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Up D’Nile without a paddle – heading for that well known creek
Around the turn of the century I went through a messy divorce, had problems with a downturn in business profitability and had a mid-life crisis – all around the same time.
To cut a long story short I ended up with very few assets and loads of debts, plus a total change of lifestyle as I cut back on work and spent more time at home trying to bring up 4 teenagers and reassess my life.
To be fair I’d had debt problems since the mid-90s and had been stuck in a revolving credit nightmare for years.
Before the divorce I’d looked into an IVA – but we had some equity in the house and the business was growing and I thought there was enough light up ahead.
Anyway, I found myself unable to service my debts and did what most people appear to do – I stopped opening the letters.
After a while I decided to make a token payment of about £ 30 per month to each account – no pro-rata split as I didn’t really know how much I owed (it was close to 6 figures).
I was surprised by how many then sent me paying in slips along with requests for a breakdown of my finances – of course a few kept sending threatening letters.
I ignored these requests and just paid everybody the same amount for the next 6 years or so, missing the odd month or 2 when things got too tight.
Very few sent me statements and the occasional DCA letters made me think than even fewer were adding interest or charges.
Then I became aware of the people claiming back their bank charges and thought that it might be worth looking into – but I didn’t bother as I kept reading about a 6 year limit.
Eventually I cut the monthly payments down to a few pounds per month each. Very few of them complained. Many even kept offering special 50% off deals if I settled today.
Then in Q2 of 2009 after reading lots of forum items about unenforceability (a lot of I them written by Niddy) I decided to write to everybody asking for a copy of my credit agreements.
What an eye opener that was!
I couldn’t believe that a simple couple of polite paragraphs would start to get me back in the black.
I knew that my credit report was bad news as I’d recently tried to apply for a business loan with RBS (to get over a cash-flow problem due to late payers) only to be told that they couldn’t lend me anything as I had failed a credit check – I pointed out the irony that RBS had also found itself short of funds and needing to be bailed out by the tax payer (which included me and the person I was speaking to) and that Mr Brown was telling us that the best way out of debt was to spend your way out (or did that only apply to countries).
So I decided that I wouldn’t bother paying anybody anything else until they proved that their credit agreement was valid.
I haven’t paid a penny to anybody since.
Whilst my story may be uplifting for some, please think about what you’re going to do and make your own decisions – but whatever you decide to do make a start by opening the envelopes.
Take a good look at Niddy’s templates they cover most situations.
If you’re getting threatening phone calls consider changing your phone number – the kids do it all the time and it’s a good excuse to contact your real friends. Send a letter to the DCA telling them that you’re only going to correspond by letter and for them to remove your phone number from their database and that they don’t have your permission to send any callers onto your property.
No matter how bad you feel just remember that there are millions of people that don’t even have clean drinking water and sanitation.
In the next couple of posts I’ll give you an overview of where I am with everybody.
Around the turn of the century I went through a messy divorce, had problems with a downturn in business profitability and had a mid-life crisis – all around the same time.
To cut a long story short I ended up with very few assets and loads of debts, plus a total change of lifestyle as I cut back on work and spent more time at home trying to bring up 4 teenagers and reassess my life.
To be fair I’d had debt problems since the mid-90s and had been stuck in a revolving credit nightmare for years.
Before the divorce I’d looked into an IVA – but we had some equity in the house and the business was growing and I thought there was enough light up ahead.
Anyway, I found myself unable to service my debts and did what most people appear to do – I stopped opening the letters.
After a while I decided to make a token payment of about £ 30 per month to each account – no pro-rata split as I didn’t really know how much I owed (it was close to 6 figures).
I was surprised by how many then sent me paying in slips along with requests for a breakdown of my finances – of course a few kept sending threatening letters.
I ignored these requests and just paid everybody the same amount for the next 6 years or so, missing the odd month or 2 when things got too tight.
Very few sent me statements and the occasional DCA letters made me think than even fewer were adding interest or charges.
Then I became aware of the people claiming back their bank charges and thought that it might be worth looking into – but I didn’t bother as I kept reading about a 6 year limit.
Eventually I cut the monthly payments down to a few pounds per month each. Very few of them complained. Many even kept offering special 50% off deals if I settled today.
Then in Q2 of 2009 after reading lots of forum items about unenforceability (a lot of I them written by Niddy) I decided to write to everybody asking for a copy of my credit agreements.
What an eye opener that was!
I couldn’t believe that a simple couple of polite paragraphs would start to get me back in the black.
I knew that my credit report was bad news as I’d recently tried to apply for a business loan with RBS (to get over a cash-flow problem due to late payers) only to be told that they couldn’t lend me anything as I had failed a credit check – I pointed out the irony that RBS had also found itself short of funds and needing to be bailed out by the tax payer (which included me and the person I was speaking to) and that Mr Brown was telling us that the best way out of debt was to spend your way out (or did that only apply to countries).
So I decided that I wouldn’t bother paying anybody anything else until they proved that their credit agreement was valid.
I haven’t paid a penny to anybody since.
Whilst my story may be uplifting for some, please think about what you’re going to do and make your own decisions – but whatever you decide to do make a start by opening the envelopes.
Take a good look at Niddy’s templates they cover most situations.
If you’re getting threatening phone calls consider changing your phone number – the kids do it all the time and it’s a good excuse to contact your real friends. Send a letter to the DCA telling them that you’re only going to correspond by letter and for them to remove your phone number from their database and that they don’t have your permission to send any callers onto your property.
No matter how bad you feel just remember that there are millions of people that don’t even have clean drinking water and sanitation.
In the next couple of posts I’ll give you an overview of where I am with everybody.
However i'd not worry about default removal, it is a waste of energy when you know you have the risk of other debts coming back anyway! i.e. if a lender issues a ccj etc
hh 
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