Many thanks Silverfox, That is very helpfull, in fact we have found that Letter E in particular will be very usefull.Kind regards Ro

I have one creditor who will agree to suspend interest, only on condition that i fill in forms about my income etc, as i did to CCCS, But obviously they would want me to pay more than i can afford, leaving nothing left to pay other creditors. It would be helpfull if there were to be a Template letter for this, regards Ro

Thanks again Tingy. i have another creditor who will not stop taking interest charges and default charges.! there will be more! i am wondering if there is a copy of your letter that you wrote for someone on here, my head now feels like cotton wool, which i hope to get help with shortly.but i just cannot think straight and its getting worse.i cannot seem to write anything that would make any sense or be taken seriously. any advice please? ro

Thanks for replies all. Could I just add, that with the help of CCCS, I am paying Token payments, to creditors. Obviously I am in an unknown situation, so I don’t know what is best. On their Template form which I send to my creditors every month, I wonder if this form is comprehensive enough, for instance there is nowhere on the form to explain the cause of a persons difficulties. Such as illness, job loss, retirement. Divorce. Etc. Or Having been previously ripped off by the creditors by being miss-sold PPI’s default charges, etc effectively putting people in a more difficult situation than they would otherwise have been in! Please don’t get me wrong I am very grateful for the help from CCCS. Perhaps it is designed to be short and to the point. And that it is best this way, would it be better for this Template to explain some of the reasons for my /others situations. Or is this thought to not be necessary? (I certainly would not want it to backfire in someway!Also I am wondering if one particular creditor has caused me problems, which I really should have seen coming. I believe the original agreed limit was 5k. However over the years they have upped this to over 11k without asking me, while I was short sightedly grateful at the time, everything since has gone wrong. If I ask them for a copy of the original agreement with a prove it template letter, would this be for the 5k or 11k? (I would add that I do hope to repay all creditors on the sale of my house in the future) Many thanks Ro.

Thanyou so much for your replies, Another thing i should mention is that i am being treated for depression by my doctor and pychiatrist, the reason i mention this is because i am sorry i did not reply earlier, i seem to be up against an invisible wall that blocks me! (only way i can describe this) and just stare at the screen! I think i read somewhere that there is a form to send to creditors regarding mental health treatment, i dont know if or how i would qualify for using such a form to send to my creditors,(if i get much worse) is there a certain level off illness you have to have medically reached? i am planning for the worse, because that is all i can think about! Regards to all and thankyou, where would i be without this site!!Ro

I gather this may be an unusual question, but i would be very gratefull if any one has any experience of this, regards Ro

As i am now 68, and although i still try to work through the pain when i can, i have enquired about Pension Credit, Apparently anyone retired, can claim interest on any mortgage they may have, As the mortgage i have is entirely Interest only, In this situation Would this mean That if i were to stop trying to work and claim Pension Credit. would they pay the entire mortgage interest? or a percentage of it?Any advice gratefully recieved, Regards Ro

Having got ourselves into a financial mess, everything is now catching up with us,

Our biggest worry is our house, which we have practically hand built over the years, I would really hope to keep this, especially for my wife in the future, (I am older than her).

Having worked hard all our lives, both choosing to be S/E, I am now 68

Still luckily very fit physically (not so. mentally under the doctor and psychologist for stress) I still work when I can, and my wife thankfully runs a small business from home,

However things have gradually got rather difficult, unfortunately I now realise that I must have been a good bet for one, soon to be creditor, as they Upped my limit from 8k to 11k without me even requesting this!

Of course with things getting desperate I soon used that up! Hence the consequences title.

Our situation is that we have an interest only loan on the house and a mortgage, and equity in the house.

I realise these are the ones to keep paying, which I believe we can do by not paying 5 other creditors plus the income we do have, we have 3 large amounts, ( plus 2 smaller ones for creditors we hope to pay off first!)

Of course I realise we will have to sell and either buy or rent somewhere smaller at some time in the future.

The consequences now are that we owe 3 creditors for large amounts, that we are paying £1-Token payments, worked out by CCC’S plus paying interest at the moment.

The reason I have written all this, is because I am wondering what are the likely consequences of being in this situation, i-e how long can we continue before a bailiff is likely to call?

I have gratefully received advice on CAG following my rather spasmodic threads; we ignore the many phone calls.

The worry is we really don’t know what to expect to happen next and when!

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

Grateful for any insight as to how creditors operate,

Regards Ro

Thanks again Tingy, i take on board what you say, and will write to my creditors requesting they stop taking interest payments,and see what comes of it,Thanks Ro

Thanks for reply Tingy, It looks as if i have to pay the interest, i phoned CCC'S and they said i signed to pay the interest with the creditor at the beginning, and they could not help anymore than they have already, when they arranged for the Token payments.Thanks Ro

Many thanks FS .i would not be able to cope with talking to them, tha strain of all this has made me ill, and i think a lot of damage is done to people who just want to run there own business and try to survive.it only takes the eager ill informed taxman to mess things up, or clients not paying for work done, or accidents or illness when S/E, I believe we are not designed to cope with all this stress. i will write to them when i pay my next payments. and with the help and advice and wording in reply 3 see if i can get them to stop paying interest.Regards Ro

Thankyou for your help. It sounds as though i have missed something, All i have done is send the CCCS letter offering the Token £1 payment and requested that they freeze the interest. i was not aware that i should i send another request seperately from this, should i do so including the relavant sentences as in Firstship's helpfull reply? i do not want to speak to them. Health not good at the moment. Thankyou again, Ro

As above two of my Creditors are still charging interest! But they are accepting the £1 token payments, Is there anything i can do please? Kind regards Ro

Sorry for mistake dx100uk. i don't know how i did that, head all over the place, Thanks for all replies, i hope to ask further questions myself shortly, but feel quite ill with the stress of it all, at the moment, and worried about the thoughts i am having.

