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I have spent several hours reading this forum and MSE over the last few weeks. There are some very knowledgable and helpful members out there. Hopefully they can offer me some advice?
I work in IT as a contractor and have recently lost my job. I am struggling to find any work and don't know when I will be able to find any more work?!
I have huge debts and my savings are about spent. I've always managed to pay by CC/Loans and am finding this very hard to deal with. My current debts are:-
On top of this outgoing of £1468.25 I estimate my house/family/car monthly spend to be around £1400 - this is probably as low as I can get it.
I think I'll only last another month then go into overdraft.
I also have some buy to let properties that are now in negative equity! These are just about paying for themselves and I'm dreading any repair bills!
I've been selling everything I can to live on and pay these debt but now I have to face facts and do something.
I am going to be sending a letter to my creditors asking them to freeze interest and accept a token payment of £1. HAS ANYONE EXPERIENCE OF DOING THIS?
I currently have a business account and personal account with Natwest. The business account has some money in that I just drip into personal. I've banked with Natwest for around 20 years!
If I send a letter to creditors and cancel all of my direct debits should I move all of my essential direct debits to my wife's HSBC bank account? Natwest shouldn't be able to touch any money in my business account should they? Should I move this money as well?
I do have a few charges that I'm going to try and get back from Natwest but not much, probably around £300.
Should I send CCA requests to all the creditors at the same time - ie same recorded envelope?
I have some land which I am going to sell to pay off my debt, but this could take some time in the current market?
Any advice will be appreciated. Feels good just to let it out!
I have today cancelled all direct debit to the above accounts, so lets see what happens?
Tomorrow I will be sending a letter advising I'll be paying £1/month to each depbtor with my statement of affairs as well as a CCA request and £1 cheque (from my wife's account).
Firstly I'm sorry you've found yourself in this situation. Ours was almost identical about 8 years ago.
The difference is that now there is far more information available and you are IMHO more likely to be able to work your way round these problems, even though they will seem insurmountable at present.
With regards to an offer. Have a look on National Debtline, where they have an Income/Expenditure form that you can use. This is a handy one as it automatically works out a pro-rata amount for you.
If that shows that you have any spare income, it'll work out what you can offer to each creditor (little tip - you don't need to put the name of the bank on the form when you send it to them, you can just name them bank1, bank2 etc if you prefer to keep it anonymous).
If you have £0 spare, or it goes negative, then you can make the £1 offer. Normally that is accepted when people are on benefits, but as you've lost your job I suspect that will end up being what you are able to afford.
Even if you know you will end up with a £0/negative balance you'll have to do the form as it's highly unlikely that a creditor will accept what you say on face value.
Send this with the letter from the templates library on here, adding in your personal circumstances (don't bother getting too emotional, they really don't care and are only interested in how long you can't pay for, and what you can pay at the moment). Make sure in the covering letter that you ask for interest and charges to be frozen on receipt of your letter whilst they are making their decision. This is hugely important as you can rack up substantial amounts of interest before they decide. Some of my cards are higher now, two years after starting payment plans, than they were before I asked to go on them; purely because the sods carried on with the interest for weeks after receiving my letters.
I have no idea about moving money from your business account I'm afraid. I would lay odds that they shouldn't touch it, but I'd also bet that wouldn't stop them. Having said that, my two largest cards are with Lloyds, and so is are my bank accounts - so far (and touching all visible wood), they haven't done the dirty on me even though I've been on plans for over 2 years.
Probably best to keep charges/payment offers/CCA stuff separate, but still send it all Recorded delivery as banks have a nasty habit of 'losing' post they don't want.
Aside from also sending a letter explaining the circs to your provider, you can also have a look and see if you are eligible for one of the schemes they offer which may give you a bit of breathing space.
Have you checked for things like income support/housing benefit (for council tax)/JSA? It's not something anyone likes doing, but it could be a boost for your income for a while if you are eligible. Just make sure you try for any of these things asap as they can take some time to set up. Entitledto should give you an idea of what you may be able to claim.
That's about all I can think of for now. I hope it picks up for you soon.
Lexis
Time flies like an arrow... Fruit flies like a banana.
I have used iMoneyManager to work out all my income (child benefit) /outgoings and will post that with the letter. This sounds similar to the national debtline form you mention.
luckily I don't have any arrears on mortgage and hopefully won't get any, that's why I've had to stop paying all these 'non essential debts'.
Cheers
CC
I don't know where I'll get with freezing interest but I have been looking through CCA threads and have already found out my Egg loan is unenforcable (I have a copy of the agreement).
I don't even quite know what this means but I'm researching and working on it!
yes any registered address is fine and remember to send recorded.
ida x
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you can't send registered to PO box addresses, does anybody have a different address for barclaycard and Natwest? thanks.
I send all my stuff by recorded delivery (or speccy for SAR's etc) and a fair amount of that goes to PO boxes - they have so far all been tracked to destination.
I'd be inclined to give it a shot anyway.
