Hi, I hope someone with the knowledge can help. I'm just assessing my options and need help with two questions below regarding 1 joint loan and keeping our home. I have £60k+ worth of debts with approx ten creditors. I have no way of paying is money back. My life would be ok if it were not for this debt and I never want to borrow money again. There is one loan that is a joint loan, I did not realise it was a joint loan until I fell behind and they were writing to both of us, but we have asked for the paper work and my partner has signed the agreement too and this is one area that is stopping me from going bankrupt as I don't want to drag her into bankruptcy too. I understand that my partner would have to enter bankruptcy too if I wanted to because of the joint loan unless we can pay this off. Would it be worth me making a full and final settlement figure to the loan company with the joint loan agreement as to clear my partner from debt so I won't drag her down on my sinking ship? If I wrote to them and told them I am going bankrupt and asked them for the minimum amount they would accept as settlement, then would they come back with a considerably reduced figure to settle? (loan is approx 15k) We could borrow a few grand from family but probably not as much as they would want but if they realise they will get nothing then maybe they would top being greedy and unrealistic with their demands? I have zero equity in the house, zero money and zero assets so they would get nothing if I went bankrupt. I have a joint mortgage on the house with my partner and there is zero equity in the property. I fell behind with my mortgage but have agreed a repayment plan that is affordable for me and my mortgage company is happy with. If we managed to settle the above loan debt which me and my partner are linked with so she will not have to join me in bankruptcy, then would we be able to keep the home? As there is zero equity there will be nothing for creditors to gain and the only result will be us being made homeless. And if she is not going bankrupt then is it correct that they would not be able to touch her 50% of the home? I can afford my mortgage on my present income along with essential bills like council tax, utilities, etc so would the law allow us to stay put? I am not sure if bankruptcy is the route I want but just weighing up possibilities and planning ahead Thanks Edit : Thought I should also add that my work vehicle is on HP and would I have to give this up too if went bankrupt?

I have also wrote an e mail to one month loan complain and tell them they do not have my permission to use my card any longer. I got a reply saying... Please refer to the signed terms and conditions and loan agreement on your members area at www.1monthloan.co.uk. As you are in debt with us debits from your account can be attempted as frequently as deemed necessary until the funds are repaid. Your current outstanding balance is £374.25. Within the next few weeks your account will be sold to an outside recovery company due to the length your account has been outstanding. Your balance with them will be as above, there is a one off settlement option of just £56.13 open. £56.13 is just 15% of your current balance and would close your account in full as fully repaid. This offer will be kept open for 7 days. As explained i can not guarantee that more funds will not be debited from your account. This is because there is no repayment arrangement on your account and it has been outstanding for more than 6 months. I have said deal to the settlement of 15%, its less then I initially had from them even with the £45 they took the other day added to it:-) 15% jusat goes to show how little they sell these debts on to DCA's Although what they say about being able to take as frequently as deemed necessary until the funds are repaid can not be legal surely can it?

I have wrote to them for written confirmation that the account is settled. There may not be anything to worry about but I don't want some DCA writing to me having bought the debt off of them in the future. I just don't trust them!

I have wrote a complaint to my bank asking for the transaction to be reversed and telling them in no circumstances should any further payments be authorised

What did you tell them? Do you still have the letter you sent?

I have just learnt that canceling your card does not work. Does closing your account work?

I just tried on the phone, and they were not interested what I had to say and said that any payments 'authorised' by me will continue and there is nothing they can or will do

Hi Had a loan with these last December, I could not afford the repayment the next month so cancelled the card. I don't know how they have managed it but a debit card transaction has come out today 6 months after the card was canceled for £45. Does that mean that canceling your card no longer works and I now have to cancel my bank account? I am fuming, just been on the phone to the bank asking how the hell this has happened and they was not interested - financial bullies all sticking together as usual

I make the last date for AoS to be Sat 11th Sept (23rd Aug + 5 + 14) Will update when I hear back from shoosmiths. Thanks again for your advice

I have contacted shoosmiths. They say that they can not decide on a decision themselves and have put forward my offer to screwfix to see if they will accept my offer and are waiting to hear back from them. Fingers crossed they say yes Although will have to find £446 in 2 weeks if they do

