Bodged I &E sent to creditors

[MrsHT]

Hiya

 

I sent in letters requesting we went to token payments and included a budget sheet. It would appear that MBNA have spotted that we appear to have £150 plus a month spare and are now requesting pro-rata payment of £85 a month. We don't have that money spare though and having looked again I've left off my loan payment (£150), my fag money and a budget for the kids shoes since the baby has just gone into shoes (not cheap in their own right!).

 

My current thoughts are to write again to all creditors with a new budget sheet and just apologise for oversight. Not sure what to do about my loan payment as we just wanted to sort my husbands out first before tackling mine. I'm not against sorting that out as well but I'd rather not right now.

 

We've had all the expected letters and some phone calls to discuss it, Egg have been brilliant and accepted it no problems, Cahoot say we need to get CAB to send in letter as they won't accept CCCS, MBNA being a bit gittish but not too bad. Obviously we need to sort this out as we don't want to appear to be lying I just honestly didn't realise.

 

help please!

[Fred Bassett]

Hiya

 

I sent in letters requesting we went to token payments and included a budget sheet. It would appear that MBNA have spotted that we appear to have £150 plus a month spare and are now requesting pro-rata payment of £85 a month. We don't have that money spare though and having looked again I've left off my loan payment (£150), my fag money and a budget for the kids shoes since the baby has just gone into shoes (not cheap in their own right!).

 

My current thoughts are to write again to all creditors with a new budget sheet and just apologise for oversight. Not sure what to do about my loan payment as we just wanted to sort my husbands out first before tackling mine. I'm not against sorting that out as well but I'd rather not right now.

 

We've had all the expected letters and some phone calls to discuss it, Egg have been brilliant and accepted it no problems, Cahoot say we need to get CAB to send in letter as they won't accept CCCS, MBNA being a bit gittish but not too bad. Obviously we need to sort this out as we don't want to appear to be lying I just honestly didn't realise.

 

help please!

 

I wouldn't put your fag money on the I&E if I were you. Also, I would get the whole lot sorted out at once. Have you checked to see what you can reasonably put down for expenses?

 

Regards.

 

Fred

[cerberusalert]

Have you actually checked to see whether these alleged debts are in fact enforceable?

[MrsHT]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

Why not put fags down on I&E? There's a tobacco allowance up to £85 a month on bankruptcy and assumed we could put the same down for this.

 

We haven't checked whether they're enforceable as I'm not sure I really want the phone calls and letters madness that follows if they're not. We're ok to pay it back just not as it was and not for a few months hence the token payments until I'm working again.

 

Can we go down the CCA route whilst doing the token payments? I'm not sure how long they hound you before giving in and what the ramifications are for doing it (if it proves unenforceable).

Edited April 24, 2010 by MrsHT
Another question

[Fred Bassett]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

Why not put fags down on I&E? There's a tobacco allowance up to £85 a month on bankruptcy and assumed we could put the same down for this.

 

We haven't checked whether they're enforceable as I'm not sure I really want the phone calls and letters madness that follows if they're not. We're ok to pay it back just not as it was and not for a few months hence the token payments until I'm working again.

 

Can we go down the CCA route whilst doing the token payments? I'm not sure how long they hound you before giving in and what the ramifications are for doing it (if it proves unenforceable).

 

Look, I smoke myself so I'm not going to criticise you for that, but if it ever gets that far, I'm not sure that £85 per month on baccy would go down too well with a court when you are struggling to pay debts. Let's be honest, it's a lifestlye choice, not a necessity. It's your call though. Personally, I would look at other things that are 'claimable' and adjust my figures accordingly.

 

As has been mentioned already, perhaps the best bet is to first check that the debts you have are enforceable. If they're not, you are more in charge.

 

Regards.

 

Fred

[MrsHT]

I'm going to sound like a wimp but just reading the CCA threads and it sounds stupidly complicated and I'm wussing out of it a bit. Would like to stick head in the sand at this point and hope it all goes away!

 

I need the fags for my mental health. How's that?! LOL

[Fred Bassett]

I also meant to say - don't imagine for one minute that the harassment will end once you have sorted out a DMP, particularly if it is one you've worked out yourself. It won't. Trust me, I've got the T shirt. 6 months later, all of your creditors will be hounding you to increase your payments and won't take no for an answer. It's usually at this point that people discover the CAG. You're lucky, you've found it already. Cerbusalert is absolutely right. Get your CCA requests in as soon as you can.

 

Regards.

 

Fred

[Fred Bassett]

I'm going to sound like a wimp but just reading the CCA threads and it sounds stupidly complicated and I'm wussing out of it a bit. Would like to stick head in the sand at this point and hope it all goes away!

 

I need the fags for my mental health. How's that?! LOL

 

Use your noddle! How's it going to look in front of a Judge if you say that you need £85 per month for fags?!!! That's ridiculous. I shouldn't really say this, but just be a bit more creative on the other things on your I&E statement.

