Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

CIS · 1 May 2018 at 2:39PM

For any orders relating to council tax you should write to the council asking them to stop the attachment of earnings or reduce the deductions to an affordable amount. You!!!8217;ll need to quote !!!8216;Regulation 41(2) of the Council Tax (Administration and Enforcement) Regulations 1992!!!8217; and include a copy of your budget and list of creditors.

The council cannot vary the AOE rate on an AOE issued under reg 37 for council tax purposes. There is no discretion within council tax legislation which allows the AOE rate to be altered from that specified in legislation. The only control the council have is to issue or withdraw the order under reg 41 .

If more than one council tax AOE is in place they cannot consolidate the orders as a council tax AOE is only in respect of a single liability order. They can however withdraw an under reg 41 in order to leave only one active.

Former_StepChange_Linsi · 1 May 2018 at 3:40PM

Hi Louie

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forum.

I’m not sure if you can reclaim money if a formal notice wasn’t provided at the right time.

As a charity this isn’t something we really deal with so I’d recommend speaking with the Money Advice Service or Citizens Advice instead.

As Lowell are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority they may be able to give more guidance on this matter.

All the best,

Linsi

Louie65 wrote: »

Hello,
I've been paying Lowell Financial for a Barclaycard debt of £1644 which is now down to £204.

Today I have received a letter from them (30/04/2018) advising me that they failed to provide me with a formal notice that they had bought the debt on 22/04/2010 - some 8 years overdue.

Can I use their failure to comply with the legislation in someway similar to the PPI mis-selling episode?

Thank you

Mick.T · 1 May 2018 at 4:55PM

Hi, my name is Michael and i'm looking for a bit of advice if possible please. Hopefully this is in the right place.
I've got a bit of a factual story to tell that may be hard to believe for some but it is 100% true and i'm in a bit of a spot over it.
Anyway firstly i've never really been in debt apart from British Gas estimating by bill for 3 years and me ending up owing them just over £2000. The meter reader was coming to read the meter but the joke is they say it's not for my account, they read them for statistics!! That's paid off and they took too much so got £800 back but that's where my good news ended!

Last year in July i was still working so i got a top of the range phone on contract, a Sony Xperia XZ Premium £680 at the time. I got a fair size monthly fee so i didn't have to pay any upfront, £44 i think. I ordered online and picked it up next day at Carphone Warehouse. This is where things get bad. I don't know if i was followed or what but it was dodgy. I'm only 5 minutes walk from Carphone Warehouse. I opened the phone to have a look but didn't need it for the time being because i had my other phone. I went out to the pub for say 5-6 hours. When i got home my flat door was smashed in, the frame on the door lock side was all over my flat in pieces, one piece 5m away.
The phone that i'd not even put the sim into was gone. Just as bad though i'd been buying and selling expensive outdoors jackets on ebay like Arcteryx and Mammut, £500-£600 waterproof jackets and £200-£300 insulated jackets, new prices. They still go for good money secondhand on ebay, i'd sold one for £250 and three for £100 each. They were ready for posting the next day. They went as well as more outdoor gear and electricals.
The thing is and i know it was stupid, irresponsible, thoughtless and whatever else you may think of me when you read how i reacted but i couldn't deal with what had happened. The stuff i'd saved up for for so long was gone, i built my computer over 6 months buying one piece at a time, no replacement no cash just gone! Not to mention the sold jackets and angry, questioning buyers!
I became depressed and wouldn't talk to anyone or leave the flat, i lost my job. Instead of dealing with Vodafone and ebay plus buyers i just ignored them all and went into my shell. I had already spent the money i'd made from the jackets before they were even posted. I always did that but never had any problems or returns in 7 years.
It has been nearly 10 months and seems like i've been in a haze or a coma, what i'm waking up to though makes me want to disappear again!
It's not masses of debt there are many in a lot worse place than me but i've never been here and it's hard not to dwell.
I've had a letter from a credit collection agency saying i owe Vodafone £1000. I've had multiple different credit collection agencies phoning and texting on behalf of ebay. The buyers were reimbursed by ebay/paypal so i owe ebay just under £600.
I always stayed away from credit cards or hp to avoid debt, my credit is none existent because i've never had credit. I always tried to be careful and not overspend.
I have gone on a bit i know i apologize for that but thought if i was going to ask for advice i'd tell the whole story instead of just the money bit.
I may have been followed home it was the most expensive phone you could buy at the time, it could have been someone i know or neither and was an opportunist! I would rather just forget and rebuild.

