debt to hide or not

[stuck in a rut]

Hi there

Can anyone help please, can you give me some advice. I am currently black-listed due to my poor debt management. It all started about 8-9 Years ago, i have changed my surname during this period( to open a bank account) and i have moved house twice. I had two credit cards few store/catalouge accounts a bank consolidation loan probably totalling in the region of 15-20k. Its so long ago i cant remember. I'm on benefits, older and wiser and have children and i regret every penny of debt i have fallen into. My dream is to get back into work eventually have a mortgage and possibly set up a small business. No one has traced me so far, but i worry that my dream can never come true due to my debt. I will never get a mortgage or help with a business loan and fear one day if by magic i did manage to have attain my dream that a debtor can come an take it all away. Can any one advise, i havent checked my credit file as i dont want them to know me current address.Should i settle my debt or should i continue to hide under my alias..(which just has one debt against it through no fault of my own it is due to 3 mobile company) Please help!

[andrew1]

How do you know you are black listed and what are you blacklisted from?

 

When you moved did you have a redirection on your mail?

 

£20,000 is not a phenominal amount of debt as to be prohibitive to negotiating out of and getting your life back (I've just helped someone with £98,000 worth so if it can be done for them, your £20k is not impossible)

 

No, you should not hide from your debt, life is too short to be subservient to a bank and scared to exist.

[cerberusalert]

Any defaults or CCJs would stay on your credit file for six years. A debt becomes Statute Barred after six years (five in Scotland) and unless the creditor has obtained a CCJ they would be unable to pursue. If they have obtained a CCJ and six or more years have passed they would need to apply to a court for permission to enforce... this is rarely given.

 

If you check your credit file they would want to know your previous addresses over the past 5 years so unless those addresses are linked to the one where the debt occurred it is unlikely that anything would show.

 

When you say you changed your surname I assume it's by marriage? If so that is your legal name now and you do not have to declare any previous names if you wish to check your credit file. Even if it weren't by marriage and you changed your name by Deed Poll or common usage you wouldn't need to either.

[stuck in a rut]

Hi, Thanks for your quick reply.

I applied for mobile phone contracts and couldnt get them untill i changed my name. I didnt redirect my mail, the debt address is my mother address. Do you think i can still be traced to my debt would i still have to pay it or can i start fresh with a my new surname? If i should pay the debt where do i start, how do i go about it and would i be paying it forever?

[stuck in a rut]

Hi Thank you for the quick reply.

So to clarify only if i have a ccj they could take any assets (mortgage etc) but if this is more than six years they would need to apply to the court to take any assets. The debt address is my mothers house, could i request my credit file using my old name and that address? Can creditors see that i have requested my credit file and would this promt them to start hounding again? Will this debt always show on my credit file and do you think my debt will eventually be traced to me.Can both credit files ever merge? Do i have to sort all this bad debt out or can i ignore it and start afresh with my new name

[andrew1]

I think you should make a decision on what kind of life you want to lead. One which is forever running from the truth or hiding from people or one which gives you the freedom to live your life like any self respecting person.

 

First lesson I think here is (and forgive me if it sounds like a lecture or teaching you to suck eggs, this is only an observation based upon knowing little or nothing about you), but you do not want to be running from people for the rest of your life.

 

Getting your credit file will invariably kick companies into seeing you've checked your file. Don't ask me how, but it seems that way.

 

If this were me, then I would lay all my cards on the table here and then observers will know exactly what your situation is.

 

Tell us what your full situation is:

 

Mortgage/renting

 

Debts - all of them - how much and with whom

 

When the last time you paid them (as near a date as you can remember)

 

Are they with Debt Collection agents

 

Are you Working/unemployed

 

Married, children?

 

You say the address is your parents, is their place in their name and are you anything to do with their assets?

 

Bad debt can be reduced and addressed far simpler than you imagine from what you are under the impression if they are addressed correctly and you can do that by following certain procedures without getting yourself all het - up.

 

List things out and we'll do what we can for you.

