Please Help

[Shower_Queen]

Hi,

I have read a lot of the posts on the forum and hopefully with the amount of experience people on here have someone can advise my best course of action.

The business my poor hubs ran recently went bust due to all of the uncertainty with Brexit over the last couple of years as he dealt with mostly imported wholesale products, and many customers dropped them with fear of uncertainty of supply in the future. The business turned over millions so he is struggling to deal with everything.

Most personal debts incurred while the business was struggling are in his name, and ultimately it’s likely he will be best to go bankrupt according to his solicitor and the CA.

However £25,000 of the debt (3 x Barclaycards) were in my name and we haven’t been able to pay them in some time, I had letters in October last year saying they were all defaulted but because of the stress I never wrote back and they haven’t written to me again since, so over a year.

Hubby feels very guilty that I have this debt in my name as before we had the family I had a good job and was always good at saving and never really had any debt in my whole life, so he feels his business failing is to blame for everything.

Anyway, he has now gone and raised the 25K from relatives and is insisting I pay the cards off in full to clear this debt from my name. Only it seems to me after reading on this forum and others that if the debts have already been defaulted then it is going to be on my credit file for 5 more years anyway even if I pay them off in full!

I have tried to convince him many times to reconsider this and either give the money back for now or at least get advice but he is having none of it, and won’t even read the posts on here. So I’m seriously considering putting this money in a bank account somewhere that he doesn’t know about and waiting it out to see what happens but telling him I’ve paid it.

My only problem with this is that to do so means deceiving my husband which I have never done in 20 years of marriage, and if Barclaycard do suddenly start to contact me or sell it on to someone else he is likely to find out, as we have always both opened all of the letters and Barclaycard also have the landline as their only contact too.

I’m very worried about if I did this and he found out it could really push him over the edge.

Any ideas anyone? If I wrote to them saying here is my ‘updated’ details and gave another phone number and address, of a friend let’s say, would this a) Remind them I exist or b) Make them suspicious?

Further info that may help:

We live in a rented house, which I’m the tenant of not my husband.
We have 2 children of school age.
I have no other debt in my name other than the normal everyday utility type bills.
I have no income at moment and hubby on minimum wage at a supermarket.
We have no really assets, our cars are 5K at most together.


Kate

[nightwatch]

Good Morning and welcome to AAD,

you say you have 3 Barclaycard debts and they are already defaulted,

When were they taken out, ?

when was the last full payment?

yes you are correct in that, even if they were to be paid off, they would only be marked as settled,they would still show on your Credit file for the rest of the 6 years. Barclays are very good at not removing the default markers.

you say they have not contacted you for the last year.
If that is the case then why rock the boat, you are not paying them so it is saving you money,
you could tell Hubby you are waiting for them to contact you with a settlement figure (white lie) as if they have not been paid for this lenght of time they would be willing to take a lesser ammount,
This will mean you owe less to the people that were kind enough to lend you the money.

I would hold off contacting them with a friends Address and phone number as
A, your reminding them you exist and how much you owe them.
B, your friend could be subject to excessive calls and even doorstep visits.
C, they can find you on the Electoral Roll, so will still call your home and write to you there,

If and when they do contact you, you could send for a CCA to find out if the debt is enforceable or not, that would be the time to tell them not to call your landline and give them a new postal address,

as it is Hubby should try and understand that paying them off is doing no good if you can get a reduction in the ammount you owe or not pay them at all for the remaining time it takes for the defaults to come of your credit file, 6 years (5 in Scotland)

explain to him, that they are not harrasing you so there is no worries except the ones in his head, and try and beat him to the post.

NW xx

[Shower_Queen]

Thanks NW

They were taken out between 2009 and 2011

The last full payment was last February and they were all defaulted in October.

Could I ask what the following means?:

Barclays are very good at not removing the default markers.

Thanks
Kate

[nightwatch]

Hi, they have a habit of defaulting the debt, they then send a letter offering to remove it if you pay off the debt, but only if you phone them to discuss the payment, they don't, you complain . only to be informed that it can't be removed,because it wasn't discussed in the phone call, you then have to jump through hoops to proove, that they said they would,
This is why we ask you not to call them unless you can record the call, also our templates are worded in such a way as to not acknowledge the debt If or when you need to contact them,
OR
as in my case they defaulted a debt in 2002, so it came off my file in 2008, only for me to find it back on my credit file in 2016 as a live account and payments up to date, I complained they said they would remove it, they then put another default on,
Lucky for me I had a copy of my CRA file with the original Default on, and also had proof that it was Statute Barred, I received £100 compensation from them.

