Hello everyone, First of all, many thanks to all the people that created CAG and the huge work that I can imagine has been put into it. My name is Carlos and I'm from Spain. I lived in the Republic of Ireland (Dublin) between 2005 and 2006. I borrowed a total of 30.000 euros from Bank of Ireland + Tesco and credit cards. That was for an investment opportunity I was offered at that time, which unfortunately went really bad and I ended up without my investment capital. I stayed in Ireland for another few months while I tried to explain this to my creditors. I tried to extend my initial 5 years repayment plan to a 15 years repayment plan, but they didn't accept it. My last payment to all creditors was done in the beginning of 2006. I found a job in the UK in the same year and after moving over here, I never heard from them since. My personal situation and finances have not improved in a way that I could afford to repay this debt. I would like to know if they could have taken me to court in Ireland while I was absent and if so, if they can get an european cross-border order from an Irish court to enforce this debt over here, if they ever find me. I have checked a few threads, including this one: Republic-of-Ireland-debt-being-chased-in-UK Is my debt statute barred already? Even in the event they have an order from an Irish court? I saw on the internet that debts in Ireland are statute barred after 6 years too, unless they have a court order, which would then allow them to chase the debt for a period of 12 years. "If your creditor gets a judgment, then, in general, they have 12 years in which to enforce that judgment." Anybody could pls shed some light? I'm really worried that find me here and ruin my life. I borrowed this money to invest, in good faith, not to spend on myself recklessly. Thank you all in advance, sorry for the long post. Carlos

Hi. I have just received an online credit report from Checkmyfile and there seems to be loads of creditors missing. Could anyone give me any reasons why this could be? The reason I have done a credit check is that Aktiv crapital have been chasing a debt. Any help would be appreciated. kimberley.

Hi Apologies if this has been asked before but I took out a loan with safeloans which many months later has resulted in me receiving a CCJ. Unfortunately this was due to submitting documents that was never received so they got the result. Anyway I gathered all my documents together and filed the appeal against them. The ccj was recorded on 4th March and I appealed on 28th March. it was accepted on 19th April. Anyway the court wrote to say that my hearing will be on 16th September. In the meantime I have received the following from Simpsons legal: FORMAL DEMAND FOR UNPAID JUDGEMENT DEBT We are informing you that your judgement debt still remains unpaid to our client: Safeloans limited. They specialize in enforcement actions and actively profile each debtor to determine the most cost effective method of enforcement for and on behalf of their clients. We have confirmed that the employment details supplied in our clients loan agreement are no longer valid. Therefore we are recommending to our client that simpsons legal proceed with either warrant of execution or questioning order. They then set out payment plan options and ask me to make a token payment within 14 days but to contact Safeloans with failure to do so resulting in action being taken, enclosing information about the action that can be taken. I then responded by emailing them over the letter from the court confirming the date of when the appeal hearing would take place. That was on the 17th May Then on 30th may I receive this letter: Dear (my name is not there as there is no name) The creditor is Safeloans limited. The enforcement action and claims processing service is undertaken by Simpsons Legal. If we confirm your employment we will seek an attachment of earnings order alternatively if not a warrant of execution. In a final gesture to settle your account we hope you will seriously consider the following settlement offer to discharge the outstanding balance. Once we initiate our intended enforcement action the balance owing will be as follows: they set it out and that they are prepared to accept a full and final settlement which must be paid within 7-10 days giving me to June. My question is that can they do this even though Im appealing, the hearing has been set for September? It just seems pointless to take action if there is an appeal which is happening. Just wanting to know how to respond to them Thanks and sorry about the length

