Postponing DCA Payments

[felixfly]

Hi

 

I have a few accounts with DCA's that I have been paying for years. These are the ones that came back with a correct CCA. I pay around £400 a month.

 

I have just found out I have a large outstanding PAYE account and HMRC are threatening legal action. I need to pay this off asap and am trying to throw every available penny at it.

 

What do you think the outcome would be if I wrote to all the DCA's and asked them to accept token £1 payments for a year until this bill was paid off? They have already defaulted me years ago and most of these are due to drop off my file at the end of the year. I dont want to risk getting CCJ's an ruining my file again, however HMRC may well give me a CCJ if I cannot come to a decent arrangement with them.

 

Has anybody asked a DCA to accept token payments for a while? Is there any hope of them agreeing to this?

[Stigman]

Hi,

 

You pay the DCA's what you can afford and not what they tell you to!

 

As long as you meet all of your required bills, i.e. rent/mortgage, utilities, secured loans, court fines etc. then the DCA's can have the scraps left over not forgetting to allow yourself money to reasonably live on.

 

Do not worry about their idle threats of issuing a CCJ against you, as long as you are paying monthly payments regardless of the amount, then any attempt to issue a CCJ would and can be thrown out.

 

Write a letter, they probably will not read it and the computer will start issuing threatograms to you, pay by standing order only, if paying by card, cancel the card and request a new one, if paying by Direct Debit, cancel and pay via standing order, that way you are in complete control.

 

Do not ring the DCA's, if they ring you, refuse the security questions and say "in writing only" and hang up.

 

Also, you are under no legal obligation to supply a DCA with any personal/professional paperwork, that includes income/expenditure, copies of your letters from HMRC etc.

 

Stigman

[felixfly]

Thanks, I will send them all a letter saying they will get £1 until HMRC is paid. They wont like it but as you say, they are the bottom of the pile and threats from HMRC are definately not 'idle'.

 

Regards

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

DCAs are non priority the HMRC is, so write to the DCAs compliance managers,

and inform that you have to deal with a major priority debt and will cease payments

until the priority debt is paid off.

[felixfly]

How does this sound?

 

I am writing in regards to the above account which I have been paying in good faith for some time now.

 

Unfortunately it has recently come to my attention that I owe a large amount to HMRC. This debt will take priority over all others until it is paid in full. I estimate this to be a period of 6 months.

 

As a result I will only be able to make token payments of £1 until February 2013.

 

I realise that this means my account will take longer to be paid off in full but due to my good payment history with yourselves I trust you will be patient in this matter. My history shows that I am committed to paying off this balance and just need some time to pay HMRC.

 

Should you not be happy with the above and wish to take this matter further, I am confident that any court will find in my favour and see that I have tried to both carry on paying yourselves a token payment and have communicated in advance my intentions.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Personally I would just tell them bluntly this is what is going to happen and for how long,

it's your money and it is for you to decide not a powerless DCA.

[felixfly]

The thing is i felt like I was coming to the end of it all until the demand from HMRC turned up. My debts are going down and many are paid off. I had 11 defaults at one time and they are due to drop off at the end of this year. I have also been doing things to show a good credit history since then.

 

I really dont want to get a CCJ now of some DCA.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

DCAs are very unlikely to attempt litigation as you have stated you have paid over the years,

I doubt that it would be worth the time,money and trouble involved.