Yoyo vs cards

[yoyoscot]

Hi,

 

My life’s gone pear-shaped following an extended legal battle to remain in contact with my kids. I’ve been trying to settle with my creditors but only one out of eight has accepted my best offer which I made twice. My key remaining debts are with the following credit card providers: Bank of Scotland, Citibank, Egg, Halifax, MBNA, Mint, Tesco.

 

Given just how far up the creek I am, I’m faced with no choice other than taking alternative action. I hope to avoid sequestration, but that may prove to be the only way ahead. I think my next move should be to request a copy of my original consumer credit agreement [CCA], not a reconstituted copy [keeping in mind the change that happened in Scotland on the 1st of December].

 

Here’s my draft letter. If you have the time, please read and give me any thoughts that you might have.

 

- - -

 

Dear Sir or Madam,

 

I write with regards to the above account.

 

As you are aware I recently made a settlement offer to you which you have chosen to reject on two separate occasions, despite other creditor/s accepting my offer. This is disappointing as I had hoped to reach some sort of positive resolution with you.

 

As I have made the best offer I can to you, and with good reason I fear that my circumstances are not going to improve, it now seems appropriate for me to prepare for a less positive outcome. Therefore please send me a full-sized, signed copy of my original consumer credit agreement in its original form with all of its parts. An unsigned or reconstituted copy is not what I’m seeking; only a copy of the original contract in its unaltered form will fulfil my request. My request is not made under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

 

Please confirm whether you hold a copy of my signed agreement and that you will provide me with this document.

 

I look forward to your reply and ask you for a response by the end of this month please.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Typed not signed

 

- - -

 

Also, should I include a cheque for £1 or does that sort of imply that I’m asking for the document under the Consumer Credit Act?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback!!!

[dundeelaw]

Your letter seems to be OK, but bear in mind that it is only the Sheriff Court that can ask a Creditor to Provide the actual copy of the Original Credit Agreement.

 

The Creditor can still send you a reconstitued copy. The only way to see the original will be to go to court or wait on them taking you to court, then you can ask the court for them to provide you with a copy.

[yoyoscot]

Dundeelaw: Thanks v much for your reply.

 

I've spent approaching 25% of my adult life in court, so I don't really want to go to court another x 7. I need to stop the neverending madness. I guess I'm trying to make it easy for my creditors to settle and at the same time make it difficult for them to make a robust case in front of a sheriff. If I've made them an offer that at least one of them has accepted [therefore is not ludicrous], and if I've asked them for information that the court would want to see, then my view is that I'm seen to be acting responsibly.

 

Having been stuck in court for four years with my divorce, I know that Sheriffs tend to look favourably on those who seek solutions. I may not receive what I ask for, but asking for it in the first place is important ...and each step that I take along these lines might make it just that little more difficlut for my creditors to justify taking me to court.

 

FYI some of my accounts were signed-up many years ago. MBNA will be early to mid nineties with Egg being not far behind. I offered all my creditors a pro-rata settlement of as much as I could raise [about 20%], but even though I made it clear that I'm now unemployed and have a seriously ill/disabled dependent child in the house they seem to dismiss my position that things aren't going to get any better.

 

Any idea whether I should include a cheque or not?

[dundeelaw]

If you have not already, engage the help of Payplan. They will help you with your Creditors. They offer a FREE Debt Management Plan and they are funded by the Credit Industry.

 

I am with payplan and at first, all my Creditors agreed to the Repayment Proposals, now just one Creditor (RBS Current Accounts) has rejected a new offer of a 200% increase in their payments.

 

They will contact your creditors for you and all you do is pay Payplan one single payment once a month and they will pay your creditors pro-rata.

 

It is the best thing I have done. Been with Payplan a year now. When you are with them, your creditors may sell the debt to a Debt Collector. All you do is send this letter off to Payplan and they will contact the Debt Collector. This has happened twice to me and the Debt Collector has quickly agreed.

 

You can also go to CAB who may be able to help. If you have large debts over £5000 (I think this is the minimum) and you are unemployed etc and have no way of paying back, then an IVA (Protected Trust Deed in Scotland) may be useful. You can get upto 80% of the Debt Written Off after 5 years. Again, you would pay what you can afford each month for the 5 year period and then that is that (Remainig Debt is written off). IVA (Protected Trust Deed in Scotland) is sponsered by the Government. In this case a Majority of Creditors need only agree and they are then all bound by the terms.

 

Please do seek Legal Advice before entering into a Protected Trust Deed (IVA) or any other Bankruptcy (Sequestration) procedures.

 

Useful Links:

 

Citizens Advice - the charity for your community

www.govanlc.com

www.payplan.co.uk

[yoyoscot]

Dundeelaw: Thanks once again for your help. I previously explored the avenues that you mentioned, including going through the process with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and meeting with an insolvency practitioner. The Citizen’s Advice Bureau reviewed my case but they concluded that there was nothing that they could do to help me. This came down to my credit card debts being reasonably substantial at around £50k, and my income being close to nil.

 

I view trust deeds as being broadly similar to being sequestrated. As I understand it being sequestrated runs for one year, and trust deeds run for three years. My understanding is that I don’t enough of an income to enter into a trust deed. When the push comes to the shove, it could be argued that there are advantages in being sequestrated over entering a trust deed. Any-which-way, both are last resorts which I’d prefer to avoid.

 

For the moment I’m hanging on in there, and still trying to reach a solution. That said it’s beginning to look like sequestration might be the only way forward. Given this, it’s hard to understand why most of my creditors rejected a settlement offer of 20%.

 

However, now that they have rejected my offer, I plan to ask them for a copy of my original signed agreement – hence the letter that I drafted above. My thinking is that if they can’t provide a copy of the original agreement, then arguably that weakens their position and may encourage them to reconsider some sort of deal.

 

Of course the unknown element is whether the changes in Scottish Law on December the 1st have any impact on the process.

 

Thanks again!

[IdaInFife]

yoyo

 

no changes were made

 

i ahve also moved your posts to a thread of their own

 

ida x