Bad debt - Help needed please to sort myself out

[Goldlady]

Agreed. Macca I was in similar situation and close to bankruptcy but thanks to this site I am slowly climbing out of the mess. When you consider the interest and charges on credit cards, and the fact that the credit limit increases (or certainly mine) were most certainly irresponsible lending as I was paying the minimum payment on a number of cards and clearly was not in a position to borrow more!

 

I worked out that if i had not borrowed the money in the first place and waited for the BIG COMPANIES to pay us after 90+ days instead of 30 (self employed 15 years) I would not have any debt at all. We are all at the mercy of the big guys and it is time the worm turned.

 

Send your CCA requests Macca and if they can't find them - tough. And please don't let me see any more posts from 'holier than thou' people who have a nice fat salary to budget on every month and look down on those of us who have fallen on hard times. If I get rid of at least some of my debts because the lenders have not got their paperwork right I will not lose any sleep over it. I could go on - but I won't.

[Goldlady]

If you send them to the DCA's they will refer back to the original lender - that is what happened with mine. So I think yes you should as they are the people claiming the money from you - the proud new owners of the alleged debt.

[Goldlady]

My friend who is insolvency practitioner advised me against doing an IVA because of the fees involved (a large amount of what you are paying never reaches the creditors). And also the creditors don't get their money until the end of the IVA period so they don't tend to like it either. It might be that you can make private arrangements with them (as I have done with mine) where they freeze the interest and you pay them a sensible payment each month which is directly clearing the debt. (This all went fine for me until my income dropped and some of them wouldn't accept a further reduction short term). But you might find that they will negotiate - it shows on your credit record as 'arrangement' and you might get defaults but it won't affect your job and is better than going bankrupt.

 

Or is it? If you go bankrupt and it is a no fault you will be discharged after 6-12 months. My IP friend suggested I did that but I was too scared and we do have a small amount of equity in the house.

[Goldlady]

No they can't come to your house - well if they do they are breaking the law. You have to remember as well that if the debt has been sold to a DCA they will have paid as little as 5% of the total value for it.

 

I was as scared as you 18 months ago. I gave my OH power to speak to them and he was really hard and negotiated the payments with them. I am now no longer afraid to answer the phone.

 

It is your decision in the end.

 

Is bankruptcy likely to affect your job? I would think unless you are in the financial services industry or legal profession it wouldn't make any difference. Lots of people in high ranking professions have gone bankrupt - in fact it is not seen as shameful anymore.