So Confused!

ezmay

Morning!

My parents are aware of what's going on now. They did know before, but not the extent of the problem or for how long it's been going on.

Has anyone else here faced up to their problems after so long? Is it do-able?

Ezmay

postingalwaysposting

ezmay, welcome. Just wanted to say be careful. Because your debts are so old some of them would have be statute barred (meaning the creditors cant chase you for the money) especially as you say you had last contact with some of them in 1995. Generally the rule of thumb is if you haven't acknoledge the debt and havent made any contact (ie phone/letter/payment) within 6 years they cant chase you for the debt. Here is a post from fermi explaining more linky.

I would suggest optaining your credit report to see how you stand. You would then have better knowledge of where you stand. You can then also go to a free debt charity armed with information.

National Debtline ~ Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) ~ CAB ~ Payplan

ezmay

Thanks for your replies. I'm sure things will start to get clearer bit by bit!

Ooh, and thanks for the links.

Ezmay

GirlRacer_2

Hi Ezmay, I've sent you a pm

ezmay

GirlRacer wrote: »

Hi Ezmay, I've sent you a pm

Hi GirlRacer

I don't think I got any pms?

Ezmay

Eager_Elephant

Hi ezmay

I also noted the debts older than 6 years but please don't go spouting this off to your creditors because statute barred does not count if you have not kept them up to date with your address so that they could write to you. The other thing is how do you know they haven't got a County Court Judgement against you - if they got a CCJ in 1999 it won't be on your credit file as it falls off after 6 years but it is still recoverable in law.

I think you need to contact CAB or similar and see if they can help with letters to creditors to say you don't acknowledge the debt but can you have a copy of the agreement and can they confirm if they have got a CCJ against you.

If you manage to open your letters you could try ringing one of them up and saying you have had a letter and please could they explain a bit more about it, they will then tell you the company and hopefully the date it was taken out .etc and then you can say well I can't remember I'll come back to you - this way you have not admitted the debt but you have started to gain information on each debt before you decide the next course of action.

If you notified your bank of your new address then they will have updated your credit file and before long all your creditors will be in contact which is why you need to try and sort this out.

EE

starlaa

Very informative thread.

I am in the same position so I apologise for partially hijacking this thread.

Yeah so what I want to know is if I access my credit report and give my current address, can any old creditors access my new address and try and get their money back?

My debts from about 1999 when I was a student and its only about £1500.

I keep getting lines above my text I'm typing strangley enough :S

ezmay

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Hi ezmay

I also noted the debts older than 6 years but please don't go spouting this off to your creditors because statute barred does not count if you have not kept them up to date with your address so that they could write to you. The other thing is how do you know they haven't got a County Court Judgement against you - if they got a CCJ in 1999 it won't be on your credit file as it falls off after 6 years but it is still recoverable in law.

I think you need to contact CAB or similar and see if they can help with letters to creditors to say you don't acknowledge the debt but can you have a copy of the agreement and can they confirm if they have got a CCJ against you.

If you manage to open your letters you could try ringing one of them up and saying you have had a letter and please could they explain a bit more about it, they will then tell you the company and hopefully the date it was taken out .etc and then you can say well I can't remember I'll come back to you - this way you have not admitted the debt but you have started to gain information on each debt before you decide the next course of action.

If you notified your bank of your new address then they will have updated your credit file and before long all your creditors will be in contact which is why you need to try and sort this out.

EE

Thanks for your comments EE and starlaa.

I'm still procrastinating (well, I've been doing it for approx 10 years, so a couple more weeks is neither here nor there!) regarding contacting creditors and sending off for my credit file.

It's just so scary, even though I've decided to try and sort the mess out, I'm still partially in "if I hide, it'll all go away" mode. I suppose I'm quite scared about seeing it all in black and white too... :eek:

I've got opening times and days for my local CAB, which again, doesn't seem like a huge leap forward, however, for me, it is! I suppose i'm slowly accepting that I need help! Now I just need to get an appointment with them (it takes a few weeks apparently).

[quote/Eager_Elephant] I also noted the debts older than 6 years but please don't go spouting this off to your creditors because statute barred does not count if you have not kept them up to date with your address so that they could write to you. [/quote]
Ah, no, I didn't keep any creditors updated with my address. So this means the statute barred thing won't work for me?

Like starlaa, I'm worried that if I start communicating with my creditors, there will be a flood of new "you owe us money" letters from companies I'd forgotten about. Has this happened to anyone here?

Starlaa - no worries about thread hijacking - that's one of the questions I have too. :cool:

Everything seems to have gone quiet on the post and phone call front (not for long, I'm sure), but I'm going to send off for my credit file tomorrow at the latest, so I'll let you know if I hear from anyone else soon after!

Thanks
Ez

nimbo

[quote/Eager_Elephant] I also noted the debts older than 6 years but please don't go spouting this off to your creditors because statute barred does not count if you have not kept them up to date with your address so that they could write to you. [/quote]
Ah, no, I didn't keep any creditors updated with my address. So this means the statute barred thing won't work for me?

i think if they didn't have your address then it works in your favour...

good luck.;)

ezmay

nimbo wrote: »

[quote/Eager_Elephant] I also noted the debts older than 6 years but please don't go spouting this off to your creditors because statute barred does not count if you have not kept them up to date with your address so that they could write to you.

Ah, no, I didn't keep any creditors updated with my address. So this means the statute barred thing won't work for me?

i think if they didn't have your address then it works in your favour...

good luck.;)[/quote]

Thanks for replying nimbo!

So do you mean that I didn't have to update them with my new addresses? Sorry about another question, but I'm easily confused (hence the thread title!)!

Ta
Ezmay