Hi all

I'm sorry for being so dramatic and depressing but I had to air this somewhere and a site so full of people who are knowledgable and helpful just seemed ideal.

My partner and I are in around £5k of debt plus a managed loan in my name only which I am hoping to dispute. We are on a debt management plan with payplan, and are paying £130 pm to cover all debts, as we are on a small income, partner works but i am on maternity leave with one child and one on the way.

The thing that is getting me down is the way we are treated by all these debt collection companaies, I am dying to get shot of them, and i guess my question is this, is there anyway of paying less then the total balance? Settlement figures that they must adhere to, basically anything you can advise at all i would be grateful of.

Thanks for reading

read thru some of the threads and when you have got yourself up to speed send a Consumer Credit Act 1974 request (copy in the library thread) along with a £1 cheque or postal order to each of the companies that you have a loan or debt with. you will then be able to see if they have a right to collect these debt and it may give you some bargaining power with them. when you send them , they have 12 working days after receipt of this request to supply the agreement. post back here when you've done this or with any more questions.

hi there ecobabe, thanks a lot for your help, i will take your advice and post back as soon as its done, maybe you could keep me right that im going about things correctly, do i post these requests to debt collectors also, like moorcroft and wescot? i really appreciate the help, ty

Send letters to anyone who is pursuing you to make sure they actually have the legal powder and shot to collect the debt. They'll need to at least supply copies of the original credit agreements plus a full breakdown of all charges. Most of the time debt collectors can't supply documents and will just go away when you call their bluff (I've got about £90k worth of defaults and so far it looks as though I'll end up having to pay less than £4k).

hi there payingonlyencouragesthem -

by the way i love your name lol certainly made me smile!!

thats amazing you have got your debt so far down!! we have nearly 6k plus a managed loan with hsbc of 2k.

About the loan to hsbc - i feel i was forced into it under duress, is there a method of disputing its legitimissy, im sorry i am useless at spelling lol.

i have claimed back my bank charges, accepted £80 less then i was claiming as its coming up to xmas and my baby being due, so im waiting for my £1255 cheque - woohoo!!

just send the cca to hsbc same as the rest and wait and see.

That name is a very sound piece of advice in the unsecured debt market:grin: However if you own your home you should tread carefully as DCA's have recently got more feisty with going after charging orders. £130 a month? What a waste:-x!!! If you left it and let them take you to court (very low probability scenario) a judge would almost certainly order lower payments than this as well as being pretty p'd off at some greedy bank dragging a hard up mum-to-be into court. I would try a little experiment just for fun - stop paying all these people and totally ignore them. It sounds totally wrong and unethical I know but a bank with multi billion £ profits bullying people like you into financial hardship is infinitely worse.

i dont own my own home, so im ok from that point of view. my partner works full time but on a low wage so we dont have that much really. the £130 pm is to send payment to all creditors, and even at that some are ok with it others arent. to name a few its barclaycard, halifax CC, capital one, reliable collections, ge capital, argos which is now moorcroft. and of course hsbc managed loan.ill get the letters sent off and deffo keep in touch on here and see what happens. even if it cancelled one debt it would be amazing!! the way they think they can talk to you makes me sick!!!

im sorry its me again lol

about a week ago i went to the cit advice bureau to ask some advice on the validity of my managed loan with hsbc. they had no idea what to say to me about it lol they said all they could do while it was looked into was write to the bank asking them for a copy of the agreement signed by myself. what i wanted to know, is this the same thing as i will be requesting for the £1 fee and the letter i am planning to send on monday? if so, do i carry on and send it or do i want to see what happens with the CAB?

Hi Helz

It would be a similar request but I dont think it will be a CCA it will be a letter on your behalf

For the CCA to be active it has to have with it £1 did CAB mention this or ask for it?

Any action from yourself always shows you are active in resolving these accounts it all very good on your part. Especailly If you ever needed to present the whole picture in your defence.

If you are still worried regarding the letter i would ring CAB ask what they think im sure they won't mind. They have thier hands full lately;)

Good Luck

BL:)

Hi there. Am sorry you are having such a stressful time. I have had several debt collection companies pursue me over the years. What has always worked for me was to send in a breakdown of income and outgoings (making sure that my outgoings were inflated somewhat) and offer a token payment, providing they agreed to freeze all interest charges to the account. This has always been agreed by them.

I have never said to anyone that I own my own home, but simply listed mortgage or rent as "housing costs". No-one has ever pressed me for evidence, so I have never offered any. I also make sure that outgoings for buildings insurance are never included, only contents. I never say that I own a car and so car insurance is not included in my figures either.

You say that you are approx. £6,000 in debt? I currently have one debt that stands at just under £5,000 with a debt collection company and they have been accepting £15 a month from me for the past 3 years - no interest. I don't get hassled by them and every so often, they contact me with a view to increase payments to £20. I simply write back and say that I can't afford it, but promise to maintain existing payments. I never 'phone.

