Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

Ziggydiamonddogs · 6 November 2018 at 11:58AM

I don't know if I've posted in right place. I was wondering if you could advise me on how to handle a situation please. I have been contacted with reference to an outstanding debt by Howard Cohen solicitors, their clients Hoist portfolio. I had no information on this debt so was unsure what it was relating to. I had an inclining it was reference to a debt from 2011, Halifax credit card. I paid my creditors settlement figures following divorce /house sale and this particular creditor declined. They wouldn't accept anything but the whole amount and advised they'd contact me. The last contact I had was approx Oct 2012. I heard nothing until now. I followed advice and admitted no liability to the debt. Requesting further documentation. This got ignored and I then received court papers (approx back in June 2018). I defended this online on the basis I had no knowledge, information and hadn't received a letter before action etc. I received another letter from Howard Cohen enclosing the notice of assignment. I then sent recorded delivery, a cca request. I have now received all the relevant documentation from Howard Cohen, giving me 14 days to respond before a CCJ is applied for. The debt is now just over 6 years old (October) but wouldn't have been when they made the initial court application. I'm wondering if they could still apply for a CCJ if they had made this application prior to the 6 years being up. I'm Unsure how to deal with this now. I have not to yet returned to work (due to the 14 hour shift pattern I worked ) as I care for my 3year old child. Her father supports us financially but I have no income of my own at present. I have other debts I cannot pay and currently pay just £1per month. I now live in social housing and have no assets. I'm considering writing to Howard Cohen but unsure how to approach this as I can't offer any reasonable amount. I'm concerned how/if to acknowledge the debt as they could then apply for a CCJ if they can't already? I'm equally concerned to challenge it as they could apply for a CCJ which I can't afford. I can't find any information that' the 6 years' relates to an application for a CCJ or any court application process. I'm trying to approach this in a way that is going to cause me least impact on an already difficult financial situation. I appreciate any advice you could give on this.

StepChange_Kirsty · 6 November 2018 at 12:45PM

Hi there,

Thanks for your post. I have also replied to your private message.

The creditor has 6 years from the date of the last acknowledgement or payment towards the debt in order to start court proceedings. This means the date they issued the claim form not the date they obtain the county court judgment (CCJ) so if they issued the claim in June this would not be statute barred under the Limitations Act 1980.

Just to clarify, when a debt becomes statute barred it is not written off it just means that the creditor has lost the chance to pursue the debt through the court.

If you feel you have any other defence to the claim we would recommend seeking independent legal advice as it can be quite a complicated and expensive process.

Alternatively if you admit the debt exists it’s important to respond to the claim form with an offer of repayment. If you’re experiencing financial difficulties at the moment and you’re not sure what to offer we can always provide you with help and advice.

I would recommend giving us a call on 0800 138 1111 in order to speak to one of our specialist Debt Advisors. We are available Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturdays 8am to 4pm.

I hope this helps.

Kirsty

Ziggydiamonddogs wrote: »

I don't know if I've posted in right place. I was wondering if you could advise me on how to handle a situation please. I have been contacted with reference to an outstanding debt by Howard Cohen solicitors, their clients Hoist portfolio. I had no information on this debt so was unsure what it was relating to. I had an inclining it was reference to a debt from 2011, Halifax credit card. I paid my creditors settlement figures following divorce /house sale and this particular creditor declined. They wouldn't accept anything but the whole amount and advised they'd contact me. The last contact I had was approx Oct 2012. I heard nothing until now. I followed advice and admitted no liability to the debt. Requesting further documentation. This got ignored and I then received court papers (approx back in June 2018). I defended this online on the basis I had no knowledge, information and hadn't received a letter before action etc. I received another letter from Howard Cohen enclosing the notice of assignment. I then sent recorded delivery, a cca request. I have now received all the relevant documentation from Howard Cohen, giving me 14 days to respond before a CCJ is applied for. The debt is now just over 6 years old (October) but wouldn't have been when they made the initial court application. I'm wondering if they could still apply for a CCJ if they had made this application prior to the 6 years being up. I'm Unsure how to deal with this now. I have not to yet returned to work (due to the 14 hour shift pattern I worked ) as I care for my 3year old child. Her father supports us financially but I have no income of my own at present. I have other debts I cannot pay and currently pay just £1per month. I now live in social housing and have no assets. I'm considering writing to Howard Cohen but unsure how to approach this as I can't offer any reasonable amount. I'm concerned how/if to acknowledge the debt as they could then apply for a CCJ if they can't already? I'm equally concerned to challenge it as they could apply for a CCJ which I can't afford. I can't find any information that' the 6 years' relates to an application for a CCJ or any court application process. I'm trying to approach this in a way that is going to cause me least impact on an already difficult financial situation. I appreciate any advice you could give on this.

