Sending out some Payment Offers!

[quailpower]

Hi,

 

through a variety of things, ive managed to get my (and my partners) debts of 15K down to just 1900

 

I was just typing up my letters of payment offers after doing some research on here.

 

Only £400 is priority debts which I am attempting to pay off with sizeable payments,

 

so i have £1500 in non priority,

 

I have worked out i have £20 pm available for non priority and have sorted this out pro-rata

 

Ive had offers refused before, alot of thses accounts have been open for 4 years with lots of offers and no payments, theyre all for little amounts so they dont seem to want to take me to court.

 

Should i start sending token payments of £1 while I wait for them to accept / refuse my offers.

 

and should i send the letters recorded?

[drop47]

Well i am guessing that you have been talking to your creditors and thus acknowledging your debt so the option of waiting till they are statute barred is more difficult. Personally, if these debts are enforceable then i would write to each creditor with your offer backed up by a reasonable income and expenditure and await their reply. But i would send them all recorded. In your letter you need to ask for bank details as well so you can pay them.

[quailpower]

Heres my letter

 

 

 

 

The Debtors Details

Wherever they live

BLW 7HE

 

Dear Sir / Madam,

 

Re: Account Number 000000000

 

I am writing to you concerning the above account, detailing current circumstances.

 

My partner and myself have been suffering from financial difficulty as a result of unemployment. As a result I / My Partner was issued with a Debt Relief Order in January 2012. Because of this I am now able to arrange payment offers to my remaining debts.

 

I have attached a Personal Budget Sheet, which shows our total income from all sources and our outgoings. As you can see we only have £50 per month for our creditors.

 

The offers we have made to our creditors have been made on a pro-rata basis, and we have written to all creditors offering reduced payments.

 

In view of our circumstances, would you please accept an offer of £00 per month.

 

Should our circumstance improve we will contact you again with a revised payment.

 

We would be grateful if you could send us a paying in book or standing order form to make it easier to pay you.

 

Thank you for your assistance, we look forward to hearing from you

[drop47]

In my opinion you should not be including your partners income in your debts.

[renegadeimp]

Can i ask if you have checked for unfair charges/interest on the debts, and also if they are actually enforceable?

 

Are any of your debts credit cards/loans/bank accounts that may have penalty fees or PPI on them that you could reclaim to reduce the debts?

 

Are you dealing with DCA's, and if so, are they acting on behalf of a creditor or do they own the debt in full?

 

Have you had any discount offers for any of the debts yet?

 

Are any of the debts 6 years old ( 5 years in scotland), and if so, have you made any acknolwedgement to them in writing, or paid anything towards them?

 

 

Before you send out any payment offers, you must check the validity of the debts

[quailpower]

In my opinion you should not be including your partners income in your debts.

 

Why??

 

Some of the debt is in my name, some is in his, and some is joint.

 

We have lived together for 7 years and have always split bills between us,

I dont see any particular reason to start dividing our income?

[renegadeimp]

Also, to add to my previous post, if you are dealing with a dca, please do NOT pay them by debit/credit card or by direct debit. Only pay by standing order or possibly get a payment book and pay it over the counter at a bank.

[quailpower]

Can i ask if you have checked for unfair charges/interest on the debts, and also if they are actually enforceable?

 

Are any of your debts credit cards/loans/bank accounts that may have penalty fees or PPI on them that you could reclaim to reduce the debts?

 

Are you dealing with DCA's, and if so, are they acting on behalf of a creditor or do they own the debt in full?

 

Have you had any discount offers for any of the debts yet?

 

 

 

The majority of the debts are because of our stupidity. Back inthe day I got really ill and had to leave work, jobcentre denied disability claim through some sort of legal loophole, (i have no idea i was too ill to really know what was going on)

 

Rather than dealing with things we just brushed it aside and got more credit. Or pretended we didnt need to pay bills :embarrased:

 

None of the debts have interest or charges on them, I am at least good at negotiating that.

 

None of the debts are credit cards, bank loans or overdrafts so none had PPI.

 

All the debts are with DCA's, they must keep selling our contract because each debt has had like 5 DCAs over the years!

 

I have had a few discounted offers, but all for full payments (some even offer to half the debt) but im not in a financial situation to manage this.