 

I understand, I really do - I smoke myself, but just think about it for a minute. What's to stop you saying that you need 5 pints of strong lager every night at a cost of £450 per month?

 

There are plenty of legitimate things that you can put on an I&E statement. For instance, how much have you put down for food, clothing, dental and eye care bills, house insurance, travel, newspapers, school expenses, etc. etc. ?? Just don't put fags on it!!!

 

Regards.

 

Fred

[MrsHT]

Ok ok...you have me convinced! Thank you. Will see what I can do.

 

Do we now just stop all contact with the creditors, continue sending the token payments we've arranged and send the CCA request? I'm loathe to let it get to court as I just don't have the energy to deal with it at the moment (2 kids under 3, not great health, training to be childminder, mother going round the bend, husband working 60 hour weeks...you get the picture!). I suppose we could see then about full and final on some of them, I'm just worried about MBNA who seem to be gits.

 

(Currently wishing I had alpha male husband who would just sort it all out since it's in his name!)

 

Thanks for the advice, just run out of puff on this one for a while and want it all to go away so sorry if I sound rather pathetic right now.

[Fred Bassett]

just run out of puff on this one for a while

 

It's all those fags!

 

As advised already, if you're going down the DMP route, you just have to make sure that you have enough to reasonably live on. This won't stop the harassment though because these blood suckers will be on your back every 6 months to get you to increase payments.

 

My advice is this:

 

1) Get yourself a free 0700 telephone number from dmclub.co.uk and log this as your number with all of your creditors if you can. This should be quite easy if you still have online access to any of your accounts. If you can afford it, get the trucall recorder instead - I don't have one myself but the reports on this piece of kit are highly positive. The reason for this is that it will stop your creditors dead in their tracks if they try to harass you by telephone.

 

2) Make sure you have a strategy for dealing with the harassment once it starts (which it will). This sort of pressure can make your life a misery, so work out how to deal with it. Make sure that you tell each one of your creditors that you will only deal with them in writing. This gives you breathing space to get the necessary advice and think things over. If you are contacted by telephone, refuse to go through the security questions. MBNA don't bother with such niceties so if they ring just tell them to foxtrot oscar.

 

3) Get your CCA requests in as soon as. This will, eventually, reveal whether or not your creditors have a properly enforceable agreement. If the debt is unenforceable it won't go away but it does put you firmly in charge. When you send these requests, use a postal order not a cheque. Don't sign your letters, just print your name.

 

4) Start a separate thread for each difference creditor in the relevant forum. This is the correct forum if the debt has been passed to a DCA.

 

5) Don't let the [edit]s grind you down.

 

6) Don't put fags on an IE statement.

 

I made a spreadsheet for working out your own DMP a while back. Let me know if you would like a copy. There are other budget planners on the site.

 

Good luck.

 

Regards.

 

Fred

[MrsHT]

Thank you so much! Yes I would like a copy of your spreadsheet please!

[Fred Bassett]

Thank you so much! Yes I would like a copy of your spreadsheet please!

 

OK, here's a link to the file: ADrive.com – 50GB of Free Online Storage & Backup

 

Here's how to use it:

 

1. Put in your household position, i.e. couple with children, by using one of the buttons at the top of the sheet

 

2. Enter your income and expenditure. I've put all of this down to default to 'Monthly', but there is a cell to the right of each item and if you select this a drop-down arrow will appear from which you will be able to select "Weekly', '2-Weekly', '4-Weekly', 'Monthly' or 'Yearly'. Whatever you enter, the amount will be automatically calculated into the monthly figure.

 

3. Enter your creditors and the total amount owed to each one. The pro-rata payment to each creditor is calculated automatically by deducting your expenditure from your income, then working out the payment to each creditor as a percentage of the remaining income according to how much you owe that creditor in relation to the overall debt.

 

4. Don't forget that some monthly bills (Council Tax and Water Rates) are paid over 10 months, so I've put in a section where you can work out the monthly payment by entering the total yearly bill.

 

5. I've tried to match up the trigger figures. Where there is a figure and the amount you have put down exceeds it, the cell background will change to red and the font to yellow to alert you.

 

6. There is some VBA in this file, so if Excel prompts you, you will have to enable macros. If you have your setting change to permanently disable macros, you will need to change this back again for the spreadsheet to work properly.

 

7. The only cells where you will be able to enter information are those coloured yellow.

 

8. The trigger figures are a couple of years old now, so probably out of date. It's not easy getting the latest ones, so you'd better treat these as a guide only. The link on the second page no longer works.

 

Any problems, shout.

 

Regards.

 

Fred

 

ps: You will see a section for 'Fags' - Ignore it!!!

Edited April 25, 2010 by Fred Bassett