I'm Sinking

[Honeypot]

Hi All

 

Please can someone give me the honest truth to this question/situation-

 

Most importantly I have enforceable CCA's.

 

I have sent income/expenditure forms to credit card companies and are making reduced payments.

 

I am getting loads of nasty letters saying I must ring them so they can help me otherwise I'll get a charging order if i ignore them etc

 

Many letters state that options available are reduced payments, no interest etc but I must call to discuss.

 

Can someone give me gods honest truth/experience- if I ring will I get more chance of a solution or can the same options they offer be achieved by writing.

 

I know the rules-Dont speak but I am starting to sink and loosing the will to live.

 

Thanks

 

 

Vicky

xxxx

[PGH7447]

if it is the OC then chance are they will help, if it is a dca then dont bother

[Honeypot]

Thanks PGH 7447

Good to hear from you again.

 

Vicky

xxxx

[Revenant]

Hi HP

Unfortunately the vast majority on here will tesify to being given a load of spiel and broken deals by DCA's when on the phone agreements are made

There's nothing in law, written or implied that you must call them you do however add weight to your future arguments if you request to correspond in writing only and you get refused, a good paper trail will out way dodgy phone chats any day

Easier said than done I know but try not to let these bullies get to you, we have all been there at some point whether through debt or other circumstances but there's always someone on here that will offer advice or just listen

Good luck

R

[Honeypot]

Hi R

 

the accounts are still with Egg and MBNA but months behind. The letters say this is my last chance to sort out my debt before going to court.

 

Vicky

xxxx

[willy2006]

like has already been said if you feel that you cant deal with it yourself go to CAB.They were a godsend for me a few years ago after house repossesion and divorce,or any body such as Consumer Credit Counselling Service.If it went to court they have to accept a token payment even if £1 a week and the judge would usually be sympathetic if you were doing your best to pay.Back then i couldnt handle it but now i understand things a lot more dont let the bullies win!!

[Revenant]

Good reply from willy2006

 

As I understand things Vicky before they can get a Charging order they have to get a CCJ and you have to default on that

 

A court hearing would not be a nice thing to go through but you would at least be able to put your side of things and show proof (hence a paper trail) of what you have been trying to do and it would be the Judge not the DCA who decided on how much you would pay based on your I & E and that would get the money grabbing gits by the short n curlies

 

Regards

 

R

Edited January 20, 2010 by Revenant
text change

[MayRich]

hi Vicky,

 

I dealt with a lot of creditors and they were all reasonable except these two.

 

MBNA just wouldn't accept anything in writing and constantly lied about the situation (eg their letters would say I hadn't written to them). They are intolerable bullies and disregard the law really badly.

 

However in the end I just stopped paying anything other than £1 a month, kept writing to them pointing out I was willing to negotiate and had given them all the information they needed. They just sat on it a while to run up some interest and sold it to a debt collector. This has actually made life easier, especially as MBNA didn't do it all properly, didn't issue a default notice properly etc. So now I'm sitting tight and doing the same thing to the DCA - I am genuinely willing to co-operate and pay some money but I insist on having correct paperwork and doing things properly (and having everything in writing). Don't phone MBNA - they will just lie to you and try to bully you - the people on the phone are just chasing targets and will do anything to try and scare you.

 

Good luck with them - be brave and remember you have rights, whatever they like to think.

 

As to Egg, they seemed perfectly reasonable, agreed a monthly payment and interest freeze in writing. I paid regularly and then without warning they sold the debt on anyway - at the same time they did the same thing to a bunch of us. The collection agency again doesn't have correct paperwork, so in this case I'm not paying anything until they co-operate.

 

Do it all in writing. Keep everything. Make sure that you could show a court that you had been reasonable and had done everything required of you (in the unlikely event it comes to that).

 

And please don't feel you're sinking. They want to stress you, in the end you will find it gets easier and that you can let all this stuff float by more easily.

[Honeypot]

Mayrich- did you get Egg to freeze interest by writing to them or did you have to phone them?

 

Vicky

xxxx

[MayRich]

Hi Vicky,

 

I only had to write to them - I think I did call them just to say it was all in the post, but they weren't difficult about that at the time - they did require a renewal I/E form after six months but it was all going pretty smoothly.

 

Until they decided to sell off the debt for no good reason, that is. I'm pretty annoyed about - I expected the MBNA one to get defaulted because they clearly just wanted to bump up the balance to increase their tax write off, weren't interested in being reasonable at all. But I felt pretty let down by Egg.

 

Doesn't really make much difference in the grand scheme of things I suppose.

 

I think the explanation may be that they have had such a rise in bad debt and write offs that they had to shift a lot of stuff off their books one way or another.

 

Best of luck with it all - it does get better over time.

 

MayRich

[Huff&Puff]

May I ask how old these alleged debts are? Because Egg in particular, re well known for having big problems with their agreements. They may not be as enforceable as you think.