Any legal eagles here ?

bonzo

bonzo

bonzo

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Posts
487
Location
OXFORDSHIRE
I've managed to get into debt with a CC, and have been in constant communication with them. So far over the last 3 months i've written 3 letters, and at their request, have sent in an income / expenditure list, which states exactly how much i have spare at the end of the month. They have acknowledged the Exp/Inc list, but say its not enough.

Quite seperately, i;ve been getting phone calls at all hours of the day, including Sundays, from the same company telling me i should pay the outstanding amount, like they have never heard from me.

At the start of all this, i contacted Payplan who help with these matters, unfortunately, they've done very little except give me a link to that Exp/Inc form template which i duly filled out and sent off, as noted above

I have a letter here now, from some bod by the title of " head of pre-litigation " . The threat in the letter states:

Threat 1
" Possible county court Judgement "

Threat 2
"My employer being ordered by the court to make deductions from my meagre wages through an ' attachment of earnings '

Threat 3
" A Bailiff being instructed to recover my goods "

Threat 4

" A charge on my property " ...i dont own a property so i suspect this last one is redundant.

Are all these legal ? And why are they pretending on one hand to review a reduced payment plan ( this was something i asked them in one of my letters, and subsequently, why i sent them the Exp / Inc list they asked for ) and then on the other hand, i get phone calls at work, at home, at weekends, asking why i havent paid all the backlog off ?
 
[ slight offtopic, ignore if you want ]

Huh ?
You get thretened when debt? Really ?
My dad is always 1000 euro's in debt with Visa and about 300 on 2 other normall accounts, and I don't recall him talking about any concequences, it's still within his debt limit ( 2500€ for Visa iirc, and 500€ on the bank (maestro) accounts.

Being an inexperienced teenager, do you really get fines/threats if you go below the 0.00 mark ?
 
Surfer said:
FIRST THING is do not worry. These letters are intended to sound intimidating - but in most cases their bark is worse than their bite.

this website is your friend

www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk

which debt collection agency is it?

:D
Click to expand...

Hi Surf - the debt agency has not been involved yet. All the comms. / letters / phone calls have been with MBNA who issued the CC
 
snowdog said:
[ slight offtopic, ignore if you want ]

Huh ?
You get thretened when debt? Really ?
My dad is always 1000 euro's in debt with Visa and about 300 on 2 other normall accounts, and I don't recall him talking about any concequences, it's still within his debt limit ( 2500€ for Visa iirc, and 500€ on the bank (maestro) accounts.

Being an inexperienced teenager, do you really get fines/threats if you go below the 0.00 mark ?
Click to expand...

You get threatened if you tell them you can no longer pay the debt. I dont blame them, cos i borrowed their money, and then i lost my job, and couldnt pay the monthly payments. I then got another job, but its so poorly paid i still cant make the payments. They dont like this sort of thing, so all they are doing is trying to get their money back - but they are not being particularly helpful
 
Thing is, i've already listed an Income and Expenditure, and this is something they asked for when i sent them a letter asking for interest to be stopped, and i will pay off the outstanding loan with what i have left after essential outgoings.
I cannot afford anymore, so asking another body like the CAB for a plan wont help me much, because i'm already paying what i can afford

PS i've been paying them that amount since the start of this.
 
Book an appointment with the CAB. I am guessing the company need to rely on stress tactics but you are clearly trying to do the right thing. Get some free advice and put it into perspective.

Good luck fella

edit....You need to know where you stand. They will try and get as much as they can out of you but the truth is you can usually get away with fairly low repayments even if it does get to court. You will be better off without a county court judgement though so get the help now.
 
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Any payment agreement you reach with them is purely at their discretion unfortunately. As such all the threats are completely legal (although, of course, would rely on a CCJ)
 
Thank you everybody. All advice noted :)

I dont mind CCJ's. They dont kill ya !

I didnt like the Bailliff bit or the employer threat though.
 
i doubt you will get a CCJ issued against you. Judge will see that you are trying. (ie paying monthly even though its not the amount MBNA want)

If you are paying something regularly towards it that helps a lot.

