Home, shot, from Afghanistan to HSBC/MCS/CDR

Shotters

I have just gotten out of hospital after several months having being shot in Afghanistan.

I have owed HSBC a credit card debt for about 5 years now but have never had the money to repay it, I have merely serviced the debt for 5 years running. The debt is about £9600. My interest payments were £200 which was all I could afford, eventually I gave up and tried to speak to someone at the bank but of course no one would talk over the phone and if I went into the bank itself they referred me back to the Credit Card arm of HSBC.

At that point, early 2007, I was working in an office when I was called up to go to Afghanistan with the TA. Seeing an opportunity to stop paying rent and save up enough to sort the debt I went. I left the house but did not leave a forwarding address so all of the demands HSBC must have sent me will have arrived after may when I left. They passed the debt on to MCS in September the month I went out to Afghan. Now out of hospital I phoned MCS and they said it has been passed onto CDR.

HSBC gave me a £2300 credit card as a student, and the increased that to £7000. When I started to default they increased it to £8500. That must break some kind of lending criteria. I wouldnt lend a student that money!

As if to further complicate matters when I was mobilised I didnt get paid by the military through May, June and July. I got paid in the middle of August and was living off my girlfriend, so that will have negated any income arriving in my account.

Sorry if I have gone on. But I need to know the best way to take care of this debt, what MCS/CDR can do to me and how I can get this debt back to HSBC to take care of. Crazy thing is now Im back from Afghanistan I can afford to pay the debt.

Please dont waste your time replying to this post please just direct me to anyother relevant posts.

Thanks guys.

Shotters

findingmyownway

Hi and welcome,

I dont think you are going to find the quick fix you are looking for. I don't think you will be able to get the debt 'back to HSBC'. You need to contact the company that the debt is with now. If you can afford to pay it then great, just ask them for a settlement figure.

saffronflowers

Hi and welcome - glad to hear you are better. There are several routes that you can down depending on what you wish to do.

1) Request your CCA - the agreement you signed when you opened the account - if after a statutory amount of time if they cannot provide it then the debt is unenforceable. - It is complicated but it does work.

2) Offer a full and final settlement

3) Negociate monthly repayments that suit your finanacial situation. There are many laws that protect debtors if they can prove that they can only pay a small amount.

Hope this helps and am sure someone with more knowledge than I will be along soon

Sfx

Shotters

Thanks Guys,

My biggest concern is that HSBC were charging me for a credit facility that I wasnt using and I dont want to pay them money theyre not entitled to.

They stopped the credit facility at the end of 2006 but continued charging me circa 18% apr until the closed the account in the middle of 2007, despite my attempts on the phone to ask for a resonable interest rate that I could afford.

I can arrange and negotiate payment with MCS/CDR on the phone but HSBC would nt talk to me. They just kept asking me to write.

Ill write to CDR today and ask them what they want and I will consider making terms with them if its the best option.
Thanks for the quick response guys,

Shotters

duchy

By making an offer for full and final settlement that is in effect what you are doing as it will be less than the total now owed-however I honestly don't think you have moral ground to stand on as going out to Afganistan was choice rather than compulsory posting. (Please don't think I'm saying to go there as you did is a bad thing-but you chose not to leave a forwarding address when a BFPO was available)
to you. I wouldn't ask them what they want though-I'd make an opening offer and see how they respond.

rog2

Hi shotters, and welcome to DFW.

Whilst I may not agree with the role that this Government has been playing in the politics of other countries, I feel extremely disgusted with the way that people, like yourself, are being treated when you return to the UK.
I have vivid memories of a television interview which was covering a mail delivery to Iraq, and one soldier opening a letter only to find that it was a summons relating to unpaid council tax. :mad:

The FIRST thing, that you need to do, is to talk with one of the Debt Counselling Charities, such as CAB, CCCS or National Debtline. There are links to these charities at the top of the page. I am, quite frankly, surprised that 'debt counselling' is not offered as a service to troops returning from duty who may have 'built up' debts through no fault of their own.

You can, of course, request the cca from HSBC. You should, also, look at reclaiming all penalty charges that they have added to this account - have a look at the 'reclaiming bank charges' forum on this site.

Do NOT write to MCS or CDR until you have taken advice from one of the Debt Charities. MCS are the 'internal' debt collection Agency of HSBC and will try to 'entrap' you into making a payment agreement that you can not afford.

There WILL be a solution for you - we just need to find it.

It would help if you post your SOA (Statement of Affairs) listing income, expenditure and your debts - then we will be better placed to advise you.

Good Luck

tsharp

Not money related, but how did you get shot, and was it bad? (not that there's a good way to get shot)

Shotters

Thanks Guys,

So dont call CDR, call a debt counselling charit to start with.

Request SAR and work out the interest and charges they have applied to the account.

Do I need to let CDR know the debt is in dispute so they dont try to take the CCJ option?

And if I pursue the CCA option I can always offer full and final payment at a later date?

I dont mind the paperwork, I have literally got all the time in the world to take these guys on while I start getting better.

Can anyone direct me to a post that deals with the CCA route or outline it here?

Thanks again guys have a good weekend.

Shotters

rog2

Correct Shotters

In fact you can request the cca directly from CDR (it doesn't matter that they are not the original creditors) they are still obliged by law to provide it.

For a 'template letter' click on the following link: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=7509395#post7509395

They have 12 working days in which to supply the true copy of the original signed cca. If they are unable to do so, then they will not be able to enforce the agreement without first obtaining a Court Order.

Be very careful that they do not simply provide you with a copy of the application form - this is not a cca.
I will post a link, later, telling you exactly what information a cca needs to contain, in order to make it enforceable.

If they do send you a copy of the cca, then you will be in a stronger position to negociate a 'full & final settlement' and to question the 'charges' element of the 'debt'.

Shotters

One slight point is that because I have been away for so long all of the Correspondence from HSBC/MCS/CDR has gone to my old address. This is why the debt was passed to MCS/CDR in the first place because of a lack of communication. HSBC thought I had done a runner which wasn't the case.

So I have no correspondance from anyone and was going to set-up a mailbox so that I can correspond with them so that I dont have to suffer them visiting my relatives addresses.

If this changes anything, just let me know or Ill follow the programme of action outlined above.

Thanks,

Shotters.

rog2

Shotters wrote: »

So I have no correspondance from anyone and was going to set-up a mailbox so that I can correspond with them so that I dont have to suffer them visiting my relatives addresses.

If this changes anything, just let me know or Ill follow the programme of action outlined above.

Thanks,

Shotters.

Shouldn't make any difference, shotters - just bear in mind that there are ways of finding your real address from a po box number.