[stuck in a rut]

Hi Andrew, thank you for getting back to me. If it means running forever then no, i dont want to but if i know that this debt wont find me then i would rather start getting on with my life as i am so scared that i will be paying off this debt forever. I am single parent with two young children,currently unemployed. . My flat is rented from a housing association. I have nothing to do with my parents assets.

I'm sure all debts are now passed to agents as i was hounded day and night by phone and letter even at the door. I cant be sure of exact dates but i would say about 8-9 years ago was the last time i paid or spoke with any of them. I lost my job and just couldn't cope. I cant remember the names of the companys as i mentally just wanted to block all the headache of the debt out. Would my credit file have this info?

As far i can roughly recall:

2 credit card with different companies estimated £3000 each

Consolidation loan between £3000 - £5000

Catalogue and new look store card poss both totalling £500

I also had Black horse loan I paid this off.

Im think this is everything, i cant remember the exact amounts or names of companys

[stuck in a rut]

Also i have just read the statue barred does not apply if you have changed your name, is this correct?

[andrew1]

Sorry if my questioning seemed harsh, debt is a frightening thing to those it affects and it is very hard to recognise that sometimes the worry needn't be there when all it needed was a little advice. Can I ask you how long ago did you change your name as these would be statute barred otherwise? I must be honest to not knowing what the rules are on that, but let's explore this further.

 

Your debt is not insurmountable and you might be surprised to find that some of these are probably written off anyway without you realising. This is where getting your credit reference files would help as it would tell you. I'm not yet suggesting doing that yet so hold fire, but could you still pick them up from your parents place if they sent them there? (just thinking aloud)

 

We'll take this a step at a time.

[stuck in a rut]

Hi , Just talking about this is making me a nervous wreck again, im now reminding why i decided to disappear. There is no copies of anything, everything shredded.My name change was in 2002. I have checked trust on line and they have nothing registered..some good news! I thought i would just mention that Im not on the electrol roll either.

[andrew1]

This is a bit long, but worth a read, it was posted by someone on here back in 2006/7 but is as relevant today as it was then. Once you've read it read it again.

 

This is not about money - it's about you! read it... it's about someone on forum feeling worthless.. read it..I'll come back to the other things later.

 

 

“Ruminations:

 

This was a liberating day - surprisingly so, in some respects.

 

Got up early, having decided to set the ball rolling. Drove my long-suffering wife (it's our 23rd anniversary on Sunday - your felicitations will be most welcome) to work and went to have a cup of coffee while waiting for the banks to open. A multi-shot black coffee with cream. Woke me up a bit.

 

Banks opened: I went to the Portman Building society first and asked if they had a basic bank account. No, is the short answer. They can't do standing orders and DDs, so no use to me, then. Looked for Co-Op: none in (market city in SW England). So I went to Lloyds TSB. I've banked with them before - 30 years ago, when I was a student. The moment I stopped being a student, they demanded the entire overdraft back. Immediately. So I switched - to NatWest, as it happens, but that was a long time ago and I've been with Midland, Barclays and NatWest again, since then.

 

Didn't have the right ID so I had to go home and get it. Went back. Explained that my credit rating was likely to be bl**dy awful - CCjs, debts registered - from bad times in the late 1990s, what with negative equity and everything. Lost £ooos on my house. Bad times, bad times. I've been grateful to NatWest for the account, the overdraft, the loan (which was for the charges racked up on my account, in essence) - everything. She said it would probably be OK: discharged bankrupts are able to have the Cash account. I wouldn't get a cheque book for at least three months but they would do SOs and DDs.

 

So we went through the opening procedure. As it turned out, the ID-ing was fine: they got me from the Electoral Roll and whatever else they use. Then: she said 'Now we do the credit scoring'.

 

Gulp!

 

(she took a deep breath, too!)

 

She pressed the button and....all fine. Nothing registered. I looked at the screen, so did she. I couldn't believe it, and neither could she, quite, because of the harrowing tale I'd told (briefly) about the problems, the CCJs (last one - 2 years ago - was Inland Revenue not agreeing the arrangement I'd put forward. The Court accepted my arrangement but gave judgement, in any case). I couldn't believe it - but then: all the financial issues, the CCJs and so on (except for Inland Revenue) were more than 6 years ago. Apparently, I was the first person for ages she didn't have to call head office about.