Regards Ro

Thanks for reply CitizenB. The depts we have are not secured on our home, we have a mortgage and loan on that, which we manage to pay. You are right that the Bank is taking our money because of an overdraft, and we have arranged to use another Bank, Is it important to send payment to all creditors at the same time?we have 2 maybe 3 smaller amounts, we are going to need to sort out, would it be best to pay these off in full, (bit of a struggle!) but if we were able to do this, there will be less to deal with, to enable us to concentrate on ones for larger amounts! However CCCS Have suggested we are only able to pay £1 to each of all creditors, It is the larger ones that are the most worrying, we have sent 2 £1 amounts to these so far, At the moment we have several others that we have not defaulted on as yet! and are hoping to send template letters to them over a period about one month, unless this could cause any further complications! Any Advice gratefully received. Ro

Further advice please,

we have finally received the template letters to send, after a mix up over my email address, we do have several to send to our creditors.

First question is,

we have 2 maybe 3 smaller amounts, we are going to need to sort out, would it be best to pay these off in full,

(bit of a struggle!) but if we were able to do this our thinking is, that there will be less to deal with, to enable us to concentrate on ones for larger amounts!

However CCCS Have suggested we are only able to pay £1 to each of all creditors, It is the larger ones that are the most worrying,

we have sent 2 £1 amounts to these so far, our home is of course very dear to us, after working hard to keep it going for 25 years,

(inspite of the inland revenue!)we do not want to lose it! We have nightmares about balifs calling!

We do have equity in our home.

Also to be considered is my wife’s income, from her small home business which has enabled us to stay here.

If we lose that we will lose our home! We have had problems with our bank;

(don’t know if I can name them) but they take out money that we put in to pay something else,

then they take their payment out first resulting in a missed payment to something important!

This has caused so many problems; it seems like fighting a losing battle!

We have always struggled to pay for everything. Being both S/E.

This was made worse before xmas by my illness, I am a pensioner however I work whenever I can!

But I notice on the CCCS template letter there is no statement of any reason such as illness. Etc,

to explain cause of our situation to our creditors,

Perhaps this is thought to be not necessary?

(or maybe because I am not going to fully recover from the damage done by the illness.

Also Is it important to send payment to all creditors at the same time?

At the moment we have several others that we have not defaulted on as yet!

Any Advice gratefully received.

Ro

Thanks for reply Silverfox, yes we are recieving help from CCCS, I must appear very thick, i only recently realised that the minimum payment required on some credit cards, would never realistically be enough to cover or pay off the full amount! and appears to be designed this way! and also appears more affordable! it is then all too easy to accept this minimum payment, but the obvious (at last!) result would be that the customer may never pay it off! if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! Also When you try to make a payment, over the phone they will not accept anything other than the minimum payment! That is our experience anyway, Plus as i mentioned previously I think what made things worse was the fact that the limit on our credit cards was increased, without any request to do so from us! no excuse i know! All a bit of a minefield!

regards Ro

Well we have made the call! To CCCS, and will shortly be paying £1 per month to each of our credit cards,

luckily we do not have a problem with the Mortgage if we do this, and that will be easier to pay.

We were plodding along fairly well for quite a long time, before getting into difficulties,

My wife has her little business, and though retired I still kept working myself,

Then things got worse when I was quite ill before xmas, I realise we could be ever worse off as some Caggers are,

Something I think that made things worse was the fact that the limit on our credit cards was increased,

without any request to do so from us! And when things are difficult that appears to be very convenient,

when you run short, as a result of less income, It seems like a gift, but of course it isn’t!

Does anyone feel guilty about the fact the credit card companies have to accept only £1 instead of hundreds in a month?

My wife and I both feel guilty and worry about this!

Yes Silverfox, That is the one from mr. & mrs meerkat. It is strange that out of all the posts there have been sent or replied to since i registered on here, that i got that particular one! That was the only one! whitch seems a bit strange that i should get it. But It is very helpfull to me and of course many others. i am so pleased for mr. & mrs meerkat that things are going so much better for them now, And would dearly like to thank them for taking the time to send such an inspiring post! and gratefull to whatever force pressed the button to ensure i recieved it! Kind Regards Ro

Good morning all, This is my first post. Please forgive any mistakes, i recently recieved an email from CAG, It was from a lady that explained the problems and progress over the last two years, i found this extremely helpfull, i would dearly like to read this again, (i would guess about 7 days ago) i thought i had saved it but cannot find it for reference, i am so pleased things are finally sorting out for her. i am in the middle of a financial nightmare and can see no end, i need help, with the result that i am ill at the moment, and cannot even think straight, let alone begin to sort things out, if any one can tell me how to find this if it may be here i would be very gratefull, it may give me somewhere to start! sorry if i have posted this in the wrong place Regards Ro