[quailpower]

Heres my letter

 

 

We would be grateful if you could send us a paying in book or standing order form to make it easier to pay you.

 

 

 

Also, to add to my previous post, if you are dealing with a dca, please do NOT pay them by debit/credit card or by direct debit. Only pay by standing order or possibly get a payment book and pay it over the counter at a bank.

 

Got that sorted. I dont trust DDs anymore!

[renegadeimp]

Ok. You state that you have had multiple DCA's over the years. Don't pay those debts. There is something very wrong with them. Can you post more specific info on them so we can try and work out exactly why they are being passed around? It very much sounds like they are unenforceable and thats why they are continuously being sold on.

 

Also discounts = guaranteed bad debt. Dont pay the debts that had these either.

 

 

We will need a run down on those debts stated above to know where you stand, as you could be about to pay off debts that you dont need to. Give as much info as you can, including dates and if possible, dates of last acknowledgement in writing and dates of the last payment made.

 

I had a sneaking feeling when i read your initial post that something didnt fit quite right.

[quailpower]

Debt 1

 

£435.92 May 2012

This is an EON gas bill arrears, from when I moved house. I refused to pay the closing balance because I had been paying £30PM and then they whipped this figure out their a** saying I owed it. However as I didnt have meter readings to disprove them I couldnt appeal.

This has now been passed to Wescot debt collection and then to Nelson Solicitors who are offering a measly 10% discount at present.

 

Debt 2

 

£224.13 Sep 2011

No DCA on this, still with Department for Work and Pensions, an apparent benefit overpayment- they state they have explained why I owe but I havent.

 

Debt 3&4

£192.07 & £497.75 Sep 2008

Fraud and charges on Santander account caused these accounts to go overdrawn, we went tried to appeal but was laughed out of the bank because the fraud was online and there was "no way to prove it wasnt us" after 12 months of phone calls and letters to different agencies we gave up.

This account has been with Wescot, Oriel, Scotcall and is now with a company called Clarity

 

Debt 5

£146.78 Jan 2011

Ended an car insurance policy because couldnt afford to pay it anymore. Was charged this amount to end it. Refused to pay.

Now with Oriel, apparently proceeding to court in 2011 - heard nothing since.

 

Debt 6

£293.78 Aug 2008

Owed to 02 for phone contract. Carphone warehouse cock up. Was guaranteed by employee that contract could be cancelled so we could take out another one (rather than upgrade). Ended up paying for 2 contracts, refused to pay. Not heard anything for the past two years but has suddenly had a second wind,

Was with Oriel, Wescot, Scotcall, back to 02, Wescot and now Lowell and Red.

Getting phone calls from red and lowell,and from hamptons legal - who work for lowell

[quailpower]

I havent made any payments, and the last contact for all of them was an offer of payment sent this time last year. However we had a flood and I lost the majority of information.

[drop47]

Ok so with the exception of the santander account i think you SHOULD be making payments. As for carphone warehouse do you have any proof? You could use that as a defence.

I am sorry to disagree about discount means unenforceable as it doesn't. If a bank makes a decision to sell on a debt at say 25% the .ca can then offer you a discount and still make a huge profit.

I understand what you are saying about a partnership but your partner went into a dro so all the debts became yours. Why inflate your disposable income when you don't need to. Its not about being a couple,its about doing what's best for you

[drop47]

Sorry i assumed your partner had the dro or was it yours or did you both have one and if so why weren't most of the above debts included

[renegadeimp]

Debt 1

 

£435.92 May 2012

This is an EON gas bill arrears, from when I moved house. I refused to pay the closing balance because I had been paying £30PM and then they whipped this figure out their a** saying I owed it. However as I didnt have meter readings to disprove them I couldnt appeal.

This has now been passed to Wescot debt collection and then to Nelson Solicitors who are offering a measly 10% discount at present.

 

Debt 2

 

£224.13 Sep 2011

No DCA on this, still with Department for Work and Pensions, an apparent benefit overpayment- they state they have explained why I owe but I havent.

 

Debt 3&4

£192.07 & £497.75 Sep 2008

Fraud and charges on Santander account caused these accounts to go overdrawn, we went tried to appeal but was laughed out of the bank because the fraud was online and there was "no way to prove it wasnt us" after 12 months of phone calls and letters to different agencies we gave up.