Slan73 · 7 November 2018 at 9:45PM

Hi

I have been in a DMP with Payplan for a number of years my current outstanding owed is £19000
My circumstances have recently changed and have lost my ex -partner's wage contribution.

I am at the stage now where I just want rid of the debt as feel I will be paying it forever, I have looked at a debt relief order and was wondering if this would be a good route to go down, I have done a budget calculator for each month and I have less than £50 spare each month.

OwenPerkins · 8 November 2018 at 1:21PM

Hello,
I have 2 credit cards. RBS (formally Mint) on £9000 and MNBA on £2500. For years I have only been paying the minimum amounts funded by a part time job. I have never missed a payment or gone over my limit etc. I am retired on a state pension only and live with my wife who is also retired on a state and small NHS pensions plus some disability benefits.

I am about to loose the part time job and that, along with RBS doubling my minimum payments (Can they do that?) I'm in a real quandary. I've tried applying for 0% cards but were refused due to being over extended even though I said I would close the old account if accepted.

A friend has offered to loan me £5000, interest free, with a very long repayment time. I'm thinking of trying for a full and final settlement on both cards for this amount. Please could you advise me if this is a good idea and if I have much chance of success.
Thank you for any advice.

Former_StepChange_Linsi · 8 November 2018 at 6:41PM

Good evening,

Thank you for getting in touch and welcome to the forum.

Without knowing more about your financial situation I can't say for certain a DRO is the right solution for you, but you do seem to meet the criteria.

I'd recommend creating a budget online using our Debt Remedy tool. It takes about 20 minutes to complete and if a DRO is suitable you'll be able to request an application pack on the last page. Here's the link.

If a DRO isn't suitable we'll be able to recommend an alternative solution to help you manage your debts and become debt free as soon as possible.

I hope this helps.

Linsi

Slan73 wrote: »

Hi

I have been in a DMP with Payplan for a number of years my current outstanding owed is £19000
My circumstances have recently changed and have lost my ex -partner's wage contribution.

I am at the stage now where I just want rid of the debt as feel I will be paying it forever, I have looked at a debt relief order and was wondering if this would be a good route to go down, I have done a budget calculator for each month and I have less than £50 spare each month.

Former_StepChange_Joe · 9 November 2018 at 1:26PM

Hello

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the forum.

I’m sorry to hear about you losing the part-time job, I can appreciate this is causing you some distress, along with the increase in your minimum payments. Please be assured you’ve done the right thing by getting in touch and I’ll do everything I can to help.

RBS, and banks in general, can increase your minimum payments, in line with the terms and conditions in your credit agreement (for example, when a 0% interest period ends).

However, while creditors are within their rights to increase your interest rate, that doesn’t mean they’ve done so fairly. Because your cards are quite old, it seems in this case that RBS have done something called ‘rate-jacking’. There’s a useful article on the Money Saving Expert website about this here.

The article is definitely worth a read in full, but the key take-aways from it are as follows:

You should ask RBS to clarify why they’ve increased the minimum payment, and also ask them to stop the increase.
If you feel their explanation is unfair, you should follow their internal complaints procedure.
If you’re unhappy with their response to the complaint or they don’t respond within 8 weeks, you can escalate the complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

In terms of making a settlement offer, the amount you’ve mentioned may be enough, but there are obviously no guarantees. There’s a useful article on our website about making a settlement offer here. However, there may also be other ways of managing the debts without having to borrow additional money from a friend.

In both cases, StepChange can provide you with some free, impartial and confidential advice on the best way forward. A good place to start with this is building a budget using our Debt Remedy self-help tool. Debt Remedy is available 24 hours a day and takes about 20 minutes to complete. The tool will guide you through creating a budget and will then offer the best debt solution for your situation.

I hope you’ve found this helpful, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Joe

OwenPerkins wrote: »

Hello,
I have 2 credit cards. RBS (formally Mint) on £9000 and MNBA on £2500. For years I have only been paying the minimum amounts funded by a part time job. I have never missed a payment or gone over my limit etc. I am retired on a state pension only and live with my wife who is also retired on a state and small NHS pensions plus some disability benefits.

I am about to loose the part time job and that, along with RBS doubling my minimum payments (Can they do that?) I'm in a real quandary. I've tried applying for 0% cards but were refused due to being over extended even though I said I would close the old account if accepted.

