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

ManyWays

Do you mind saying what has gone wrong with your income, and will it be going up again? 

Have you talked to your adult children about them starting to make a contribution to the household - they should at the very least be covering their own mobiles, clothes, haircuts, food... 

You are living in London, do you actually need the car, because you won't be able to refinance it at the end of the PCP term so it will have to go then. Losing the car will also save on insurance, road tax, petrol, parking etc. 

sourcrates

Wescott are just acting for their client, Aqua are still dallying over registering that default.
Wescott can`t do anything as its not their debt, so ignore Wescott.

Token payments just prolong the debt becoming statute barred, and are not a good long term strategy, if you can`t afford to pay them anything, tell them so.

Looking forward, you will need to come up with a plan, as any hold will only be temporary.

husnu1

sourcrates said:

Wescott are just acting for their client, Aqua are still dallying over registering that default.
Wescott can`t do anything as its not their debt, so ignore Wescott.

Token payments just prolong the debt becoming statute barred, and are not a good long term strategy, if you can`t afford to pay them anything, tell them so.

Looking forward, you will need to come up with a plan, as any hold will only be temporary.

I know that token payments aren’t a long-term solution, and I’m not planning to rely on them. I am trying to improve my finances.  It’s just that the stress from all this is really getting to me and starting to affect my work as well.

I’d appreciate your advice on the next step. Should I continue holding off, wait for the defaults to appear on my credit report, and use this time to try and improve my finances, with the aim of moving onto a DMP later, as originally planned?

So far, I’ve missed four months of payments and haven’t contacted any of my creditors. I’ve also blocked their numbers, so I’ve got a backlog of voicemails I haven’t listened to. I know that’s not ideal, but I just haven’t been in the right headspace to deal with it all.

Would it be better to wait for the defaults, or should I now start making contact and offering token payments — even before they show up on my credit file? What about Westcot? Now they started calling me as well?

husnu1

ManyWays said:

Do you mind saying what has gone wrong with your income, and will it be going up again? 

Have you talked to your adult children about them starting to make a contribution to the household - they should at the very least be covering their own mobiles, clothes, haircuts, food... 

You are living in London, do you actually need the car, because you won't be able to refinance it at the end of the PCP term so it will have to go then. Losing the car will also save on insurance, road tax, petrol, parking etc. 

Yes, I’m hoping my income will improve soon, and I’ve been speaking with my family to see how we can support each other and improve the situation.

The problem is, I’ve started to panic. It’s been nearly four months since I stopped making payments, and I’ve been waiting for the defaults to happen — but so far, only Aqua has issued one, and even that hasn’t appeared on my credit report yet.

On top of that, the constant phone calls and letters from creditors almost every day are making things worse. I know they can’t just show up, but it genuinely feels like someone’s going to knock on my door at any moment.

To make things harder, I was diagnosed with ADHD last month. The psychiatrist told me it could explain why I’ve struggled with managing money and found myself in and out of debt for most of my life. That gave me some clarity, but it also added to the emotional weight of everything that’s going on.

sourcrates

No need at all for panic, you are in charge remember?

What you have to understand is that nothing can or will happen if you continue with the non payment strategy.

This is because before a lender can take legal action (not that they will but just to outline the legal requirements) the debt must first default, so the agreement has to end, and your relationship with that creditor must have broken down irretrievably.

That is what a default actually is, the legal ending of your agreement.

Lenders can do nothing legally until this happens, so if further action is what`s worrying you, don`t let it, as it can`t happen until the account defaults.

Its all computer generated collection activity you are getting, its best just to ignore it, block numbers etc, its just the computer programmed to contact you, its not someone at the bank with a personal vendetta.

Once your debts do default, then the lenders will decide what to do with the accounts, they will either sell them, appoint a debt collector to collect them, or they may hold on to them themselves, whatever happens, you will be written too about it, so no need to worry here.

husnu1

So, shall I just ignore Westcot for the moment, or just ignore them as well? They are acting for Aqua. And also, where would I see if the defaults are recorded on my Credit Report? I use Clear Score and Credit Karma.

sourcrates

Waiting for defaults whilst saving a good emergency fund is the ideal scenario.

The default is registered on your credit file entry for each particular lender, under the "status" section, it gives a choice of AP/D/Green tick for OK etc etc, D is for default, it will also give the date the debt defaulted.

husnu1

After months of waiting for my accounts to default, I’ve decided I can’t continue down that path. I have ADHD and anxiety problems, and the stress of ignoring letters and phone calls and sitting in silence has become overwhelming for me.

I’ve now decided to take a more proactive approach. I’m going to write to each of my creditors and ask them to accept a token payment for the next 3 to 6 months, as my financial situation has worsened recently.

Right now, I need to prioritise essential bills. I’m a month behind on both my council tax and energy payments, so I need to sort those out first.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation where you stopped waiting for defaults and chose to engage instead? I’d appreciate any advice on the best way to approach creditors now that I’ve made this decision.

sourcrates

You have kept to a strategy for 5 consecutive months, contacting creditors now at this late stage is not a good idea.

Especially when you can only offer token payments, which in all honestly are a complete waste of everyone`s time.

As the debt gets no smaller, it costs the lender more to process the payments than they are actually worth, and it just keeps re-setting the statute barred clock with every payment you make, so not really a good idea.

They are more likely to tell you not to pay anything, until your situation improves, rather than accept something that will cost them money to process.

So think again about what you are doing here, get your CT and energy bills up to date, concentrate on doing that, and by then there should be progress on the non essential side of things, don`t mess it all up now, you`re doing great, keep it up.

RAS

If mental health is an issue, there may be reasons to ask for write offs? Or to make affordability claims? 

I know that's stressful, but it would be a useful use of your effort.