Hi all. My wife has today received the following CCJ- It is from a Marshall Ward catalogue account. I lost my job due to ill health, my wife lost hers due to the recession. I am now self employed, but only earning a small amount. My wife is looking after our 2 young children and so is unemployed. We have just checked her credit report. It is listed as Lowell Portfolio and says- Account type: Mail order Started: 19/06/2009 Current Balance: £693 Default Date: 22/11/2010 Default Balance: £486 I think the last payment was maybe 3 - 6 months before the default date. I'm not sure why the current balance (the amount being claimed for plus interest and costs) is higher than the default balance. Surely they cannot charge interest on interest or charges. Due to out financial situation, my wife also has 4 other Lowell accounts from the same time. 4 of these are for different overdrafts all from Barclays. 1 is for £1175, the other 3 are joint accounts totalling about £1100). The 4th Lowel is for a Barclaycard for £4300, also listed under Barclaycard as settled and assigned to CAIS member. I myself have a 4k and 2k loan, £200 (with about another £200 charges) CapitalOne card, and the above overdrafts all defaulted and with debt collectors. We aggressively receive debt collectors letters and phone calls almost daily (mostly from Lowel and their pretend companies). But this is the first time any court action has been taken. We wrote to all the companies showing our I&E and offering a token payment, which was refused, we have ignore all correspondence since. However, this catalogue defaulted 6 months or so after all the others, and we never even wrote. We just stopped paying. We once had a doorstep collector turn up, but I lied and said she didn't live here. We have since moved. We currently each have an active Vanquis credit card with about £3000 combined, never missed a payment. I handle (obviously badly) our finances, my wife doesn't really know anything about how it all works, and cannot being to comprehend representing herself in court. I,m not sure what to do for the best. We are in private rented accommodation, but are awaiting council rehousing as we are struggling. An I&E leaves us about £60 a month short, and that's without including any clothes, luxuries, holidays etc. We have a mobility car and no assets or savings. The Vanquis cards will probably last another month or two before we are forced to default on them. First and foremost I would like some sort of statement from Marshall Ward to explain how they have got to this figure as it seems too high. How do I go about this? Do I contact them, Lowell, Bryan Carter or the court? Also is bankruptcy an option here? Is it too late now the CCJ has been issued? Sorry for all the questions and information. I hope I've been able to give a clear picture. We are against a brick wall now and don't know what to do. Any help would be massively appreciated. Thank you