CCJ's
 

back when i was a student i was a naughty boy and ran up some debt on a credit card. Subsequently, i moved back home without telling them and havent appeared on a electoral roll in about 8 years.

Got a letter this morning from a company who have bought the debt off barclaycard and are demanding the £600 off me (not exactly a hugh amount i know) BUT, here is the bit that has pissed me off, they are refusing any offer of payment under £50 a month, saying that if i don't pay at least that much a month, they will take me to court and get a CCJ, even though they would actually get less than i am offering a month through an attachment of earnings order. They would rather use the threat of ruining my credit rating than accept an offer i can afford.


the question in: can they do this? have i any other options or am i going to have to bite the bullet and give the robbing bastards what they want? as a CCJ would severley **** me up?

Re: CCJ's
 

90% of what debt collecting companies tell you in their demands are lies. I have been told for three years now that various companies are about to apply to court for a particular debt. It's still not happened yet. Obviously they have to threaten action because otherwise they'll be ignored.

Just make them a reasonable offer, send them evidence of your income / expenditure if you think that justifies your claim, and they probably won't apply to court. However, if they do, just pay off the full amount + costs before (or just after) the CCJ is made and it won't affect your credit rating in the same way a CCJ would.

Re: CCJ's
 

I had one company leave threatening phone messages every day for about a month that I (or my lawyer) needed to contact them about my debt and to confirm the court appointment. This made me laugh, as if anyone who owed them that much money and hadn't been paying on it as long as I have could actually afford a lawyer.

Re: CCJ's
 

Go to the citizens Advice Bureau, they will give you the right legal advice, or give you a list of companys that can help you deal with theese charmers.

Make sure any offers you give are in writing, and keep a copy for yourself, so if they then claim you've made no offers you can feed it to them line by line .

Re: CCJ's
 

I had a similar problem a while ago with HFC Bank. I went to the CAB and they gave me a template letter and a form (ingoings, outgoings on it) to fill out and send to the company showing them how much i could afford to pay. When the banks/creditors see the CAB logo they usually just back down and go with whatever you offered because otherwise it ends up being hassle for them. Usually these letters work.

Re: CCJ's
 

DON'T get aggressive or into the "these are my rights!"/"this isn't legal!" argument. No matter how you look at this, you have broken the law and have borrowed £600 which you never paid back.

I've had debt collection companies contact me too, when I was uni and failed to pay a couple of bills. I rang them up, chatted with them about my situation and why I hadn't paid, and we came to a mutual arrangement. I think it's the same for most companies. They'll obviously send you a threatening letter because if they sent a casual "would you mind paying us please thankyou please" letter then you'd probably discard it until it became a bit more serious.

Phone them up with a humble, reasonable attitude and explain your situation. Tell them you are eager to pay off this debt as soon as possible but aren't sure if £50 a month is affordable, as you have a small child now. The more penitent you are, the better.

Re: CCJ's
 

i have also dealt with these companies before TK, when i dropped out of uni, may i add i dealt with them sucessfully and they were very reasonable when i explained my situation and were perfectly happy to let me pay it off in my own time so long as i paid something every month.


this company are different, when i phoned them i was fully prepared to make an offer of a reasonable amount there and then, bearing in mind im not in a highly paid job and support a family by myself. They were of the attitude that they didn't care, and that it was their way or the highway (the highway in this case being a CCJ, something that i fought hard to avoid back when i was a financial mess, and i'm not about to get one now that i'm reasonably finanically stable)

Its not the paying i object to, i'm fully prepared to pay for my mistake, its their threatening posture (you WILL give us a minimum of £50 a month or we WILL take you to court.) they actually acknowledged that taking me to court would get them their money slower, but they know that i know that it will ruin my credit, which i find to be a bit of a shitty tactic from them.

Re: CCJ's
 

Maybe it was just an unfortunate time to phone - it does seem that some people who work at these places seem to be more understanding than others. You could try again?

Is it that you can't afford the £50 a month, or that you object to the way they demanded it?

Re: CCJ's
 

i cant really afford £50 a month tbh and i have just recieved another letter off them this morning, saying that £50 is only an 'introductory rate' and that they will be increasing the repayments after a couple of months! citizens advice it is!

Re: CCJ's
 

I have a 'Daughter' that wen't of to Uni but decided half way through the second term not to pay any more rent. After a couple of months this got her evicted.This is where I come in. I had stood garantor on the rent. So one Saturday morning a letter from the court arrived on my mat. the court gave me 30 days to pay in full or get a CCJ I arranged a payment beliving this would sort it out. no the payments were against my CCJ.
Bang goes one clean credit rating.
this is the funy bit as my daughter doesn't live with me hers is clear