Debt, what's your story?

[Imgormiel]

With the country in recession, and people owing large amounts of cash - probably to various institutions. Debt collection is on the rise for those who default on their ability to pay.

Couple of years ago I got into a small amount of debt. I went to my citizens advice bureau for advice on how to deal with it. We went through my finances and afterwards I was advised that the legality of it is that as long as the bailiff does not get access to the house then I am not under any obligation to pay. Their opinion was that I was unable to pay.

So this had been going on for 4 years, ignoring the letters and so far so good. Yeah I know this is an irresponsible way to view it but I can say I was acting under advice/counsel. Today a bailiff gained access to the house but not my flat with a warrant to take goods. I didn't give him access and agreed that I would turn up at the family court to sort it out - which I will.

However, I took another look at the warrant. It has no amount on it (verbally he told me it was for £77.00 - I know that it was for more than this but not much more), there's no date on it. So I rang up the free debt management service available and asked about this because I believed that any document that is issued by the court must be presented accurately else it's not a valid document. They just told me that when I turn up at court the judge will probably not take this lightly and he also questioned about what they will do about the amount given that it's a small amount. He wasn't sure what would happen but it doesn't look good for them at the moment (Natwest - interest charges on debt) because they served me incorrectly. Most they will get out of me is £1 a week because I am on the dole atm. I'll let you know how it goes....

What's your story?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Around 30-40k, various, payig it off in next two years, then zero debt.

 

[pikeh]

Around £14k debt straight out of Uni, and also a £1,750 overdraft to pay back.
No Credit Cards or other Loans on top of Student one so I guess I'm in a bit of a better position than many others who come out of Uni.

 

[fettoken]

Around £14k debt straight out of Uni, and also a £1,750 overdraft to pay back.
No Credit Cards or other Loans on top of Student one so I guess I'm in a bit of a better position than many others who come out of Uni.

How many years did you attend uni?

 

[Litmus]

No offence but don't understand how people can get them selves in such messes, the only debt i have is a 5k loan over 3 years to buy my car(18months into), and i never borrow money unless im 110% sure i will be able to pay it back easy.

 

[- English -]

just my student loan and im only in the second year. Will have to pay around 20k debt after 4 years of uni. However with the interest rates these days I dont think it will ever be paid back.

 

[pikeh]

How many years did you attend uni?

3 years.

 

[Imgormiel]

No offence but don't understand how people can get them selves in such messes, the only debt i have is a 5k loan over 3 years to buy my car(18months into), and i never borrow money unless im 110% sure i will be able to pay it back easy.

Debt I got myself into was over an ex-girlfriend that threw me out on the street with nowhere to go.....not an easy situation to negotiate, especially when you are working which I was.

 

[Jeremiah]

No offence but don't understand how people can get them selves in such messes, the only debt i have is a 5k loan over 3 years to buy my car(18months into), and i never borrow money unless im 110% sure i will be able to pay it back easy.

Off the top off my head I can think of Buy House -> Lose Job -> Debt Trouble. Substitute any reasonable thing for House, and its the same story.

Not everyone is of the type that giggle when a new credit card comes through the door, and maxes it out within a day.

 

[Chronictank]

no debt

 

[Aada]

No offence but don't understand how people can get them selves in such messes, the only debt i have is a 5k loan over 3 years to buy my car(18months into), and i never borrow money unless im 110% sure i will be able to pay it back easy.

Go ask a single parent that question and they will tell you they did what they had to do to feed their kids.

My dad left my mother when me and my brother were around 7-8, the maintenance he was meant to pay? it was either always weeks late of never at all.

So that meant my mother had to get the money from somewhere and that is who these loan agents prey on.

Fair enough the folks with no kids who do silly things have themselves to blame but when you have mouths to feed it isn't as easy as you say.

 

[Raven]

I got into some financial trouble when I was younger. Playstation 1 had just come out and I wanted one so got it on credit, I later got a stereo too. All in all about £900 credit as a just turned 18 year old on about £100 a week (probably less a week actually)

I eventually ended up paying about 2.5k including late payment charges, interest and whatnot. This taught me a very valuable lesson, if you need to get it on credit then you probably can't afford it. I get very little on credit these days and if I do then I make sure I can afford the repayments and budget for them. If I want something badly enough then I will be willing to wait and save up for it.

Ignoring the problem does not make it go away, you are still liable for a debt for 6 years and they have every right to pursue you for it. Whoever told you to ignore it should be fired. The court can issue a warrant to gain entry to your house/flat and this can be enforced by the police if necessary.

The fact that you have ignored it will not look good when trying to arrange a payment plan (you mention £1.00 a week) Obviously they can't collect what you do not have but they can can and do increase the amount, interest, bailiff charges, charges for letters and so on and so on.

