My good friend is in a financial mess..

..he owes thousands to a number of companies and the debts have been sold on several times.

He is making small payments on each debt every month and has had the interest frozen but it is going to take him years to pay these off.

He cannot go for an IVA or bankruptcy due to the nature of his employment.

Any suggestions as to how we can agree an end date with these companies, with hopefully a proportion of the debts written off?

He is very demoralised at the prospect of making these payments for the next 30 or 40 years, or until he dies....

He is a proud man and wants to pay what he can, and keep working

but the only option I can see is for him to do an IVA or bankruptcy

and lose his job and go on benefits which he does not want to do.

Any ideas??

1st of all we will need history, second and getting an up to date credit file is a must, finally finding out who owns the debts....

He will need to prioritise the debts, in as much as rent/mortgage 1st Council Tax second and so on, credit card debts are not priority debts and he can take time in dealing with them, never ever fail to respond to s set of Court papers.

Are any of the debt for Council Tax? or anything that can get a Bailiff involved? As these will need to be dealt with straight away...

Please list all his creditors and the amount outstanding...

yes please list, original creditor, current owner, amounts, when each ac opened

Lloyds bank £10000 with Moorcroft Debt Recovery Interest rate 0%, paying £30 a month, no term, pre 2009 debt

Cahoot £6000 with Apex Credit Management, paying £20 a month, no term, pre 2009 debt

RBS card services £6800 with Allied International Credit, this debt dates back to 2006 or earlier

I will get him to get an up to date credit report...

He does pay his priority debts and is effectively paying token amounts on the above. No threats of baliffs....

Thanks for the update, with those he is paying has he sent the creditors and request for the credit agreement? As they may not be enforceable?

This is done via either a CCA or SAR request. You can find more info in this here for the CCA http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387435-CCA-Request-Consumer-Credit-Act-1974-**Updated-January-2015**

Or here for the SAR http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387306-Full-Subject-Access-Request-**Updated-January-2015**

A CCA request goes to the debt collector, this costs you £1-00 please make sure that he gets proof of postage which is free, do not sign the PO for the fee. They then have just 12+2 days to comply with the request

A SAR costs £10-00 again you have to sign this letter but change the style of signature, then get proof of postage, this can take up to 40 days to comply. Once the SAR is returned get reclaiming all of the fees for late or over limit fees and the like.

Ooooh I'd forgotten that! Will get credit report and then send the requests!

cca requests to each dca chasing, sounds like mostly still with the oc, except perhaps cahoot/apex

If the person in question is in financial difficulty then reduce the payments he is making to £1-00 per month, it may be the Debt Collectors (DCA's) could having been fleecing you all of this time. More on this later ok?

With debts that large have you considered a debt relief order??

http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DRODebtrelieforder.aspx?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=200109&WT.seg_1=debt%20relief%20order&gclid=CJ6cjdTxmcgCFYrpwgodOy4BXA

Get rid of this noose once and for all

will get cracking with that, thank you so much!!!!!

With debts that large have you considered a debt relief order??

 

http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DRODebtrelieforder.aspx?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=200109&WT.seg_1=debt%20relief%20order&gclid=CJ6cjdTxmcgCFYrpwgodOy4BXA

 

Get rid of this noose once and for all

DRO won't work for him as he needs his vehicle and tools for business....but thanks for the thought

As a precaution I have always used my mobile to take a photograph of the letter and PO for my own security, that way you will have proof that one was sent. I also use recorded delivery it is worth the £1-79 fee, this will also give you proof of signature as well. Keep all letters for future reference should they be needed at a later stage..

just use free proof of posting

don't sign anything

leave the £1PO BLANK.

dx

Does your friend own their own property ?

morning! he owns no property

morning! he owns no property

Then I don't see any problem with either ceasing or dropping payments to £1.00 - it might be wise first to obtain CCAs and check if there are default / penalty charges. Find out if these debts are still be reported on credit files or whether the 6 years from default has passed. Was there any mis sold PPI ? If he is self employed then PPI would not have been suitable.

PPI has already been reclaimed and offset against balances as he is indeed self employed, it is the prospect of indefinitely paying that is the issue....will be getting credit report today and requesting cca's as a first step

There is no mention of these debts on his credit file with Noodle!! CCA requests going out today

then they can never comeback

dx

bonus!! will update once replies to cca requests come in

OK....response from Apex Credit Management following the CCA request:

Apex..are not the data holding branch and are therefore not obliged to supply the data.....this information should be requested from our clients Santander...

Is this correct??

if they are acting for their client

one wonder why they are being paid?

pay Santander direct and p'haps negotiate a freeze of interest.

dx

interest is already frozen....presumably this means apex do not own the debt?

should we request cca from santander?