 

This is interesting. It was liberating - you can hardly believe the weight I felt fall from my shoulders. I've tried, over the past year or so, to negotiate loans from NatWest, either at my own instigation or by them suggesting and - no go. Don't rack up on the credit scoring.

 

I had thought - no, I'd firmly believed - for so long that I wasn't worth anything, that I was lucky to have a bank that would allow me a cheque/debit card, that i was, indeed, deeply fortunate to be allowed an overdraft and, a few years ago, a loan.

 

The experience of opening the parachute account helped me to realise something. It's a commercial relationship, nothing more (or less). But it was much more than that. Much, much more than that. It's about the relationship I've had with NatWest.

 

Psychiatrists, or maybe psychologists - counsellors and therapists, anyway - have a term for what's been going on between me and NatWest. It's called a co-dependent abusive relationship. The submissive partner - me, in this case - has feelings of worthlessness, and comes to depend on the abusive partner - the bank. The feeling of worthlessness is such that you become grateful for anything, no matter how humiliating it is. They have all the power, you have none, but they are prepared to notice you and pay some attention. They treat you with contempt - which, from their point of view, is no more than you deserve: you're a useless, submissive worm. But you are grateful: after all, no-one else will give you anything, you know that. You know it and believe it, deep in your heart.

 

Wrong.

 

Other people, outsiders, wonder why you stay in such an abusive situation. They wouldn't, they tell themselves. But you might. You might be gradually ground down, as I was. You might feel, or even believe, that you deserve the abuse. So you accept it, and you effectively beg for any attention you can get, no matter if it reinforces the appalling, negative image you've built up of yourself. You accept the refusals, the dismissals, as just, and no more than you deserve. You embrace each positive reaction as a huge favour. But it's all an abuse. As the introduction to the site says, the banks play on our innate feelings of morality, of equity and of justice and fair play. We have been brought up to believe that the banks are pillars of society, that they are above mere trade and commerce, that they are something Other. But they aren't: they're in business, like your mechanic, the market trader, the sandwich shop, Tesco's, anything. They are no more than traders and they actually produce: nothing. Not a damn thing. They add nothing of value, they merely facilitate transactions, nothing more.

 

So, opening the parachute account was a big step. Actually deciding to do it was, in fact, the Big Step. I have decided to be abused no more. Not only have I decided that, I've taken a real, positive and concrete step to do something about it, to do more than just talk about it or fantasise. I have decided to move away from the situation where I've been abused.

 

Yes, I've been lucky in the credit scoring and not everyone will get the same. But the Big Step was the decision to do it. My next tranche of income is going in to the new account. The standing orders and DDs will be transferred shortly before the next lump of income. The NatWest account will be in dispute and probably over the overdraft limit but I no longer worry about it. I'm not worried about the charges they'll levy because I now know they're illegal. I'm looking forward to finding out what my life will be like when I'm no longer putting up with someone looting my account to the tune of £300 or £400 a month.

 

NatWest isn't my children, it isn't my car (which needs to be repaired); it isn't the updated computer I would like to have in order to do my work, it isn't my wife's birthday present and it isn't my mother, who lives over 200 miles away and I haven't been able to get to see for over a year because I couldn't afford it. It isn't the heating oil company, who'd threatened to close my credit account - leaving me without heat this winter - because the DDs had been bounced - and while there was money available. It isn't the local authority, whose DD was bounced yet again this month, because of the charges. NatWest doesn't deserve any respect from me: it hasn't shown me any. It deserves neither consideration or fear from me.

 

I have my parachute account. I don't care that I won't have a chequebook for a few months. It will be a while before the case comes to court but, in my mind and in my heart, I'm now free.

 

Fear of flying? No, I love it.

 

If/when the euphoria fades, I'll let you know!

[andrew1]

Double post sorry.

[stuck in a rut]

Hi Andrew, Thank you for the post. Can you tell me what the process/ procedure is should i go ahead with this?