Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

Former_StepChange_Patience · 21 June 2018 at 9:57AM

Hi there

Welcome to the forum.

I’m sorry to hear you’re in a bit of a sticky situation, it sounds like it’s been a difficult time juggling the job, a new born, separation and now high nursery fees.

The Universal credit should hopefully make things a little bit more manageable with your living costs, these are the most important right now over paying the £600 that you are in the debt bills.

It’s great you’ve started contacting the companies you owe money too, it’s good to start that conversation with them to let them know you’re struggling with the payments.

I would suggest following this up by getting some free and impartial debt advice to find the best way to manage the situation now your circumstances have changed. You can use our self-help tool Debt Remedy to build a budget, to work out an affordable amount to now offer to the debts.

You can create this online here: www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx

I hope this helps

Patience

amy12 wrote: »

Hi,

I am in a bit of a sticky situation, racked up quite a bit of debt in my name while on maternity leave, this will all be paid off within 2 years so all short temp debt but all high interest. I have now returned to work and paying high nursery fees and I have separated from my babies Dad, and I get nothing from him (agreed to this as he has just lost his job). Anyway, I have applied for universal credit and waiting for my first payment towards childcare costs (already had an advance payment too) this month I am going to struggle to pay everything, I bring home £720 a month, child care is £465 and I pay atleast £600 a month out in debt bills if not more, previously this was not a problem as I was getting quite a lot on mat leave and partner was paying half of it. I have rang one company up today and see if they can help me out and they are not entertaining it. What can I do?

Rs1978 · 22 June 2018 at 12:02PM

Hi how to I create a thread on here about my problems? All I can find is an option to reply ?

fatbelly · 22 June 2018 at 1:51PM

Rs1978 wrote: »

Hi how to I create a thread on here about my problems? All I can find is an option to reply ?

Go on to the main debt free wannabee forum

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=76

and look for the new thread button

lazadoot84 · 24 June 2018 at 5:48PM

hi. I am hoping for some advice. my partner and I have approx 14k of debt. we have a mortgage on a house with equity. our debt is on loan and credit cards. we both work full time but our repayment on debt is approx £450 pcm. we are carefully with food , petrol etc. our debt repayment is crippling us. we are not in arrears with any payments. any advise would be greatfull.

lazadoot84 · 24 June 2018 at 5:57PM

hi. I am new to this forum and struggling to figure out how to use it.

my partner and I have 14k debt on credit cards and loan. we are not in arrears with any payments and both work full time. we have a house which has equity and pay approx 450 pcm on minimal debt repayment.we would like to consolidate to bring our monthly cost down and was considering equity release any advice would be very greatfull

Joeygame · 25 June 2018 at 1:58AM

Hello everyone, I sent a payment over PayPal by transferring money to a friend on a bank account I don't use very often or put much money in. However by the time PayPal took money out of the account it went into overdraft as I thought there was more money in there than planned. So I left the negative balance on PayPal for about a month and just forgot about it. It's only -25.25 but they have recently sent me this

"We've attempted to contact you on multiple occasions to make you aware of an outstanding issue with your account. Our records still indicate that your PayPal account has a negative balance of £25.25 and has been negative for at least 36 days.

This is an urgent matter that requires your immediate attention to ensure continued availability of your PayPal account and to avoid additional collection efforts. If you do not restore your negative balance today, your account could be sent to an outside Collection Agency for further action.
Please log into your PayPal account today and follow the steps outlined below to restore your negative balance."

I've read on multiple forums that PayPal has no legal right to enforce debt collection on you in the U.K as they are based in Luxemborg and are not officially a creditor. It's been a few days and I haven't heard back from them. I'm okay to pay it back if they send letters I'm just curious as to what my rights are. Thank you very much.

StepChange_Rachael · 25 June 2018 at 3:53PM

Hi

Welcome to the forum.

I can see you’ve posted twice so I’ll reply to this one. I know it can be a bit confusing when first using the forum so don’t worry.

Firstly, there’s certainly advice and support available to help you find the best way forward but it’s important to find the best options for you and your situation.

Consolidating debt is an option but I’d recommend being cautious ias you've mentioned the minimum payments are a struggle to maintain, as in these cases it rarely helps in the long run. It’s a better option for people trying to reduce interest charges where the payments are easily affordable.

Re-mortgaging or equity release can be a good option, however I’d suggest speaking to a financial advisor about this with it affecting the equity in the property, you'd also need to check your eligibility depending on the different products available. These can be really good options but not for everyone.

It’s also worth exploring the alternative options available to help you deal with your non priority debts which won’t impact your properties equity. You can do this without having any impact on your current situation, to give you a better idea of how solutions might affect you before deciding on an option. You can find the anonymous self-help tool link to Debt Remedy here.

Hope this helps,
Rachael

lazadoot84 wrote: »

hi. I am new to this forum and struggling to figure out how to use it.

my partner and I have 14k debt on credit cards and loan. we are not in arrears with any payments and both work full time. we have a house which has equity and pay approx 450 pcm on minimal debt repayment.we would like to consolidate to bring our monthly cost down and was considering equity release any advice would be very greatfull

StepChange_Rachael · 25 June 2018 at 4:19PM

Hi Joseph

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forum.

