Hold Off Letters

[maxpdaddy]

Evening All,

 

My household has recently fallen behind on some pretty serious debt amounts due to problems with employment.

so far no one has threatened any action but there has been plenty of chasing.

 

We have been taking advice from the national debt helpline and currently we are deciding whether we can manage an IVA

or we need to go bankrupt,

 

but for starters we need more time to try to work things out so we can make this decision,

 

work keeps me very busy and away from home a lot and along with dealing with a sick child at home getting to speak to companies is very difficult.

 

We have been advised to send requests to our creditors asking them to hold off for a period

but i was wondering what other people thought of these..

. my concern is by admitting the situation to our creditors we are setting ourselves up for a lot more trouble when the requested period has expired...

sort of opening the flood gates etc.

 

Following is a draft of the letter i have written to send,

please could someone advise me if this is the best course of action

and if the letter i have written is suitable for purpose

 

Kind Regards

 

Mark

 

Dear xxxxxxx

 

We write with reference to the above account(s),

unfortunately due to recent employment issues both we and the rest of our household are now suffering very severe financial difficulties

and we are in the process of taking advice and evaluating options to find a solution.

This includes waiting for information regarding benefits we may be entitled to.

 

We are contacting all of our creditors and suppliers to ask for details of balances outstanding. Once we have this information we hope to work out repayment plans for each account.Since it may take some time to receive all the information we require from our creditors and the benefits office. We respectfully request that you hold off any current or future action for a period of two months and consider freezing any interest charges and fees to prevent further debt.

 

Since this request also affects accounts for telecommunications, we may soon be unavailable on our registered phone numbers and e-mails, therefore please could all correspondence be made via the postal service.

 

 

If you are unable to agree this request, please reply urgently stating your reasons so that we may give it our prompt attention.

 

 

Yours Sincerely

[maddiemay]

Sounds like you are doing the sensible thing, in my experience, it's lack of contact which concerns them the most, and generates the most threatening letters.

 

Credit cards etc are a different kettle of fish, and I'm sure you'll be best advised by others regarding those if you have any, but certainly priority debts will be more accommodating if they think you

are trying to make things better for the future, small weekly payments worked well for me, once you have your benefits sorted arrange Standing orders for it all to leave your bank account the day your benefits reach the account, no temptation to pay other things, because it's already gone before you even get up!

[dx100uk]

list your debts please

 

dx

[maxpdaddy]

Thank you for the reply maddie unfortunately a large percentage of the debts are credit cards and loans

 

Hi dx the list of debts is as follows...

 

joint loan

joint bank account with overdraft

myself 2 credit cards

partner 3 credit cards

seperate current accounts with overdrafts

mobile phone contract each.

 

the loan and current accounts plus one credit card are all with the same bank.

 

all priority debts are 1 or 2 months overdue so far.

 

i dont mind saying on here the debts total around £35K

 

Regards

 

Mark