Jeez, that's rubbish. I have no advice to offer, sorry, but didn't want to R&R. Good luck. Hope someone has an answer.

W

 

Lonmg time no hear - hopefully a good sign? How are things going with you now?

 

BD

Hi BD,

It HAS been a long time, hasn't it?

Everything is more or less fine, no change really. Every three or six months some of our creditors contact us to say our agreement has now finished, I send off new I&Es and they accept for anothe 3/6 month period.

Hubby has been working since January and has contract til the end of the year. Still no chance to save any money to pay off large amounts of the debt the money doesn't seem to go far these days.

Thanks for asking

Hope everyone else is ok.

Thanks. It's a very recent debt (August 2009) so not requested CCA - might do so though.

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all well?

Quick update: We've had a letter from HFC, offering us a settlement figure, which I think is approx. 1/3 of the total debt. We don't have this money at the moment, the offer is valid for 30 days in total, so about another 3 weeks.

As hubby is currently out of work again (although hopefully not for long, fingers crossed) we're not in a position to make any payment at present but would like to make a F&F payment to them when he is working again.

Would it be a good idea to make a counter-offer to them?

Thanks guys (and girls!)

Thanks for your replies. Am going to sit down with hubbie tonight to make payments and work out who is still charging us interest - can't remember who it is at the mo without looking.

We have sent updated income and outgoings to companies who asked, allowing for all our costs, and two of the three we sent these to have accepted our proposed payments (which are still quite low and manageable).

BD, hope you are right that they will accept very low F&Fs at some point as with increasing costs we have no chance to save any money at all.

Most of the time am coping quite well with the situation but must admit I've spent the past couple of weeks worrying a lot about our debt and how we will ever pay it off, and that we will never be able to move as we can no longer obtain a mortgage - our house is too big and expensive but it is irrelevant at the moment as houses aren't selling anyway.

Just a quick update:

Received a couple of letters asking us to phone them - which of course we won't do, as we're only prepared to correspond in writing!

We CCA'd Sant ander loan (this was our oldest debt), it took them a long time to get back to us but they have now sent a copy of the original form we signed and requested we call them. We've responded with a letter saying please correspond in writing, here is our personal budget sheet with ins and outs, we can pay you £....

Also had a letter from M&S asking us to contact them, done same letter to them with personal budget sheet.

Will see what comes of it.

Next have extended by 3 months time we can pay £1 per month.

The others are still accepting low payment. Most have passed to debt recovery cos. and frozen interest etc. bar one, I think now.

However, due to changes in employment, increases in prices etc we're not managing to put any money away, it all goes on car repairs, clothes for daughter (which I only buy on Ebay anyway!) etc.

Feel we will be paying this off from beyond the grave but at least we are still here.

Hope everyone else is fine and coping.

E.g. every time I make a BACS payment (£5 per month to only two DCA's) I send them an e-mail - and ask them to confirm receipt. If I don't get any reply I chase them up and tell them I'm concerned that the money has left my account but not reached their account - so I'll suspend all further payments until they have checked out that there is no problem at their end - and got back to me to confirm all is OK.

:lol:

Thanks for those tips, Iain and Elsa. Probably best not to offer them our email addresses.

My lot seem to have given up trying to "modify" or "review" as just I just "thank them for the offer to review but at this time I don't need to reduce the token amounts (only £5 to each of two - zilch to all others) currently being made - but will bear their offers for a review in mind should the need arise.

They don't see able to deal with polite stupidity!

 

Lol!

 

You said OH might be losing current contract soon? If so then I would spook them a bit and tell the you can CURRENTLY keep going with the agreed payments - but if OH loses his current contract then you'll need to modify these - but you'll keep them posted - also put in a BTW - no point asking me to ring you since as previously advised I am only prepared to discuss matters in writing (might be worth offering them an e-mail option - cheaper for you?).

 

Ah, the token payments they accepted were offered whilst he was out of work in January and are £1. So can't go much lower! Agree re conversing via email though - will offer them the option and tell them no point ringing etc. .......

 

Thanks.

Thanks Vic, I guess they're going to want the same from us.

It seems I spoke too soon. No sooner have I posted that all is well and ticking over nicely, we receive letters from Marks and San tander Cards, both asking us to call them. Have they learnt nothing?! They had both accepted lower payments from us, but I guess it's coming up to review time (it's been 6 months). I'm thinking just a quick letter at the end of the month, saying we are not willing to correspond by phone but please write to us to let us know what you require ...?

Let's hope so!

