Friends debts .

[meandbex]

Right I am wondering anyone can help me please as this is some new territory that i know nothing about. I have a dear dear friend of mine who had some serious health issues and was unable to work and still cannot work

 

This is the lowdown of her issues. She has 4 accounts> 2 for Provident Loans, 1 for Littlewood's Catalogue and 1 for the Studio Catalogue. She started these in 2006/2007 until she fell behind with payments and the such. It seems her dad had given her the wrong information by telling her to get sorted with a debt management plan. She knows nothing about the credit scoring system until i spent a good few hours explaining it all to her last night.

 

The DMP is with STEP CHANGE and she started this on 11th November2012. The documents she has says she has to repay the debt at £5 month for each account (£20 month) until 2021!!!!!!!!!! The whole balance on the Stepchange account says for all the account is a total of something like £2300 which she says is more than she borrowed.

 

So, I got her to join Equifax trial last night. On her file there is>

 

NO records for provident

The Littlewoods account shows as settled in 2008

The Studio catalogue shows she was 3 months late but is now up to date and she only owes £199.

 

I can add these on here if anyone wants to see them as screenshots.

 

Her credit rating at 877 ( is better than mine!!!!!!) Today she has received a letter from Cobalt financial limited saying the debt was signed over to them for £499.47 on August 13 2013.

 

So, I have a few questions that i need answering please if anyone can help please as due to her illness I don't want her worrying any more than she has to.

 

1. Can she get out of this step change thing?

2. Can they make her pay until 2021 ?

3. I was under the assumption that once an account has dropped off after 6 years they cannot enforce it as it has been statute barred?

4. Assuming it has been statute barred and she set this plan up after that date then surely that is a non legal process?

5. Is this simply another process of obtaining a SAR?? Is this with the original creditor or the DMP or the DCA?

6. I assume we dont acknowledge the DCA but why has it taken them 11 months to write to her???

Appreciate any help from anyone in order to my friend at ease.

 

Thanks in advance .

[sequenci]

1. Can she get out of this step change thing?

2. Can they make her pay until 2021 ?

3. I was under the assumption that once an account has dropped off after 6 years they cannot enforce it as it has been statute barred?

4. Assuming it has been statute barred and she set this plan up after that date then surely that is a non legal process?

5. Is this simply another process of obtaining a SAR?? Is this with the original creditor or the DMP or the DCA?

6. I assume we dont acknowledge the DCA but why has it taken them 11 months to write to her???

 

Hello there.

 

1 & 2: A DMP is an informal arrangement, she can leave whenever she likes - she's not held under a formal contract

3: The 6 years statute barred point would be 6 years after the last payment made either by her, or Stepchange

4: A DMP is a non-legal process regardless

5: Not sure what you mean by this question

6: Some DCAs do take a long time to contact people, 11 months isn't uncommon.

 

 

How mcuh does your friend owe in total? Do they own any assets?

[meandbex]

Thanks for the quick reply.

 

It says she owes around £2300. She has no assets due to her illness. Just a TV, stereo and normal furniture like anyone else. As for my question 5 i thought maybe it was just a case of getting a SAR from Step Change to see if it was statute barred at the point they then took the debt on.

 

So is there actually anything she can do??? I think it seems a very very long time to be paying???? And even more so when nothing is showing on her credit file that she anyone anything other than the studio catalogue of £199.00

 

I thought statue barred happens on the 6th year anniversary of the account when it started??? If that's not the case then i am going to chuck my rattle of my pram here and say that Step Change are simply keeping peoples debts on for longer than necessary.

[sequenci]

I thought statue barred happens on the 6th year anniversary of the account when it started??? If that's not the case then i am going to chuck my rattle of my pram here and say that Step Change are simply keeping peoples debts on for longer than necessary.

 

Are you getting information stored on a credit file confused with the principle of a debt being statute barred under the limitations act? a debt falls off a credit file after 6 years.

Stepchange will generally pay a debt until the liability has been paid off in full.

 

Given what you've said, perhaps a Debt Relief Order could be a valid alternative: http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=37_debt_relief_orders

 

Is there mis-sold PPI that could be reclaimed?

[meandbex]

Mmmmm I see - so in theory had she not paid via a dmp the file would be taken off and she couldn't then be pursued?

 

But because she is paying via dmp she now has to pay for 8 years on top of 6 years already???

 

Seems tad screwy for me lol, but like I stated I know nothing about this area. Il certainly look at the relief order and see what that is supposed to do.

[IainHL]

But if your friend started these in 2006/2007, and made some/a number of payments before falling behind, then these were not due to become statute barred until this year, 2013, at the earliest. Plus, don't forget, it is 6 years from the last payment made or acknowledgement of the debt.

 

Thus when she set up the plan with Stepchange in 2012 they were almost certainly not statute barred, so Stepchange have done nothing wrong.

 

Also, as Sequenci says, Stepchange's approach would be to pay off the debt liability in full, at an affordable reduced monthly rate to the original contracted amount, hopefully having got the creditor to agree to freeze interest and not add any further charges.

Edited October 8, 2013 by IainHL
Make it look neater

[dx100uk]

time to fire off a few CCA requests me thinks!

 

dx

[Conniff]

So, I got her to join Equifax trial last night. On her file there is>

 

Make sure you cancel that trial with Equifax once you have all the information you need. They will take £9.95p from her bank next month if you don't.

[Then only £9.95 per month to continue if you don't cancel within your 30 day free trial.]

 

You can get a complete report from a CRA for £2 by post.