Any advice on what i should do please to relieve this stress and anxiety would be greatly appreciate! Thank you.

StepChange_Allen · 2 May 2018 at 9:38AM

Mick.T wrote: »

Hi, my name is Michael and i'm looking for a bit of advice if possible please. Hopefully this is in the right place.
I've got a bit of a factual story to tell that may be hard to believe for some but it is 100% true and i'm in a bit of a spot over it.
Anyway firstly i've never really been in debt apart from British Gas estimating by bill for 3 years and me ending up owing them just over £2000. The meter reader was coming to read the meter but the joke is they say it's not for my account, they read them for statistics!! That's paid off and they took too much so got £800 back but that's where my good news ended!

Last year in July i was still working so i got a top of the range phone on contract, a Sony Xperia XZ Premium £680 at the time. I got a fair size monthly fee so i didn't have to pay any upfront, £44 i think. I ordered online and picked it up next day at Carphone Warehouse. This is where things get bad. I don't know if i was followed or what but it was dodgy. I'm only 5 minutes walk from Carphone Warehouse. I opened the phone to have a look but didn't need it for the time being because i had my other phone. I went out to the pub for say 5-6 hours. When i got home my flat door was smashed in, the frame on the door lock side was all over my flat in pieces, one piece 5m away.
The phone that i'd not even put the sim into was gone. Just as bad though i'd been buying and selling expensive outdoors jackets on ebay like Arcteryx and Mammut, £500-£600 waterproof jackets and £200-£300 insulated jackets, new prices. They still go for good money secondhand on ebay, i'd sold one for £250 and three for £100 each. They were ready for posting the next day. They went as well as more outdoor gear and electricals.
The thing is and i know it was stupid, irresponsible, thoughtless and whatever else you may think of me when you read how i reacted but i couldn't deal with what had happened. The stuff i'd saved up for for so long was gone, i built my computer over 6 months buying one piece at a time, no replacement no cash just gone! Not to mention the sold jackets and angry, questioning buyers!
I became depressed and wouldn't talk to anyone or leave the flat, i lost my job. Instead of dealing with Vodafone and ebay plus buyers i just ignored them all and went into my shell. I had already spent the money i'd made from the jackets before they were even posted. I always did that but never had any problems or returns in 7 years.
It has been nearly 10 months and seems like i've been in a haze or a coma, what i'm waking up to though makes me want to disappear again!
It's not masses of debt there are many in a lot worse place than me but i've never been here and it's hard not to dwell.
I've had a letter from a credit collection agency saying i owe Vodafone £1000. I've had multiple different credit collection agencies phoning and texting on behalf of ebay. The buyers were reimbursed by ebay/paypal so i owe ebay just under £600.
I always stayed away from credit cards or hp to avoid debt, my credit is none existent because i've never had credit. I always tried to be careful and not overspend.
I have gone on a bit i know i apologize for that but thought if i was going to ask for advice i'd tell the whole story instead of just the money bit.
I may have been followed home it was the most expensive phone you could buy at the time, it could have been someone i know or neither and was an opportunist! I would rather just forget and rebuild.

Any advice on what i should do please to relieve this stress and anxiety would be greatly appreciate! Thank you.

Hi Michael

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

I'm really sorry to hear about what happened to you with the burglary and what resulted from that. I'm glad that you're now ready to tackle the fall-out and we can definitely help you with these debts.

The best thing to do would be to do a budget with us so that we get a good understanding of your finances; we can then offer advice about what debt solutions you could consider.

You can do a budget with us over the phone or on our Debt Remedy tool; all the contact details of how to get started can be found here: www.stepchange.org/Contactus

I hope this is helpful and we look forward to speaking with you.

Allen

Springchicken66 · 8 May 2018 at 8:23AM

Hi, i have been on a dmp (joint with hubby) for 8 years now, we have reduced out debt from around £50k to £20k. I regularly check my credit rating and all my debts have gone from there except from one with next directory to which i still owe £175 and is still showing on ny credit rating as a default, can i do anything about this?
We are hoping to remortgage soon as paying rediculously high interest and could get a repayment mortgage for not much more than our current interest only, but i am concerned this default will affect us remortgaging. I would happily pay the £175 and clear it, but being on a dmp not sure if i am allowed to pay one and not the others?