This account has been with Wescot, Oriel, Scotcall and is now with a company called Clarity

 

Debt 5

£146.78 Jan 2011

Ended an car insurance policy because couldnt afford to pay it anymore. Was charged this amount to end it. Refused to pay.

Now with Oriel, apparently proceeding to court in 2011 - heard nothing since.

 

Debt 6

£293.78 Aug 2008

Owed to 02 for phone contract. Carphone warehouse cock up. Was guaranteed by employee that contract could be cancelled so we could take out another one (rather than upgrade). Ended up paying for 2 contracts, refused to pay. Not heard anything for the past two years but has suddenly had a second wind,

Was with Oriel, Wescot, Scotcall, back to 02, Wescot and now Lowell and Red.

Getting phone calls from red and lowell,and from hamptons legal - who work for lowell

 

Debt 1.

 

They offered a discount so somethings wrong here. Either theres no paperwork, or there are charges on the account.

 

Debt 2.

 

You need to get more detail for this.

 

Debt 3&4.

 

Youve been passed through multiple DCA's because the debt is unenforceable and is filled with charges and the fraud. I would advise that you SAR santander and get all info on the account. You need the full details on the account before you pay it. If fraud happened on the account, and santander still hold you liable post investigation, then they are in trouble.

 

Debt 6.

 

When did you cancel the contract? Normally you have the right to cancel within 14 days of signing it. Carphone warehouse are known for errors like this, and they probably know its a bad debt but wont admit it. Thats why youve been passed through multiple DCA's. Also, HL and lowell have bought a huge amount of SB and bad debts lately. Be very careful with them as they are issuing court claims on almost every debt hoping that they gain judgement by default. However, when a defence is filed, they usually run off or try to settle out of court.

 

Red DCA is one of the lowest DCA's there are. They only usually buy bad debts and hope the debtor is ignorant enough about the status of them to pay.

[quailpower]

Sorry i assumed your partner had the dro or was it yours or did you both have one and if so why weren't most of the above debts included

 

Most of the above debts are joint name debts or in my partners name,

 

The DRO was in my name - and my partner couldnt have a DRO or be included in one because he was a police officer and police arent allowed DROs CCJS or Bankrupcy.

 

So these were just the debts left behind.

[quailpower]

Debt 1

They offered a discount so somethings wrong here. Either theres no paperwork, or there are charges on the account.

So how should I deal with this? Obviously I dont want CCJs, and they cant cut me off because im with someone else?

 

Debt 2.

 

You need to get more detail for this.

Write to ask for more details as to why I owe them the money?

 

Debt 3&4.

 

Youve been passed through multiple DCA's because the debt is unenforceable and is filled with charges and the fraud. I would advise that you SAR santander and get all info on the account. You need the full details on the account before you pay it. If fraud happened on the account, and santander still hold you liable post investigation, then they are in trouble.

Santander investigated the account and said they couldnt prove it wasnt us that spent the money, and because the charges wiped out an entire months wages it went overdrawn and they charged over £90 of overdrawn charges in one day and totalled next months pay.

Ill send a SAR off this week and wait for results?

 

Debt 6.

 

When did you cancel the contract? Normally you have the right to cancel within 14 days of signing it. Carphone warehouse are known for errors like this, and they probably know its a bad debt but wont admit it. Thats why youve been passed through multiple DCA's. Also, HL and lowell have bought a huge amount of SB and bad debts lately. Be very careful with them as they are issuing court claims on almost every debt hoping that they gain judgement by default. However, when a defence is filed, they usually run off or try to settle out of court.

 

Red DCA is one of the lowest DCA's there are. They only usually buy bad debts and hope the debtor is ignorant enough about the status of them to pay.

 

It was within the 14 days because we took out one contact quoted at £30pm and when we got the paperwork it said £50pm, so we cancelled it and took out the new correct contact but the firstwas never cancelled. Was actually forcibly removed from carphone warehouse after getting in an argument with manager :shame:

 

 

The only thing im worried about is most of these debts are OLD, I dont have any of the original paperwork so I dont have an evidence to contest and its really playing on my mind

[renegadeimp]

Ok. I'll respond to debt 6 for now.

