Hi, I am a 23 year old man who has a debt with the bank for around £15000-£20000. I lost my job and couldnt pay the funds back. Since i have started a job overseas and am currently earning over £30000 per year. The debt has been passed on to debt companies now who write to my parents house every so often. What would my best option to do? would the possibility of BANKRUPTCY be open or should i start a payment back to these companies per month. Or maybe an debt soloution company.

PLEASE HELP ME, MANY THANKS

The fact you are working oversea's may make it a bit more complicated but with your new salary it is just about getting back on your feet, there are several options, bankruptcy should be the last resort (but there is a time and place), you can look at either, debt consolidation loan, the prefered choice as this helps your credit rating if you are paying regularly, debt management, basically where someone contacts your debtors and arranges reduced payments and lower interest or the middle ground between debt management and bankruptcy would be an IVA, a five year plan to clear all your debts with reduced settlement, but this does effect your future credit although nowhere near as bad as a bankruptcy.

Note: This post has been moderated. Please do not use these forums to advertise. Ensure you read the Moneysupermarket.com User Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks.

A debt solutions company will just increase the problems. Bankrupcy will also come with many more problems than it will solve. You should contact the people that you owe money to and offer to pay the debts off at a suitable monthly amount. You should be aware that any court action will normally not be valid if it happened while you were out of the country so you may be able to dispute some of the "costs" that debt collectors invariably add to the amounts owed. You should, however, make contact as soon as possible, explain the situation and make your offer. Debt collectors will add silly amounts, like £50 for a letter or £100 for a visit, if you do not make contact and come to an arrangement. When you are next in the UK you might want to consider visiting a Citizens Advice Bureau for more specific advice.

Personally I would be inclined to make contact and discuss repayments with the bank. Debt collectors are not easy people to deal with.

How many years do you intend working abroad?

How long ago did you stop making payments?

If you can answer these correctly then perhaps you "might not need to pay the money back!

First of all check that the DCA has all the paperwork to say they are allowed to collect the debt.

Send a CCA letter along these lines..

To Whom It May Concern:

Your Reference: xxxx

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY

With reference to the above account, I request that you send me a true copy of this credit agreement before I will correspond further on this matter.

This is my right under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, and I am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request.

Your obligation also extends to providing me with a statement of account. I enclose a £1

postal order, which represents payment of the statutory fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act. I understand that a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days from the date of this letter.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

Also, since you are a Debt Collection Agency, I would also ask that you supply a signed true copy of the executed deed of assignment for the above referenced agreement. This is an obligation, whether you are the original creditor or not, under section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

In summary, I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE THIS DEBT AND THEREFORE REQUIRE YOU TO SUBSTANTIATE THIS BY PROVIDING THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTATION BEFORE I CORRESPOND FURTHER :

1.True copy of original credit agreement

2.Statement of account

3.Copy of the executed deed of assignment from (Argos) and (Moorcroft)

4.Fair Processing Notice.

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.

Further to the above, please ensure that any contact by yourselves is made in writing only to the above address. Telephone calls and personal visits will not be accepted and viewed as harassment.

As this account is now in dispute, I would also draw your attention to The Banking Code section 13.6:-

We may give information to the Credit Reference Agencies about personal debts you owe us if:

·The Amount Owed is Not in Dispute.

·The Office of Fair Trading provided a Code of Guidance that is in relation to Debt Collection: OFT 664 Response to consultation paper and final guidance on unfair business practices dated July 2003

Deceptive and/or Unfair Methods-

2.8 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:-

k. Not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt.

If you continue in your pursuance of this account I will have no other alternative than to report you to both, The Information Commissioner and The Office of Fair Trading.

Furthermore, I shall submit a Consumer Credit Act 1974 complaint to the OFT upon the basis that you have failed to comply with the OFT's direction of 5 April 2006 and are therefore not a 'fit and proper person' to hold a consumer credit licence under the 1974 Act. If you do not understand what this means then seek advice from your legal department.

I look forward to hearing from you within the statutory time limit.

Yours faithfully

Thank you very much for your response.

I have 4years work abroad and i stopped making payments around 9 months to 1 year ago

please respond

Hi can you tell me more about who DCA & CCA are.

Many thanks

DCA just short for debt collection agency

CCA is consumer credit agreement.

If you send them a letter along the lines of the one i posted and send to Debt collectors and see if they respond.

Hope that helps

I wrote to two creditors in August '07 asking for CCA details and heard nothing back. I wrote again in November, telling them the 12+2+30 deadlines had passed.

I had a letter yesterday from a DCA saying they had just received the request from the card company and would either get a copy of the original or a copy of the terms of the contract to me soon and would be in touch again within 21 days.

What rights do they now have to enforce the agreement if they do produce the contract at this stage?