As far as I’m aware PayPal would be able to take further action if they have proof that money is owed. Obviously the main issue to begin with is that it’ll affect the account you use with them.

Anyone who is owed money can take action to collect for a debt including family or friends or acquaintances, If there is an agreement in place and it can be proved in court then a small claim could be set through the court to claim back the debt, so I don’t see why PayPal wouldn’t be able to legally take further action. Check your agreement you made with them when you set up the account as it’ll be in the agreement details.

It is possible for debts outside the UK to be transferred and collected in the UK and vice versa so I’m not sure that the company being based in Luxemborg would have any affect.

It’s probably more likely they’ll chase the debt through collections agencies than court action but again I don’t know of a reason they wouldn’t be able to legally.

I’d suggest if you’re not disputing the debt and you know it’s owed to pay it. Otherwise it’s likely you’ll be regularly contacted by them chasing for the debt with added charges and fee’s applied and added stress.

Thanks
Rachael

Joeygame wrote: »

Hello everyone, I sent a payment over PayPal by transferring money to a friend on a bank account I don't use very often or put much money in. However by the time PayPal took money out of the account it went into overdraft as I thought there was more money in there than planned. So I left the negative balance on PayPal for about a month and just forgot about it. It's only -25.25 but they have recently sent me this

"We've attempted to contact you on multiple occasions to make you aware of an outstanding issue with your account. Our records still indicate that your PayPal account has a negative balance of £25.25 and has been negative for at least 36 days.

This is an urgent matter that requires your immediate attention to ensure continued availability of your PayPal account and to avoid additional collection efforts. If you do not restore your negative balance today, your account could be sent to an outside Collection Agency for further action.
Please log into your PayPal account today and follow the steps outlined below to restore your negative balance."

I've read on multiple forums that PayPal has no legal right to enforce debt collection on you in the U.K as they are based in Luxemborg and are not officially a creditor. It's been a few days and I haven't heard back from them. I'm okay to pay it back if they send letters I'm just curious as to what my rights are. Thank you very much.

MRSJT · 25 June 2018 at 7:42PM

All

I am looking for some advice please - hope I have posted in correct place.

I have received an N56 form with regards to a credit card debt for approx £5000. With was an abbey national credit card, the DCA is arrow global and the solicitors acting on behalf of arrow is restons. This debt is over ten years old and in this time I have neither acknowledged or paid anything off the debt.
In the last ten years I have moved home 6/7 times and wasn!!!8217;t aware that this debt had gone to CCJ, having not received any letters from arrow or restons.
I have had a look at my credit history and can see that the CCJ was applied in 2014. There is a chance that this debt may have been statute barred when the CCJ was applied but I cannot be 100% sure as I do not have financial paperwork dating back that far. I have a number of questions:
This debt was accrued as a single mum working part time - since then I have married and have gone on to have more children and working full time. Do I have to include my husbands income/debt on the N56? Seems unfair that a debt he had nothing to do with becomes his responsibility too.
As I mentioned earlier I haven!!!8217;t received any communication from arrow or restons before the N56 so have I gone past the point of being able to agree a payment plan with them? Ideally I would like to avoid an attachment of earnings as this will be frowned upon in my work place and likely to affect my employment going forward. I know I can tick for a suspension of attachment but you have to give a good reason - what counts as a good reason?
To add a complication. We are looking at a substantial tax credits overpayment for last year we are waiting for the final total from HMRC. How do I include this on a N56?
Lastly, I am returning to university in sept part time which means I will see a decrease in my wages. How do I include this in an N56?
With regards to the debt being statute barred - please can somebody give me any info on going about finding out this information and how I can get the judgement overturned?
Any information would be very much appreciated!
Thank you so much
Jo

moneyrae · 27 June 2018 at 12:41PM

Hello all, not sure if this is the best place to post this as I am new to the forum and trying my best to understand where everything lives, so apologies if not and please point me in the right direction!

I currently have been in my overdraft for at least 6 years, mostly at the very limit of it which is £1500. I probably have been in this position for the majority of the last 15 years if I'm honest, starting from when I first went to university. I managed to get out on a number of occasion when I was in high paid jobs but for one reason or another ended up creeping back in to it eventually.

I've received a letter from the bank recently where they have finally caught up with the fact I've had a student/graduate overdraft for probably longer than I should have, although I have attended university on a number of different occasions over the years. So I now will be moved to a regular current account overdraft which charges.

I came to the realization last Christmas that for the majority of my adult life I've actually not been living off my own money, but in debt, so I started to try and pay it off. So far I have paid off £500 of the overdraft. I work part time and I am struggling to find full time work, so I only earn £600 a month or thereabouts and it is a struggle to pay anything into my debt as even when budgeting and spending absolutely as little as possible, the wages I get just aren't enough.

At most I can put £100 a month towards paying off my overdraft, which will leave me £700 in to it when September comes around. I believe I will be charged 0.75p a day for use of it. I have heard of people paying off an overdraft using a balance transfer on a credit card - I've never had any credit cards so I am not massively familiar with the whole system.

My question is, is having the debt on a credit card something that would benefit me? The average fee I'll have to pay off Barclays for every month I use it seems like it will be £22.50.

Any advice anyone can give me on how best to manage this would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free