Court Action – County Court Judgements

On Tuesday I blogged about Default Notices, todays blog will follow on from that to go through the different types of court action your creditors could then take if you do not acknowledge the notice.

Under the Consumer Credit Act 2006, before a creditor can pursue any kind of legal action they must issue you a default notice. Once the default notice has been issued the creditor can then seek further legal action against you.

The first thing they would look to do is issue you with a County Court Judgement or CCJ. A CCJ is where the creditor or claimant attempts to reclaim the money that is owed to them by going through the County Courts. The first stage of the process is a County Court Claim form or a N1, once you receive this you must act very quickly as you only have 14 days to respond to the form.

There are three options to deal with a Claim Form:

You can deny the debt. You can counterclaim against the creditor. Or you can admit the debt.

If you admit the debt, you must fill out your income and expenditure on the N1 as well as detailing who else you owe money to and you offer of payment, and send this to the creditor or their agent, as detailed on the claim form

If you are already in a plan with Payplan and the debt is on the plan, you can sign and send the N1 to us and we will do everything for you.  (If you are denying or counterclaiming the debt, then Payplan is not able to help and you should seek advice from your local CAB or a solicitor.)

If you ignore the N1 or miss the deadline the creditor can then ask the courts for a Judgment by Default which means they can ask you for the full amount outstanding plus court costs.

Once you have sent the N1 form back to the creditor or their agent, they will then decide on what action to take. If the offer is accepted then you will be sent a CCJ detailing how, when and where to make your payments. This form will be called Judgement Acceptance N30 (1).

If you returned the N1 form in time, but the creditor objected to your offer of payment, you will receive a Judgment after Determination.  If this is more than you can afford then you can apply for a Redetermination, this is free to do and you must apply for this within 16 days of judgement. To apply for redetermination you can either write a letter direct to the court or you can submit an Application Notice N244. If this is accepted then you will receive a General Judgment detailing how and when to make your payments.

If you failed to send back the N1 form or missed the deadline then the court will make a judgement on the offer of repayment and will issue the CCJ without you. The offer of payment may be more than you can afford which is why it is so important to send your form back as soon as possible. This form will be called Judgement in Default N30.

If your circumstances change and you find you can no longer afford the payments you should then apply for a Variation Order N245. This costs £35.00 to do and you will offer your creditor reduced instalments.  If you are in receipt of certain income-based benefits, you may be able to get this form processed for free.

If you stop making payments or do not keep up with the agreed payment then your creditors could seek further action in the form of

Bailiffs

Bankruptcy

Attachment of Earnings

Charging Order

If you have any questions at all about CCJ’s or need help with your debts then please call us. 0800 2802816

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Written by davemac on January 27th, 2011

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Posted in: Action,County,Court,Judgements

Holiday on a Budget

If you are in debt holidays may be something you can only dream of. It’s not surprising, as research by insurers Churchill reveals that the average family of four will spend £4,792 on a two week break!

But this isn’t to say that you cannot take a holiday because you are in debt, it just means that you have to budget. So here are a few tips on how you could budget this holiday season:

If you have children going at the end of summer is generally cheaper. If you don’t have children it is definitely cheaper to go during term time.Always go self-catering, whether you are going abroad of staying in the UK, it will be cheaper to book a hotel room and eat out or buy your own food.Set yourself a spend limit for each day and stick to it! Remember to factor in meals, drinks and excursions.Go camping – it is cheaper than a hotel and more fun for the kids. Make it even cheaper by taking your own tent.If you’re flying, make sure that you stick to your luggage weight limit as going over can be an extremely costly mistake.You don’t need to buy gifts for people when you’re on holiday.Shop around online for the best holiday deals and don’t be afraid to leave it until the last minute.You don’t need to go abroad to have a good holiday, staying in the UK is not only cheaper, but far less hassle.

What are your holiday budget tips? Share them in the comment box below.

And remember that if you are struggling with debt repayments please call us on 0800 2945205 or fill in our online referral form and we will call you back.

Written by Gemma on May 23rd, 2012

Filed Under  Budgeting   |  Trackback  |   2 Comments

Stuart Rimmer says

People can use tokens from newspapers for cheap holidays. They offer a large range of destinations especially for caravan holidays and camping.

philip Burdekin says

Some great deals at the last minute too from Haven and Butlins.

