Needs help getting my payments reduced

[str1ker]

Hi all,

 

I won't go into too much detail but i can no longer afford to meet my minimum monthly repayments on my 4 credit cards totalling £14k. Is there a letter that i can send to my creditors along with a financial statement proving my difficulties?. I have never missed a payment with any of them but now i am struggling and it is really worrying me. I have also just had my first baby which is proving extremely stressfull and financially very expensive!.

 

Don't get me wrong, i really want to pay my debts, i just can't pay them what they want anymore

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks

[deb4tlj]

Hi and welcome to CAG. You've come to the right place. I'm not as clued up as some of the other good folk on here but I do know that there is a certain "course of events" that should be followed. Until somebody more informed than me jumps in here I would suggest taking a look at the letter template library here;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

 

Hang in there - someone will be along soon.

[str1ker]

thanks for your reassurance

 

i really hope somebody can help

[deb4tlj]

Don't worry my love, there are lots of people on here (myself included) who have money worries/problems. I would suggest sending a reduced payment letter to your creditors asking them to accept a reduced monthly amount until you get back on your feet. Include a summary of your ingoings and outgoings so they can see exactly where your money is going. I believe the letter templates are here;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

I think you need Letter B. There are also the links on the above page to the Budget Planner sheets.

[pt2537]

Hi there,

 

can i ask what the debts are for? credit cards, loans etc and also can i ask when the agreements were taken out?

 

 

 

Regards

paul

[str1ker]

Hi Paul,

 

I have 3 credit cards and 1 store card totalling £14k and 2 loans totalling approx £30k, yes it's a lot of debt but i was managing it fine.

 

The 2 loans are with Northern Rock and the AA

 

And Credit cards are with MBNA, Beneficial, Barclaycard and Next storecard. I have had the cards for approx 3 years and the loans are a year old. I have done a budget sheet but i need a covering letter to go with it to explain my situation. The letter templates on this site are not really suitable!.

 

Hope you can help and thanks for your reply.

[pt2537]

Hi Str1ker,

 

ok, this may sound like the wrong thing to do BUT the thing is at this point you are obviously have problems and worrying about the payments........

 

 

ok here goes, send each of your creditors a request for a copy of the credit agreement for each of the accounts

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

 

use letter N and send it with a one pound postal order

 

Do not sign the letter either

 

send it recorded delivery as well.

 

 

Now, this is where it can be helpfull.

 

if the creditors send back an unenforcable agreement then you can use this as a very powerful bargaining tool. there are many ways in which a credit agreement can be rendered unenforcable so its difficult for me to list all of them

 

however, no prescribed terms is the usual one along with no signatures on the documents either will render the document unenforcable and the House of Lords has visited a case on exactly this issue and found the agreement unenforcable where the prescribed terms are lacking

 

on receipt of the request for you credit agreement they have 12 working days to comply, once the 12 working days pass they are not legally able to enforce the debt, however, i would personally disregard this as you are looking to

 

the best thing to do is to fire off a CCA request and see what comes back, when you get a reply ,if you can scan up a copy of the documents they send so we can have a look and advise on the enforcability of it

 

should your agreements be unenforcable, it will give you great bargaining power as should the lender be silly enough to take legal action, it can be defended and you can ask for the court to use its power under s142 CCA 1974 to declare the debt totally unenforcible and effectively thats it game over cause they cant get any money out of you so its in their best interests where the agreements are unenforceable to come to the table and negotiate

 

i hope this helps a little

 

 

 

regards

 

paul

 

 

PS, its highly likely from experience that the loans will have enforcable agreements however the credit cards may not so i would target them first and try to negotiate with the loan companies

[str1ker]

Hi Paul,

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

I don't really want to go down that route because i do want to pay my debts, i don't want to avoid paying them because of a techincality.

 

I just need to know how to get them to reduce my payments...is this possible and if so is there a decent covering letter available.

 

Is it likely they will help me?

 

Thanks in advance

[MR2Phil]

Hi,

 

Don't worry, I don't think Paul was advocating that you use this to avoid paying the debt, it's just that it will be a useful tool to have at your disposal for when you go to them to ask for reduced payments. If they refuse you could always threaten them with not paying...of course they're much more likely to accept your offer then! I am currently in the process of being taken to court because my store card provider wouldn't accept my payments...I too don't want to avoid the debt entirely, just the fees they've charged etc.

[pt2537]

Hi,

 

Don't worry, I don't think Paul was advocating that you use this to avoid paying the debt, it's just that it will be a useful tool to have at your disposal for when you go to them to ask for reduced payments. If they refuse you could always threaten them with not paying...of course they're much more likely to accept your offer then! I am currently in the process of being taken to court because my store card provider wouldn't accept my payments...I too don't want to avoid the debt entirely, just the fees they've charged etc.

 

correct Phil, i accept that Str1ker is not trying to avoid paying the debts but as you said its a useful tool to have up your sleve for when they get snotty and you then say " but of course you are aware your credit agreement is unenforcable even by court order, now do you want to resolve this and freeze the interest and accept my offer or do you wanna BITE ME :Dand ill see you in court where you will get nowt, plus i will claim for my costs too"