Lombard Direct obtained a decree on a loan and were awarded 8% interest on the loan and £400 court costs in 2008. Anderson Strathern began collection of the debt, Lombard sent correspondence asking me to make payments to Arden Credit Management and not to deal with Anderson Strathern at all. I followed this instruction and then received email, letters threatening further action and then sheriff officers at my door re the collection, after phoning Lombard and being told they weren't discussing my case (i have the date, & time i spoke to them) and being totally freaked out that the sheriff officers were talking to my neighbours and Lombard's attitude i started paying Anderson again as it was the only way to get them off my back as apparently Lombard had given them instructions to do what they decided to debtors and made a complaint to them about the sheriff officers. They contacted Lombard and asked if this was true!! Sorry long story but i have now discovered it isn't £400 court costs but it has grown into 2.5k of legal debt, they will not give me a breakdown telling em i have to get that from Lombard as i am not their client and Lombard refer me to the debt management company IDEM who obviously have no idea of what i am asking for. What can i do and are Lombard allowed to charge me for what appears to be a contract between them and Anderson Stratheron and i am the piggie in the middle with ever accruing legal fees. I checked the court documents and it makes no mention of legal fees apart from the court costs of £400 Maria

I am preparing a budget to send to my creditors and am not sure if I am supposed to include certain benefits. Between my wife and me we obtain income support, employment and support allowance, carers allowance, child benefit, child tax credits and disability living allowance. On most forms we've filled in we get told not to include DLA as this is paid to cover the extra cost of my living becauseof my disability - taxis, my specialised chair etc Do I include this in the income for budget for creditors? It makes a big difference to my overall income. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hey everyone, I'm new to this site, I've read up on a lot of posts and it seems like a great community. After a few years of making small payments, missing payments, ignoring letters from creditors (the usual stuff eh), I've decided to write to them all making F&F offers. I've been living in U.S. for the last 2.5 years, but have had the letters emailed to me through a relative. To cut a long story short, I'm pretty broke and currently unemployed. I'm a UK citizen but am currently a U.S. resident. To be clear, I don't want - nor has it ever been my intention - to abandon my debts and live out here until the 6 year period is up. I came over with the best intentions of getting a high salary and everything working itself out, but that unfortunately hasn't ended up happening. Big surprise eh! I've got 10K of debt (phew, that feels good to say it out loud, so to speak), and like most people on here once I get a good paying job I just want to get on with my life, without being burdened with a pile of debt. A family member has offered to help me settle the debts, but they only have a limited amount, so I'm going to make F&F offers to all of the creditors. My question is - should I state in my letters that I am residing overseas? And if so, how should I word it? On one hand, I don't want to be deceitful in making out that I'm living in UK (although that's what I have been doing for simplicity's sake). On the other hand, I really don't want them to demand my US address / phone number / whatever for communicating with me. Is this something they even care about? On another note, will it help my chances of bartering with them if I say that I'm overseas? i.e. a broke, jobless guy who has been in default for the last 2-3 years and isn't even residing in UK might make them think "We'll take what we can get". I don't know...what does everyone think? Cheers Rob

hi all, sadly i am looking at entering a DRO. I have sought advice from CAB and CCS, but have had conflicting info re creditor payments I lost my job due to ill health about 18 months ago and defaulted on my debts that were not DD and let the DD ones be paid - both have said this isnt an issue as its making payments above and beyond that matter 11 months ago i was lucky enough to be offered another job and i felt like i was back on track. My debts were still high but i had hope i could manage them. I had an accident and my car was wrote off so now use my dads car (he had a stroke and cannot drive) I pay insurance, fuel, MOT and service costs but its still his car on the understanding when (if) he can drive again i give it back. Car is worth 2k but its not mine so doesnt come into it. if he isnt given the ok to drive I will either purchase it from him or return it. He wont know for 12-15 months if he can drive so i can use it for at least the next year. My sticking point is my Mum recently offered to , and did, pay 2 of my cc's off for me (3k. These were the only debts she thought i had) CAB states its pref treatment of creditors but CCCS state its my mums money and she can do with it as she sees fit. As i haven't paid it myself it isnt in any way preferential treatment of creditors. The money was paid from my mums card not mine so i can prove it wasnt my money Opinions please? My debt currently stands at 14k so i need to move quite quickly as anymore charges etc could tip it over the 15k mark

I'm about to apply for a DRO but realised that all debts listed have to be 100% accurate. But when my debts are being sold over and over again to different companies, I've lost track of one in particular. If I list the wrong company, the real company can still legally chase me! I'm using credit expert, and this debt (an HSBC Overdraft) is listed as default with HSBC but I know it's been sold on and I can't find out to whom. They haven't written to me for some time so I don't have the details :-/ Is there any way to find out who I owe money to now? On that subject, is it really fair for a company to sell a debt on? My contract was with HSBC, how is it right that I start getting letters from other companies saying I now owe it to them... and then them... and then someone else?

