Dear All,

I am a new user to this site and am hoping that someone can give me some advise regarding our situation, so let me paint the picture.....

Me and my better half have been struggling with around £40k of credit card and loan debt for the last 5 years. We kept to our minimum payments (only just) and card surfed around with 0% deals to make ends meet. Unfotunately during the last 18 months when the credit crunch hit, our cards clamped down on available credit and with rising interest charges we have started to drown in our debt. We were behind with our mortage but have now managed to claw ourselves up-to-date with that and with utilities and rates. But we just cannot afford to pay the minimum payment on some of our cards (we have about 8). My BH is now on the verge of loosing his job and we are really scared that we will end up loosing our house.

After being hounded night and day by phone calls (some to our places of work) and receiving letters from DCA's - we started to read the threads on various forums and decided to take the route of asking one major creditor (egg) for the CCA - which they cannot supply. They wrote back to us and said that they do not have it and the account is in dispute until they find it, therefore do we have to write another letter back to them ?

We are also receiving demands from Mercers on behalf of Barclays (who we owe around £3k) Mercers said if we paid £250 they would credit the account with £150. We took them up on this offer and paid it. Since then we haven't heard anything from them - it has been passed back to Barclays who have now said that we can pay 75% of the outstanding balance in settlement of the account - but we can't afford to pay this lump sum. Can we ask Barclays for a CCA or is it too late to go down that route since we paid an amount to the DCA's ?

We have a few cards whereby we have been paying the minimum payment but know that we will fail to raise it in the coming months, therefore could we ask them to provide CCA's or do you have to wait until the account is refered to a DCA before sending the CCa request?

One last thing - Abbey credit Card have written to us offering a 75% settlement of the account. There is no way we can raise this to clear the debt, so should we request CCA's from them too ?

Sorry for all the questions but I would really appreciate some help and guidence with our situation - we are at the end of our tether and this constant pressure of trying to keep our heads above water is just dominating our lives - I would be most grateful of any comments or experiences that others would be happy to give us.

Hi sorry to hear that you are in trouble these are difficult times but there is help out there -

Firstly do not go to any of the so called debt management companies that offer to help you for a fee - go to someone like Payplan they are a fee free organisation and I know a few people who have used them and they can and will help you out. 0800 917 7823. payplan.com Have a look at the web site and see what you think.

And on the case of Egg I have a loan with them and the last person I spoke to at Egg hadnt even heard of the banking ombudsman! so dont hold you breath with them and you can never get through to them anyhow.

As far as I am aware Mercers are part of Barclays ( thats what I was told by Mercers).

Good luck

K

Mercers are Barclay's in house monkeys

You can CCA each and every account if you want to check that everything is in order. This is especially recommended if the accounts have been sold to DCA's

Thanks for your replies - we have infact been talking about a using a DMP, so will be looking into that in the next few weeks.

We have now had our car repossed by The funding corporation. We were approx £800 in arrears with the finance, and they were calling us constantly for months, next thing we know someone turned up at the front door, so we gave them the keys back as we were sick of the phone calls night and day. They auctioned off the vehicle and only realised £3k (which was well below the market value of the car). If we had sold it privately we would have raised £6k for it - but legally you cannot sell a car that is on finance; so instead of breaking the law, we have received a court order from them for the outstanding balance.

We have paid £11k on a £17k agreement, so by the time they deducted the £3k realised, there is a shortfall of £3k.

We filled out the N9A and N9B court form (admission of a specified amount) And we admitted that we owed a shortfall, but not of £3k and asked for them to give us a detailed breakdown of the £3k including all charges etc. We also filled out the income and expenditure part of the form and our incomings showed less than our outgoings. This was sent back and logged witht he court about 3 months ago and as yet we haven't heard a thing. My partner had rang the court and they advised that The Funding Corp. did not take action within the time scale, therefore there was no case. Do you think we have heard the last of this? I have heard from others that The Funding Corporation have a habit of putting a charge on your house and am a bit worried that this will be their next move - anyone else had any dealings with these harrassing vultures?

