Various DCA £40.5k

[Cosmicdancer]

Hi to all you wonderful heroes of CAG i was hoping for some advice for a family member , they are in a very bad place mentally from these debts.

What i know:

Most of the accounts were taken out prior 2007 , from an immaculate credit record all of the accounts are from various credit cards mostly and some catalogues too.

However these accounts came into default in 2015 from what i know. They have received various threatening letters some which contain discount settlement offers.

They went to Christians against poverty regarding some advice and were advised to go bankrupt, as there is virtually no income less than £300 per month.

However being in such a bad space mentally they don't feel like they deserve the help from Christians against Poverty who will help find costs towards bankruptcy. We also have no letters with reference numbers on as they were all put in the shredder as they were ignored for a long time.

I was really hoping for some reassuring advice on where to go from here , I just want them to feel better about everything. Some success stories would be great too if possible.

 

Anyhow here is the debts that are on a sheet of paper from Christians against poverty

 

Moorcroft Debt Recovery LTD £9350

Moorcroft Debt Recovery LTD £7817

HBOS Collections Credit cards £7584

PRA Group UK LTD prev Aktiv Kapital £5500

Arrow Global £5484

Scottish Power £1570

PRA Group UK LTD prev Aktiv Kapital £794

Cabot Financial £737

Lowell £700.86

No Creditor Details CCJ £658

Lowell Solicitors £278.20

Lowell £48.84

 

Total £40.5k

 

Thanks in advance and i greatly anticipate your wonderful wisdom.

 

Cosmicdancer.

 

[AndyOrch]

Hi and Welcome to CAG

If you could also list the original creditors and type of debt.

Regards

Andy

[Cosmicdancer]

Hi Andy i will try and get those relative details for you is there anyway to find this out as the person in question is having a hard time remembering original creditors

 

Thanks for a quick reply

 

Cosmicdancer

[Cosmicdancer]

Moorcroft Debt Recovery LTD £9350 O/C - Barclaycard credit card

Moorcroft Debt Recovery LTD £7817 O/C Goldfish credit card

HBOS Collections Credit cards £7584 O/C Halifax credit card

PRA Group UK LTD prev Aktiv Kapital £5500  O/C MBNA Credit card

Arrow Global £5484  O/C Virgin Credit card

Scottish Power £1570

PRA Group UK LTD prev Aktiv Kapital £794 O/C MBNA Credit Card

Cabot Financial £737 Very or freemans Catalogue or van insurance

Lowell £700.86 Very or freemans Catalogue or van insurance

No Creditor Details CCJ £658

Lowell Solicitors £278.20 Very or freemans Catalogue or van insurance

Lowell £48.84 O/C O2 Telephone

Edited March 5, 2019 by Cosmicdancer

[dx100uk]

is she paying anyone anything at present?

 

dx

 

[Cosmicdancer]

Not paying anybody anything at the minute , nope has no disposable income to pay anything

 

thanks

[dx100uk]

ok well let the letters come and ask them to pass them onto you.

the only PRIORITY debt I can see are Scottish power

can you expand on that one.

and have you a date for the CCJ?

should be on their credit file

which might be an idea to get ahold of 

[Cosmicdancer]

Yes i will be able to find out what i can tomorrow, thanks!

[Cosmicdancer]

Found out today Scottish Power is a previous supplier from a previous address, still awaiting access to the credit report, thanks 1

[comebackjimmy]

Hello

First of all please tell your family member that they are a worthy human being.  Also, it is not against the law, or immoral to have debts, or for money matters to get out of control.  It should not be allowed to get in the way of the important task of enjoying life and the few days that we have here.

Also (IMPORTANT), they should not let a bunch of crummy debt collection agencies who have no real power damage their well being or mental health.

The real immorality is that the original lenders, for the most part, created money out of thin air on the hard disks of their computer systems and encouraged your family member to get more and more into debt.  It is part of their business model. 

Another part of their business model is that they expect a proportion of those debts to fail and their back up plan is to sell those failing debts to a debt buyer/debt collection agency for a few pence in the pound and write off the rest against the tax they would otherwise pay.  Having invented the money in the first place they have made a profit from the increasing interest and fees then got the full amount of the "loss" back, leaving your family member in misery.

The good news is that even though it seems like a lot of money, for the most part, it will be possible to shed most of it.

The most important debt is the CCJ as that potentially allows High Court Enforcement Officers (Bailiffs) to pursue the debt and that can cause problems to sensitive or vulnerable people.

Be aware that a Debt Collector Company is not a Bailiff and has no power over your relative or anybody else. 

For example, if Bob lends some money to Bill who won't pay it back he can ask for Bill to pay it back by phone or letter.  If he refuses then Bob can ask Jack to ask Bill to pay it back by phone or letter.  If Bill refuses to pay Jack or even speak to him or write to him then there is nothing Jack can do.

