Need some guidance on helping my girlfriend out of a big hole.

[sinking]

Hi all,

 

Not sure where to start.....

 

My girlfriend of 4 years has just come clean about the amount of debt she is in, which I was totally unaware of. I won't give you the whole story, but I think it's a common one.

 

She lives on her own and has 2 children, one left home in 20's and the youngest is 14 and lives with his father. She earns about £10k a year and needs that to support herself and look after her son when she has him every week.

 

She has £30k of debt across 11 lenders, all of which she pays a £1 or so a month. She will never ever be able to clear the debt. The debt was acrued trying to support her children whilst growing up and fighting a court case. Truthfully the banks were negligent in ever allowing her to rack up this debt, but that's another story.

 

She has near zero assets and lives in a council house and has a car worth probably £1k.

 

We wrote to all the lenders on the 10th August requesting a copy of the CCA. Here is the current status :

 

M&S Charge Card - 1995 - £1005.87 - Request CCA on 10/8, received 12/9. Photocopy of application form and 1 A4 page of terms on reverse. Looked like a copy of a copy of a copy, etc..... They also provided a seperate copy of their 2008 terms. Question : Is a copy of a copy of a copy of the CCA enforcable ? Rather strangely, where it states "Signed for and on behalf of Marks & Spencer Financial Services Limited", it just has the date stamped on the signature box and the date box is empty. Is this even enforcable ?

 

Cabot Financial on Behalf of MBNA - £4436.98

Cabot Financial on Behalf of Creation Consumer Finance - £3037.64

- Request CCA on 10/8. Letter on 26/8 stating they are having trouble finding the document. Letter on 21/9 stating they cannot find the documents within the relevant time period. They are suspending activity on the account. Question : What do I do now ?

 

Mint (Allied International Credit) - £3416.51 - Wrote to AIC on 10/8, they refused to supply a CCA saying they were acting on behalf of Mint and I had to write to them. AIC has put a DCA (Apex) to recover the money. I have written to Mint requesting the CCA and I am waiting. Question : Will AIC/APEX suspend collection whilst I await the CCA ?

 

Other Lenders - Request CCA on 10/8, no reply whatsoever.

 

 

I am not wealthy myself, my goal is to reduce all of these debts to as low as possible and then try and clear them myself. Please don't think I am trying to get out all these.

 

Thank you, Sinking.

Edited September 28, 2009 by sinking

[BankFodder]

Frankly, in her situation she might well think of bankruptcy.

 

Have a look at the people on this forum who are reporting on their experience of bankruptcy. The whole thing seems to be handled very sympathetically and non-threateningly. It brings an end to all of the problems and the stress and allows a fresh start.

 

I am sure that you could find that some of your agreements are uneforceable and that you are owed charges etc but the battle you would have, the harassment by debt collectors, the energy that it would all require and it would not bring an end to the problem for many years.

 

With a properly managed bankruptcy, you could be living a much calmer and purposeful life witin a matter of weeks - as long as you don't start going down the same debt road again.

[sinking]

If Bankruptcy is the only choice, then I am sure it will happen at some point. But this is all about sorting this out, so we can live together, so I would like to consider Bankruptcy as the final option.

 

As for M&S above, here are scans of the response to my CCA, I just want to stop them chasing this for the moment :

 

Letter

Application Form

Terms on reverse of Application Form

 

How should I respond to them ?

 

Thanls

[sinking]

bump

[havinastella]

Hi Sinking and welcome to Cag.

 

BF has made a superb point above. This will not affect you living together and will end ALL of the hassle.

 

All the above debts that you have outlined will most definately be unenforcable, Unfortunately, this does not make them go away and your girlfriend can be hounded for the next six years.

 

Have a look at Tilly and bankrupt thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/formal-solutions-bankruptcy-administration/163318-tilly-going-bankrupt-here.html

 

 

Jogs

[diskmandave]

I have to absolutely concur.

 

As "The Boss" states, a properly handled Bankruptcy could be dealt

with in a matter of weeks/months, but in reality if you go down the

route of "sorting out" that you refer to, if it all even turns out to be

unenforceable, you're still going to be fighting this well upto and even

beyond the next decade (2020), actually having to pay the debts in

full might never even happen.

 

A fresh start and a new life for you both.

 

Good luck with what you decide...

 

Best wishes, Dave.

[sinking]

Diskmandave, havinastella,

 

Thanks for the feedback, as she has only just come clean to me about all this, she is still very much in denial about it all, and is terrified anyone is going to find out from her family. Hence the part of having her name in the paper is what's really frightening her at the moment.

 

At the moment she pays her £1 a month to all these and they haven't pursued it too much, but I know that won't remain the same forever.

 

Is it worth me writing to M&S and stating they have not sent me the CCA and they should stop enforcement for the time being ? And what can I say to Mint (Apex/AIC) to stop them chasing for the moment ?

 

If anything I need a breathing space to explain that Bankruptcy is a good option here.

 

Is it also worth me writing to all the creditors explaining her situation and that Bankruptcy is the ultimate end of all this and as a family friend offering 10p in the pound or less to clear their debts ?

 

Thanks, S.

[havinastella]

Hi mate,

 

Have a look at the library here.

 

http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors.html

 

Just click on each link to open the templates.

 

You'll find everything you need.

 

JOgs

[GhostDebt]

At the end of the day the decision is yours but having the information available i.e CCA request replies and knowing where you stand will help you make a more informed choice.

If you choose to fight as many do, then it would be worthwhile posting individual threads about each one in the relevant area of the forums. That way you would get assistance from people dealing with the same companies and risk not getting confused which is which.

 

Regards