Thread: Another "please point me in the right direction" thread

Hi all, Good to meet you, what a great community this is! I've spent a lot of time reading through various threads and template letters and there's just so much material here I don't really know what I should do next. I'm hoping that some kind folks will advise me on what I should do and/or which reading I need to concentrate on.

My situation briefly: I somehow built up quite large debts over a number of years as I was juggling between cards and loans to make repayments. During this time I had bad depression; at the end I wasn't leaving the house at all, wasn't working and wasn't claiming benefits. Then Cahoot put the flexi loan interest and repayments up and I hit my credit limit and bang I couldn't afford to pay my bills any more. This was about a year ago. Default notices started coming and the phone was ringing off the hook. In spring I had to admit to my parents I was deep in debt as my bank were threatening to close my cheque account (in the end they did close it, I now have a Step account). I went to the CAB and started claiming IS and started seeing a new doctor about my depression.

CAB didn't advise bankruptcy (I was on IS through incapacity and owed 50k, so this surprised me) and arranged £5 per month repayments to each creditor. To the CAB's credit this did put a stop to the phone calls and made life much better.

Not long after this I got a job! It's actually my first real permanent job after years of depression. The point I'm at now is that one of the DCAs are calling me again (I don't answer) as the CAB agreement has expired.

These are my approximate debts, all credit cards unless stated:
Capital One £9000
Cahoot flexi loan £12500
Egg (DLC) £10000
First Direct (Metropolitan Collection Services) £5000 + another £300 overdraft
Lloyds (Fredrikson/Bryan Carter) £3500
HFC Marbles £7000

This is what I want to achieve:
Now I'm working I want to get my life back on track. I want to get these people off my back as cheaply as possible (and in the case of Cahoot ideally without giving them a penny!). I want to get my credit history cleared up either by removing defaults or sorting this out now and waiting 6 years, because my dream is to marry and settle down and I'm gonna need financial security.

I do really owe all of this money, except for illegal charges.

I'm planning to submit a Data Protection Act request to First Direct in preperation for a bank charges claim (letter is pretty much written). I don't know what to do about the DCA who are currently hounding me. As I'm still a bit fragile and don't like phone conversations obviously I need to put a stop to the calls. I also need to work out a strategy. Also need a strategy for the creditors I'm currently paying £5 a month. I could afford more, but as the debts are so large I'd rather pay as little as possible per month and wear them down, or get rid of the debt in one go as quickly as possible. With the help of family I have a fighting fund of about £7000.

So:
1. What should I do about the DCA who are currently calling me? I need to make a new agreement or otherwise stall them and also stop telephone contact.
2. Is it worth getting hold of and trying to challenge the CCAs? Threads like this http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...-but-want.html make me wonder if I'd just be putting the problem off for a while... Also, would it just anger them and make them less likely to accept a reasonable F&F?
3. If I skip the CCA step or if my agreements are all valid, what is a reasonable percentage to offer in full and final settlement? Can I start as low as 10-15% or would I just get laughed at? Is there a template letter I can use to make an offer from my parents for F&F settlement? Is the fact that I am actually paying albeit at £5 per month per creditor gonna make it harder for me to get a cheap settlement?

If you can help with any of these questions it would be really appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Similar Threads:

• Petition to make the "Cheekiness to DCA's" thread a sticky.
• question regarding the thread "putting Credit Reference agency on notice"
• Point me to list of "claimable" A&L charges
• Hijacking posts removed from "working" thread

Thank you very much 42man. I'll have another read of your reply tomorrow and make some notes when I'm feeling fresher and will indeed shout if I don't understand anything. Just wanted to say thank you right away, I really appreciate the help. Cheers.

Thanks Fox. Depression is a real killer isn't it. What's really scary is how easy it is to fall between the cracks. If you're able to disguise it and don't end up in hospital you can really walk around dead inside for years and years lol... At the end of the day you have to face up to it yourself. That's what I'm trying to do, and I try to think of depression as something that was in the past for me. It's left me a bit emotionally vulnerable though and not wanting to fight. Hopefully you're right and I'll get my fighting spirit back soon

Right, I'm gonna reread 42man's reply and make some notes and perhaps get a letter or two written. Will check back in later. Thanks again!

Did you get your debt problems sorted out Fox or are they ongoing? (Happy to be pointed to another thread, especially if it has a good ending )

Also for future reference does anyone know if there's a template letter for making an F&F offer *from a third party*?

I think, fox, if the offer comes from a 3rd party and is accepted it becomes a legally binding contract because the 3rd party and the creditor are both giving something up ("consideration" in contract law). If I make an offer myself I'm not giving anything new. Don't quote me on this though as IANAL!

Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves It sounds like I need to be looking at my CCA first and dealing with penalty charges. Right now I'm sorting through a carrier bag full of statements I ignored at the time, many of them haven't even been opened. There's 7 £25 charges on my First Direct cheque account in one month! grrr.... Now, I know about claiming back these bank charges, but what about the charges on my credit card accounts? You said above I shouldn't have to pay the penakty charges. What's your basis for saying this? What about the charges which are "only" £12 or less?

