Can't pay my Credit Cards, all chasing, any advice?

[MollyED]

Hello

My name is Molly, I have 4 credit card companies who I stopped paying back in January and now they are sending letters of death and distruction. They have sent a form to fill in (Income and expenditure), shall I fill it in? I asked for a copy agreement and they sent a "reconstitued" agreement. Dont ever remember signing that! Any help and advise would be great! Molly...

[rebel11]

Hi Molly

 

Welcome to CAG

The guys will advise as soon as they are available. Could you give a breakdown of the debts, also have you got any penalty charges or have you been mis-sold ppi on any of these accounts? Hold on to the I & E form. Also how old are the accounts?

 

Thread Moved.

[MollyED]

Hello

Thanks for getting back to me, Cap One £13K, Virgin £12K, PayPal £5K and Tesco £5K.

Cap One has issued a Default, nothing else as yet. Dont remember PPI thats why I wanted a copy

of the agreement, but they sent a "reconstitued" one, not the original.

Thanks

Molly

[PGH7447]

as above, cards and their original creditors will help to decide how to proceed.

 

if you fill in the i&E make sure you list all priority debts ahead of anything else.

 

They are not entitled to see this info but if you are looking at arranging a payment plan it would not hurt your cause, but again it depends on who you are dealing with

[PGH7447]

Ok crossed in post.

 

Cap One - depends on when you took the card out but they aint the brightest when it came to agreements, if you require to know if you had ppi, look at your old statements it should list a payment to a insurance or some such thing.

 

Virgin - will ditch this as soon as possible onto a dca

 

Paypal - did not know they did credit cards

 

Tesco - again they will pass on to a dca as soon as possible

 

if you dont mind your credit rating getting trashed then probably this is the best to let them sell them on, then you can request the CCA again or if they have not sent anything put the account in dispute.

 

as for the reconstitued agreement that si the norm nowadays, however if they go to court and for £13K they probably will they then have to prodcue the original

 

can I ask why you have stopped paying, ie change of circumstances etc

[MollyED]

Yep, my son became ill, lost my job, decided to work from home then lost a contract. Just

one back piece of luck after another and now I just cant do it any more.

Some of my credit cards are 14 years old and I never missed a payment, I miss one or two

and its "all hell". In the T&C they sent me it actually states, if you die or default, in their eyes

there is no difference.

[PGH7447]

Sorry to hear that, so best bet is to do yourself an I&E and work out what you have left at the end of every month etc, then if you like send a short letter to each creditor stating that due to changed circumstances you wish to make a token payment of £x a month on the understanding that all interest and late charges are stopped.

 

if they dont agree then we take it from there.

 

However you have said that you have sent CCA request already so if the time scale of 12+2 days have passed then you are quite within your rights to send the account in dispute letter ans stop all payments. but quite frankly with the sums involved there is a good chance they will go the court route so making token payments puts you in a good light with the judge

[MollyED]

Hi, thanks for that, I have no money left, at the end of each month, I know I cant pay even token payments so I have

decided to let them do their worse. Otherwise I will never pay them off. How long does it take if they do take me to court?

Maybe I should just become bankrupt, let them make me and then its all over.

[PGH7447]

in that case send them this

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?436-Failure-to-provide-a-copy-of-the-agreement-within-the-prescribed-timescale.

 

and sit back and wait, court is a long way off yet

[MollyED]

Hello

I have requested it but not sent off the £1 fee, so I am going to send a 3rd request off tomorrow with that on the

Virgin. Cap One said they would not charge me £1 as a good will gesture but as they sent me out this reconsituted copy

they are NOT willing to talk to me about it any further. Can I still demand it if I send them a £1 postal order?

[PGH7447]

waste of time sending it again to cap1 they will only send out the recon one again or not bother to do anything

[MollyED]

Thanks so much for your help and advice...

MollyED

[MollyED]

Well, thanks for your help and advice today, I am off to bed

and hopefully might have a good nights sleep, I dont feel all

on my own.

Why didn't those credit card companies ask for a I&E to be filled in

before they gave me a £12,000 credit limit. I would never have

passed. My own fault too, but as bank do, we all make mistakes

and times/circumstances change. Night folks!!

[MollyED]

Just keeping in touch....update

PayPal (Santander) the most trouble, get letters every day with "die or default". I have requested 3 times now for

a CCA nothing yet, sent off a £1 fee last week then will take the advise and write them a Dispute Letter.