Your best bet is to phone them immediately and try and get a payment plan sorted, if you can afford to you should pay some of it now, £10-£20 and then if they do allow you to pay a small amount each week/month then stick to it until its paid off.

Either way continuing to ignore it is the worst thing you can possibly do.

 

[Litmus]

Go ask a single parent that question and they will tell you they did what they had to do to feed their kids.

My dad left my mother when me and my brother were around 7-8, the maintenance he was meant to pay? it was either always weeks late of never at all.

So that meant my mother had to get the money from somewhere and that is who these loan agents prey on.

Fair enough the folks with no kids who do silly things have themselves to blame but when you have mouths to feed it isn't as easy as you say.

Yea ok, maybe i didnt make my first post clear enough, i understand how you can get in debt that way... I was on about ppl who are like age 16 - 25 who just borrow money then go out on the weekend and piss it all up the wall.

I know someone who is a college/uni and he gets a £2k student loan every few months and spends it in under a week on going out and buying random stuff etc. Its kinda worrying that he sees it as free money rather then a loan.

 

[Imgormiel]

I got into some financial trouble when I was younger. Playstation 1 had just come out and I wanted one so got it on credit, I later got a stereo too. All in all about £900 credit as a just turned 18 year old on about £100 a week (probably less a week actually)

I eventually ended up paying about 2.5k including late payment charges, interest and whatnot. This taught me a very valuable lesson, if you need to get it on credit then you probably can't afford it. I get very little on credit these days and if I do then I make sure I can afford the repayments and budget for them. If I want something badly enough then I will be willing to wait and save up for it.

Ignoring the problem does not make it go away, you are still liable for a debt for 6 years and they have every right to pursue you for it. Whoever told you to ignore it should be fired. The court can issue a warrant to gain entry to your house/flat and this can be enforced by the police if necessary.

The fact that you have ignored it will not look good when trying to arrange a payment plan (you mention £1.00 a week) Obviously they can't collect what you do not have but they can can and do increase the amount, interest, bailiff charges, charges for letters and so on and so on.

Your best bet is to phone them immediately and try and get a payment plan sorted, if you can afford to you should pay some of it now, £10-£20 and then if they do allow you to pay a small amount each week/month then stick to it until its paid off.

Either way continuing to ignore it is the worst thing you can possibly do.

Dood, what they told me is accounted for under the law. If you doubt it, go search for it or take advice from any legal counsel/agency that deals directly with this matter and you will get told the same. The law was the same then as it is now, and I took advice about this only a couple of hours ago, so unless parliament has done something in the last few hours that changed this then the status quo is de facto.

With regards to paying it off, how can I pay off something that has been taken under legal process that I now have to attend a court of law to sort it out, when a) the warrant does not even have a date on it and b) there's no amount concerning the demand of money. The time for negotiating with them has passed and it now goes to court because it's already gone through the legal process.

 

[cHodAX]

Zero debt thankfully, I have lived on packets of noodles in the past just to stay debt free and I would do again if I ever needed to get some serious cash together. I have seen too many friends and family become over-run with debts, especially during the 1980's so I learned my lessons from other peoples mistakes.

 

[Raven]

Dood, what they told me is accounted for under the law. If you doubt it, go search for it or take advice from any legal counsel/agency that deals directly with this matter and you will get told the same. The law was the same then as it is now, and I took advice about this only a couple of hours ago, so unless parliament has done something in the last few hours that changed this then the status quo is de facto.

With regards to paying it off, how can I pay off something that has been taken under legal process that I now have to attend a court of law to sort it out, when a) the warrant does not even have a date on it and b) there's no amount concerning the demand of money. The time for negotiating with them has passed and it now goes to court because it's already gone through the legal process.

Clearly ignoring it is not legal then if it has got as far as court. Ignoring a debt does not mean you do not owe it, that would be utterly retarded. If you don't mind me asking, what was the debt for and on what grounds have you refused to pay it? (other than not got the money etc)

 

[Imgormiel]

Clearly ignoring it is not legal then if it has got as far as court. Ignoring a debt does not mean you do not owe it, that would be utterly retarded. If you don't mind me asking, what was the debt for and on what grounds have you refused to pay it? (other than not got the money etc)

Basically I had an overdraft, it was on the £200 limit, I had some faulty goods bought with Ebay, returned the item, got my money back, and then something screwed up with the bank/Paypal and the person who I was dealing with it, so I got done on charges/interest. I did nothing wrong.

I did negotiate with them by referring them to my debt counsellor at the time, they chose to ignore my advice and not contact them.

Ignoring it is legal, they pursue that as a means of getting it paid and getting an official representative of the family courts to get the money - in other words, they have no legal powers to get the money back and in fact I can sue them for harassment because of persistent letters issued and phone calls. They screw up then it throws the whole thing back into the court because of that mess. The warrant isn't a legal document because it has no official statement of demand on it or when it was issued.

