I owe a lot!

[Goldlady]

Hi Lou, a year ago I was close to bankruptcy - now from all I have learned on here and the help I have had I have discovered that at least half of my debt is unenforceable and the rest is still hanging in the balance. I am no longer afraid to answer the phone and look forward to the post to see what is happening in each of my battles.

 

What a lot of these card companies are 100% guilty of is irresponsible lending - in my case it was ridiculous (like 2K increases at a time) but I was so skint at the time (business not personal extravagances) that I saw each credit limit increase as pennies from heaven. So if they haven't got their paperwork right, well that's their misfortune:D. Ask for as much advice as you need - you will get loads of help.

[Goldlady]

it is highly unlikely that they will all be enforceable - if any. Basically you have a right to ask for a copy of your original consumer credit agreement which is the evidence they would need to prove the debt if they took you to court. Many companies have not got anything at all, having destroyed the paperwork (in my case so far about 40K), and a great deal more send a copy of the application form which is in many cases not a valid agreement. One of the CCA gurus will no doubt post a list of the 'terms' which need to be on an agreement for it to be enforceable. Whether or not you have the original agreement is irrelevant - what you are now asking for is what they have on file against you.

 

Even if they are all enforceable and you did have to go bankrupt you have nothing to lose really - and if you find they are not enforceable then you have everything to gain.

[Goldlady]

You will need a big file to keep all the letters in - keep copies of everything you send and every reply. I have lived without borrowing anything for the last 18 months as all my cards don't work anymore for some strange reason - sometimes I have no idea how I am going to buy food and stuff but I have managed and I will never ever again have a credit card.

 

Best of luck Lou - I look forward to hearing how you get on:)

[Goldlady]

Well you will probably need all the old letters, just incase, but if you start a new file for the new fighting back campaign it will make you feel so much better. I get so much therapy from filing stuff in my 'action' file.

 

It's almost like alcoholics anonymous - Hi my name is Goldlady and I am a victim of irresponsible lending.

[Goldlady]

Another thing - if they are giving you grief on the phone you can ask them to only contact you in writing. I am not very good at linking to letters but there is a whole rake of letters you can use on here for every possible situation.

 

Hope you can manage to carry all the CCA letters to the post office:D

[Goldlady]

I think that is how most of us ended up here. These people are pushing too hard and it is about time the worm turned! Hopefully you will get a good night's sleep, unless you lie awake plotting:D. It is almost unbelievable that you can get rid of certainly some debts because they haven't done their homework - sounds too good to be true. But the good people on here are not some sort of hard-sell bullsh*tters - they are people like you and me who have been a bit silly - as have the lenders.

 

One thing that amazed me was that I worked out on a spreadsheet ages ago that I had actually paid back the money I had borrowed from my cards and that all I now owe (or did in some cases) is interest and charges. So if I hadn't borrowed the damned money in the first place I would owe nothing to anyone;)

[Goldlady]

You could work it systematically rather than trying to do it all at once. You can send the CCA requests to the DCA's - they should pass it back to the original creditor (OC). I have done that with mine - waited until they got nasty and then sent the CCA letter.

[Goldlady]

I have just read your other thread. Will you please stop panicking - you have the help of some of the best people on here and you will be fine. Promise.

[Goldlady]

Yes, perhaps it is your fault, but if they hadn't put the temptation there would you have done it? I think not. You have a life to get on with and you cannot let this destroy you. And it won't.

 

I lived in terror of people coming to the house and one day when I was here by myself a thuggish character in a suit knocked at the door. I lay on the bedroom floor for at least half an hour, shaking like a jelly. i found out later he was from the council cos the neighbours had complained about our rubble mountain as we were converting the loft.

 

Never again will I let anyone put that fear into me. And neither should you - debt is NOT a crime - lending money to people who really can't afford to borrow it in the first place in my opinion IS.

[Goldlady]

You have every chance of eradicating most of it - I have;) I was paying 2k a month to my creditors till the you know what hit the fan. They will not call round - they do not have the right. Hard to take in at the moment - I know - but really you have to take control here and you have the power to do it. In a month or two you will be helping other people with the experience you have gained from sorting out your own situation

[Goldlady]

Well once you have sent the CCA letters and they have not supplied you with the agreements you can stop paying them (12+2 working days then a further 30). OK if they find the agreements in the future they can enforce them again but that is kind of unlikely.