Time flies like an arrow... Fruit flies like a banana.
consumerchicken I have sent letter recorded delivery to barclaycard at po box 5402 (same addy as posted above but with post code NN4 1ZR) The rec del slip stated the address has been validated and Barclaycard did receive all my many letters Rainbow x
thanks, I'll post to the PO BOX address recorded tomorrow - the letter template I have used is:-
Dear Sir/Madam
RE: Account: xxxxxx
With reference to the above account, I would be grateful for a signed copy of my Consumer Credit Agreement.
I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77-79), I am entitled to receive a copy of this agreement upon request. I therefore enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.
I understand that a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.
I also understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.
To keep you updated, today I sent all of the banks...
Dear Sir/Madam
RE: Account Noxxxxx
I am hoping you can help me. Regrettably I am unable to maintain my current monthly payments due to unforeseeable personal circumstances
I have recently lost my job and income. I am currently looking for work and hope to be back in work ASAP
Please can you freeze interest on my account and accept a token payment each month.
I do want to pay back my debt however require some assistance in doing so.
Please find enclosed a Breakdown of my financial situation including my income expenditure and debts outstanding to current creditors. Also included is a pro-rata split of my available income amongst all my creditors. The following is the amount I can afford to pay each month.
Pro rata monthly payment £1.00.
I would be very grateful if you would confirm your willingness to freeze interest and charges on the account. Also please confirm your acceptance of the repayment proposal along with details of the company I should make payments to, if this is different to the original lender.
If my financial circumstances improve, then I will of course inform you and increase my repayments accordingly. I look forward to hearing from you.
I am very sorry to hear about your situation. Have you considered entering into a DMP until you manage to find work again? If you have a disposable income of at least £50, you can enter into a debt management plan and make this monthly payment to the company, which will then be pro ratad to all of your creditors. This way, your creditors will receive a monthly payment, and you wont have the hassle or half as much worry as there would be someone at the debt management company acting on your behalf, dealing with any correspondence/calls you receive and making your payments.
I think DRO are only suitable of your debt is below £15k - so no good for me!
I have had a letter and email from Egg today re: direct debit cancellation. The email reads:-
Dear
Please call the above number to set up a new Direct Debit instruction.
As it is a condition of your Egg Card Agreement to have a Direct Debit in place to make repayments to your account, you'll need to set up a new Direct Debit immediately to be in time for next month's payment.
We're aware that you have other accounts with Egg. We can also review your other Direct Debit instructions when you call.
It is important that you do not use your Egg Card account until a Direct Debit has been set up as we have placed a temporary block on your account. This will only be removed once the Direct Debit is fully restored. Please be aware this could be up to 10 working days after we receive your request.
If you're unable to set up a Direct Debit on the account used to repay your Egg Card, call our Collections Department immediately on 08456 000 296 to discuss alternative arrangements.
I'd be inclined to just do a very short note referring them to your letter of the 25th June. No need to go into anything in detail, it's simply to show you're acknowledging they have tried to contact you.
As always - recorded delivery or email receipt is a must!
Lexis
Time flies like an arrow... Fruit flies like a banana.
On Saturday I advised the lady that I'd lost my job and recently written in, explaining my situation. The lady said although money was tight could I make a £1 payment, so I did by switch. She also asked for a CCCS reference number. I said I didn't have one but I'd looked at their website.
The lady that called today asked for the arrears money - I advised I'd paid £1. She checked the notes and said I need to provide a CCCS reference number or the phone calls will continue as I'll still be in the 'system'.
I only have a CCCS web number and on the web page that it gives it you it advises not to give the web number to your creditors. So I guess I shouldn't give it to Egg????
If you are sorting out your debt with CCCS and a debt management plan they give you a reference number to quote to all your creditors everytime they contact you. It stops the hassle as they can see its being dealt with rather than just left.
When I set up a payment plan with my creditors (including Egg) I did it on my own without CCCS or similar. I only mention this because they were pretty quick to accept my offer and never asked for a reference number.
Next time they phone, can you tell them you have written to them explaining the situation, that you have requested a payment plan and sent in an I/E form, and please hold the phone calls until you have had a response? I don't think I'd even bother mentioning CCCS until it's sorted with them.
I know it's pot luck, but Egg have been pretty much in the background with my payment plan - they have never hassled me about it even though my offer was around 0.02% of the balance. This means for them that despite them having the same old dodgy agreement tons of others have, I'm going to make them an f+f rather than fight it.
I would guess that as usual the various departments are not talking to each other (or each chuvver as my little one says) and so you are being flagged for calls because of the d/d being cancelled. If you can get the person on the phone to link the two things you may get a bit of breathing space. Just ask them to check the notes and they will see your letter of the 25th. Tell them you are waiting for an answer to that, and can't do anything until you do. Do not discuss the account though, just get them to see you've written and ask for the calls to be held until they've at least issued a response.
Time flies like an arrow... Fruit flies like a banana.
£50k CC/loan debt and job loss
C/C 7,754.90 192.00 5.00 197.00 30.39
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Originally Posted by consumerchicken
Rainbow x