 

If you cancelled the contract within 14 days, then you only owe the money for any calls you made. and the rental for that period. Nothing more. As for them not cancelling, thats their problem.

 

What you can do with this one, is forget about paying anything. And whoever owns the debt now, send them the "prove it" letter. This forces them to prove that you owe anything. Note that them simply saying you had a contract and it must be paid, is NOT proof. For proof to exist, they would have to send the original paperwork plus other pieces. Since you have had the debt through multiple DCA's, i'm fairly certain that the paperwork doesnt exist. Therefore, the account will be in permanent dispute and collection proceedings cannot be continued until they provide full proof.

 

Should they not provide full proof and continue to harass you, you can then start initiating full complaints to them and to the regulators. If they still harass you after that, then you have a good chance at claiming compensation for harassment and bullying.

[quailpower]

Ok. I'll respond to debt 6 for now.

 

If you cancelled the contract within 14 days, then you only owe the money for any calls you made. and the rental for that period. Nothing more. As for them not cancelling, thats their problem.

 

What you can do with this one, is forget about paying anything. And whoever owns the debt now, send them the "prove it" letter. This forces them to prove that you owe anything. Note that them simply saying you had a contract and it must be paid, is NOT proof. For proof to exist, they would have to send the original paperwork plus other pieces. Since you have had the debt through multiple DCA's, i'm fairly certain that the paperwork doesnt exist. Therefore, the account will be in permanent dispute and collection proceedings cannot be continued until they provide full proof.

 

Should they not provide full proof and continue to harass you, you can then start initiating full complaints to them and to the regulators. If they still harass you after that, then you have a good chance at claiming compensation for harassment and bullying.

 

 

 

My god you are a genius..... You have just made my night. If you're ever in Cumbria, tea and biscuits will be waiting for you

 

Now what cant citizens advice just say that

[renegadeimp]

I just read debt 3&4 again.

 

That debt has been through some of the bottom feeders of the DCA world already. Do the same with them as you are going to do with debt 6.

 

That should take care of around £ 1000 of your debt for now.

 

SHould they try to provide some kind of proof, post it up and we'll check it out to see if its legit. But as i said before, since it's gone through DCA's that only ever deal in bad debts, i'm pretty confident you can get rid of them.

[quailpower]

I just read debt 3&4 again.

 

That debt has been through some of the bottom feeders of the DCA world already. Do the same with them as you are going to do with debt 6.

 

That should take care of around £ 1000 of your debt for now.

 

SHould they try to provide some kind of proof, post it up and we'll check it out to see if its legit. But as i said before, since it's gone through DCA's that only ever deal in bad debts, i'm pretty confident you can get rid of them.

 

 

Again thank you for taking the time and effort I shall get those letters printed and posted tomorrow!

[drop47]

Do santander still send you statements? I assume this is a joint account so you really can not afford to get a ccj. Do you work? You could look at turn2us.org as they have a list of people who give out grants to people in need and if your oh is a police officer there is probably one for them.

[quailpower]

Yes we still get statements, once every 6 months.

 

I dont work at the minute (redundancy) but ive never been unemployed by choice for more than a month and ive got interviews all this week so im not that troubled.

 

Ive been on turn2us and applied for a few grants iin the past but they were denied. Which didnt bother me that much, my situation isnt dire I can afford to pay all my bills (which is a first!) other people need that money more than me

[drop47]

You know if you are not working then if it was me i would offer £1 per month. I assume you are neither married or in a CP and as such you finances

are yours.

[quailpower]

You know if you are not working then if it was me i would offer £1 per month. I assume you are neither married or in a CP and as such you finances

are yours.

 

Because my partner and I have lived together so long our finances are tied (on the experian reports and everything?)

Im not making the offers until I start my new job

 

I know it sounds stupid but ive got a few jobs I could walk in to tomorrow, but Im holding out for some good pay (thats what my interviews are) then I can make a better offer and shift the debt quicker.

 

Theyve been ignored for a few months and no ones really serious about collecting or court anymore so i think it can wait a week or two.

 

 

I honestly dont understand how people struggle to get a job! I think I need to run a class, covering CVs, cover letters, interview and selling your skills like a whore LOL