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!)

cheers sequenci, I appreciate the reply. Any chance you could point me at list of acceptable items for a budget sheet and/or an acceptable range for the amounts? I figure that if I pay something every month - £1 or whatever - and I have sent them all a credible budget then IF we end up in court the judge will (hopefully) be so angry at the waste of court time that s/he side with me at the payment terms stage.

Are you going to suggest I go bankrupt? Thought about it but what are the real benefits at this stage? Then there is the £750 - that pays a lot of £1 pcm!!! My current thinking is this: Send them all a budget sheet that proves the pot is empty and keep paying token payments, mainly for the benefit of the DJ if I end up the county court - hence i want a credible budget sheet that will stand up in court; CCA the lot - pre 2007 and see what comes back. At that stage it may be possible that I can effectively write off a significant amount of the debt as unenforceable - not holding my breath, but worth a shot and given that we are at the real muppet end of the spectrum - vanquis, littlewoods, aqua, capital one, barclaycard - it is not beyond the realms of possibility. Now, 8-12 months down the line IF it is all enforceable and IF my circumstances are still a mess then I would tend to agree that a formal solution such as Bankruptcy would start to look sensible. And if you weren't going to suggest bankruptcy then apologies, but it is floating around my mind so I'd appreciate your input on my line of though (and what were you going to suggest?).!! Thoughts coughdrop / anyone else?

total is around £16,500

My partner earns more approx 50% higher total income, in fact my partner earns is the correct phrase! Should I skew the percentage as a proportion of income rather than 50/50? - Is that what common practice is? 100% of the debt in totally in my name. with 2 dependent children I have: electricity £9, gas £6, water rates £7, council tax £3, food £50, clothing£1, telephone £2, school lunches £15, school uniform £2 on the list per week and an income figure of £90, which is half of the tax credit award (figures rounded / changed slightly to protect ID). There is no rent - housing benefit - and reduced council tax - full relief. There are other things such are internet and car expenses that are not on there. Is there anything else I have missed / or anything that I should take off? What I want to demonstrate is the truth. There is no money and the pittance i am paying them is all (more than) i can afford. Objective being to get them to back off a bit. Is there a list/guidance anywhere of the levels of figures on a budget sheet that are acceptable, particularly the levels a court would see as correct and sensible in a CCJ hearing ( i am not there yet but i want a consistent story). I do not want to under or overstate things on paper. I know there is no money sloshing around, I just would like suggestions as to how to put than credibly on paper. many thanks for reading emptypot

I have been working out my budget sheets firstly for my own benefit and second to prove that i really am skint to my creditors. I have based my income on half of everything that comes in in joint names. Problem is that when I do that and then put half the bills down i am already at a negative number. Is this OK? Also, is there a list anywhere of acceptable budget amounts for food etc?

cheers mike, I'll be paying through my online banking i think.

as far as i am concerned it is sorted! they get £5 a month, if they think they can get any more then they can go for a court order. However, no income in a council house with full housing benefit so i think i am pretty safe. Next steps???: leave for a few months then CCA then send CPUTR letter then..., well that depends on what i get back. In fact, i may well 'pre impact' them by dropping it to £1 a month!? I must say that every single one of my creditors have been about as professional as a primary school nativity play, even the mainstream ones (hello barclays). Initially i did the 'proper thing' wrote to all as soon as I was in a mess and told them the score. Each one either ignored (4 of them) or wrote back asking me to ring them (2). I have tried to be grown up and professional but They have all descended into childish bullying. I cannot change the facts whatever nonsense they come out with. I have no money - fact and no matter how far they stick out their bottom lip I will still have no money. I am beginning to think that the best thing to do is stop all payment and see who goes to court because the last thing I need is a default on my file for 5 years and then a CCJ appearing in 2020 meaning 12 years of credit file servitude. Surely I would be better forcing the issue now and getting all the clocks ticking at the same time? What do you think?

Hi mikey, they dont have a current phone number - one step ahead. Card was taken out in 2005. No rop.

cheers slick, what would i put on the budget planner? Half of the Tax Credits and Half of the bills? BTW found out something interesting today. It appears Mercers (Company No. 02550639) are a dormant non-trading company, which means that they are breaching several aspects of the Companies Act if they 'trade'. When Mercers write to me (which they are not legally entitled to do as a non trading entity) then I think I will send their letter to HMRC and Companies House and ask why they are not paying corporation tax! Also, BC cannot assign the debt to a non trading company.

OK. The first letter i sent was 'letter 1' of dx100uk's 2 letter approach to a (hopefully) temporary financial hiccup. I didn't include a budget planner because frankly i do not know what i would put on it! I have no income - other than a joint tax credit award and i dont qualify for JSA etc because my wife works. So what would i put on as income? half the tax credits? and if i put half all the bills on then that would bring it to a minus anyway! I did tell them though that we qualify for full council tax relief and housing benefit which to my mind says that i really am 'emptypot'! My financial story is simple - self employed traded too long before admitting defeat, which made everything worse. August/ September the penny finally dropped and we decided that food should be nearer the top of the list than my credit cards. All I want to say (to all 5 of my creditors) is 'look, please understand I truly have no money and the less time i have to devote to dealing with your threats the quicker i should be able to get more money and then you wont have to threaten me' - should be a win win. BC are the most 'mainstream' of my creditors so I am really not looking forward to the real sub prime muppets getting into full swing. Oh joy! what would you suggest i send now?