The problem comes from one department not knowing what the other is doing.

NW

[Shower_Queen]

Thanks again NW

Not sure if it makes a difference but the dates I gave you for when the cards were started is apparently wrong. Although I find it hard to believe I have had them this long if I log on to Experian it gives the dates the cards started as between April 2002 and July 2004

Cheers
Kate

[Roger]

It would help the MODS as well as yourself if you could set up each Debt in a separate Diary Entry format.

You can then edit and update with Correspondence sent and received.

provide the following information for each account:

• Type of account (credit card/loan)
• Date commenced (ideally before Apr 2007)
• Approx balance
• Date last paid (approximate date you last made a FULL payment)
• Are you on arrangement or not paying
• Status (default/in arrears/up-to-date)
• Account owner (who is writing to you, a DCA or the lender)

[nightwatch]

Many thanks fot this post roger but no one is contacting her for these accounts at the Mo, they are still with Barcs, who havent been in touch for a year
NW x

[nightwatch]

Thanks again NW

Not sure if it makes a difference but the dates I gave you for when the cards were started is apparently wrong. Although I find it hard to believe I have had them this long if I log on to Experian it gives the dates the cards started as between April 2002 and July 2004

Cheers
Kate

This is even better.
if they do get "in touch" it is highly likely that they may not have the original agreement, or the correct T&C that go with them.

or if you are really lucky (like me ) they will have lost them in the Re filing in the underground caverns, that deleted the accounts, so as long as you don't contact them they have been wiped away .

tell hubby they are Unenforceable and he can give the money back,
If any thing comes back to you we can help deal with it

Oh happy day's xxx

[Shower_Queen]

Thanks again NW but can I definitely trust the cards started dates on Experian? This is an account created through money supermarket called MSE credit club (which I'm sure you would have heard of) but apparently saves all details direct to Experian to keep it up to date?

or if you are really lucky (like me ) they will have lost them in the Re filing in the underground caverns, that deleted the accounts, so as long as you don't contact them they have been wiped away.
Oh happy day's xxx

When I said on my first post above "I never wrote back" thats not to say I haven't written! I didn't reply to the default notices but had previously written when I could no longer pay. When did the wiping of their system happen?

Kate

PS: I have just noticed on Experian that each code also states an entry code, they are C2, C3 and C4, does this have any bearing on anything?

[nightwatch]

Hiya,

If your credit file says that's when they were started, than thats when they were started,

There was a blip in their system @ 2006/08, if you read some of the Diarys that contain Barclay accounts, you will see that Barclays seem to have difficulty finding the CCAs of most accounts before this date or even after,
Mine was a loan that I had defaulted on, they would send me a book of paying in slips, then all of a sudden nothing, sent one payment, never cashed it and heared nothing,

sent a SAR for the other accounts I had with them and nothing on the loan was included, so never paid again.

PS: I have just noticed on Experian that each code also states an entry code, they are C2, C3 and C4, does this have any bearing on anything?

this could be a reference to the card ie; card 2, card3, card 4, something like visa, visa silver, visa gold?


I take it the letter saying you couldn't pay was sent before the Defaults were sent to you, can you remember if they were the defaults sent by Barclaycard or Mercers?

[Shower_Queen]

Yes the letters saying I couldn't pay were sent in April and they didn't default them until October.

Definitely from Barclaycard, I have not had contact from anyone else. I would be interested to know who Mercers are in due course as haven't read anything about them.

Many thanks once again
Kate

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

can I definitely trust the cards started dates on Experian?

The account information on a Credit Reference Agency file (such as Experian) will have been provided by the debt owner who is reporting to the CRA. So if they (debt owner) got the dates correct then they'll be correct.

However they don't always get the dates correct so see this information as a guide only.

Di

[cymruambyth]

Mercers are Barclays in house debt collectors - they use a different name to try and intimidate people!

[Shower_Queen]

Very many thanks everybody

Kate

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

Definitely from Barclaycard, I have not had contact from anyone else. I would be interested to know who Mercers are in due course

Mercers Debt Collections were a stand-alone limited company which ceased trading in 2006 and eventually went into voluntary liquidation (dissolved in September 2017) so that raises questions on whether any Default Notices issued by them on behalf of Barclays during that period were lawfulyl served on the account holder.

Link Companies House > https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/c...filing-history

Di