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Posted in: budget,holiday

Bankruptcy

Hello and welcome to my latest blog. For today’s instalment I am going to be talking about bankruptcy. I want to continue on with the journey of making everyone savvy with all issues relating to debt and getting out of it.

Bankruptcy is usually thought of as the last resort in solving financial problems. From my past experience, whenever the word is mentioned people get instantly scared and go into a bit of a panic.

In the past Bankruptcy has always carried a stigma with it, it has always been thought of as a big no no, or not something that should be done easily. However over recent years, with more and more people experiencing problems with debt, it has become more acceptable for someone to become bankrupt.

In a nutshell you would either register for bankruptcy yourself or one of your creditors would petition for bankruptcy in order for them to attempt to get the money that is owed to them. You would usually have greater debts than you do assets meaning that you are insolvent. When you are made bankrupt you will be relieved of all of your unsecured debts.

The bankruptcy will usually last for one year, however you could be required to pay an Income Payment Order or IPO which could last for three years and this is where you pay your surplus income into the bankruptcy to pay something to your creditors. At the end of the term your debts become ‘discharged’ meaning that the balance will be cleared and you will no longer be liable for paying anything to the creditors. For the duration of the bankruptcy you will be assigned an Official Receiver or (OR) who will be in charge of your case and will oversee everything. One of the important roles of the OR will be to protect any assets that you may have such as a car, house or motorhome. They will also be asked to investigate your debts, how and why the money was spent and what else has been done with the funds.

All assets are at risk when going bankrupt such as your house, car, motorhome or any household possession. Your creditors would seek anything that they deem to be of excessive value. However your creditors cannot ask you to sell any equipment that is needed for work purposes or household items such as clothing, bedding, furniture that is needed by the family.

The bankruptcy order will remain on your credit reference file for six years, after that you will have a ‘fresh start’. However the bankruptcy could have certain restrictions relating to the job you can do, or what credit you can take out in future.

Bankruptcy doesn’t have to be all bad, look at this list of people who were made bankrupt and have gone on to do bigger and better things and learned from their mistakes is the past.

Donald Trump

Walt Disney

Elton John

Simon Cowell

Peter Jones

For further information on Bankruptcy click here and follow the links.

Hopefully this has helped clear up bankruptcy for you a little. If you do have any queries about anything you can always ask and remember our helpline number is 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Written by davemac on January 18th, 2011

Filed Under  debt advice, debt help, Debt News, Payplan   |  Trackback  |   2 Comments

Andrew Smith (@Andrew_F_Smith) says

I am really interested in a couple of things revealed by the latest bankruptcy statistics. First that around a third of all bankrupts are now subject to an Income Payments Order or Agreement (usually an “agreement” I guess) and second that the number of people being pushed into bankruptcy, whilst still a small minority, is going up.

I blogged about this, here: http://www.cleardebt.co.uk/blog/q3-2011-insolvency-figures-is-bankruptcy-still-an-easy-option_42132

Stuart says

It might also be worth pointing out that the risk of being stigmatised by bankruptcy is now much reduced by it not being advertised in the local press anymore.

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Posted in: Bankruptcy

Debt Relief Orders

When people think of ways to resolve their debt problems there are a few options that always come to mind: Debt Management Plan, Individual Voluntary Arrangement or Bankruptcy. However there is another possible solution available, a Debt Relief Order.

A Debt Relief Order (or DRO) is sometimes referred to as BankruptcyLite. It is very similar to bankruptcy except it doesn’t hold as much stigma and it costs a lot less to do. A Debt Relief Order can only be authorized by a qualified intermediary, Payplan are one of few that can do this.

To answer that simply, no.  In order to qualify for a Debt Relief Order you must owe less than £15,000, you must have assets worth less than £300 and you must have a monthly surplus less than £50.

You cannot apply for a Debt Relief Order if you are an un-discharged Bankrupt, have an Interim Order, or have a Bankruptcy or Debt Relief restriction order.

