that I could do it all on.

When the time comes always pay by standing order so you stay in control, never pay by direct debit or debit card as then you hsve to contact them to change the amount.