Citizen, I've been thinking about your post. Are you suggesting that because I am skint and live in a council house they are much less likely to go beyond threat-o-grams even if they have an enforceable agreement?

I owe barc £2k ish and best part of 17k in total to 5 others. Rent my home - council - i just about own my own underpants!! I would go bankrupt but £6 pcm is a lot cheaper at the mo.

cheers slick basically i'm just gonna keep paying them - and all the rest - £1 pcm. I am not giving people a choice, it's all there is so tough. If they take me to court at any point I will then contest enforceable (if nothing else their costs will go up) and reclaim all the £12 etc. If I have to pay then I believe that the fact I have been paying £1 pcm and can show that is a lot to me at the moment will pretty much mean that I end up with a determination of £1 pcm. So I am no worse off! The fact is all these creditors seem to want to play pathetic mind games, designed to scare old ladies I guess? After 4 months of letter tennis and ignorance I have had enough and intend to get on with life. The only debate I have now is to carry on paying £1 (sensible) or stop (use their tactics on them) and force their hand - the last thing I want is a CCJ to someone like lowlifes in 5years and 11 months time - that effectively screws up my credit record for 12 years. Thoughts? cheers for all the help so far. Nice to have a sounding board outside my own head!

always BC. Opened in 2005

so i am a BIT further on with BC. we have come to an understanding for now - £1 pcm which is good. HOWEVER I CCA'd them and all I have got in reply is two sets of terms. The letter says there is a recon agreement but there is not. The letter says they have complied with section 78, but I cannot see how. Any suggestion as to my next step?

mikey, it doesnt seem to say in your thread, did you ever get a CCA off vanquis?

Cheers MM, Been doorstepped before, so doesnt worry me - are you a police officer? are you a court appointed bailiff? well #$%£ off then. I'm not too worried about a formal solution at this stage - and there is no way i can get below 15k - right now i am trying to see who can enforce what and how much i have to pay them. If necessary i am sure i could 'borrow' the £750 from the bank of dad. Right now I want to get to the bottom of who to pay what and why and then take a step back and look at the best line of attack. Yep, I have read your thread along with about 300 others! Next step here is a CCA request to VAnquis i think, unless anyone can suggest a better option?

thanks sequenci, I think I've already said that I'm at the point where quite frankly I no longer give a rats doodah! They will get £1, they will get a cca request in the next week or so, followed by a CPUTR letter to confirm if they have or ever have had a compliant CCA, anyone who is compliant will continue to get £1 pcm. If they want to go for a CCJ, well the sooner we get the 6 years started on that the better- not that I will just roll over on that of course. Fact is, I do not need any credit for anything and my wife has a 100% clean credit file which is unlinked so we can access things like the best utilities deals etc through her. As I said before I have nothing - council house, housing benefit, full council tax relief - and i am not holding this up as some kind of badge, I would rather otherwise. paradoxically though having absolutely nothing and being able to prove it puts me in a very strong position. By way of a little back story: The Fact is I was ill for a number of years, which is the main reason the debt accumulated and my business failed. I am now 80% 'fixed' and consequently I am dealing with everything (and I mean everything) which is why i am on here and facing all this and dealing with it rather than running away from it, my days as an ostrich are over! Naturally we have a 'joint budget' on a day to day basis but I will not include my wife in this in anything formal or legal because, to be frank, she is non of their business. They are welcome to 'destroy' me in a credit worthy legal sense but it begins and ends with me. Also, with regard to timescale I should point out that everything was paid up 100% until the end of September - dont ask me how i managed that because i baffles me how i managed it for the past year or so - so there is no rush, we are still in the grumpy OC phase as it were. I think I mostly likely have (say) 4-6 months before they realise that i am being quite serious and they cannot bully me back in line because the money really isnt there. I look forward to your idea or two or anyone elses ideas for that matter All the best Emptypot

Hi MM No ROP - saw that for what it was in advance. Everything in sole, just me. No rop, no ppi or anything like that When you say 'if they cannot get hold of you' do you mean on the phone? Every letter says ring ring now, ring or else. I know why, they want to harass my debt card details out of me and then (perhaps) help themselves to money just before i get to the checkout at the supermarket! I was expecting a visit from the provident doorstep muppet - do they not go that route?

doesnt really matter where the info comes from, just so long as we all find it! I have worked out a budget using the national debtline pdf generator gismo, shows that I have £2.86 pcm to share out. I have decided to hold this in reserve for now and simply tell them all that my only income is benefit based and that I receive full HB and CT relief, which are means tested and demonstrate my skintedness. As in if i had spare cash for non priority debts i would not get full HB etc. comments?

Absolutely NOT. I welcome all help from all sources, especially those with experience of the same companies I am so poor at the moment the ducks throw bread at me!

Appreciate all the help and feedback. I must admit that my 'usual' stance MM would be not to send a budget. however, my finances are so pitiful at the moment that it is actually in my best interests to send the budgets and tell everyone exactly where i am at. A funny thing happens when you have nothing and finally admit it, you loose all fear, at least that it what has happened to me. Basically they keep writing and saying pay up or else then pay up or else, then they write again and say pay up or else. After a while i have realised that there is no 'or else' beyond late payment markers and defaults on a 'file' that simply mean i cannot strike up a new relationship with one of these muppets for 6 years. I cannot stop them trashing that file, whatever I do therefore it is not a threat at all So the only (mild) threat to my mind is s grumpy DJ if they take me to court (and given that i have no assets and no money they would be wasting time there). To mitigate that I will be as transparent as possible with them all and pay something every month, even if it is £1, until or unless they put me in a position where it becomes clear they have no paperwork. At that point they will be sent packing. So my next step is as coughdrop says - cca them all

well today i got the impact letter - so i guess i am now post or perhaps peri impact? Basically the same letter but they have saved on blue ink this time. Still the same set of options - i can either phone them or phone them. Anyone with experience know what nonsense i can expect next?

hi coughdrop, YES - you know what you meant and i know what i mean! LOL. The more questions the better for me I want as many angles / insights as poss. 100% married, have been for many years, just kept finances 100% separate - in hindsight an excellent plan! It's not that I wouldnt ask her or that she would say no its purely pragmatic and 'legal' in the sense that if i dont have the resources to cover my liabilities then i am not going to mess up the rest of the family and drag them down financially with me - kids come first and all that. At the end of the day we still have an excellent credit rating in my wifes name as a family unit so my credit file can take a running jump - it will not stop us getting the best deals on utilities for example. I now view our finances as two 'firewalled' limited companies really. In answer to your question creditors are: littlewoods £7k Vanquis £3.5k Aqua (sav uk NOT Hx) £4k Capital one £ 1k Barclaycard 1.5k - figures rounded / changed a bit. All taken out in 2004/5. So if (an if the size of a big thing) I could say 'see off' littlewoods and aqua or vanquis then tbh there isnt really much of an issue long term. any help always appreciated.

Perfect! Now if some muppet says 'where did you get your figures they are a joke' I can reply that they are in line with the amounts suggested in the national debtline guide. (I am quite fond of the word muppet at the moment! what else would you call a company that tries to call you 21 times in 3 minutes!)