Sorry no you got figures wrong. The claim is for: Balance £542.80 Interest at 8% from Feb £23.11 Court fee £55 Solicitor £70 Total £690.91 The balance does not include minus £96.66 which I have ready sent last month, which gives the figure of £446.14 I am going to offer

Summons amount is £542.80, they have not banked my August cheque yet which would take the balance to 446.14

Yes I have found a letter before action from shoosmiths, received on 20th July when the balance was £600. I have sent two further payments since then. Balance offered is balance less payments yes

Is this letter ok? I am going to e-mail them my offer Dear Sirs You have issued a claim against me regarding a Screwfix account. I believe this was unnecessary as I was reducing the balance and had made several attempts to enter negotiation with Screwfix. Screwfix are aware of my financial situation and the reasons I have found it difficult to clear the balance when I wrote to them in May. In this letter I informed them that I will be in touch with a repayment proposal shortly and enclosed a payment of £49.03 I then wrote to them in June and offered Screwfix a minimum of £40 per month but would hope to pay more and enclosed payment of £88.03. My letter went ignored but I have continued to make payments of £57.20 in July and £96.66 in August. Screwfix chose not to write back to me to reject my offer but have continued to send me monthly statements showing my reduction of the balance. I therefore assumed that as Screwfix were cashing my monthly payments and had not rejected my proposal that we were in agreement with my offered payment plan. I have now received a Claim form by yourselves from Basingstoke Court, I am unable to afford the extra Costs, Fees and Interest that have been added and also believe that this addition to the balance is deeply unfair because I have made every attempt to negotiate with Screwfix and I have exceeded the minimum monthly payments I had offered. Please except my offer of Final settlement of the full remaining balance of the original amount borrowed: £446.14. If accepted please provide me with an address to make payment to and I can settle the balance out of court within 14 days of this e-mail. I look forward to your Reply Yours Sincerely Avocados

Hi, thankyou for your reply. Do you have the T&Cs of your Trade account handy Avocados? Terms and conditions are here... http://www.screwfix.com/sfd/content_pdfs/screwfixTRADEAccCAAP.pdf You retained a paper trail and copies of requests?If by a paper trail do you mean did I keep copies of my correspondence then yes, payments were sent monthly by cheque to them. providing you settled on time They are trying to charge me interest from february, payment was not due until the end of March. Terms and conditions state (section 2.6) that overdue payments will be charged interest from the due date and at 3% above the base rate (so 3.5%?) not 8% they are claiming Claim issued by Basingstoke not MCOL so yes Ok thankyou for info Unfortunately yes unless you negotiate settlement with the Claimant before trial should it proceed to trial What would be your defence to defend in full? How important is your credit record to your trade career? If you do defend and lose that CCJ will be with you for 6 years and not something a tradesman needs IMHO I do admit owing the money and I would love to be able to pay them back, I made an effort to negotiate with them which was refused/ignored. I can not afford the balance in full and would have paid by now if I could have. And just when the balance was getting down to a more manageable level where I may have been able to offer them the full balance they take me to court and add £125 fees and costs and £23 interest to the balance and by doing so upping the amount owed to closer to the original balance so it feels that the monthly payments which I have struggled but managed to send have been a complete waste of time- it just p*ss*d me off that's all. Whats the best way to negotiate payment? Hopefully settle out of court and without the extra fees/costs? If I made an offer of £440 which is the outstanding balance less fees and costs are they likely to accept?

Just an update... They have not replied to me defence yet and it must be close to getting stayed. The letter from the court said that they have 28 days to respond to my defence, the letter the court sent was dated 2nd August. My defence was put in on 31st July so it must be about time up for them to reply?

I sent off the full and final settlement payments last month of %50 of the outstanding balance and me and my partner received letters each mine said ... Thankyou for your recent payment of £85.75, which has been credited to your account. The outstanding balance is now £85.75 My partners said Thankyou for your recent payment of £65.50, which has been credited to your account. The outstanding balance is now £65.50 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I phoned immediately to see WTF is going on. The woman on the phone said sorry its their error and we will send out confirmation that the accounts are settled. I have received...... We refer to your recent communication and would confirm under the above ref number was settled to our clients satisfaction when we received the final payment on 12 Aug 10. My partner has not received a letter from them, should I be worried and get in touch and ask for written confirmation or am I just being paranoid?

