Is bankruptcy the best choice?

[caledfwlch]

My debts from what I can work out until I sort out a credit report are:

Capquest (purchased) £8000
Cahoot (no contact for years) £9000
Welcome £4000
Lowell (purchased) £500
Provident (paying) £602
joint Council tax arrears £1200
Littlewoods (500)

Capquest, I suspect is very near 6 years, and given the age and what others say and letters from them offering "fantastic opportunities", a CCA request seems unlikely to be fulfilled.

Cahoot, havent contacted me in years, it to is possbily close to 6 years, capquest and lowell found me when I went on the electoral role at my new address but nothing from cahoot strangely. Cahoot I think was done online, and while I hold the majority of the blame, I dont think they should have offered a £9000 flexi loan and credit card to someone earning about £150 a week..

Welcome, every time I get an agreement to do some repayments, I get a phonecall within 2 days in apparant complete ignorance of the last call/agreement, telling me when advised of agreement to payment plan that it was not enough and shouldnt have been offered (figures vary wildly from £10 a month to about £80 to stop interest) I also believe there could be fraudulent visit charges on the account, especially since they didnt ring to make an appointment, but they also claim to have made visits which they didnt (after threats on phone I eagerly waited in for them) I have been threatened with violence against me and my property by a member of one of their west yorkshire offices, they have also contacted my Mother, masquerading as a bank at first, then threatening her to get me to call them or they will come round and "sort me out" leading her to phone me in a right state telling me to call the police. He also made calls to her throughout the afternoon ORDERING her to make me call (im 300 miles away from her) or to give her any other phone numbers she has for me. Telephone calls to my employer that I was being made redundant from in some sort of attempt to gain info on me (HR manager was very switched on and clicked the call was not right straight away) actually did come round, and threatened my partners friend a young girl unless she told him where my office was so he could go round and sort me. and Oh yeah, started telephoning my partner pretending to be fraud officers at the local police station CID investigating allegations of phone and financial fraud. I kept a log of all this and have statements from my Mother An attempt to put in a complaint with the manager of this office (his voice sounded remarkably like one of the "fraud officers" was met with "cant deal with complaints until you make a payment"

Council tax im waiting for it to go back to council So I can deal with them, all attempts at repayment with bailiffs are met with not without a walking possession, and involve an attempt to kick my front door in. (I seem to have all the luck lol)

Provident, due to being a temp agency worker at moment, am a month about £60 behind, but the provident collector is actually an Ok guy, and is happily taking payments, as long as we dont get 2 months behind.

Littlewoods again possibly close to 6 years but also seems unlikely to pass a CCA request

Lowell, bought the debt which is an overdraft made up of Charges on an account opened by my grandmother when i was 10, a CCA request seems unlikely to be fulfilled.

We also owe my partners father a couple of grand when he helped us out with deposits and rent. Currently we have about £30 spare cash left over and an unwell cat, and the vet fees are an added pressure we dont need lol. We have no assets and the only property of any value, and that is minimal is a 5 year old 21" television and a 3 year old PC thats almost literally falling apart the case is in such a state.

So would Bankruptcy be the best option, or should I credit check in the hope that Cquest is near limitations, and CCS the rest? the only problem is having to organise our finances to make repayments for the next 60 years or so is a scary thought, especially given how a missed payment and bank charges can skyrocket things. I want to pay welcome and provident and cahoot if I can, capquest I frankly dont give a damn about after hearing how they operate and speaking to them on the phone once (god knows how they got the number a PAYG mobile..) Il hapilly pay them what they bought the debt for and some admin fees but I wont stay awake at night over them, especially after the phone call a year ago (nasty doesnt begin to describe it)

The only thing that concerns me with bankruptcy is as im an agency worker I get paid weekly, so if my acc, a joint NatWest Step account with no lending associated was closed it would cause a right farce to get my money (they wont do cash)

[sequenci]

To be honest, It would be VERY difficult for anyone on this forum to tell you what is the best option for you as there are implications galore with all the options available. The best thing to do would be to discuss these possible options with a trained debt advisor.

National Debtline 0808 808 4000 or CCCS 0800 138 1111 are you best bets. They will be able to go through everything with you!

[powelll]

I think bankruptcy is certainly an option but it may not be the ONLY option. You may benefit from talking all of this through with an organisation like National Debtline - they give completely free confidential independent advice and will look at your whole situation not just individual debts

( In your case the council tax is the obvious 'priority debt' that jumps out - all of the others are what's known as non priority ie they are much more limted in what they can do )

You do have avenues to complain regarding the various examples of absolutely appalling treatment you have had - In the case of debt collection agencies & non priority creditiors you can complain in writing to them directly ( recorded delivery keep a copy ) and then potentially complain to the OFT as there have been clear breaches of their debt collection guidance. Some companies have also clearly harrassed yourself & your family - this is a criminal offence as it's contrary to the Administration of Justice Act and they can be prosecuted ( Local trading standards are a good port of call for this).

Bailiffs ( whether for council tax or not ) are expected to follow the NSEAs ( National Standards for Enforcement Agents ) and again you can complain in writing to them; also copy the council in as the bailiffs are acting as their agents so council should also be addressing any complaints.

Always worth sending the CCA letter to creditors where the debt has been passed on as without valid copy fo your credit agreement they can't enforce the debt.

Hope this helps as a starting point; best of luck whatever you decide

[caledfwlch]

Thanks for the info!

my partner also has some debts, around 4 grand, the biggest is Welcome who generally seem to leave her alone (lucky girl) and the second biggest is Bank overdraft, she used to keep all her statements, then fell into bad habits when she met me but looking at what she has and what she says, I suspect her overdraft is MORE than covered by unlawful penalties, so the plan with her is to S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)/claim from the bank, CCA & SAR Welcome just to annoy them (its only a year and a bit old so they will have the agreements id imagine, but I suspect some dodgy stuff with the insurance sold to her - she was told she had to have been working for 12 months previously which she had to claim, but when she lost her job through sickness they said she couldnt claim because loosing her job meant she hadnt worked for 12 months..)

She has a magnificently large orange contract phone bill, which was sent to NCO for collection but no contact in months, but I dont think they add unlawful charges on do they? So once we have deployed all the acronyms whatever emerges will then be put into a payment plan, but obviously and this is why I am considering bankruptcy for myself, this will leave us almost nothing to pay both our debts, at the moment we are seriously considering seeing if we can get a 2 person flat through a housing association, but even though the bills are a struggle at moment, it is nice to have the room in the house we are renting.

I have taken the first step this morning of ordering my credit report from Experian to see what evil lurks in my past, I have decided to try and sort things through CCA/S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) etc with the people who know or suspect I am at my address, but if Cahoot find me through my experian check, I think bankruptcy will have to be a very likely possibility, since our left over cash every month wouldnt even pay for a night out, and with several large amount creditors, it just wouldnt work, I dont see them accepting a fiver each And we wouldnt even be able to afford the fees should CCJ's emerge to get them changed over to monthly repayments.