Thanks BD and all. Things quiet at the mo. We are making token payments to all bar Santander loan (formally Cahoot), we have requested CCA beginning of May (see above) and have heard nothing else, we are not making payments to them at present (is this the right thing to do?). End of contract looming again and things up in the air so fingers crossed!

Thanks for your support over the year guys.

LOL aye..time and health issues...I can't do as much on here as before but starting to pick up the threads again

It's good to see you back, take it easy.

Thanks Tingy and Elsa. Will sit tight and wait, see what they send. I'll post any correspondence on here.

Could someone take a look at the attached letter and let me know whether we need to reply and what we should reply if so.

The letter is from Moorcroft, debt collectors for Santander loan. The original creditor was Cahoot, taken out April 2006. Neither Santander nor Moorcroft want to accept lower payment and sent a notice of intended litigation to collect the total debt, rcvd 19/4/11. In reply we CCA'd them. Letter attached is their response to CCA.

Thanks.

moorcroft1.PDF

Wilchil.........have read your thread from start to finish and with interest! Taken me hours, but great to see that with all the help and support you have had, you have done so well to date. I was a bit miffed at toymakers comments, but sadly there is always someone who oozes negativity!

Best wishes to you...... SB

Thanks Stonebroke. The situation is much easier to deal with now and I am so grateful to everyone here who has helped us. We couldn't have done it without them.

I've found most just keep taking the token payments - even after the "probation period". If any do want to "review" the trick is to tell them your circumstances have worsened - so you need to get them to accept less. They may well agree to this too - if you can show you were either over optimistic in what you thought you could pay or you are genuinely worse off in real terms. They will then NEVER come back again to "review"!

Hi BD,

I thought that too, but the only ones who had agreed to accept a lower payment before with a three month limit did come back to review it after 3 months, starting all over again with I&Es and lengthy discussions!

Anyway, I can't go lower than the £1 a month I'm paying and in the meantime DH is working again, should I be providing them with new figures and offering more? I'd rather put the money to one side and maybe pay them off bit by bit, although it's not looking good at the moment, as we're going through a spate of car tax, MOT, car service, DD's birthday etc.! My DD is growing like made (9 years old) and needs new clothes and shoes again. Madness. We're coping but I'm not putting as much aside as I'd like. Really struggling to cut my food bill lower. Also I really notice it every time we do have a family outing, even though I try to take sandwiches and a flask of coffee with us so we don't go into the cafe, the entrance fees still add up. I don't feel I can stay cooped up at home any longer though, it's driving me mad. We haven't been going out at all and I'm going stir crazy!!!

Yeah, we didn't ask for one, just kept replying to their letters, saying "Ah but you're requesting info we've already given you" and kept getting letters saying they were dealing with our complaint, then suddenly they offered us a cheque!

Thanks BD. Would rather ignore them tbh and just bank it as they haven't asked us to sign anything regarding what it's for.

Yes, am v happy that most have accepted token payments, although some only for 3 months so up next month I guess. Will see what happens then.

Just a quick update and a question:

5 out of 7 of our creditors have accepted token £1 payments. The remaining ones are S antander loan and M BNA. I'm posting out cheques tonight. MBNA are still requesting I&Es from us, which they have had, so think they will just get a copy of them and a letter saying "you appear to have misfiled I&Es already supplies, here's a copy you numties!".

My question: Sainsos have sent us a cheque for £250 to make up for their awful behaviour. Should we cash it? The letter that came with it doesn't ask us to sign anything, in fact doesn't even say why they are sending a cheque. Could they at some point turn round and say that as we accepted their £250 compensation they now are entitled to every penny of the loan paid back immediately and we may no longer complain if we aren't happy with how they treat us?

Thanks guys (and gals)!

BD, that's what we were trying to do with any spare money until hubbie was out of work in December/January. Pay is now trickling through so at the mo still trying to get back to normal and not sure how much we have to put away at present, but we will as soon as things return to normal. When we have some sums together, will come back here for advice on making F&Fs again.

Thanks guys (and gals!), I'll see what the post brings over the next week or so, as have just written to them, sending £1 token payment for this month.

Papasmurf, I feel a lot more positive at the moment, without all the phone calls, letters etc. and having had most payments accepted and interest and charges frozen. Admittedly I know we'll be paying off our debt for the rest of our lives as it stands at the mo, but we are no longer worrying about how to pay bills etc, as everything is now accounted for, we have budget sheets so we know what we will spend in the month and we have cut our spending wherever we can. All that thanks to Caggers! A huge thanks to everyone who has helped us so far.

Thanks BD, very interesting reading!

Quick update:

5 out of 7 creditors have accepted our token offers for varying periods of time (3, 6 and 12 months). MBNA and Sant ander loan are still being stubborn.