We have so much debt, it seems only hope is selling house!

[wilchil64 32]

Thanks for your replies. Am going to sit down with hubbie tonight to make payments and work out who is still charging us interest - can't remember who it is at the mo without looking.

 

We have sent updated income and outgoings to companies who asked, allowing for all our costs, and two of the three we sent these to have accepted our proposed payments (which are still quite low and manageable).

 

BD, hope you are right that they will accept very low F&Fs at some point as with increasing costs we have no chance to save any money at all.

 

Most of the time am coping quite well with the situation but must admit I've spent the past couple of weeks worrying a lot about our debt and how we will ever pay it off, and that we will never be able to move as we can no longer obtain a mortgage - our house is too big and expensive but it is irrelevant at the moment as houses aren't selling anyway.

[Bigdebtor 616]

W

 

Good to hear from you. As you say, check out who is still charging interest and try to get these charges stopped - ideally with any interest chargedrefunded and back dated to when you first told them of your hardship. If they won't play ball threaten them with FOS - which will cost them £500 just to be referred to FOS by you - so they might play ball to avoid this.

 

I wouldn't worry unduly about bad credit ratings affecting your abilty to move in the medium/longer term - especially if it's to a smaller house with a lower mortage - things will improve over time - as property recovers and banks start to lend money more freely - then they might go back to rating you just based on your keeping up to date with your mortgage payments. If the token payments are affordable then just settle down and accept you'll be paying them pretty well for ever. That's what I've done with the two £5 monthly token payments I'm making - and will do so until I'm about 200 years old!

 

Good luck!

 

BD

[wilchil64 32]

Hi everyone,

 

Hope you're all well?

 

Quick update: We've had a letter from HFC, offering us a settlement figure, which I think is approx. 1/3 of the total debt. We don't have this money at the moment, the offer is valid for 30 days in total, so about another 3 weeks.

 

As hubby is currently out of work again (although hopefully not for long, fingers crossed) we're not in a position to make any payment at present but would like to make a F&F payment to them when he is working again.

 

Would it be a good idea to make a counter-offer to them?

 

Thanks guys (and girls!)

[Bigdebtor 616]

W

 

It's very important that any F&F deal is handled correctly - e.g. using a cheque from a third party - to protect you from them just applying your payment as a payment on account to redcue the balance.

 

Use the next 30 days to read up on a number of other F&F threads - so you know more about how to handle it.

 

However a "try on" offer of say 10-20% F&F in the mean time might not go wrong - but be sure to say you have been given very limited funds from a friend/relative and he/she will only agree to pay 10 or 20% F&F - nothing more - and you have other potential calls on this money to pay other creditors - and can't pay everyone even 10-20% with what has been made available to you just now. It might work - but certainly won't do any harm.

 

I have always found THEIR "limited time" offers get extended/repeated at any future time if/when the money is actually avialable - so don't worry about losing out on this current offer. A 33% F&F is not too bad - but 10 or 20% is so much better (for you - not for them) - so worth trying for.

 

Incidentally - I assume you're pretty sur ethey have an enforceable CCA agreement? If not then I would offer zilch!

 

Keep us posted - and post up any proposed letter before you send it.

 

Good luck!

 

BD

[victoria_siempre 596]

Hi wlchil

 

It's good to see you're alive and kicking. Nobody has yet offered me nuffink full or final and I defer to the advice of BD and other colleagues. It's interesting that when the banks offered to take a 50% F&F Greek haircut bank shares rose and when a Greek referendum was announced shares fell.

 

Funny old world?

 

x

 

v

[wilchil64 32]

Thanks. It's a very recent debt (August 2009) so not requested CCA - might do so though.

[Bigdebtor 616]

Hi everyone,

 

Hope you're all well?

 

Quick update: We've had a letter from HFC, offering us a settlement figure, which I think is approx. 1/3 of the total debt. We don't have this money at the moment, the offer is valid for 30 days in total, so about another 3 weeks.

 

As hubby is currently out of work again (although hopefully not for long, fingers crossed) we're not in a position to make any payment at present but would like to make a F&F payment to them when he is working again.

 

Would it be a good idea to make a counter-offer to them?

 

Thanks guys (and girls!)

 

W

 

Lonmg time no hear - hopefully a good sign? How are things going with you now?

 

BD

[wilchil64 32]

W

 

Lonmg time no hear - hopefully a good sign? How are things going with you now?

 

BD

 

Hi BD,

 

It HAS been a long time, hasn't it?

 

Everything is more or less fine, no change really. Every three or six months some of our creditors contact us to say our agreement has now finished, I send off new I&Es and they accept for anothe 3/6 month period.

 

Hubby has been working since January and has contract til the end of the year. Still no chance to save any money to pay off large amounts of the debt the money doesn't seem to go far these days.

 

Thanks for asking

 

Hope everyone else is ok.

[Bigdebtor 616]

W

 

Things bumping along OK with me too - no further F&F activity - I'm only paying out two lots of £5 per month to Egg and Barclaycard - and just fending off various new DCA's who turn up every so often to chase up on the othe runresolved debts - but go away when I tell them I've got unanswered CCA or SAR requests and to come back when these have been answered.

 

It's just a case of waiting until these debts become SB - but they are all still 2-3 years away as foolishly (pre CAG) I was paying small token amounts to any new DCA's when forced to do so - I now know this was to restart the SB clock and stop it ticking to the SB date too quickly - I now know not to do anything like that - and I just tell them to come back when the outstanding CCA or SAR request has been fully dealt with!

 

However I'm having a bit of a problem with Glasgow Parking who claim an appeal letter I sent them didn't arrive - see thread below. They've gone right to the Bailiff stage without my getting any chance to state my case to anyone impartial - local democracy??? HUH!!!!

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?276853-Does-the-OFT-guidelines-on-Debt-Collection-apply-to-Council-Parking-Fines-and-Council-Tax-debts

Edited September 20, 2012 by Bigdebtor
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