Hi - first-timer seeking help

[March_Hare]

Hello everybody... first posting here... (oooh errrr )... but here goes.

 

The story is a long one. Very bad couple of years and huge debts. Divorce, lost business and forced to sell home (question on ERPs when forced to sell posting on the mortgage board soon). The good bit is that most of the debts are settled now. Got advice in the first place from CAB and then when I heard about the then Banking Action Group, read here and used the letters to add to mine when arguing a case for return of charges and reduced settlements. (With some success - thank you CAG!!! ) Anyway, as I say mostly settled but I have a couple of questions...

 

Firstly can someone explain this business with passing debts to CCAs and its validity? If I read it rightly - but I cannot find the original explanation - there are situations where that is not being done legally and it means that the debt is not validly claimed by them? I am anxious about this one, having paid a few this way and thinking I had done the right thing in getting discounted amounts.

 

Second, on the matter of credit records. I managed to avoid CCJs (damned heroic considering the mess we were in! even if I do say so myself ) but I do have a couple of issues.

 

One is that many of the companies have recorded wildly inaccurate information which is probably going to take me many months to sort out. Just as a for instance Cap One has me 6 months late when the account was still in full operating order for the first few (they even upped my limit in that time!) and I missed just 2 payments before setting up an interim token payment anyway! The other star one is Future Mortgages who have recorded my mortgage as cleared 5 months later than is actually true! What can you do eh? I shall shortly be sending off my complaints and notices of correction of course. Any advice gratefully accepted though.

 

I have defaults and short settlements which I think will stay with me the full 6 years. Am I right on that? Can you clear old stuff off your records any way? Thanks.

 

And third and last question here... I have one debt outstanding. I have been offering to pay off an Egg loan since last July. First they ignored me, then they said make us an offer and rejected it saying they would require more for a F&F settlement, new offer got same result. When I got blunt about their lack of helpfulness on this point they said it was because my debts were not settled in strict proportion (I have paid between 50% and 85% depending on what they would accept and including the return of penalty charges by one bank.) They even argued I had paid in full one debt and that made it unfair but even they had trouble saying they were seriously arguing over a £230 debt in £50K settled!!! I asked them just how much time they thought I should have spent negotiating on that one if I divided my time proportionately and they appear to have given it up.

 

However I am no closer to settling. I owe £21k and have offered £17k cleared funds - ready and waiting since last July - but it appears they would rather have £1 a month and keep on demanding more and more info from me.

 

Are they waiting for me to get a job and for my situation to improve so that they can take more from me?

 

Sorry it's a long one, full of questions, and thank you for listening if you got this fa. I just want this settled so I can get on with my life. Send my ex his share and know what I have to live on until I can get myself straight again. Any ideas?

 

C

[March_Hare]

Hmmm... new tactic from Egg that I would appreciate some thoughts on. They want ALL my financial details before they will consider any F&F proposal. I am looking at a request for full inc & exp, assets and liabilities, mortgage/rent statements, bank statements, utility bills and details and evidence of how the funds are being raised.

 

They already have information on the house sale and a full breakdown of where it's all gone to repay debts plus the info that I am not working and am living rent free etc at the moment til I get back on my feet.

 

I am not inclined to share all this with them - particularly as they could have had their money seven months ago!!! Arrrrrgh!

 

I wonder if they keep refusing hoping that I get back to work, settle with my new partner etc so they can insist on 100%. Proportionate settlement my @*$*!

[lookinforinfo]

Hi Claire, you have quietly beavered away for some months working in the

background and now spring a heck of a lload of questions after you have completed most of what you wanted.

 

DCAs.

They can either act on behalf of the original lender, or they can buy the debt off them.

In an ideal world when they have the debt assigned to them, they should

have a copy of the original agreement that you signed. For legal purposes

however, a deed of assignment is sufficient to prove that they are the owners of the debt. What the DOA doesn't record is the amount of the

original debt, the rate of interest nor whether the document was properly

executed. If the DCAs you have paid have reorded their debts as being

settled on your credit file, then you have no problem.

 

Inaccurate details on your credit files.

You can certainly write to the companies pointing out their errors, but if you

still have defaults and partially settled debts, your credit rating will still be

zero after the mistakes are rectified. Unless you can clear up the important

black marks on your files, chasing these ones up appears a waste of time.

 

Defaults and short settlements

 

Yes they will last six years generally. Defaults are being removed by some companies where the person has paid off the whole debt and closed the account. It is usually best to attempt this prior to paying off the debt. After

paying it off you can claim that they have no right to continue processing

your data [ie the default] as your consent for them to process data ended

when the contract ended.

But I can't see that short settlements would be removed until six years had passed. As that being the case, chasing down defaults and errors seems rather academic.

 

Egg

Not sure what you owe with them. In one paragraph you say it is £230, and

in the following one you say it is £21k although I appreciate the £230 might

be only one of several debts to Egg.

 

Have you reclaimed all your unlawful charges from them? Point out that they could have had £17000 last July and that owing to other commitments you

are unsure of the exact amount available now-and the situation will not

improve in the forseeable future. Say that they are welcome to keep on receiving your £1 per month and that will continue until you are back earning money again. Howeveri If they are serious about resolving the issue please

furnish you with a mutually acceptable figure.

[March_Hare]

Thanks for that Lookinforinfo, much appreciated. Yeah, you are right about coming up with questions at the end but some of this stuff wasn't happening when I started and I fled the country for a while last year. No matter, it's all good and the letters and info got my so called outstanding balance from IF chopped in half. One letter and they didn't even bother to reply - just credited the account. I swiftly added the other half and wrote to say 'thank you' LOL Reckon they could hear me grinning in every line.

 

Anyway, OK, I follow on the DCA thing now but don't think it really applies in my case.

 

On the credit record I undertand what you say but still feel that to accept such wildly inaccurate stuff is wrong. I shall get it put right - it could mean clearing six months earlier than otherwise. Not much in 6 years I suppose but ... all helps surely? I shall check for any fully closed accounts to get rid of bad history and see where that leaves me.

 

Egg, I am at a bit of a loss with their latest demand. A PM advisor also suggested a senior level letter with the offer one more time. I guess I will try as you suggest but this one is seriously stressing me out not being able to sort it for so damn long. I shall also check and challenge the last statement for interest since July - just in case they have added any cos I am blowed if I should have to pay while they sod around.

 

I am seriously considering not making any more payments and seeing if they send it back to Direct Legal as they threatened before - they might settle quicker and for less. What do you think? Or perhaps I should let it go to court and see what they think of all this messing about. It's not like a judge is going to take every last penny off me so leaving me unable to live or work is it?

 

... deep breaths... ANY ideas welcomed... this one is driving me nuts and stopping me from finally getting on with a new life.

[March_Hare]

Oops, meant to say... thank you to the person who PMd me to offer advice too - your help is very much appreciated.

[lookinforinfo]

Claire the only point I was trying to mahe about your credit was that no matter that all the errors are amended, it will not alter your credit score one iota. So while the corrections may satisfy your own feelings, in reality no

company should be looking at your credit file for the next few years since

there is no possibility of being granted a loan.

 

I wouldn't advise stopping payment. Just keep pkugging away at them, using

all your powers of persuasion and coming up with as many reasons as you can think of, for them to settle.