A friend has offered to loan me £5000, interest free, with a very long repayment time. I'm thinking of trying for a full and final settlement on both cards for this amount. Please could you advise me if this is a good idea and if I have much chance of success.
Thank you for any advice.

romuk76 · 11 November 2018 at 10:28PM

I have accumulated 35k debts in credit cards, overdrafts and pay day loans. I know big mistake but I thought I could manage it but then I had a second child and husband run away from problems.

So today I am on DMP, I set it up too high to start with and in 5 months I missed 2 payments. Now I lowered the payment and it is estimated that it will take me 10 years to settle (If I can remain sane in such a long time with 2 kids to support!)

My credit score is very low, non existent...

I moved in with my parents as I cannot afford a house on my own

My parents offer to sell, help me settle the debts and buy another house for all of us. The questions I have are:

- would approx 23k be adequate to settle dedts?
- If I then put 100k as a deposit would I be able to get a mortgage if the house is 230k?
- my parents are pensioners and will not be able to be considered in the mortgage. Would they be able to gift me the deposit and 22k without losing their benefits (pension credit)?
- My income is approx 58k + company car (irrelevant I know but it does affect how much I get home per month)
- There is no way I can wait for 6 years renting for the defaults to disappear. How quick can I realistically get a mortgage?

I know too many questions! Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I do not want my parents to sell a mortgage free property and fail again!

StepChange_Rachael · 12 November 2018 at 1:00PM

Hi

Thanks for messaging on the forum and welcome.

There are a few things to take into consideration. Firstly 10 years would seem like a longer DMP, although not unreasonable, generally if a DMP will take a long time other options may be more suitable. If you’re on a DMP with us at StepChange I’d advise to contact us and to discuss the other options. There is probably a very good reason you went for the DMP if other options were available. However, if you’re with a fee paying company and they only offer DMP’s I’d highly recommend getting some impartial debt advice and you can find our details here to do this, as there is very likely other options you can explore.

It’s a risk of course for your parents to sell their property and you’d need specialist mortgage advice to explore mortgage options, as being able to get a mortgage will be determined on lots of factors.

Settlements are also an option but ultimately it’s down to the creditors as to whether they’d accept or not. You might find one creditor accepts a settlement and others don’t.

If your long term plan is to live with your parents then I’d recommend looking at other options available to you to try and reduce the time frame for paying back the debt, rather than your parents selling their house.

Take care,
Rachael

romuk76 wrote: »

I have accumulated 35k debts in credit cards, overdrafts and pay day loans. I know big mistake but I thought I could manage it but then I had a second child and husband run away from problems.

So today I am on DMP, I set it up too high to start with and in 5 months I missed 2 payments. Now I lowered the payment and it is estimated that it will take me 10 years to settle (If I can remain sane in such a long time with 2 kids to support!)

My credit score is very low, non existent...

I moved in with my parents as I cannot afford a house on my own

My parents offer to sell, help me settle the debts and buy another house for all of us. The questions I have are:

- would approx 23k be adequate to settle dedts?
- If I then put 100k as a deposit would I be able to get a mortgage if the house is 230k?
- my parents are pensioners and will not be able to be considered in the mortgage. Would they be able to gift me the deposit and 22k without losing their benefits (pension credit)?
- My income is approx 58k + company car (irrelevant I know but it does affect how much I get home per month)
- There is no way I can wait for 6 years renting for the defaults to disappear. How quick can I realistically get a mortgage?

I know too many questions! Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I do not want my parents to sell a mortgage free property and fail again!

romuk76 · 12 November 2018 at 8:40PM

Many thanks for the quick response

I am with stepchange and unfortunately other options may affect my employment and hence dismissed.

I am stuck!

StepChange_Rachael · 13 November 2018 at 10:13AM

Hi

Thanks for getting back in contact.

I see, I know it does make it more difficult if employment would be effected by a solution and this is limiting the options available to you.

I’d suggest calling us and speaking with a debt advisor. This way we’ll be able to have a better discussion about you and your parent’s options taking into account your current financial situation.

We do have a Financial Solutions team you might want to speak with to look into options, if you decided to go down the mortgage route, they may even be able to discuss equity options with your parents. Ultimately we’ll be able to help you consider the consequences of the options you’re considering in more detail.

Again you can find our contact details here.

Thanks
Rachael

romuk76 wrote: »

Many thanks for the quick response

I am with stepchange and unfortunately other options may affect my employment and hence dismissed.

I am stuck!

Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

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