Please can someone help me...Barclays & Moorcroft..really stressing

[MummyJen]

Hi

 

wondering if someone would be able to help me please

im so worried i can barely sleep and have constant stress headaches

 

I work part time have 2 young children and a low income which is topped up with WTC i have some debts that im trying to sort out.

 

I had a buisness current account with Barclays

the buisness stopped trading over a year and half ago as it was no longer making money

 

there was no debt on the buisness apart from the overdraft on my barclays buisness account which was £800

i sent letters to barclays asking them if i could pay this of by installments and i sent income and expenditure forms,

unfortunatly i wasnt clued up or anything and didnt know this forum existed

so i never sent letters recorded or anything just regular post.

 

I never had any responce to my letters and the buisness account was closed after £450 charges was added to it.

 

I havent heard anything from them in approx 14 months and i knew the day would come when i would but i just stupidly ignored it worrying myself in the mean time.

 

i got a letter today of barclays saying Moorcroft were now managing this debt

and i should contact them on a matter of urgency to discuss payment.

 

I havent as yet had any letters of Moorcroft although i suspect they are on there way.

 

So what do i do?

 

i know i ask for all communications in writing only...

 

Should i wait for moorcroft to get in touch with me?

im not denying i owe this debt so i dont see the point in a cca request is this correct?

 

i want to pay it back but can only afford small monthly payments and i dont think it will be enough to keep moorcroft happy (£20 per month)

 

i really want to avoid court action on this

 

do you think its possible to avoid court action?

 

I am so worried about it all.

 

Also is it worth trying to claim any of the £450 charges back that has been added on?

 

if so how do i do that?

 

Many thanks in advance to you guys.. x

[dx100uk]

ignore them

 

moorcap are a DCA

 

noDCA has ANY legal powers

 

and they'll go nowhere near a court

for fear of a counter claim on the charges.

 

whatever you do NEVER EVER talk about your debts on the phone.

 

forget the debt and sleep tight.

 

dx

[slick132]

Hi MJ,

 

there was no debt on the buisness apart from the overdraft on my barclays buisness account which was £800

i sent letters to barclays asking them if i could pay this of by installments and i sent income and expenditure forms

 

When you told the bank you wanted to pay this off by instalments, this should have alerted them to the fact that you were in Financial Difficulty. At that stage, they should have tried to help you. They could have stopped adding charges or interest.

 

Were you an individual using "Your name trading as Business name" on the account.

 

If you want to pay off the debt in a manner that you can afford, then you should do so. However, it would be sensible to reduce what they say is owed by reclaiming the charges they have added if this is possible.

 

Wait for Moorcroft to contact you before deciding how to proceed. As DX says, they have no scary powers although I'm not sure forgetting the debt is what you actually want to do.

 

In any event, Moorcroft or any other DCA can't force you to pay more than you can afford each month

 

[MummyJen]

Ok the letter has arrived of moorcroft saying full payment of £1223.07 to be made within 7 days or further action etc etc....

 

i would rather not ignore as i actually work at barclays

(for a outside contractor not for barclays but at a barclays branch and i had to sign something at the start of my employment a few years ago to say i didnt un lawfully owe barclays money.

 

do i write to moorcroft and tell them i am willing to set up a payment plan at a rate i can afford

however i would like to claim charges back

 

Have sent S.A.R to barclays to see what charges have been applied and try to bring the debt down to the origional amount or closer to it than £450 extra charges..

 

..or do i just send barclays a S.A.R and ignore moorcroft.

 

..(ive had moorcroft turn up at the door a while ago for a differnt catalouge and would prefer not to have them show up again).

 

I can afford to set up a payment plan of £20 per month for this

 

do i write to moorcroft and tell them this or try and claim charges back 1st?

 

im overwhelmed with it all and dont know what to do for the best.

 

Thank you x

[dx100uk]

fire the sar off to barclays and ignore moorcrap.

 

have you looked at your cra file of recent?

 

 

dx

[MummyJen]

no i havent ill take a look tonight after work and ill get the SAR to barclays, moorcroft wont take it any further whilst im waiting for a responce to the SAR will they? x

[dx100uk]

only the owner of the debt can instigate legal action

 

moorcrap i doubt own the debt - just a std threat-o-gram

 

your cra file will tell you the owner

dx

[slick132]

Hi MJ,

 

In my post above, I asked

 

Were you an individual using "Your name trading as Business name" on the account.

 

I want to know if this was set up as a specific Business Account, or not. This may be relevant to what we advise.

 

Don't rush into making contact with Moorcroft and arranging payments. Let us sort things out a little first.

 

They will have to wait until your are ready to deal with them. See here about the threat of visits - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?441-If-you-do-receive-a-doorstep-visit-we-give-these-suggestions-to-Members

 

Also see here for a Budget Planner so you can work out what you have left over each month to pay off your non-priority debts - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1712&d=1199396120

 

[MummyJen]

no it wasnt my name it was a buisness name a company name, it was a plumbing buisness and there was empolyee's i just owned the buisness, the employee's were made redundant and got other jobs and the buisness was left with this overdraft due to a builder doing the bunk and not paying his invoice or being contactable the buisness ceased trading and im left with the overdraft from the bank to sort out.