In this case, Bob is the bank, Jack is the Debt Collection Agency and Bill is your relative.  The Debt Collection Companies however official or intimidating they may seem actually have exactly the same power and status as Jack, which is to say none.

However, if the Bank (or Bob) goes to Court and gets a County Court Judgement(CCJ) then that can potentially be chased by a Bailiff and could cause a problem.

With regard to the suggestion of Bankruptcy,  I think you do not need to go near it.  Why would you pay out your good money to make yourself bankrupt?   If any of the creditors want to take that action let them spend the many hundreds of pounds it will take and then share the pittance of your relative's resources with all the other creditors.   They will talk of bankruptcy but never do it, don't do it for them!

What you now need is an Action Plan so I suggest the following as a starting point:

1. Make sure your relative does not destroy any more correspondence but instead forwards it to you.   If they don't want to read it then no matter, you read it and handle it for them.

2. For each of the bills create a folder (2 x pack of 10 from WH Smith, 12 debts so 8 left over!).

3. As correspondence arrives file it and keep it in date order in each file.

4. For each of the debts create a spreadsheet (actually one spreadsheet with 12 tabs if you know how) and have a column for the Date and then a description of what arrived). E.G. chasing letter, offer letter, Solicitors letter, Solicitors Letter Before Action and so on.  Identify what kind of correspondence it is so you can decide if it is important and needs dealing with.

5. An important consideration here is when the Debts were last acknowledged.  By this I mean when did your relative last accept that the money was owed either by paying a bill towards the debt or possibly writing to discuss the debt or maybe filling in a form supplied by one of the creditors.  This is because the law says that if no legal action has been taken after a period of six years (five in Scotland) then no legal action can be taken at all.  This is known as the Statute of Limitations.  It is possible some of these debts are over six years old and if you can prove that by reference to when the last bill was paid for example then some of the debts can be discarded straight away.  At the time of writing any debt that was not paid or otherwise acknowledged prior to 6th March 2013 (2014 if you are in Scotland) is unenforceable.

6. This next bit may be controversial and may be challenged by other CAGERS but my strategy moving on would be to open each piece of correspondence to identify what kind of letter it is.  For the most part, they will either be threat letters or offer letters and can safely be ignored and safely filed just in case.   I would never speak to a debt collector and I would never write to a Debt Collector either by mail or email in response to these types of letters. I would not communicate AT ALL.    Let them keep sending them, and you keep filing them.  As long as they are doing that then they are achieving nothing.  I have files of these letters from my own creditors and I have a collection which I sometimes show to people with the same pride as others show their stamp collections!!     This worked for me across about 15 accounts of mine and others till they all went Statutory barred.  (Only one account went for Legal Action and with the great help of CAG they had to withdraw their case before it got to Court because they had no documentation that could prove to the court that they were entitled to the debt.  Even had they produced it then it would be possible to challenge it on technical grounds.

7. If a letter comes that is threatening Court Action commonly called a Letter Before Action or something similar that may have to be treated differently.   This letter can only come from either the original lender or the business that bought the debt.   In that case come back onto the thread and advise the group what the letter is and you will likely get advice about what to do next.  (As a general rule come onto the Thread whenever you receive any letter so it can be identified for what it is, until you get the hang of it).

8. As the Scottish Power debt is for another address there is no danger of a warrant for disconnection being applied for at the current address.  However, if your relative has Scottish Power in their current address it may be wise to switch to another provider just in case they try something like attaching the old debt to the new debt.

9. However, the CCJ is a potentially important problem and has to be dealt with.  Try and find out what it is for and get a copy of the original judgement.   It may not have been enforced (which means the creditor may not have asked the Court or a Bailiff to chase it) but if they do it will become uncomfortable for your relative.  Get on top of that quickly.

Steps 1-9 are I think a good starting point.  You should come back onto this thread with details of any further letters that arrive as soon as you have them so that CAGers can advise you as to how serious they are and what steps may be necessary.

In summary remember, it is not a crime or immoral to be in debt, probably 80-90% of the correspondence, and most if not all of the debt can eventually be discarded and should be done without shame or remorse.  It is the task of the Creditor to prove they owe it by legal means and their worry, not the worry of your relative.

Once you start taking the steps above it will come under control and recede as a threat.  Good Luck!

Although I am experienced I am not an expert in all things and I invite other CAGers to comment on my post and chip in.

[brassnecked]

Decent plan to get a grip of the situation,

[Cosmicdancer]

Hi guys thanks for the advice, the first letter through is a claim form for around £380 from lowell

 

we think the orig creditor is SimplyBe Catalogue , the letter arrived today so getting to you guys as quick as possible, we are really clueless on where to go from here.

 

Thanks

 

Cosmicdancer

[dx100uk]

Create a new topic in the financial legal issues forum and fill out the court claim sticky there please

[Cosmicdancer]