just had a nasty shock i have just found out my partner has run up a debt on a credit card from 1985 i can afford to pay it off but it is a large lump of my savings,the card has not been used for years and i suspect the total is interest upon interest she has been treated for depression for the last 5 years and has not been very well since a familly bereavment 5 years ago and the debt has just got away from her.

can anyone please help with some sort of strategy i think the original debt has been paid off 12 times over and to add insult to injury the cc company want £5 per statement so that i can begin to try to sort it.

                                      best regards denis
 

 

I know that you can ask for statements going back six years under the data protection act, and they can only charge a one off payment of £10 if you ask for them under the act.

Also you could ask for a final settlement balance once you know the full extents of the debt, offer them considerably less than the full amount, in full and final settlement, you could explain you are paying this debt off as a goodwill gesture telling them you have no other money available, and the only other alternative they would have, would be to take court action against your partner otherwise, hinting they could get nothing by doing this.

You will probably find they will settle for a lot less than the full amount, but make sure you have it in writing that it is full and final, so they can't try to get anymore at a later date.

You would need your partner to sign any correspondence as the account holder, also get a letter from your partner asking for the account to be closed once settled in full, to stop any repeat performance of it probably happening again.

thanks for the excellent avdvise comankillerit it is much appreciated the problem i am having is communication i am not sure wheather there has been fraudulant  use of the card, and you always seem to be talking with someone in outer mongolia or the like, and with it being my wifes card i have to ring during office hours and they will not talk to me without the cardholders permission i will know which direction to go in when i have recieved the back statements.

                       thanks again best regards denis
 

Yes you should have to only pay the £10 once - if you get any hassle, polite reply that you are trying to sort out the debt and a) you are unable to do this without the statements, and b) should it ever go legal, then the courts would not look too kindly on the cc company for not giving you the opportunity to settle the debt out of court.

In order to do much with the account, you will need your partner to give her permission to allow you to act on her behalf.  As this is a special contract, ie she is giving you something (permission to act on her bahalf) and you are giving her nothing, her signature will probably need to be witnessed by someone else.  This is almost like a power of attorney arrangement. 

 Are we talking the original debt arising from 1985, or expenditure since that date as well?  If all the debts are from 1985, I think we may have quite an interesting issue here.  You should ask the company to list what the underlying debts relate to, i.e. the original purchases.  If they are unable to provide this information, and your partner has done nothing in the last 6 years to acknowledge the debt, then you may be able to get out this without paying a penny.  Even if the company have continued to send statements. then I think they still need to be able to provide evidence as to what the debt is made up from.  B/fwd from 1990 plus lots of interest does not represent adequate proof that your partner ever purchased anything!

Legally, I believe, your partner needs to have acknowledged the debt in the last 6 years (ie made a payment) or the bank needs to be able to prove that they have been sending statements and they can give details of what makes up the current total.

 

thanks for that info bertie unfortunatly my wife has never missed a payment until the 16 july thats when i found out, the reason she missed the payment basicly she has run out of funds,i will have to wait until i recieve the statements i have written to them explaining that she has insufficiant funds to pay any more installments and requesting a credit freeze.

   many thanks denis
 

hi is there any chance you look at my case too:

my husband owed in the region of £10000 debt and he is willing to pay but just not able to for the minimum repayment. He is working in Asia now and will maintain there for a few years. He has written to the creditors but they don't seem to take any notice of him offering to pay smaller than the monthly minimum amount and keeps sending him bills that are standard minimum with interest. I am joining him shortly but I am worried

1) What if the bank ignore his offer?
2) Could they make me to pay on his behalf (I have savings although the property is in my name and I have separate finance account)?
3) My husband believes that the bank will eventually give in and 'freeze' the account by not adding any interest on it, is that true?
4) what else can we do to make it work?

Thanks

hi sorry to hear of your predicament we did not have a very good outcome regarding my wifes debt, i found the card company to be absolutley untrustworthy.

i would recomend you contact the national debt line and explain your circumstances it is a free service and i found them to be very helpful with lots of good advice and support,

Hi thank you for that. I now know that it was not 10,000 - it's 20,000 that he owed. My heart has just sunk (quite to the bottom). Is it true that because we have separate bank account and finance - the creditors cannot touch me?! This is apparently what he was told - He is now contacting the DA - Debt Anonymous - and this is one of the people who says so. Did your wife declare bankruptcy? Did they take you to court? I feel sick just thinking about this.

that is what i was told if the card is in your spouses name and not a joint account then the ressponsibillity for this debt is your husbands,and they will chase him for payment.

for your own peace of mind please ring the national debt line and explain your circumstances that is the best advice i can offer you they were very supportive and gave excellent accurate advice.and it is a free service.

in my wifes case we finished up settling the debt we were hoping to get a full and final settlment but because the account was in arrears they just spun out the process and it finnished up that we actually paid more than the original ballance,they are a very untrustworthy bunch and you never get to speak to the same person twice.

hope this is of some help

hi i found a few different organisations but which one is the one you contacted? Some claim to be government dept but they seem to be 'free' only on a first discussion basis - I am not sure I got the right people! Is this the one you used?

www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

If you do contact a debt advice line, do make sure they are free and are not maskerading as a 'free' service - do not pay any money to anyone who claims to be able to sort out your debts - I've just fully read the earlier comment and we are saying the same thing! (I would have expected the address to end in org.uk rather than co.uk, so be careful!

I just contacted Citizen Advisory Bureau and they actually advised to use the one i put - which ends with .co.uk although the one ended with .org also seems genuine - very confusing. Am starting to have banks chasing us at home - I don't even dare to answer the call anymore.