newby

[dessiep]

I am new to this forum & indeed have never visited a forum before. I was made aware of this forum by a friend who said I might be able to find the help I need. I have around £55k of debt and no assets and have been sending all my creditirs £1 a week for the past 2 years, since losing a well paid job. My friend said that in order to move forward I should ask all my creditors for copies of the cnsumer credit agreements that I signed. Is this correct and why should I do this, what would I be looking to achieve by doing this ? I look forward to receiving any replies and thank you all in anticipation of any replies I might receive.

[debbbbsy]

Hi,

Be careful before doing any CCA requests.

If you can afford these very small payments, then you need to be aware of what may happen if you do start questioning the debt. They may retaliate by demanding higher payments, or worse they may call in the whole debt.

The payments you are making, were they negotiated directly with the lender, a payment plan or a court judgement ?

 

The CCA request is a way of finding out if the lender can enforce the debt in court. No credit agreement, no debt. But if they do provide a true signed copy of your agreement with all the terms & conditions, then you'll have to pay up.

Perhaps a different route to begin with, the debt is large, is it possible that any of the debt is made up of interest & charges which may be considered illegal. You could do a SAR first, & see what comes back.

 

good luck

Debs

[dessiep]

Hi debbbbsy,

 

Many thankjs for your reply.

 

I have 1 CCJ , and 6 other unsecured debts, made up of overdrafts, credit cards and a bank loan. I am paying £1 pm to each of these creditors on the advice of NDH, as I am on incapacity benefit,but I am due to return to work soon, and may have some excess income after paying expenses, but my income will be variable as i will earn a basic and commission.

Should I just continue with these payments, I have no need for credit in the short term, or should i offer to increase my payments, can the creditors insist on increased payments - presumably they can only do this if they know I have access income, and they will only know this if i volounteer this information.

 

I look forward to any further commentsanyone might like to offer.

[debbbbsy]

Hi,

The CCJ debt,Once they have judgement it can be difficult to challenge the debt, but not impossible. You can apply to have the judgement set a side if you discover that the debt is mainly made up of unlawful bank charges,& is therefore innacurate.Also some have been successful in challenging the CCJ if the lender has failed to comply with a CCA request, but this will depend on the age of the judgement. Tomorrow, on this account send your SAR & your CAA [aslong as you are making payments they can't ask for more money].

 

As for the other accounts.

Do your SAR on these accounts, they have to send you all data held on these accounts. We got statements from when the account was opened in 1992. Be prepared for a shock, the debt will be higher then you expect, the CCJ debt will be frozen, these accounts will be accruing interest.

Debs

[RobMitch]

Hi

 

Just my experience, so its not absolutley certain, but I've found that they'll only start to poke about if you miss payments. I periodically received income/expend forms from creditors, but just wroite back that circumstance "not significantly" changed. That'd be hard to contradict.

 

The overdrafts would not be covered by a CCA anyway. Perhaps a some point in the future they may pull the rug out and demand payment. That's when the CCA requests should go in....wait for their move so as not to rock th eboat.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Good luck

 

Rob

[dessiep]

Many thanks for your advice Robmitch,

 

I will respond to the financial statement request as you have suggested, and leave everything else as it is, i.e. not rock the boat, and if in the future I have some cash available I will offer my creditors a full and final settlement.