Hi, I am looking for some advice. I have a number of debts but the creditors have accepted a token payment each month, the only one I'm having problems with is Barclays Bank. I have an overdraft with them and have written to them asking if they will accept a token payment in order to clear the debt. I do not work due to ill health, but cannot claim benefits because my husband works. The bank has refused my payment because I have not given details of my income, which I have it is zero. My question is does my husband have to declare his income to them even though the account and overdraft is in my name only. He is prepared to give me the payment to give to them monthly but will not fill in an income and expenditure form. All my other creditors have no problem with this arrangement.

Good Morning all, Can someone please help me? I can not find the section that gives help and advice etc on how to take on your creditors from an IVA. Can someone please post the link to that section -thanks in advance Regards Geoff

Hi Everyone, I know this is my first post and it's asking for help, but I promise to help others learn from my mistakes and contribute to the forums. Anyway, in mid-2007 I lost my job and decided it would be a good idea to ignore all my debts. Bad move. Since I defaulted in 2007 with ALL my accounts, I applied for a copy of my credit report from Experian to see when exactly my defaults would 'drop off' my report. The first issue is Welcome Financial Services. This started as a HP for a car at £235 monthly, then in mid-2007 when I lost my job they said 'no problem, we can bring the payments down to £118pcm - just come in and sign the forms'. Obviously my naivety got the better of me and I didn't check what I was signing. Anyhow I paid that for about 3 months and the ran out of money and defaulted the account. Checking my experian report it says date of default is 12/2011!! They have been adding late payment markers since 2008. 1. Can I get this fixed? 2. If I contact them now, will they hound me for the debt (although I accept that I owe it) and possibly register a CCJ with another 6 years to go, seeing as I'm a student and definitely won't be able to afford the £5k..? 3. Where others have defaulted my accounts, they have sold them onto DCAs with the account added to my file, how come there is the Welcome default and no subsequent DCA account showing? Possibly looking for me still? 4. If they do fix the default date - will the clock start from the amended date? Next up is my old Barclaycard, which is now on my file as Lowell Portfolio. They have defaulted me on 08/2009 which is incorrect as I defaulted around 04/2007. Can I get this amended? The last is a CCJ that I didn't know I had. It was from an address I was living at for 6 months and the CCJ was registered when I left! It was for £399 and to Skycard, done at Northampton CCBC. This was in 12/2008. What's the best way to go about getting this settled? I have looked into getting it set-aside but it seems that not giving a new address is not an excuse and I won't be able to go down this route. I have 2 more defaults which are my old bank account which is £3k and with Cabot Financial and the other with Arrow Global for an old contract I thought had ended, there was 1 month remaining, default of £120! What's the best way to go about this? I fully appreciate that I need to take responsibility for my debts and I am committed to repaying anything I can afford but I don't want to start a wave of CCJ papers coming through the post and then having to wait another 6 years for those to fall off. As I said I'm a mature student doing a BA and only receive a student loan, so I have no spare income. I cannot get ANY basic accounts and haven't had a bank account since 2007. I have to get my Student finance paid into my parents account and go from there. Even Tesco declined me for their Savings account... Please help

