anyone actually written off their credit card debt in full

[lexis200]

i agree cag is not here to help people avoid their just dues.

but helping people realise where they stand,sharing of information is what cags about.

the big institutions are at an advantage ,they have superior knowledge,good solicitors and barristers who will twist the facts and use the law to their utmost advantage.

i merely informed a user that if there is no agreement the bank cant enforce the debt.if i am giving false information and assisting people in an illegal way please do let me know.

if you dispute the fact that a credit card firm cant enforce without an agreement,i would like to hear from you on what grounds you dispute my statement.

 

Ok, I would guess the point dx was trying to make about this aspect of what you said is that whilst it may be unenforceable, and whilst they are legally not allowed to take you to court to enforce this will not necessarily stop them. In addition to that, although they should not charge you interest/charges, chase you for the money, harass you etc, they will. All of this stuff in in OFT guidelines, not legislation. They don't take notice of laws, so why should they give two hoots about guidelines?

 

Not being able to enforce a debt also does not mean it's written off. It means unless you have it declared unenforceable (at which point it still won't be written off, but the creditor has to stop chasing you) you will very likely be chased for it, including but not limited to all the bits bandied around that they 'must not' do whilst an account is in dispute. The debt will sit for 6 years until it's statute barred (assuming you don't contact them) as they should not be taking you to court, and in that time your credit rating will be crucified. The best option really is to try and use an unenforceable agreement as a bargaining chip for a very good full and final offer.

 

Some people have been lucky, they write one or two letters and the creditor folds. This is not, and never will be the norm - it can't possibly be. If banks were seen to give in easily to this sort of thing, everyone would be doing it and they would collapse. They have to posture and make life as difficult as possible. For instance, BOS have two of OH's accounts. Both have nada in the way of agreements (illegible, no pt's etc etc), one has defaulted (wrongly) twice, and terminated (wrongly) twice. This has been ongoing since June 08, and they are still stating black is white.

 

Personally, I came on here to try and get help with getting a settlement offer together for my creditors. However, the moment I even queried getting a CCA they desended on me and my moral ideas kind of went out the window after the umpteenth threatening phonecall was received, with (impotent) 'intended court action' threats hot on their heels. Even after this I was still thinking of it as 'getting out of my debt', until a member suggested I tally all spending, payments, interest, charges etc and see what I was left with.

 

On almost all cards my spending was dwarfed by my repayments, and any balance left on the cards was interest (which technically should not have been charged with no contract to specify the terms) and charges (of which I didn't have many as I kept my accounts in reasonable order until hitting a financial hell-hole).

 

If you are really in debt that you can not see your way out of, have no hope of clearing it are just at the end of your tether, then getting threats about it is just a tad too much.

 

I now look at it that these companies have known and used the CCA1974 for 30+ years; in that time, surely it is feasable that they could have got the format for agreements correct and legal? They have teams of intelligent and well versed solicitors who can write these things up, and quite frankly there are links on here to official sites that show exactly what needs to be written into a credit agreement - I could have a watertight one done in a few hours. They have been greedy and have not spent the time getting their ducks in a row, and they can not then gripe that people they hound and torment are using their inadequacies against them.

 

However, if you have the money to pay a debt and this is simply an excercise in getting out of it (there aren't many on here with this view, but there are some), then it's a bit of a cr*p idea in all honesty.

 

Your rating will be shot, you will be harassed constantly, you won't get decent help on here as not wanting to pay isn't exactly a reason for not paying, and you may well end up in front of a judge who will not be best pleased with your reasons. In short, if you can pay them, do pay them!

 

I don't think this thread is the best place for newcomers to start looking for info really - there's far too much emphasis placed on what the banks can't and shouldn't do, as opposed to the reality of what they will do. It's boring and slightly depressing, but if you're going to advise someone to take this course of action they should be made well aware of the many pitfalls that run parallel with it. Ask questions on some of the larger threads where the very knowledgeable members can easily be found (any of the site team, Banker Rhymes With, SurfaceAgentx20 - it's not hard to spot the respected views) and decide from there.