Hi

It may not be much help to you now but for anybody else out there in the same situation you could have ended your agreement, to do so you should write to the person you make your payments to. They will then be entiled to the return of the goods and to half the total amount payable under the agreement. If you have already paid at least half the vaule of the car or more and takeen reasonable care of the goods, you will not have to pay a penny more.

It worked for me we were not in arrears but things got tight so we decided to go down this route, and not paid a penny since the car was picked up in August the finance company were very helpful (gmac) makes a change doesnt it lol.

Sorry it is to late for you, keep your chin up and get conman to assist you or tartan army they seem to know all the ins and outs of finance.

Regards

Melanie

Thanks Melanie - I wish I had asked for advice on this site first before we did anything!

Hi there

I'm also quite new to all of this and have decided to start doing some research before my own situation worsens.

I agree with what others have said in reply to you, but thought you might also want to have a look at a company called ClearDebt. I've been checking out DMP solution companies online and think they come across as pretty good....might also be worth looking at iva.com I've spent quite a bit of time on there reading up on the companies that are around to help the likes of you and me.

Really am sorry to hear about your situation and hope things improve soon.

After speaking with Capital One and telling them that i cannot afford to pay the minimum repayment of £380 per month (I owe £12k) They have sent me an income and expenditure pack. It says :

Within the next 7 days you should 1] complete the income and expenditure form 2] Tick the appropriate box on the form to show which plan type you require 3] send a photocopy of a wage slip.

It goes onto say ; "Please send all the documents back asap as without this we won't be able to set up a payment agreement with you and you will continue to have charges and interest added to your account. Once we have received the forms and proofs, we'll contact you to discuss the best payment solution for you."

The income and exp form asks for Household income - so do I assume that I have to list all my partners income/debts as well as my own (we are not married) Also my partners father lent us £40k to clear debts earlier this year and we now pay his mortgage of £500 per month to pay him back - will they see this as priority expenditure or not. We HAVE to pay him this money on a monthly basis otherwise he can't pay his mortgage - what a mess!!

Do you think I should send this form back, or should I send the letter asking for a copy of my credit agreement. This card was taken out in 2007 and I transfered the £12k straight onto it, so I reckon they will have a copy of my agreement ???

Or should I just fill in the Income & exp form in the hope that they might stop adding interest and charges ?

I'm scared cause I don't know what to do!!!!!!

Hi

To be honest...although i think its good that Capital One are trying to work it out with you, I think you could end up committing to something which will end up putting you in a worse situation with the other companies you owe money to.

Personally, i think you need to take a little time before jumping in and saying yes to them. the 7 day thing certainly adds un-needed presure!

I'm not a professional so don't know how to best advise you, but do think it's worth you calling round this afternoon and speaking with a few companies that specialise in this area (such as those myself and others have talked about on here) and see what they say. It does no harm and at least then you have confidence you're making the right decision.

Does that help at all? I hope so.

im so sorry you feel like this debt is awful, i know we are /have been in it. my advice would be this- speak to the citizens CAB and /or call a debt managment company. most will give you advice free over the phone or maybe offer a repayment plan with you . we did this after several years of nasty letters and calls and baliff visits, enough was enough. so we went to ADS ( advance debt solutions) they have been GREAT no more phone calls no letters interest is frozen and they really sem to understand. life has started again for us. now im not advertising fot=r them but only telling you about my experience. we do pay a small charge fr their service but i know there are some companies that do it for free too have a search on the internet. good luck x x x x x x

CCCS is a registered charity offering free, confidential advice and support to anyone who is worried about debt. Their free counselling and debt advice can help you get back in control of your money and on with your life.

For online debt counselling which is tailored to your individual circumstancesyou can call their freephone helpline 0800 138 1111 to speak to a Debt Counsellor.

www.cccs.co.uk

I sympathise with your situation but I should point out that CCAs should only be requested if you genuinely believe you don't owe the money. You shouldn't use them simply to get out of paying something you know you should be doing. If this is the case, your best bet is to contact all your creditors, explain the situation and ask them if they can help you sort out a new repayment scheme. If you're honest, and prepare a full means statement, they should be willing to help. Otherwise, perhaps an IVA or similar might be an option.