I defaulted on the payments of a number of credit cards, loans and an overdraft back in 2008. Managed to short settle a few of the debts and entered a DMP with PayPlan for the others - kept the payments up until I lost my job. After a few months of being snooty and threatening, the 3 creditors I owe money to just all of a sudden went quiet. A few months later, I got a statement from one of them showing the account balance as ZERO. Have heard nothing from any of them in about 2 years - except for a 6-monthly statement of account from Santander showing how much I still owe them. Other than that, no letters and no phone calls - absolutely nothing. I havent moved house or anything - it really did just go quiet all of a sudden. Checking my credit file, I see these accounts being marked as 'D' (default) every month and the amounts outstanding (about #40k in total). Has anybody else experienced this? Have these been written off as bad debts, and thats why they've stopped chasing me? If thats the case, can I get them removed from my credit report? Do I need to wait 6 years from the dat of default? Or wait 6 years from the date I last paid anything? Obviously, I'm worried that they will blow the dust off these things (last payment was about 2 and a half years ago) and start chasing me again but I'm wondering if anybody has any experience of similar, or any thoughts on what might be going on and the best way to handle it? Many thanks

Good morning, I would really appreciate some assistance if possible. I am currently in the process of selling a property. The land registry title contains three restrictions, two of which are in my name and one in my ex-partners name, with the property being in joint names. My conveyancer has written to all three creditors listed on the title requesting settlement figures. We are currently waiting for their responses. However, I have since found out that one particular creditor, namely, ‘Shoosmiths’ have since passed on my debt/details to ‘Eversheds’ for some reason. I only found this out yesterday after contacting Shoosmiths asking why things were taking so long. I passed this information onto my conveyancer, who is obviously waiting for an official response of sorts. Can anybody please tell me how this will impact on the sale proceedings? Will Eversheds need to apply to have their name put on the title before any further progress can be made or can they simply ride on the back of Shoosmiths? Many thanks, Borris

Hi all, I have been reading this amazing forum, I would like advice for my situation. I have struggled for years with debts that I accumulated when I was student but for the past 5 years or more, I have been living on strict budget to pay off all my debts but this year my husband lost his job, and I lived on my credit card to pay for our living, just for necessary thing, no luxury. Last month, I hit a breaking point and I can not live like this any more, and especially that I started on payday loans which were increasing every month. I decided to go bankrupt but I don’t have the fund to do it yet. I have been reading this forum, and I decided different route, as I can’t claim ppi if I am bankrupt or charges I think. My situation is in this shape because of all the bank charges and overdraft charges that I can’t get out of . I also was stupid that all my salary was taken by credit cards payments in the beginning of the month, that I can’t afford my rent or council tax. I now opened co-op basic account and will transfer my salary to it. The plan, is to pay £1 to each creditor, and claim my charges back My debts 3 overdraft accounts which cost me at least £105 a month Halifax cc balance £2500, I asked for SAR and charges with 8% amount to £2800 Halifax loan original £5000 only £700 left, payment of £127 monthly, I had ppi on this one for a year, I then asked them to cancel it, they told me I have to start a new loan without ppi, I think the ppi will cover it. Barclaycard cc £3500 I am waiting for SAR, this is since 1998, and I assume there is a lot of charges when I was young and stupid. Barclays professional loan, been paying this for ever!! it was 9 years loan and £4000 left, took it to fund my studies. Natwest cc balance only £200 left on this one, I had both ppi, and charges, still waiting for SAR. Hsbc cc balance £1250 no ppi or charges on this one. Vanquish cc balance £1500 no ppi or charges Aqua balance 750 no ppi or charges Opus cc balance £2800 I don’t think ppi or charges And then two payday loans wonga and payday uk, amounts £500 and £800. Any advice, tips on my plan, I don’t care that my credit card will be trashed now, and if they make me bankrupt it is good too. All my debts are very old except hsbc which is two years old, and the payday. I will claim my credit card charges, is it possible to claim bank charges especially Halifax overdraft fees that made my situation worse.