 

This is the beginning of the rest of your life. It will not take as long as you think.

[Goldlady]

No it makes no difference at all. Particularly if they can't prove the debt anyway. We are all human - if we could pay we would.

[Goldlady]

Actually for me it was the opposite. We got loads of grief from the DCAs until we sent the CCA letters, and of course the telephone harassment letter, and my favourite letter of all about only the postman and people looking for directions having a licence to knock at the door:D. The postman certainly didn't stagger up the path with a pile of valid CCAs, that's for sure. God knows what the poor guy thought when things were really bad - one day he HANDED me a card from a DCA saying 'we called today but you were out' - fell flat on their faces with that one.

 

My Dad would have been the same if he was still alive - he never had a debt in his life.

[Goldlady]

Lou, I do think in your situation you have come to a sensible conclusion. I would have done it myself as I think I said earlier, but I do own a small bit of a house (!) and have four kids to think of so I have gone down the 'fighting all the way' route. But I know several people who have gone BR and they all reckon it was the best thing they did, not including of course the wonderful people on here who will give you all the support you need. It certainly is no longer shameful and you can start living again.

 

Best of luck:)

[Goldlady]

Lou. I helped my friend's mum do the big B a few weeks ago and it was tough. She had been brought up in poverty, raised her four kids in not much better circumstances and then all of a sudden all these credit card people gave her massive credit limits. She had a couple of holidays herself but basically spent most of the money on her kids and grandchildren because it made her feel good after years of struggling. She had to go to court by herself but the judge was really nice, apart from making her feel like a naughty schoolgirl at the age of 65:p

 

You will be fine - as I have said many times these lenders are as much to blame as we are. You have done nothing wrong.

[Goldlady]

looking at tau's avatar I would be a little concerned about your new friends:D

[Goldlady]

Read that list Lou. Gambling has to be the total pits really. I have a client who gets £100 out when things are getting tough, loses it, then gets another £100, then another. It is quite scary looking at his bank statements - occasionally he wins a bit and puts it back, but that has to be the worst way of wasting money, whether it's your own or other people's. At least you have something to show for retail therapy!

[Goldlady]

Oh heck!! Well hopefully the agency will find you something else.. Where are you based and what do you do - you never know someone on here might be able to help you get another job;). There is the option of forcing the baddies to make you bankrupt which will save you the money. I know you can get exemption from some of the costs, but not all. Hopefully someone else will come up with some suggestions, but if you are now unemployed there is 'beggar all' the creditors can do about it and you can truthfully tell them that. You want all interest frozen and offer them a token payment of £1 a MONTH.

 

Don't panic - every cloud has its silver lining;)

[Goldlady]

I would agree with Tom. As I faced bankruptcy a year or so ago (before we discovered CAG) we were told that as we had a small amount of equity it would be possible for OH to buy out my share. I would think that if you have negative equity and the house is owned by two people the one not going BR could buy out the other's share for a token amount. But obviously check on this as Tom suggests.

[Goldlady]

All the best for tomorrow. Pretend you don't really want the job and you will be much more relaxed;)

[Goldlady]

Well done you;). The only way is up:D

[Goldlady]

Cor... and i thought the OR included food in the budget:)

 

:lol:

 

Wish I could loose 4 stone, my misses would never recognise me. Hopefully

 

:lol:

 

It's good to laugh

[Goldlady]

You are so right Tau - I have lived on St John's Wort and alcohol for the past two years. And regarding the 'other' my OH keeps reminding me that our youngest is now 8:eek:. It seems to us that men and women deal with stress in different ways;)

[Goldlady]

Pleased to hear you are getting on top of things:p. Best of luck with the forms - they aren't complicated but take quite a while.

[Goldlady]

When I helped my friend's Mum fill hers in we said that she had always lived on the breadline and suddenly all these people gave her credit which she had never had in her life. (this was the truth) So she had spent money on holidays (two or three a year) and bought presents for her children and grandchildren. As fermi says it is really not important what you have spent it on - as long as it wasn't gambling:eek:. Clothes, partying, stuff like that - the OR is not going to repossess your wardrobe.

 

When my friend's Mum went before the judge she was scared stiff but he was really nice and she said afterwards he made her feel a bit like a naughty schoolgirl - at the age of 65!! But you have to remember that there are thousands of people going BR these days and that the lenders are just as much to blame for throwing credit at people.