MBNA cant have what you cant pay. Common sense should prevail.

I'd be complaining about the constant harassing telephone calls though.

if it were me :D

i'd start with the following

1. Ask for a copy of the original signed credit agreement (they cant enforce diddly squat without it & and if they attempt to do so they get in serious do-da and you can report them)
2. Make a complaint about the harassment to the various officiating bodies in the sector. (1st their complaint procedures 2nd. banking ombudsman)
3. If they have charged you at all for any letters or anything - claim them ALL back. (dont worry about the test case thing)

Moneyclaim Online When you want to take them to court.

Basically once you start treating your life like a business (when dealing with companies anyway) its easier imo.
 
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From what little I know, to do 2-5 they would first need to go past step 1 and for you to then fail the terms of the CCJ.
The judge who would award the CCJ (if he/she felt it was required) would only require you to pay back a reasonable amount per month based on your income/essential outgoings - if you've already worked it out and offered that sort of amount then the judge would most likely just agree to it (and possibly tell the company to stop wasting his time, as he can't force a payment plan that is unviable giving your income and outgoings such as food/rent).

As has already been mentioned you can call the CAB, national debt helpline or I believe the CCCS (watch out there is a company offering a similar service with a similar name, but they charge whilst the CCCS doesn't), for help.

One thing you can do, is if they are ringing at all times of the day (especially repeatedly) is formally ask for all contact to be in written form, as they have to comply with that request, and are much less likely to be nasty when it's on paper (it's odd how some DCA's will try one tactic over the phone, but completely different stance when it's in a format that can be easily submitted to the court and regulators).
 
If the above advice doesn't work (and I'd definitely try the free options first) you may need to consider an IVA of some sort, I don't know the finer technical points for English law but essentially you would go to a 'middleman' who deals with you and your creditor(s). You work out a plan between you and said middleman as to what you can afford and they then offer your creditors something e.g. 20p in the pound. The middleman will take a certain amount in fees but as I understand the situation in England once you have signed the IVA the creditor is legally prohibited from contacting you about that particular debt, to clear it will take a few years but in theory once done the debt is completely wiped regardless of how much the creditor actually receives back.
 
One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet, is make a constant, regular payment to the credit card. Even if they say "we don't want £1/month, we want £100/month", keep paying - as long it's an amount you can maintain and afford, and can prove with budget sheets, there's little-to-nothing they can do to enforce higher payments.

If you're seen as not paying anything towards the debt, then that's you cast in a bad light already. Set yourself a payment, via Standing Order, for say £10 on the 1st of every month.
 
Thanks again people.

Ok, since i first knew i was going to be in trouble, i contacted them by letter, and it was ignored. I wrote again, was ignored. There were phone calls etc.

To put it in a nutshell, as soon as this all started way back a couple of months, i've been paying exactly what i told them i could afford, backed up by an Inc / Exp. form i sent them. I have listed all essential outgoings. Its not much of a monthly payment ( £5 ) but i've kept this up throughout from the beginning and havent missed any of those small payments. I also asked them to correspond only be letter, but they simply ignored it, and still are.

Soon, i will be changing phones, then they wont have any choice but to write.

Oh by the way, that letter i got today with the 4 threats posted above, says that if i dont phone them within 7 days, the procedures above are open to them to persue

Anyways - thanks all for diving in here with your advice.
 
Hope it all works out for you. Try not to worry long as you genuinely are paying as much as you can afford then there is very little they can do. You can't pay more then you can afford , the only alternative for them is bankrupt and then they get even less
 
Am i right in thinking that a bailiff can call to collect the debt, but cannot force entry if you tell him to go away.
The only bailiffs who can force entry are those where the case involves taxes not being paid (council tax etc) as the court can enforce this, but as far as a loan or credit card company are concerned, a judge cannot order the forceful removal of your property, as it was the credit card companies decision to lend in the first place, and is not a LEGAL requirement that its paid back...?
 
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