Hello all, What an amazing forum! It is a bit of a maze for a new user to navigate to the correct area so I hope I am asking the correct question in the correct place. I have a number of creditors, both secured and unsecured. I have defaults across the board after running into financial difficulties over the past couple of years. I seem to have turned a corner financially now and I am keen to clean up my credit rating; using creditexpert, I have a 540 score which is 'very poor'. I have a couple of questions related to getting a better credit score... 1. I have one secured creditor (Welcome Financial Services) who I still owe a few thousand pounds. I have already paid back a huge amount but defaulted a number of times. As the loan is over five years, they have frozen the interest and I am paying every month. Q: Their details appear nowhere in my credit file which I suppose is a good thing. But does this indicate that there may be an error on the original paperwork and should I pay for a 'Subject Access Request' for £10? 2. I have a secured loan with Future Mortgages. I have had the loan for about 3 years but the balance has only reduced by about £1K, despite me now only being 1 month in arrears. Q. Is it worth getting a full report of their charges and original paperwork sent to me and have it looked over to make sure their calculations are correct? Final Q: where does one turn to in order to have interest rate and penalty charges checked against the terms of the agreement; an accountant or are there firms that do this? What sort of cost can I expect from this? If anyone could point me in the right direction, I would be so grateful. I am keen to improve my dreadful 540 score and don't really want to pay inflated charges and interest in doing so. Many thanks!!

Hi, I currently have a huge student loan debt in New Zealand. I am in the UK. The NZ govt is now trying to recover defaulted loans mainly in Australia and now the UK, soon to be using DCAs. Does anyone know how easy it is to trace a debtor if the DCA only has a name and date of birth? Also does an overseas debt become a UK debt if passed to a UK based DCA?

Hi - I hope someone can help! I would be very grateful for any advice on this issue. I am probably going to have to apply for a DMP with one of the free charities, because I have lost a chunk of income and can no longer meet my minimum payments to creditors. But I want to delay the process by up to three months, as I may be able to recover that income in that time. In the meantime, I have contacted creditors explaining the situation, and asking for them to hold action and accept £10 a month token payments. All of them have been prepared to do this so far - apart from the major bank who provides my unsecured personal loan. They have refused to pause collection action / charges unless I send them an income and expenditure form. I can do that, but I am unsure if it is the right thing to do. Clearly it will show I can afford to pay them more than the token £10 payment I am offering all my creditors - but until my situation is stabilised I do not want to make higher payments than that, or pay one creditor more than another, or commit to a repayment plan which then has to change if I go ahead with a DMP. Does anyone know what I should tell the bank? They have given me seven days to provide an I&E form. Thanks very much for any advice!

Hey Everybody, Been reading threads on this site for the last few weeks and have got to say you all give some really great advice and know your stuff so was wondering if you could advise on this. I have been attempting to clear my debts myself trying to reducing payments etc with mixed results, with some creditors agreeing to freeze interest and charges and others not. I am in a situation now where i have 4 creditors who i owe around £100 each which i could clear off in one months payment (paying about £390 a month to creditors) but this would mean that other creditors (I have 13 in total) would'nt receive anything for that month but i would then be able to increase my monthly amounts (I hope this makes sense). So basically i was wondering if anybody thought this would be a good idea or if there are some implications i am not seeing? Regards Carl1983

Hi folks. I hope someone can offer some useful advice about a creditor that's chasing me. From 2003 to 2006 I ran my own business offering web design services. For some clients I provided web hosting for which I used a server from 1&1 Internet. In 2006 I went bust, but I was a sole trader and didn't declare myself bankrupt. To avoid letting hosting clients down, I continued to run the server to give clients time to move elsewhere. Some time in 2008, someone hacked into the server and used a large amount of bandwidth. This bandwidth would have cost perhaps £100 from a ADSL provider, but 1&1 said I owed them over £600. I denied responsibility for the bandwidth usage and refused to pay. I had a couple of letters from Wescot with reference to this, which I ignored and all went quiet. I moved house last year (2010). I've just received a phone call from Wescot on my new landline. I didn't discover what they were calling about, but I presume it's the 1&1 account. Where do I stand if they start chasing me for this debt? I'm now unemployed, have no savings, and at the moment have no income. My wife works on a modest wage, and we're waiting to hear back about an application for tax credits. Both of us have credit management plans through a fee-charging credit management company and are paying about £310 a month between us. Should we do something else with these debts too? Cheers, Jon.