Hi and thanks for taking the time to read this.

I have been off sick from work for quite a while now with a chronic illness.

I have continued to pay a little above the minimum payments on my 2 credit cards but as of November HR have written to me to say that my 1/2 pay will run out and I will be on about £800 a month worse off. There is absolutely no way that I can pay the CC debts which amount to roughly 17K, I will just be able to pay my priority debts eg, bills food etc.

The FOS are at the moment looking into PPI miss selling on said credit cards as I have been too ill to do battle myself, I also SAR'd them in July of this year

Because of the nature of my illness, the company that I work for are looking into ill health retirement for me (which to be honest is most welcome), I also have been awarded DLA for the next two years

I would be so grateful if anyone could advise me what to do next.

Thankyou so much x

Mods, Have I posted this in the wrong place?

Hi Another Spartacus.

As no one has yet managed to help you or advise you yet i will try till someone with more experience arrives.

As your circumstances are going to change so drastically in November i would perhaps prepare to send letters to your credit card issuers explaining your position and offering token payments.

You are right that priority debts must come first from this time.There are many kinds of letters to send to them.

I am hopefull that they will understand your position and accept your offers if you go down this route.

I would be delighted to help you put them together to send if you want.

Have you got a mortgage.

I am sorry to hear of your illness and hope that together people on the CAG will help ease your worries about your debts.

And also if you feel like it maybe make a appointment with your local CAB.

Looking forward to hearing from you Tawnyowl.

Hi Tawnyowl and thank you so much for responding. I have made a start today and used one of the spreadsheets on here to calculate what I can pay pro rata. Tomorrow I will draft templates, courtesy of CAG, and write to my creditors. Do you think I should use a CCCS type organisations to help?

I will keep you posted.

Thanks again for replyng x

Hi Another Spartacus

Sounds to me you are on your way to easing your worries already by planning and writing to your creditors.

You,if you feel like it could involve other organisations.

But it seems to me you are doing fine as it is.

Maybe wait for the replies.

If some do not want to play ball we will have to try harder.

But your position in November to any reasonable person or organisation speaks for itself and they should understand.

But CCCS or CAB if you feel you would like them to help you,why not.

The more on board the better.

I will keep a sharp eye on your thread and look out for your posts.

And try not to worry many will support you and help you.

Best wishes Tawnyowl.

I received my wage slip today and still got my regular salary? I phoned HR to say you overpaid me and I was informed that the reductions in salary wont start till December, they got it wrong, wrong date on letter, sorry!

So I have at least a month to sort out my letters to creditors..........phew!

Hi Another Spartacus

That is good news.It will give you plenty of time to sort out the letters.

Would of been nice to have received Decembers full salary as well.

To carry you nicely through Christmas.Perhaps that is to much to hope for.

Very honest of you to phone HR to say you have overpaid me.

And what a nice surprise to find out about the mistake in dates.

I bet you were shaking making that call.

Will keep checking for your posts to keep up with your latest news.

Best wishes and wishing you good luck.Tawnyowl.

An update and goodness me it's been almost a year.

Of the two credit cards they both accepted my offers of 25% of minimum payment for six month periods. Barclaycard have renewed this payment for a further 6 months with no problems.

Even though I have continued to pay my second creditor MBNA, every month without failure to do so they have now sold my debt to another companay, Aktiv Kapita.

To say that I am shocked is an understatement. I find it hard to believe having read some posts on cag re other peoples debts and how they have made little or no payments that they have still not had their debts sold on.

I must just be unlukey I guess.

I was finished by my employer and the small lump sum that I received is being used to pay the debts and living expenses.

I am now in the support group of ESA and receive approx £105.00 per week and my elderly mum who lives with me is paying the bulk of the household bills now.

Should I now just be offering a token payment of £1 to these creditors.

Thanks for any replies

Hi Another Spartacus

Thanks for the update and yes time passes quickly.

Barclaycard renewed your payment of 25% for a further 6 months.Fair enough.