 

[pikeh]

Yea ok, maybe i didnt make my first post clear enough, i understand how you can get in debt that way... I was on about ppl who are like age 16 - 25 who just borrow money then go out on the weekend and piss it all up the wall.

I know someone who is a college/uni and he gets a £2k student loan every few months and spends it in under a week on going out and buying random stuff etc. Its kinda worrying that he sees it as free money rather then a loan.

You know that one guy and base your opinion of students on that I guess yes?

They way I see it is that University was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I wouldn't change a thing if I went back. I had the best three years of my life. Sure, I spent it on things that maybe in hindsight I didn't really need, but can you honestly put your hands up and say you've never spent any money on stuff you don't need but want? I paid for trips to New York, Morocco and Chicago off my own back with my student loan, and fuck me, was it money well spent. I got a part time shitty job to pay for my rent (£310 a month), but that still left me paying for my bills and living expenses through my loan, and I was not prepared to work more hours, in case I jeapordised my course.

Personally, I don't regret anything, I think compared to some of my mates I was quite sensible with my money, and I'm not complaining that I've got debt, didn't once say that.

 

[soze]

My debt was around £20k at its highpoint most of that being my car by next Christmas i will have paid it all off and be about £900 - £1000 a month better off. Also my endowment policy cashes in next July which will give me a guaranteed £12k (was15k but will probably drop to its minimum now) so that is house buying time and the chance to get even more debt over a longer time.

 

[Uara]

I came out of university with about 12k debt (all from the student loan company so low interest rates), which in the grand scheme of things isn't too bad!
Just earning some cash before I start paying it back to them (going to pay back a couple of hundred a month or at least thats the plan anyway )

 

[old.Tohtori]

No offence but don't understand how people can get them selves in such messes, the only debt i have is a 5k loan over 3 years to buy my car(18months into), and i never borrow money unless im 110% sure i will be able to pay it back easy.

Studet loands, loans for other needed stuff(that you COULD pay back) get unemployed and things accumulate.

Also trying to pay everything as usuall when falling unemployed makes things worse, good to remember if you ever fall there, don't pay sh*t all.

But, it's not a "mess", you just pay it bak when you can.

 

[Chronictank]

i don't get why people buy things they dont need on credit, in general i dont buy anything i cant afford there and then

Imo thats half the problem, its so easy to just get things you cant afford

 

[Cerb]

College is somewhat free over here in Ireland but i picked the wrong course first time round and so had to change so had to pay fot my first year again....had to get a 3 grand loan out but ive payed just over a grand of it back and that was with my trip to Boston this summer so if i hadnt done that id be scot free by now i think......so worth it tho!....so im not over my head or anything but yup got a bit of debt...

 

[Amanita]

About 13k student loan
1,750ish overdraft
£300 credit card
£550 owed to my dad.

Student loan and overdraft is from the Student Years obviously, the credit card and £550 I owe to dad was from the time I was unemployed and the cost to move to Leeds.

But now I am working, and I get £50k from a trust fund when I hit 30 so I am not so badly off!

 

[Uara]

Student loan and overdraft is from the Student Years obviously, the credit card and £550 I owe to dad was from the time I was unemployed and the cost to move to Leeds.

But now I am working, and I get £50k from a trust fund when I hit 30 so I am not so badly off!

Luckily Leeds is quite a cheap place to live, or at least I found that when I was at Uni there. Now I'm back in the Saaaarf I miss the cheap beer prices and Woah 50k from a trust fund, I wish I had one of those bad boys waiting for me when I hit 30

 

[Amanita]

Its a huuuuge comfort! Basically its my house fund Also I get extra income from it atm: £200 a month.

Aye, I'm a lucky lass.

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

Nice to see youre hard at work Ama Such a hard life!

At the peak of my debt, i was about £25k under.

Now i'm pretty much square - a few quid over and under depending on what kind of month i'm having but pretty much in the black.

Oddly the recession has spiked a huge demand for people in my industry, so my money situation is actually improving!

 

[Amanita]

Its the joys of waiting for more information

Take it you're working awesomely hard yourself.

Addition: I am feeling rather smug, my manager took me aside today to tell me that I am doing a fantastic job and settling in well

 

[kirennia]

£26k all from uni... damn all of you non-2006 starters

 

[Rubric]

I owed 28K almost 5 years ago. January is the 5th year after my bankruptcy.

A word of advice the CAB have a shortage of properly trained debt advisors you are better off with national debt helpline.

You shoould never have been advised to ignore a debt, but to provide an income and expenditure form to prove what you can afford and make the payments that you can afford regardless of whether they accept it or not. This will prevent a CCJ from ever being issued and therefore bailiffs will never call.

Only exception to this is council tax. PAY IT AND PAY IT FAST!