What we were talking about earlier - dead inside - is nicely summed up in a Smiths song, but since we're both battling against the black dog I won't share it with you

Thanks for the links, I'll have a read of those when I have time. Back to my pile of papers! I might not post back for a day or two as I need to sort all this paperwork out...

hello king and others

ive come across this by viscount who has kindly confirmed i can offer the info to others if i see they wish to have info on f&f settlements, just to avoid any pitfalls, but looks like you are aware of some of the things, thought id post the info for you to look at anyway hope it helps,

and yes i understand totally your comments on depression but since finding cag im getting to grips with life more and im much happier most of the time, some days its hard but you handle it somehow, so keep happy as best as you can and remember at least cag is like a support group at times without others really know too much about your depression unless you choose to tell them

have a fun eve angel x

Re: Viscount Stair vs Amex

Full and final options and offer given

No problem, that is what CAG is about. The silly question is the one you don't ask.

Tread carefully with any form of discounted offer from a banker, and especially Amex.

Many bankers throw out offers like confetti and, in many cases, they are not at all sincere. The vast majority are just blunt tricks to try and get people to Telephone them, the larger the discount, the more they hope people will knee jerk into picking up the Telephone.

You can see their logic: if someone is interested in Paying 20%-40% of the alleged Debt, if nothing else, it tells them they can and want to Pay 20%-40% of the alleged Debt. That is probably the whole purpose of the offer. It may, for example, make the Debt more sellable to a DCA, as they can say the Debtor has indicated a willingness and desire to Pay £x, thus making the Debt much more attractive when it goes up for tender or auction sale in DCA Land.

However, whilst some offers are a little more sincere, most of these real offers often carry a nasty little sting in the tail. These are the ones that can be called Short Settlements, i.e. they offer a lump sum discount, but neglect to point out they can still chase you for the balance.

What you need, assuming you have the funds available to pay any offer, is a binding Full and Final Offer, one that includes a written undertaking from the banker concerned that when you make the Payment, that is the end of the matter for good, no strings attached whatsoever. You'd be wise to include other specific clauses such as the removal of any adverse Data, along with an undertaking that they will desist from ever mentioning the alleged Account ever again, to anyone.

Get all of that in Writing before you Pay them a penny, and make sure the F&F Offer Letter is signed by a real banker, not one of the facsimile signatures and invented names you see on many banking letters. For example, one bank in particular seems to use a number of names that do not appear to relate to real people. Amex may do the same, so make sure any signature is signed in ink, by hand, and by someone with the appropriate level of authority within their organisation.

I think you can now see that any offer has to be taken with a pinch of salt, and it may not mean very much. By that, I mean it may not be a reliable indicator of the strength or weakness of their position.

Indeed, 97 times out of 100, it's just a vehicle being used to convey other less palatable intentions.

I HAVE ADDED BELOW INFO FROM JOSIE8, WHICH IS FAB - angel

It is prudent legally to make the payment through a third party - If making a full & final settlement make the payment through a third party i.e. your mother etc so it will be binding and they can't come back. If you pay it yourself they can come back at any time as you can't give good consideration to a creditor by paying less than you owe.

Hi King123,

Just wanted to say hi as my ultimate aim to get my life back on track is pretty much the same as yours, i.e. to get rid of my debts for once and for all with an F&F if I have to. I have more or less just started my process, i.e. sent off my CCA requests which are all now overdue except for Capital One, who seem to have complied with the request, but not sent an Agreement, just the requisite T&Cs. So am now going to SAR CapOne.

Have subscribed to your thread to keep up to date with how you're doing. It would be good to compare notes, I'm definitely not an expert and pretty much learning every time I read something on here. It's not as straight forward as I initially thought but if I have to take one step back for every two steps forward, I'm ready for it! I've walked the dark dead road too.....seems to have a twisted connection to debt!

Good luck and keep me updated.

LCM

Thanks everyone. I've found over £1500 in penalty charges so far... will likely need to spend a couple more evenings sorting thru this paperwork and online statements if I can still access them and then I'll be back to answer you all. Need to find an accounts program too.

OK DLC have obviously worked out that I'm not answering the phone as I've just had a letter from them.

Dear Mr Debtor,

Blah blah blah. We must now insist you increase your payments don't they want to know how much I'm earning before insisting that?! to clear the remaining balance over the shortest possible time. they've worked out it would take 100 years to clear at this rate

Please contact one of our telephone negotiators on x with your revised payment proposals. Please note we we may be able to offer a discount for early settlement.

It is important you respond to this letter today, as failure to do so may result in your installment rights being withdrawn.
END

So, what do I do now do you think? I'm going to send off the "don't telephone me" letter. Is it time to ask for the CCA? Should I prepare and send an SOA or would the aim here be to make them sweat? (I want to pay either as little as possible a month, or get the debts cleared in one go, not much interested in paying half my salary for the next 5 years lol)

I have a crazy todo list at the moment but I've made sorting DLC out the top priority, then when time allows I'm gonna read all the stuff referenced above and get my finances into an accounts program!

Don't know if you're still watching this thread or not fox, but I've just read your Lowells thread and it's very inspiring Could I ask how old your Capital One account is? Also, what percentage of the amount "owed" was the F&F offer? (Not that that matters as they couldn't come up with the agreement )

A little progress has been made. DLC have replied to my CCA request by saying they don't own the debt and are only acting on behalf of Egg. They've passed the request on to Egg and have also sent me a copy of all my statements. The CCA is due today but they've put the account on hold while Egg look for the CCA. The letters were polite and business like so I'm happy to wait a while.

Fredrikson's time limit also expires today but I haven't heard a dickie bird from them.

I'm going to catch up with my reading and note taking now.

Yes, it's quite remarkable

Good news about your thread, I'll check it out later. Just writing and printing some letters at the moment. I know CCA requests have 12 days from receipt to reply, how long do they get with an SAR do you know?

Thanks mate