Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Thanks again for your comments- do any of you mind sharing how long it took you to receive default notices and then a 'genuine' threat of CCJ/ court action? I'm trying to figure out how long all this can be dragged out for- as we want to save up what we can and then offer a full and final figure to stop all the debt and be done with it all! Xx

[nightwatch]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

every case is different, you could be sent a default notice any time from 1 missed payment till 6,7, or 8, it may not be regstered with a Credit referance Agency till 6 months later, It all depends on who the creditor is,
As for a CCJ you may never be taken to court, it will not happen over night, it takes a lot of letter ping-pong first,
in the diarys you will see that some have got to Statute Barred, (6 years in england, 5 Scotland) Without parting with a penny or getting a CCJ

[Susie]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

I think default notices anywhere between 2 and 12 months (they should default within 6 but some have been known to ignore that). Court? they normally bombard you with letters first, then they send nasty letters that have some words printed in red to scare you, and then they may or may not decide to sell the debt, and then the new owner will send letters etc. At some point someone may or may not decide to take court action. It does not always happen and will depend a lot on who the debt is with at the time. Thats why its better to start a diary with a post for each debt so that the letter trail can be seen and people here will have an idea of if/when things start to head in the direction of court and can help avoid or negotiate depending on the circumstances. For a lot of people it can be many years before court action is taken but it differs with each creditor

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Thanks NightWatch- I guess there's a part of me that's hoping the debt will be sold on to a collection agency so we can try and negotiate a much better payoff, the one that I'm worried about the most is a Tesco loan. We borrowed £17,500 back in October 2015- paid 13 months in full (£5525) and was told our outstanding balance is £20k �� Not disputing we owe them money, just seems a scandalous amount!

will get hubby to wrote for CCA to check if it will be an enforceable debt, I'm pretty sure it will be though x

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Thanks Susie- you must have posted as I was writing my last reply! I think it would be a fair assumption to think we have some time, I saw from some of the diaries that it was several years for some to be resolved... x

[cymruambyth]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Just remember that even if the agreement is enforceable there may be other errors in their paperwork that aren't always posted about...... There are then actions that can be taken to save you getting a CCJ.

I know you want all the answers, I know I did. But you need to go slowly and react to developments instead of trying to guess what will happen. And if the worse does occur we use a fantastic legal team that does not believe in giving in.

[SXGuy]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

You haven't said if you own your own home or renting. If your renting and need no credit maybe bankruptcy would be the best option? You would be clear of debt on your credit file. 6 years after discharge. Discharge is 1 year after bankruptcy.
If this isn't an option my advice would be to stop payments and send cca requests ASAP. Not only are you protected from action whilst the request remains outstanding but you may be suprised by a few lenders admitting its ue in which case you have just reduced your debt. Some may admit they don't have the agreements but have a right to continue to ask for payment. That's also an admission of it being ue. And finally most lenders do default and sell or pass the debt on so if you did want to repay them at some point that would be the best time to do it. Certainly not before default has been issued as a dmp before then would mean your credit file could be defaulted at the end of your plan and not at the start thus pushing the debt listed on your credit file a further 6 years.

There are one or two lenders that appear to not follow rules. One being Natwest. They usually don't default nor close the account however if it's ue then it's ue and so they can do what they like, in that situation we usually advise you wait 6 years from last payment and then complain to have the details removed from your credit file. So in all the first step for you is to list all debts following the templates already linked for you and then we can advise which ones to send a cca request off it.

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Hi there I've listed all our debts in the unenforceable diaries forum- 'Start of a debt free life'.

we don't have any assets, no mortgage (private rental). We spoke to Step Change and they advised a DMP, however we haven't defaulted yet so at the moment we've decided to simply stop paying, put what spare income to one side and play the waiting game. In the meantime we've copied the CCA request template and are about to send all the requests off tomorrow- just incase there is something that's unenforceable.

Without going into too much personal detail the fact is we borrowed too much and now have more going out than coming in each month. If we had say 12-18 months without all the interest charges being applied we could pay back a huge amount - it's just no lender is interested in helping whilst we've been paying each month, hence why stopping it all now. The only thing I'm worried about is how quickly a genuine threat of court action will come through- I know there's no one size fits all/standard approach with this so it does feel quite scary...

[SXGuy]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

No need to explain your reason for debt. No one will judge you plus we all have our own reasons. We're here to help you overcome it whatever the reason. Sounds like your on the right road. I don't know what step change reasoning is for their advice but if it were me I'd go bankrupt. But that's a personal choice. If all or most of your debts come back ue that's great but the difference will be the time it takes them to default compared to declaring bankruptcy. But again, it's personal choice. There may be other factors I'm unaware of that step change are which made them have a different opinion.

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Well to be honest I thought I might have been able to apply for a debt relief order but unfortunately I had too much debt- we were told we didn't qualify for bankruptcy/ or it wasn't the best option as any surplus income goes to the official receiver for three years after being made bankrupt (is that right?) where on the DMP it was would be paid off in just as much time. Like you say about the default they couldn't guarantee to get the lenders to freeze interest so we are waiting to get that default notice (along with the CCA's) before we do anything now. We would prefer to avoid bankruptcy at the moment... guess we'll see what correspondence we start to receive in a few months time and then all the fun and games begin!

[SXGuy]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

I don't know if the rules have changed but for me I was discharged after a year. I wasn't working at the time but yes any surplus would go to your creditors. Anyone can qualify for bankruptcy if they have debt I'm confused over that part of their advice

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Hmm may have to get a second opinion once the sh*t really hits the fan...

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Any formal process such as DRO / BR will have an adverse effect for 6 years so your best bet is to miss payments - get defaulted then fight the UE route until such time they get really threatening. If so and if you've saved up instead of paying the debts, you could make a small (20%) offer to settle.

Lots of options available to you. Get the CCA's first as you say then we can better assist

[Frosty873]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Thanks Niddy that's exactly what we are planning to do! Any idea how long Tesco loans will take before they threaten CCJ? That's the biggest debt by far (outstanding balance is currently £19k)? I have listed all of these in the diary too ��

This site had already given me hope about our situation- have had a very bumpy year or so with all these debts hanging over us. If I hadn't have found this site would have gone into the DMP before defaulting.... ��

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Help and advice for debt of over £80k+

Tesco likely won't take you to court. They'll sell it to a DCA and they might, if there's grounds. But that's risky cos our solicitor is better than theirs

When did the account commemce? Any PPI? When did you last pay?