Hi I have an account with screwfix in which I believe the terms and conditions were me being billed at the end of the month and then getting a further 28 days or 1 month to pay. I could not afford to pay my bill I ran up in January/February which totalled around £7-800. I wrote to them in may explaining that I had been having difficulties and that I will be in touch with a repayment proposal, I enclosed a token payment of around £50 with this in the hope it will keep them happy. Since then I have tried to negotiate on the telephone with the DCA they set on me but they demanded the full amount and refused to negotiate. I wrote to them offering a minimum of £40 per month but in it I wrote I'd hope to pay it off sooner. This letter went ignored but I have continued to pay them a monthly amount by cheques which they have banked in May approx £50, june £88.03, in July £57.20 and August £96.66 (they have not banked august's cheque yet) Balance is now down to approx £440 They have now started a court claim against me http://s584.photobucket.com/albums/ss290/thk1111/Screwfix/ I admit to the claim but I don't believe they should be able to charge me 8% interest from the day that they were claiming because It was an interest free account, I think they have been heavy handed in taking me to court as I was making an effort to pay above what I could afford so feel that having to pay a court fee and solicitors is unfair and uneccasary. I went to file an acknowledgement of service online but there is no password on the claim form? Why is that? Do I have to do it by post? Is there any way of me not paying the court & solicitor fees and 8% interest or am I stuck with them now? Should I admit to all of the claim or part of (and make a repayment offer) or defend the claim in full? Thanks

Not an option for me, I do not qualify for one. At the moment I am trying to enter negotiation with the creditors that are willing to be realistic (they should except what I have not what they unrealisticly want) But due to the fact that most of my creditors are living on a different planet and instead of being realistic they expect me to pay hundreds of pounds each (10 + creditors) to them a month = several £1000's of imaginary monthly income total they think I have, then bankruptcy will probably be the end result and they will get nothing but I'm just not ready for it yet.

Yes I have the money now. Fortunately my financial situation has improved slightly and I am able to afford this payment. They do not ask for a specific payment method, but just to send the payment to their office. I would prefer to pay by cheque then I can add a covering letter with it to remind them that this is final and to make a record on my credit file that it is settled. Just need advice that I am doing things correctly and it is final so they (or another DCA) don't/can't come back asking for more

Thankyou for your advice, sounds like a good plan. I will put together a complaints letter over the next couple of days and post it up on here before sending it off

Yes received reply for hers and it is identical. Just swap my figures for hers quoted in my previous post.

I have received a reply to a full and final settlement offer I made of 50% of the outstanding balance for both mine and my partners accounts. me 50% of £171.50 = £85.75 my partner 50% of £131 = £65.50 Please see link for reply http://s584.photobucket.com/albums/ss290/thk1111/provident/ letter I sent... Dear Sir/Madam I write with reference to the money which you are claiming on the above account. I can confirm that due to extreme financial difficulties I am unable to offer to pay the money which we owe in full. However, I can raise £85.75 and I want to offer this as an ex−gratia payment in full and final settlement of the account. This offer is made on the clear understanding that, if accepted, neither you nor any associate company will take any other action to enforce or pursue this debt in any way whatsoever and that we will be released for any liability. I also request that, if accepted, you will make an entry on a credit reference agency file relating to the above account as "satisfied" in full. Payment can be made within 2 weeks of receiving your written agreement of this offer and method of payment. I will only communicate in writing only but I am able to supply an e-mail address to speed up correspondence; ……….. I look forward to receiving your reply. Yours faithfully They have accepted my offer as long as I pay by august 13th. I am happy to pay this but can someone check that I have done everything correct to make sure it is full and final and not just a part payment and they will be coming back for more. And what sort of letter should I send with the settlement payment? Thankyou

Hi My vehicle is on HP with Santander (originally with GE money but I think Santander bought them out) Whilst it was with GE money it ran up £165 worth of late payment charges. Now I keep getting letters every couple of weeks from Santander saying I must pay these now, they tried to collect the £165 by direct Debit but I had my bank reverse it as they did not give notice of this. I then cancelled the DD and now send payment off each month by cheque so they can't attempt to do this again. I phoned and asked them to write them off as sometimes you can get through to someone in a good mood on the phone willing to help and will do this but all the person offered was to pay these charges in installments. My repayments are upto date for the hp agreement so will they, and can they take back my vehicle just because I refuse to pay these fees/charges? Also how should I proceed to get this charges scrapped? Thanks

defence done