[MummyJen]

the account was opened in the company name

[slick132]

......... in which case, I'm not at all sure you can rely on getting the bank to refund any of their default charges.

 

Check your CRA file to see if Moorcroft now own the debt.

 

Use the Budget Planner to see what you could offer them per month.

 

[Bang!]

Did you go guarantor for the company's debts?

 

The company is a separate legal entity to you - and if it owes money with no guarantors, then the bank has lost its money.

 

What has happened to the company - has it been dissolved?

 

Just a guess - but this could be why you are now being chased by a DCA for a debt that is looking like legally it has nothing to do with you.

[slick132]

I assumed from MJ's reply that this was not a Ltd Co, but a small business of which MJ was the owner or proprietor.

 

[MummyJen]

it wasnt LTD just a small buisness that was set up a few years ago, ok will use budget planner and work out a offer of repayment, do you think £20 per month would hold them of taking me to court for it? to be honest they would get nothing more at court as i have nothing more to give i dont owne my home its rented i have nothing of value no vehicle or anything. Its stressing me out no end.

[MummyJen]

just had a quick look at budget planner, i have a few debts that arent 'priority' so to speak... household bills (there up to date and so is rent) how do i work out who to give what to who, is it by the amount i owe them? a percentage of the amount left over each month to the amount owing? im a bit confused thank you x

[slick132]

HI MJ,

 

I know it's easy for us to say, "Don't let this stress you out." but the reality is this - you need only pay them what you can reasonably afford each month.

 

You should be able to avoid court action if you show them what you can pay, and you maintain those payments.

 

Also, if they bought the debt, it would have cost them far less than the debt amount so they may be amenable to a Full and Final Settlement offer in due course.

 

If you want to discuss the matter, you could call National Debtline - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/ or one of the other debt counselling services (CCCS, CAB).

 

Dealing with the Budget Planner, it should help you set out all your income and expenses. If there's a surplus at the end of the month, you work out what you owe to creditors overall and offer to pay them a pro-rata amount.

 

For example, your monthly surplus is £50, your debts total £4,500 and you owe Moorcroft £900. The amount owed to MC's is 20% of the total that you owe overall.

 

So you offer to pay MC's 20% of your surplus. £50 x 20% = £10 per month. The other creditors would share the remaining 80% pro-rata, depending on what you owe to each.

 

Hope that clarifies for you.

 

[Bang!]

Sorry - when you were referring to it as a company - I had taken it in the formal limited liability sense rather than informal meaning such as a firm etc.

[MummyJen]

sorry for the confusion with the company thing.

 

i will sit and do calculations with the budget planning form, do i send moorcroft a copy of my budget form as well?

[MummyJen]

oh and thank you so much for the advice it has made me feel a lot better

its easy to get caught up in the debt situation and worry immensely over it,

it can feel like your the only one in this situation

its good to know there are others in the same situation with debt and nothing to drastic will happen

 

at 1st i was terrifed i would be chucked in prison and loose my kids

 

its easy to get carried away with your thoughts when your in a mess,

 

 

so thank you x

[slick132]

Hi MummyJen,

 

You're so right. Many others are in the same position as you but have come to realise that they WON'T be thrown into prison. DCA's may contact you frequently and be a pain in the rear but they have very little power.

 

Don't write to Moorcroft yet - I want to have a think about how best to move forward with your case.

 

It may still be worth asking Barclays why they piled on their charges after you told them you were in financial difficulties.

 

I'll be back later.................

 

[MummyJen]

thank you v much x

[slick132]

Hi MJ,

 

1. Please confirm when you wrote to the bank asking for time to pay off the o/d.

 

2. What did you say to them.

 

3. Roughly what was the a/c balance at that time.

 

4. What charges and interest have been added since then.

 

5. Have you checked your CRA files to see if ownership of the debt has changed from Barclays.

 

6. Have Barclays or Moorcroft written to you saying the debt has been or is being sold or assigned to Moorcroft.

 

Thanks

[MummyJen]

hi from what i can remember (i was in a bad place a year ago buisness stopping trading letting 2 lads go etc)

 

1. I wrote to them approx April last year maybe a little before i actually sent about 3 letters but i didnt send any recorded as i didnt even know this site existed i just put them in normal post box and then they kept writing saying i was ignoring them so i sent back that i wasnt etc but never and a responce to my letters.

 

2. I told them the situation that the work had dried up the lads had been let go and a builder left me in the **** and didnt pay a invoice that was meant to clear the overdraft and could i pay it of on a monthly installment basis and also would they not put charges etc on

 

3. the balance was approx £800 over drawn

 

4. the amount due now is 1227.90

 

5 havent checked CRA file yet ill do that this afternoon

 

6 i got a letter last week of Barclays to say the debt is being managed by moorcroft and they have since wrote to me as well.

 

x

[MummyJen]

sorry i got amount wrong its £1223.07

[slick132]

Hi MJ,

 

Do you have copies of the letters that you sent to the bank.

 

It doesn't matter a whole lot that the letters went in normal post.