Providing you maintain the agreed payments, there is nothing they can do about it, because you are not a non-payer. As long as you pay something, then they will be wasting their time taking you to court and won't. If you do not own your own home, then there is nothing for them to pursue you for because they cannot put a charge on anything. If you do own your own home, then don't tell them - you are not in court and therefore, are not legally obliged to tell them ! If it takes years to pay off, then so be it. They are usually keen to accept a reduced settlement figure on the debt eventually anyway, somewhere down the line.

Write and explain that you can no longer afford your current payments - they are way too high ! Enclose a cheque for a much smaller, reduced sum and offer it. Take time with your income/outgoings list and think carefully about the information that you wish to include and make the same small payment every month whether they reply or not, so that they cannot accuse you of non-payment. They are unlikely to pressurise you into higher payments in writing - only over the 'phone, so don't phone.

I hope that you have a good pregnancy. Try not to worry. The future is bright.

hi there priorityone, thanks for taking the time to reply, i feel so much better that we are not the only ones going through this.

my main worry really is debt collectors coming to the door that would scare me sooo much. we dont own our home, we have a car but only an L reg ford escort so nothing fancy.

ill deffo keep this thread updated when i get any kind of response to my letters

Send letters to anyone who is pursuing you to make sure they actually have the legal powder and shot to collect the debt. They'll need to at least supply copies of the original credit agreements plus a full breakdown of all charges. Most of the time debt collectors can't supply documents and will just go away when you call their bluff (I've got about £90k worth of defaults and so far it looks as though I'll end up having to pay less than £4k).

The rules on the storage and filing of this information was reinforced in mid 2005.

While it is correct to say that they are unlikely to have paperwork in some cases,there is a greater probability that post mid 2005 they could have access to them.

Debts these days are sold on with the details on software.The Dcas that have in the past been able to supply CCA information is quite well known...as are the ones who never comply because they are unable to.

i know nothng about which ones are likely to have it and which ones not, as i have only known about this law for 24 hours

all i can do is send my letters and get my fingers crossed till i get some replies! if i post recorded 1st class monday morning, they have until 2 weeks thursday, am i right?

Hi again,

In my experience, debt collectors will not come to the door unless you pay absolutely nothing at all, so don't worry. That is why it is vital that you pay something, however small and keep a record of those payments every month. Keep smiling...

ok, that helps, thank you

im sending a cca request to all creditors, and 2 accounts are with the same company, can i put this under one letter and pay the £1 once, or do i need to send seperate requests?

Seperate requests helznpeanut and remember to send them recorded delivery as they could easily deny ever getting them like some do.

ok, just thought id check lol, thanks very much

with the debts i have with dca's, the company in question sent me defaults, then i recieved letters from dca saying you owe us £x on an account with 'whoever'. there was no letter from company telling me who the debt was sold to, and there was no default notice sent to me from the dca.

is this normal, or are they in the wrong with this?

Where to begin! They appear to have disregarded all the rules & regulations but we need a little more info I think to help

we have around 12 creditors, and about 4 of these are dca's.

the reason we ended up like this was my husband had to cut his working hours down from 65-45pw, the loss of money meaning we struggled to keep up with payments, and in most cases defaulted. some companies were happy to accept lower payments as proposed by payplan, others defaulted us and sent account to a dca. one example of this is an argos account which is now with moorcroft.

argos sent us a default notice, then next we heard was a letter from moorcroft saying that they now had the account and to call them with payment or payment propsals. payplan are now paying them a certain amount per month and all is running not too bad, however at every contact they ask for more money, which i can understand, but money is too tight and we now have our 2nd child on the way. (unplanned, wouldnt have planned this when money so tight).

anyway im looking really for settlement figures from some of the creditors to clear the debts quicker, using my husbands holiday pay which he wants to take instead of the actual holiday, and if these debts are not properly documented etc im wondering if we have a strong case in asking for a lower settlement figure, as they have possibly commited an offence?

all this i have just gathered from reading other posts, so i may well be wrong and would be grateful if anyone more knowledgeable then me, well, anyone - lol - would make sure that i know what im talking about before i decide on what action to take.

im sorry its so long and i hope thats the info you were meaning

Have all the DCAs bought the debts and are these the ones you want to settle? Because DCAs buy their debts cheaply, they may be more willing

than an original creditor to do a deal with you for cash now rather than

dribs and drabs over a number of tears.

If that is the case, put up the debts and see what advice you get as to the offer to make and any subsequent negotiation.

they are usually willing to settle if you can offer them a cash lump sum as they prefer to get you off their books

In the meantime, write back and say that you cannot afford any more than you are currently paying, but you will continue with the present arrangement. Mooorcroft are one of mine - they have been trying to get me to increase for the past 4 years. As long as the current payments are made, then they won't hassle you. After Xmas, I plan to approach them with an offer, but I have no intention of increasing the monthly payments.