Credit card debt

Gooders84

Hi

Long story short, I had an awful gambling habit that spiralled out of control, I’m now 5 years clean but the debt I amassed on credit cards have now got too much, it’s at about 50k. I’ve managed to completely turn my life around lost weight and starting running.

I stopped paying the cards in roughly October which were spread over Lloyds, mnba, virgin, Halifax and NatWest. 2 have defaulted, one to link finance and one to PRE. I’m expecting the others too as well.

What my best thing to do now? Do I pay a minimum fee to these company’s or not pay anything?

Any help would be much appreciated as this is the final cloud hanging over me.

Thanks

ArtyJ931

My own plan has been to stop paying and wait for them to default, in the mean time building up an emergency fund. Once defaulted I will start paying them an amount each by standing order that allows me to build up a seperate fund for making settlement offers a few years down the line. I have also put in affordability complaints and am hoping that some at least are successful and knock some off my total.

Not paying anything at all or a token amount seems to me to be a higher risk of them taking court action which I would personally want to avoid, particularly as I have a house.

I think it's different for everybody but read around some threads and start to get an idea of your options, pros and cons, and start to develop a plan.

fatbelly

It depends on your strategy. Give us a soa and we'll help you to develop one

https://lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php

Gooders84

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990607#Comment_81990607

thanks for the reply, what would you think not to be a token amount?

I’ve seen some people say to pay £5

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81990634#Comment_81990634

I am really at the beginning of the DMP journey myself so have decided my own strategy based on what I have read about other people’s experiences.
Other people will be here with more concrete advice hopefully!

Grumpelstiltskin

Paying a token amount just kicks the problem a little bit further down the line.

If you complete a honest SOA then when we see it we can give you the best advice based on your situation, just because other people do certain things it doesn't mean it is the best for you to do.