Tweet
Here is my diary at last.
(A little local difficulty getting the username agreed with MrsK, but everybody's happy now I'm pleased to say).
About six years ago, in need of some help and well before I found AAD, I paid some money over to some CMC's to get "certificates of unenforceability" for some of our credit cards. Would have been good if it were possible but sadly it didn't turn out that way - so we decided to carry on paying as we could just about manage to do so and it wasn't a very good idea to have our CRA files trashed at the time.
Now things have moved on, it has become very difficult to continue and so it's time for a different strategy that doesn't involve constantly handing over every penny to the banks. Otherwise I shall never retire.
I found AAD about a year ago but took some time to get started because I tend to overthink and wasn't sure that UE was the best way to go. So now I can say I've read all the diaries here, asked Niddy a few questions (well, more than a few) and things are now well under way with the UE journey.
This diary is going to include Mrs K's accounts. We are retired, won't be applying for credit in future, own our own house (with mortgage) and so will have to keep a sharp lookout for any sudden CCJ/CO type attacks.
We've stopped paying about a dozen unsecured accounts totalling something like 140K between us. They are all pre-2007 and all but one seems to be UE. The exception is one that is pre-1985 with no upgrade agreement. We have others that are pre-1985 but all those are likely to be UE as well because they were upgraded after 1985 but before 2007.
I obtained some CCA's in 2010 (via the CMC's) and others more recently since discovering AAD. Niddy has checked them out and the future looks a lot brighter now. Mostly they are still with the OC and haven't yet moved on to DCA stage, so nothing too dramatic has happened yet apart from a barrage of unanswered telephone calls and letters.
So I'll start with three UE accounts where I have letters saying that the agreements can't be found and I'll add to these over the next few weeks or so. These three were the first that I put into the process and I am not expecting all the others to go as smoothly as these three have so far. All our accounts are credit cards except for one account which is a kind of renewable loan without a card.
I hope that my experiences will be helpful to other people contemplating this course of action. I have been inspired to finally take action by amongst others, the stories of Alland and Phoenix (Mouseanne) and of course the legendary Niddy himself. The decision I made to follow this path is not the right decision for everyone and I wouldn't suggest that anyone follows it without carefully thinking through whether or not it is the right course of action.
But if your back is really against the wall, your debts are unsustainable, you preferably have a good nerve or be willing to acquire one, can keep proper records, are willing to learn, can think through the likelihood of not needing credit for a few years and can follow process even when you yourself are uncertain about some of the detail - then with the help of this excellent forum, this could be for you.
(A little local difficulty getting the username agreed with MrsK, but everybody's happy now I'm pleased to say).
About six years ago, in need of some help and well before I found AAD, I paid some money over to some CMC's to get "certificates of unenforceability" for some of our credit cards. Would have been good if it were possible but sadly it didn't turn out that way - so we decided to carry on paying as we could just about manage to do so and it wasn't a very good idea to have our CRA files trashed at the time.
Now things have moved on, it has become very difficult to continue and so it's time for a different strategy that doesn't involve constantly handing over every penny to the banks. Otherwise I shall never retire.
I found AAD about a year ago but took some time to get started because I tend to overthink and wasn't sure that UE was the best way to go. So now I can say I've read all the diaries here, asked Niddy a few questions (well, more than a few) and things are now well under way with the UE journey.
This diary is going to include Mrs K's accounts. We are retired, won't be applying for credit in future, own our own house (with mortgage) and so will have to keep a sharp lookout for any sudden CCJ/CO type attacks.
We've stopped paying about a dozen unsecured accounts totalling something like 140K between us. They are all pre-2007 and all but one seems to be UE. The exception is one that is pre-1985 with no upgrade agreement. We have others that are pre-1985 but all those are likely to be UE as well because they were upgraded after 1985 but before 2007.
I obtained some CCA's in 2010 (via the CMC's) and others more recently since discovering AAD. Niddy has checked them out and the future looks a lot brighter now. Mostly they are still with the OC and haven't yet moved on to DCA stage, so nothing too dramatic has happened yet apart from a barrage of unanswered telephone calls and letters.
So I'll start with three UE accounts where I have letters saying that the agreements can't be found and I'll add to these over the next few weeks or so. These three were the first that I put into the process and I am not expecting all the others to go as smoothly as these three have so far. All our accounts are credit cards except for one account which is a kind of renewable loan without a card.
I hope that my experiences will be helpful to other people contemplating this course of action. I have been inspired to finally take action by amongst others, the stories of Alland and Phoenix (Mouseanne) and of course the legendary Niddy himself. The decision I made to follow this path is not the right decision for everyone and I wouldn't suggest that anyone follows it without carefully thinking through whether or not it is the right course of action.
But if your back is really against the wall, your debts are unsustainable, you preferably have a good nerve or be willing to acquire one, can keep proper records, are willing to learn, can think through the likelihood of not needing credit for a few years and can follow process even when you yourself are uncertain about some of the detail - then with the help of this excellent forum, this could be for you.
Comment