Husbands Credit Card...........Please can someone help?

Confused_Newbie

Hi Im relatively new here so apologies if this is the wrong place to post.

Basically my husband has a Visa card with the Northern Bank from before we got married. He has been really bad at making payments on it, basically he is lazy and never bothered to do it. Now despite several calls to him and him making a few payments it has been passed to a Debt Management Company, somewhere called APEX.

They have been in contact to say that the Northern Bank have instructed the debt must be repayed within 6 months. There is currently £3900 on this card and we just dont have the money to pay it. We contacted them yesterday to see if we could set up an arrangement to pay the £3900 over 12 months but they said no it was not possible. The longest they could let it be paid over was 9 months with re-payments of £433 per month. I am completely frantic cause I have no idea where we are going to find £433 for the next 9 months to pay it.

I do realise this debt has got to be repaid and really want to get it out of the way (hence the reason I am now taking responsibility for it) I am frantic as to what we are going to do.

Has anyone got any advice?

Waspeze

Hi ya, not really too sure when it comes to DCA's (this was just secretly bumping your thread to the top so someone more knowledgeable can help )

Seaxwyn

Hi there - and sympathies for your horrible situation. I hope your husband has learned his lesson and won't ignore bills in future!

Is your credit rating good? If so, you could apply for a credit card that gives you 0% interest on balance transfers and use that money to pay off the debt

eg the Virgin Credit Card will give you 0% interest for 15 months, and you can transfer money into your current account or write a cheque to APEX - either way you pay a 3% fee. You'd need to check the deal is still on offer (read the 'Credit Cards' page on this website) - if so, this would give you 15 months to pay the sum off.

Good luck

angeldiva

Bumping your thread as well…

I might be wrong and if I am someone will correct me but If you write to them with a good soa and say that sorry this is the only amount you can afford to pay for example £50 a month usually they accept it as they don’t really want to come and take your things. If it ends up in court the court just ends up looking at your SOA and agreeing for you to pay £50 a month so it ends up being the same outcome for them.

Other more knowledgeable people…is this right?

Confused_Newbie

Thanks everyone. Now can I ask what an SOA is? And how I do one. Im determined to get rid of this debt but need to be realistic in what we can afford to pay

JimmyTheWig

Seaxwyn wrote: »

Is your credit rating good? If so, you could apply for a credit card that gives you 0% interest on balance transfers and use that money to pay off the debt

Completely agree with this idea. Even if your credit rating (or income) isn't perfect, you still might be ok. Because you'd only need a credit limit of £1300.

Why? Well, I'll tell you.
You can afford to pay the money off in 12 monthly installments. That means you can afford £325 a month.
With the Virgin credit card, your minimum monthly repayments will be £25. That means you can afford to pay £300 a month off your debt. But they want £433 for 9 months.
So you need to borrow enough money from Virgin to be able to make your £300 a month up to £433 a month - i.e. £133 a month for 9 months. That's £1197.
You'll have to borrow £37 more than this, though, as your first Virgin repayment will include the balance transfer fee.
So you need to do a balance transfer of £1234 (for which you'll need a credit limit of £1300 as you aren't allowed to transfer the entire limit), which will get a £37 fee added to it, so you'll owe Virgin £1271.
Once you've paid back the balance transfer fee (first month) and 9 lots of £25 (minimum repayments while you're paying the debt) you'll owe Virgin £1009. This can be paid off in three further monthly payments of £325 (which you can afford, now you are no longer paying the debt), leaving a balance of £34 to be settled the following month.

JimmyTheWig

An SOA is a statement of affairs.
Basically it's just a list of what you've got coming in and what you've got going out.

Seaxwyn

Hi there, on the Debt-Free Wannabe Forum, click on the 5th thread down, entitled 'for Newbies' (or something like that). That tells you how to draw up your SOA. As Jimmy says, it's just a list of what you've got coming in and going out. That will tell you how much you have 'spare' to pay off your debt.

GeorgeUK

SOA = statement of affairs
The calculator is quite handy to work out the income / outgoings
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Seaxwyn makes a valid point - if you have a decent credit record. Bear in mind though that if you have a joint account, then your credit files will be affected by each other so your credit rating may not be as strong as it could be because of the defaults on his account.

Also, this Debt Collection Agency (DCA) - are they acting on behalf of the bank or have they bought the debt? Either way, if they start sending threatening letters you can request a copy of the CCA (Customer Credit Agreement) which they are required by law to provide. Usually DCA's need to then hand back the debt to the bank or request the forms - either way, you'll be able to get them of your back for a little while giving you time to try to get this sorted.

Confused_Newbie

Thank you for all your help.

How should I go about contacting them to request a CCA and send them the SOA? To be honest they were pretty horrible on the phone yesterday and they tried to completely blind me with science I suppose!

Im not the smartest at all this and tend to get a bit flustered but I really am trying! Also if I should contact them by letter or something is there anywhere I could get a template?

RAS

CN

We are suggesting that you put up an SOA here, so that people can see your financial situation and advise you haow best to tackle this, particulalrly if there are places where you could cut costs.

Regarding the DCa, being barstewards is par for the course, and it is better not to talk to them on the phone. They rely on bullying you to get as much money as possible with the least effort on their part.

Can I just check when OH opened the original account and how long you have been married?