Heard nothing from Cap One since a requested a CCA signed after they sent a reconstitued one. Egg, heard nothing at all,

and nothing at all from Virgin? just statements with Default sums on. I am doing everything advised, Changed my telephone

home number and mobile, Santander advised I MUST send them a valid telephone number, guess what?

Just keeping you updated. I have read about the Charging Order, the only thing that worries me!

MollyED

[rockwell304]

Hi Molly, well done for changing your numbers, once they cannot threaten you via the phone you have effectively removed 75% of intimidatory options. You are already well on the way to taking charge - its a good feeling!

 

There are very good people on here who will help you from now on.

[MollyED]

Thank you for your support!

I have started to eat food that is now healthy instead of all the out of date soon items in the

"discount" section.....I will never use credit again, wont get it anyway now. I have missed no more

than 3 payments to one card in over 20 years of paying on time. I tried to open a new bank account

today and was refused. You are only as good as your last payment folks!

MollyED

[PGH7447]

Yep you have now officially become a non person, so all lines of normal monetary options are barred, as stated open a basic account, dont worry it does not last long because these banks and the like soon forget, and in any case if they barred every debtor where would they get their customers from LOL

[MollyED]

Hello

Just tried to and they said a flat NO.

 

I took out one of those pre-paid cards, anyone any experience on them?

 

MollyED

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Or I was recommended NatWest on this forum and I had no problems. No overdraft facility but all the usual basic benefits i.e. cheque book and debit card. Excellent online banking facillity. Open Sat. mornings and the local branch is who you deal with, not a call centre.

[PGH7447]

who did you try with?

[MollyED]

Hi, tried to open a Co-op bank account yesterday, just a basic one and got a flat NO.

Opened one of those Pre-Paid Card Accounts, anyone any experience?

So, now missed just 3 payments and I cant open a bank account, what's the point....

MollyED

[PGH7447]

try here

 

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDwQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmoneyfacts.co.uk%2Fcompare%2Fbanking%2Fbasic-bank-accounts%2F&ei=8xByTYShJoPusgbJkJ2EDg&usg=AFQjCNH1eyagEkXcewCMDlkeGxJnpULH4Q&sig2=CzboA5LB9Roy0k384Jxxag

[jimbo45]

Thank you for your support!

I have started to eat food that is now healthy instead of all the out of date soon items in the

"discount" section.....I will never use credit again, wont get it anyway now. I have missed no more

than 3 payments to one card in over 20 years of paying on time. I tried to open a new bank account

today and was refused. You are only as good as your last payment folks!

MollyED

 

Hi there

Some Banks will allow a Basic Banking system -- no cheques, no overdrafts, just a Hole in the Wall card and Internet for transfers without a Credit Check -- The Co-Op does one as does TESCO I believe so try these.

 

As far as "Ethical Banking" goes -- although it makes mistakes like any other financial institution it does seem to operate a bit better than the other lot so try the CO-OP --of course there are some horror stories with this Bank too but it seems to have far less than most.

 

Living without Credit is the way to go -- just think you need NEVER worry again about what the Credit Reference agencies can do or say --another threat has now gone -- and believe it or not if you CAN offer cash when buying some items you can often get HUGE discounts.

 

In the future --OK it might be difficult to get a mortgage but as soon as the economy picks up again you can bet your bottom dollar that the Banks etc will be behaving again like flies around a cowpat --they'll be offering these again to ANYBODY to fatten the Banks profits again -.

 

Anway all these things fall off after 6 years in any case.

 

The LESS contol THESE people have over you the BETTER for you.

 

Added -- I see the Co-OP refused -- very strange -- did you ask for the Basic Bank account.

 

Maybe try Nat West --other people on this Forum have opened one.

 

I did suggest TESCO's but I see you have a TESCO card so try Sainsbury's Bank -- good thing about these is that you don't need to get cash out of a whole in the wall --just get cash back when you shop in Sainsbury's.

 

If you can get to London the new Metro Bank might be OK too.

 

Cheers

jimbo

Edited March 5, 2011 by jimbo45

[t_ony]

I am very surprised at you being refused a Co-Operative basic account - they are usually the easiest of accounts for anyone to open - no matter how bad their debts are etc....

The only other one i can suggest is a basic post office account.

If you are still getting refused - then i would consider advice from someone like the CAB about this.

[PGH7447]

and check your credit report from experien, nobodies score can be that bad