Hello all, I have been on a spiral of debt for 3-4 years and due to changing finances I have finally realised that I need to sort this all out. It has got to the point where I cannot afford the minimum payments on everything so here is where I am. The interest rates are killing any payment i make and i am not going to spend the rest of my life paying them hundreds per month for nothing. In fact i beleive they have all had more than a fair amount already. I am / was self employed. Currently no independent income. My wife and I are totally financially unlinked. The only income in the house is my wife's income and a joint tax credit award plus child benefit. We live in a council house and receive full housing benefit and council tax relief. I have no significant assets at all and have 2 kids under 16. My debts are approx: Littlewoods £7k Vanquis £3k Aqua (SAV UK) £4k Cap One £1k Barclaycard £2k over 2 cards they expect a total of about £700 pcm in min payments:jaw: All are pre April 2007 except one Barclaycard. In September I decided enough was enough and that buying food was more important than feeding this never ending cycle of minimum payments. So on 1st October I stopped paying the lot. At the end of October I paid them all token payments of £1 to £5 in proportion to their share of the debt to a total of £20. I intend to pay them this exact amount on the 1st of every month. I have read around the forum and I am basically doing what I think would be dx100uk's advice, before asking for it! In that I am telling them that that is all there is and that if they dont like it tough because I dont like it either. However the entire £20 is coming out of a joint tax credit award anyway not any money that I earn so I feel that they are actually getting £20 that I am in effect stealing from my kids! Thought I would start a thread for moral support and because I have many questions. For starters Do I legally have any income? The only money that comes in with my name on it at the moment is the tax credits, does that count as income? and if so is half of it my income In actual fact what is the worst they can do anyway? I could not care less about a credit file - it is their credit file not mine anyway. Afterall, they put all the stuff in it not me! Like I said, council house and qualify for full HB and full CT relief. So as far as I can see even if they were silly enough to take me to court and win a CCJ they would get no more than I am paying now. Am i right? Am i correct in thinking that whatever they do they will not affect my wife's credit rating - we are not financially linked at all (no joint accounts or anything) I intend to challenge the enforceability of the lot over the next few months / year or so. Any help, advice or answers to my questions would be very much appreciated. I'm not particularly worried about any of this to be honest. It was stressing me out trying to juggle it all for the past couple of years, i feel kind of relieved that i have now turned around and faced it to be honest. They can shove the credit file and after trashing that a CCJ would not be any worse. Basically I have accepted the worst case scenario that I may end up declaring bankrupt and now I am going to fight to see how much better than that I can make it. If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Can anyone give a definitive answer on this? On 4 Mar my DD payment of £50 was unpaid due to insufficient funds. I sought help from a debt advisor who wrote to my creditors offering token payments for 3 or 6 months to allow me time to improve my situation. They also asked for interest and charges to be halted. My creditor accepted. The same day (23 March) they sent me a Pre- SDN (statutory Default Notice?) letter. According to the printout of the transaction log for my account, Two weeks later (6 April) they issued a default notice with arrears of x, and with what i presume was 28 days to rectify the default from the text in the transaction log. I don't have the arrears notice but assume the value x because the transaction log for the same date shows arrears x. Seven days later (13 April) I paid x amount (rounded up to next whole pound) by debit card. 28 April I made the first token payment. Bang on the 28 days (4 May) the transaction log shows a termination letter was sent, and indeed a default was registered with this date. Here's where I need advice. I have no issue with the creditor issuing the default notice- the token payment was unacceptable, and they were entitled to do so. I do have to query the default though, as I believe I effectively rectified the default by paying the arrears, as i believe per the default notice that was sent. Surely this would reset the clock with regards to the default and mean a second default notice would have to be issued, with a new date and new arrears amount? Or is this irrelevant by virtue of the fact the interest etc had been stopped?