UE - SIX Years On!

[still looking]

Re: UE - One year on

Excellent post, reminds me of myself three years ago. Am now helping ex-wife with hers most of mine were from the late nineties early 00's so they have not found some of mine.

Again like one poster I thought I would lose my house to my 45k of unsecured debt, the pile of letters the phone calls at work I thought like jumping from the nearest bridge but then I found sites like niddys and onwards and upwards. I like most of you actually miss the fight, even my post lady says her back is much better now. But the fight continues help ex mrs star and its great to be back on the front line of DCA bashing.

[alland]

Re: UE - One year on

It's very heartening to read the posts on this thread, before we started the UE journey most of us here have probably been in a place of utter despair, I can't remember the number of times I sat up all night unable to sleep wondering how I could ever recover from where I had allowed myself to get to financially.

Well as most of us now know, there is a way back, our journey may raise the eyebrows of some puritanical folk, but when you have not been in the dark lonely place where we have pondered our future (or had thoughts of maybe it would be easier to have no future !), they just don't know the meaning of despair.

We can thank this site and each other for the real (and very importantly), the non judgemental support offered, and whatever the circumstances of how or why you arrived in the financial mire is of little or no concern. That’s your business to share it or not.

This is your place of sanctuary, no bullying, no need to feel any embarrassment, just believe things will get better, you will get your life and self respect back despite the best efforts of the banks and their henchmen DCA's to make you feel it will never happen.

But a word of warning don't ever get complacent as the initial flurry of demands start to diminish.
The end goal is to be debt free, and that can be as long as 6yrs from default date ( 5yrs in Scotland) so stay focused, watch your back while you work your way through the UE process, and above all, do what I have done, make a promise to yourself that you will never again allow yourself to get into the position that brought you here in the first place, don't forget,when UE is working for you, treat it as a one off lifeline that probably won't be available a second time around...

Good Luck on the journey folks.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: UE - One year on

I notice a few more anniversaries have passed - anyone like to tell their story?

[5corpio]

Re: UE - One year on

yup.....!!

the mail person's mail bag is so light that they don't need a lift to the letterbox anymore. So much, that i have to send off for freebies to get mail to come through the letterbox nowadays.........as though i have become non exsistent since following the UE down the road...........

It Does get lonely once they STOP sending letter to you guys!!!!!!!!!!!! But its well worth it for UE, than an IVA if you can..

[5corpio]

Re: UE - One year on

Oh........this is now 2 years+ not One Year on (as title suggests) ............!!

[hops1963]

Re: UE - One year on

Year just up from when i contacted this site, but did first request CCA ages before that (kept receipt from recorded delivery and postal order sent). Just out of interest does my six years start from last payment or can Cabot restart clock with new default?
Oh and no contact now for nearly a year!!

[Deepie]

Re: UE - One year on

Year just up from when i contacted this site, but did first request CCA ages before that (kept receipt from recorded delivery and postal order sent). Just out of interest does my six years start from last payment or can Cabot restart clock with new default?
Oh and no contact now for nearly a year!!

Last payment.....

[MustGetStraigh]

Re: UE - One year on

Well, there's not much more I can add to this. What a wonderful post, Allan.

I started my UE journey just after Allan, on 1st June last year I sent my first CCA requests off. Hubby eventually followed suit in December.

I can honestly say that without the help and advice of Niddy and his followers, I don't know where we would be. We'd have lost our house, for sure. A year on we are managing to fight off our creditors (except one who's taking OH court action but it may be fightable) and there is a huge light at the end of the tunnel. And whereas the sound of the DCAs' post landing on the mat , and the relentless phone calls would send me panicking (I think, looking back, I was on the verge of depression), now I just think "oh my what have they come up with this time!" and I positively enjoy ignoring the phone calls that we do get.

Like Allan (and many on here) we ended up with no alternative. We too were robbing Peter to pay Paul and after OH's long period of unemployment we just couldn't carry on. We too tried negotiating with creditors for some leniency and reduced payments for a while, but got nowhere. Charges piled up, and we just couldn't get on top of it. Some of the cards we had had for 10, 15, even 20 years - and had previously always been good customers - I used to have a fantastic credit rating. But that counted for absolutely nothing. So I've run out of sympathy for them.

Power to Niddy, and his wonderful team.

Well this was nearly a year ago so as Niddy asked - update ... I started sending off the UE letters June 2010. So we are nearly 2 years in.... most defaults happened November 2009 so I might even qualify for a credit card after this November (only kidding ).
I hardly ever get any DCA post now (watch it, I'll probably get an avalanche tomorrow) and sometimes I almost forget! We aren't out of the woods yet but are in a much better position and, looking back, I can't believe how much stress we were in 2 years ago. I can honestly say that AAD has given us our lives back.

[alland]

Re: UE - One year on

Hi MGS, nice post, and happy to see you have some peace back in your lives now, I can echo much of what you have said in your post, and come May it will be two years since I started my UE journey, and it has certainly changed my life for the better, even though like yourself I am far from being out of the woods, but I can at least see some daylight through the trees now, which is entirely due to the support and help received here on AAD !

[alland]

Re: UE - One year on

Another milestone today the 11th May 2012.

To-day marks the 2nd anniversary of starting my UE journey. It does not seem like one year ago today that I wrote my “UE One Year On” post that you see at the head of this thread.

And it certainly does not seem like two years ago that I was looking in the mirror and the image looking back at me was that of a man in absolute despair because of the financial mess I had allowed myself to get in,£130K of credit card debt. Yes £130K mindboggling isn’t it!