StepChange_Allen · 8 May 2018 at 11:01AM

Springchicken66 wrote: »

Hi, i have been on a dmp (joint with hubby) for 8 years now, we have reduced out debt from around £50k to £20k. I regularly check my credit rating and all my debts have gone from there except from one with next directory to which i still owe £175 and is still showing on ny credit rating as a default, can i do anything about this?
We are hoping to remortgage soon as paying rediculously high interest and could get a repayment mortgage for not much more than our current interest only, but i am concerned this default will affect us remortgaging. I would happily pay the £175 and clear it, but being on a dmp not sure if i am allowed to pay one and not the others?

Hi there

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

Debts should drop off your credit file six years after the agreement defaulted, so is this Next debt not on your debt management plan (DMP)? Was it taken out during the DMP?

Paying the debt back won't remove the default, it would only mark it as paid; it would still be on there for the six years. We advise against paying individual creditors in full during a DMP as this would class as preferential treatment of one creditor over another. This could potentially result in your other creditors being unhappy and possibly stopping agreeing to your DMP.

If the DMP is with us, I'd suggest calling our Client Support team who look after you during the DMP and they can discuss this with you in more detail.

I hope this is helpful.

Allen

Springchicken66 · 8 May 2018 at 6:54PM

It is on my dmp same as all the others !!!128528;

StepChange_Kirsty · 9 May 2018 at 12:55PM

Hi there,

Thanks for your reply.

As my colleague Allen mentioned, now that the default has been entered it will stay on your credit file for a period of 6 years regardless of whether you pay it in full now so our advice would be to leave it in place on your DMP. After 6 years from the date of default any record of the debt will be removed.

You mention that you’ve been on the DMP for 8 years now so I’m surprised the default has not dropped off already. Default notices are normally issued 3 to 6 months after you first miss contractual payments but by the sounds of things Next have not defaulted you for over two years. It might be worth checking the date of the default to see if it’s about to drop off or you could make a complaint to Next to request they backdate the default mark to the date you initially started to miss the contractual payments. If this takes it to over 6 years ago it should then drop off your file automatically. You can find the Next complaints process here.

I hope this helps.

Kirsty

Springchicken66 wrote: »

It is on my dmp same as all the others !!!128528;

Spoony8 · 9 May 2018 at 7:27PM

Hi guys,

Ill give you a current run down of my financial situation and explain as to how i am starting to struggle to maintain payments and im not sure how i can start to recover.

I am a home owner with about 35k in equity in my home. My total outgoings on bills are £1200 which are all paid and up to date.

I have 3 credit cards which are all maxed. £8000 with Barclaycard, £3750 with Aqua (who have just raised the interest) and £2250 with Capital One. I make all these payments on time every month and they amount between £400-£450 per month.

I also have a £2300 overdraft which charges daily interest of around £3 per day.

And finally and the worst is that i have around £4000 in payday loans that i am barely able to keep up with. These are spread between 6 companies, i am paying off payments but having to shuffle and juggle payments around so that i can afford to pay them and survive for the month as well as keeping on top of the £1200 in bills and £450 in credit cards. I basically gradually top up the payday loan from one company to try and keep myself afloat and the interest down. My living costs are about £200 per month on top of that. I have no dependents.

My income after tax is roughly £2500 per month, however in October/November i am due a back pay of around £3-4000 and i am due an increase in wage to 37K a year. Im not sure i can keep this up until then.

Any advice would be appreciated as i have been looking at taking out a secured loan against my home but i have read thats a bad idea. My credit rating is just below average but is poor. I have no CCJ's or defaults on my account and not missed a payment for over 6 years.

Please Advise

Spoony

J_haines25 · 10 May 2018 at 12:54PM

Hi

When my partner was 19 and his friend were 18 they took out a joint mortgage on a house. The friend lost his job but hid it from my partner and stopped paying his half of the mortgage. Letters about reposession came but again the friend hid them. They eventually lost the house and were left with a massive £75000 shortfall. My Partner has been paying £100 a month over the past 5 or 6 years towards this. No idea what the friend is paying (if anything). Over ten years down the line the debt (which is now ££67260) has now been passed to Moorcroft Debt recovery. I've read a lot of horrible things about them and am really unsure how to proceed. We have thought about offering £10000 upfront as full and final settlement but I have no idea how likely they would be to accept this.

Any advice would be great.

thanks

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