MBNA sold the debt even though you paid them every month.Was this at a reduced payment.

As its now been sold to Aktiv Kapital i suppose it will not make any difference anyway.

Nothing shocks many of us on here with banks and DCAs.

Many of us have been through similar things and still are.

I went Bankrupt three years ago and still DCAs buy my old debts from time to time and chase me.

I have learnt through the Forums how to deal with this situation.They lose.

I never talk to them on the phone even though sometimes they have crafty ways of contacting you.

Enough of my situation.I am concerned for yours.

I should imagine that the small lump sum you received that has been used to pay debts and help with living expenses has gone now or very little left.

As your income is now only 105.00 A Week and you live with your elderly mum who is paying the bulk of the household bills.

Should you be paying token payments.

I would say yes, yes, and double yes.

In fact i have another few ideas to try out with your creditors which i will mention later.

I have just been reading about ESA

You are in the support group of ESA Which just in case anyone wants to know more is explained below.

Please correct me if i am wrong in any way.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/information__resources/benefits/illness,_injury_and_disability/esa.aspx

What is ESA: support group?

The ESA support group is for people who are judged to be unable to work or even to attend interviews intended to help sick and disabled people move into work. Claimants in the support group get slightly more money than ESA claimants in the work-related activity group.

Maybe Another Spartacus if you are not expecting your circumstances to change in the future maybe asking your creditors to write off these debts may be worth a try before even offering token payments.

1 High Street,

Newtown,

Kent

R21 4RH

June 28, 2006

The Loan Company

Company House,

Church Street,

Newtown,

Kent,

R1 7HG

Dear Sir/Madam

Acc/Ref No 4563210025897412

Further to our recent letter, we enclose a copy of our Personal Budget sheet which gives details of our present financial circumstances.

As you can see our outgoings are more than our income and we are experiencing extreme financial hardship. We would be very grateful if you would consider writing off the outstanding debt owing. We have always taken very seriously our financial responsibilities but unfortunately our circumstances are so bad that we cannot realistically maintain payments of any kind.

Please take the following special information into account when making your decision.

Paragraph outlining the special circumstances you have that you want the creditor to take into account.

As you can see our situation is very unlikely to improve in the future, and our continued high debt level may have a serious effect on our physical and mental wellbeing. We would therefore be grateful if you would seriously consider our request for the debt to be written off.

We would appreciate any help you can give us.

Yours faithfully

Mr A N Other

If your outgoings are more than your ingoings which they surely are approaching must be worth a try.

Just alter the letter slightly to fit your circumstances if you feel it is worth a try.

There is even a letter to send if they refuse.

Another Sparticus,i am no expert and the CAB or similar may be worth a try if things become to difficult.

But your circumstances have changed so much hopefully they may help.May being a hopeful word.But he or she who dares may win.

Hope i have helped slightly in your difficult times.

And i will keep a eye on your thread hoping things work out for the better.

You have done very well making any payments at all.

Bye for now.

Tawnyowl.

Thank you so much for replying Tawnyowl it really is much appreciated.

Yes the amount of lump sum that I received has reduced somewhat. It has reduced now to well under the 16k threshold so that I can now apply for income related benefits but that's for another thread.

Further to surgery last month I have been a little under the weather to cope with writing to my creditors or contacting CAB etc for assistance.

I'm going to wait intill early in the new year to contact my creditors with updated information and maybe as you suggested ask them to consider writing off the debts. The latter option scares me to death to be honest.

I'm very concerned that as mum and I are joint owners of our home that I may put it at risk if I pursue this course and I would hate to have to sell our home that my late father worked so hard for.

I was thinking of offering a full and final settlement by using some of the lump sum to pay my creditors.

From what I have read though, the problem there would be that DWP would see it as reducing my capital to gain additional benefits.

Of course mum would be more than happy for me to use some of her capital (she has less than 8k) to make an offer for full and final settlement.

Talk about catch 22

AnotherSpartacus. xx