I won’t go into all the ins and outs of how I arrived to be in such a desperate situation, you can pop over to page 1 of my UE diary if you so wish, and that will give you a little insight of how and why. But that’s all water under the bridge now and pretty irrelevant.
The simple fact was the banks were falling over themselves to give me access to money, offers of credit cards arrived almost weekly, great offers of nil interest balance transfers, no interest for 12 months or more (I had some cards with limits of £25K).And a total credit limit on all the cards I held of £200K !

Of course many of us here can tell a similar story, all that differs is the numbers involved, a debt is a debt and when you can’t pay it the despair is just as great regardless of amount you owe.

So two years ago I reached my point of no return, and here I am beginning my second year of my UE journey. I have not paid a credit card payment since March 2010. I began by writing to my creditors and explaining the change in my financial circumstances, and asked for time and help to address my debts. What a waste of time that was.

With my options pretty much limited to sink or swim, I embarked on the journey to fight the banks, hopefully because of their own mismanagement in failing to produce a CCA that was compliant.Initial responses from my creditors was to bombard me with letters demanding I bring the accounts up to date or else....

Following my CCA requests a few did supply CCA’s mostly on the face of it they do appear to be questionable as far as legislation stipulates they should be in respect of containing all the prescribed terms. After the initial constant to and fro of correspondence between the banks and myself, most quickly grew tired of getting nowhere with me and began to pass on the accounts to DCA’s in the hope that their threat tactics would yield better results.

Well to date I have rejected almost all of their demands, with the exception of one DCA who had control of my Egg card account and was on the verge of taking it to the courts. This was always going to be a problematic one as the CCA was pretty much enforceable, but when you consider my debt with added penalty interest was almost £10K and they settled for a Full & Final offer of £2K.
That was back in May 2011, so the F&F offer was actually less than I would have paid in normal minimum payments over the previous 12 month period that I played cat and mouse with them. So I consider that one a positive result.

All the rest of the accounts have been passed around various DCA’s, some of the accounts have now been sold to DCA’s. But I’m still here fighting.The demand letters have decreased significantly from receiving them almost daily in the early months to now only receiving any maybe once or twice every couple of weeks.
And I am fortunate I don’t have any hassle by phone, although it was a little inconvenient to begin with, I changed my phone number, and I think this was a very good move because the bastards really do try and break you into mental submission with constant calls from morning till night 7 days a week.

I have not heard from some of my creditors for months. And two years down the road, I still have my home, no one has instigated legal proceedings yet, although I am not naive and understand that could still happen in the future. I will address that situation if or when it happens.

But at least embarking on this journey has given me breathing space, and no doubt put me in a stronger position to negotiate a reasonable F&F settlement if need be at a later stage. And I am sure some of the accounts will run their course of being sold/swap between other DCA’s until they become statute barred in another 4 years or so. Yes my credit file is shot to pieces, but I can live with that. I don’t ever want to be sucked into the world of easy credit ever again. It usually has only one outcome, it ruins lives!

So I suppose what I am trying to say to any newbie’s reading this who are still frightened by the prospect of what the future holds when you are in the desperate situation where your debts are consuming your every waking moment, and you feel nothing but despair, there is a way forward, You have made a start by finding your way here, and here is where you begin your journey to get your life back.

UE isn’t a quick fix and you have to prepare yourself to respond to a great deal of correspondence in the early stages, but as long as you stick to the templates you will find here on AAD, then you will be OK.

Unfortunately for some with more recent debts (post 2007) it probably won’t work at all as the banks cleaned up their CCA’s from then, but even if you have an enforceable CCA you can buy yourself breathing space by trying the UE route, and blag it for as long as you can while you get yourself back on track.

Remember it’s only debt, it’s just numbers on paper, and being in debt does not make you a bad person. If you are new here, welcome, and don’t be afraid to ask any questions, the team here are totally committed in offering you support. Your situation is not unique,and most of us have been where you are now. The only difference is we have begun our fight back already.

Good Luck.
Alland

[LooLoo]

Re: UE - One year on

Lovely post Allan and doesn't time fly!! (hmm does that mean we are getting old)

Its amazing how your outlook on life changes when you have the support of a website like this - i know i would be lost without it!! and I have made some great friends here and most of all I know most people have felt like i feel and have been in my situation and most of all they do not judge

xxx

[alland]

Re: UE - One year on

Lovely post Allan and doesn't time fly!! (hmm does that mean we are getting old)

Its amazing how your outlook on life changes when you have the support of a website like this - i know i would be lost without it!! and I have made some great friends here and most of all I know most people have felt like i feel and have been in my situation and most of all they do not judge

xxx

Thanks Loo..

Getting old ?... , I refuse to go there, I have too much left to do yet...

Seriously, yes it is amazing how this place has changed the lives of so many of us. And it is indeed unique, I can't think of any other website/forum where there is so much support for each other without any hidden agenda. Most of us arrived here due to the difficult circumstances we found ourselves in, but the reason really does not matter,as you say, there is no judgement or personal attacks tolerated here that you find on other forums.

Long may it continue, there are so many more people out there that still need the help of the site.

[nanna58]

Re: UE - One year on

2 yrs for both my b cards and oh boy do i feel stronger thanks nid and co xx

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: UE - One year on

Big WELL DONE to you Allan D

I think what your story shows is also that the CRA's really are not fit for purpose and that automatic credit scoring can never replace the old fashioned one on one meetings that people used to have with their bank managers.

Those days are gone unfortunately, with most bank managers now being nothing more than sales managers, managing sales team, with targets and quotas to meet.

The 'operational' side of the business is now seen as non-profit making, and therefore not so important.

Once the banks have then taken the risk of using CRA's and lent money, they are then more than happy to abandon the rules and legislation when that risk goes bad.

As you mentioned, changing your phone number was most definately a good idea.

Heres to the next 12 months for you!



Best
SnV

[MrsD]

Re: UE - One year on

great post Allan, we're not far behind you