The first thing that you would do is obtain a copy of your credit report, check that they are all listed and add any that aren’t on to a list of your creditors and confirm how much you owe, you would then send that into us here you would then complete an income and expenditure form. Once this has been completed then you would need to go to the Post Office and pay the £90 for the initial application for the Debt Relief Order. Once this has all been done then your DRO application will go through and you will enter into what is called a moratorium period will last 12 months. During the 12 months you will be assigned an official receiver who will be asked to investigate your situation, your debts and your assets to make sure everything is correct and as it should be.

At the end of 12 months as long as everything is ok, then you will be released from your debts.

During the 12 month moratorium period your creditors can still add interest and charges onto your accounts. At Payplan we advise that you do not notify your creditors about the Debt Relief Order. All payments towards the debts listed should cease during the 12 month the moratorium is in place.  This means that your creditors cannot take legal action against you (unless under exceptional circumstances) and will no longer chase you for payments as long as the order is completed successfully.

If your situation changes during the moratorium period then the official receiver would need to be notified and it would be your responsibility to do this. They would review your situation to see if the Debt Relief Order is still possible.

The Debt Relief Order will stay on your credit report for six years from the beginning of the process, the same as Bankruptcy, IVA and Default Notices.

For more information click here.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Written by davemac on February 15th, 2011

Filed Under  debt advice, debt help, Debt News, Payplan   |  Trackback  |   4 Comments

Michael Anderson says

Exceedingly good many thanks, I’m sure your trusty followers would most likely want more stories like that maintain the great work.

Gemma says

Yes, we love reading the stories of our clients, they are really inspiring and they really do help others to see that they aren’t alone.

Gabriel Cole says

Particularly helpful cheers, I do think your current followers may want more posts such as this maintain the great effort.

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Posted in: Orders,Relief

What Is A Debt Management Plan?

Good afternoon bloggers. Now you know who I am, I want to share with you what I do and all that I know. I want to start with the basics so today I will be sharing with you what a Debt Management Plan is.

A Debt Management Plan or DMP, as you may know it, is an informal agreement between you and all of your unsecured creditors, you can think of it as kind of a gentlemans agreement. The agreement will last until all of the money that you owe has been repaid to your creditors. A DMP isn’t legally binding therefore your creditors can still apply interest and charges and they can also pursue legal action against you. The way a DMP works is that you will tell them what you earn, what you spend and what is left over at the end of the month, you will then show them what you can afford to pay them, and this is called a financial statement.

At the start of the arrangement all or your creditors will receive your financial statement which will show the offer you are making to your creditors. They can either accept this offer or not. If a creditor rejects the offer, payments will still be made to them regardless.

Once in your DMP you will send your payments in each month and this is then distributed equally amongst your creditors. By doing this, the hassle is taken away from you so all you need is to make one payment.

A DMP will last for however long it takes for you to pay your debts in full. At the start of the plan all creditors will be asked to freeze interest and charges but this cannot be guaranteed and even if they do agree to it, they could change their minds at any time; because of this a time plan cannot be made.

You will be assigned a Case Officer; this person will act as the middle man between you and your creditors. They will look after you during your plan, they will speak to all of your creditors for you and they will deal with all of the correspondence from them, so you don’t have to. You will send your payments into us each month and 100% of this will go directly to you creditors, this is because we are a free service and we do not take any fees or charges.

At the beginning of your plan we will ask each of your creditors to freeze interest and charges, whilst we cannot guaranteed that we would be successful, we have a very good relationship with creditors. The main for reason for this is because we do not take any fees ourselves so they know that they are getting all the money from you that you can afford.

Once your plan is up and running you will have constant support from your Case Officer until your debts are cleared.

We have several different departments dealing with specific area’s that can also assist you whilst in your plan. One of these being our Legal Document Handling, they help deal with any legal action that is brought against you. There are also people dedicated to helping with mortgage arrears also.

Remember Payplan offer free DMP’s. All of the money that you pay in goes to your creditors. We do not work for the creditors. We work to get you out of debt and pay your creditors back.

A lot of questions that come to us are about the surplus, people say that if they have money left over they wouldn’t need help. To calculate your surplus we calculate your basic income, so your basics wages after tax, National Insurance and any other deductions, we then calculate what you spend each month, so your mortgage or rent, utility bills, food, travel and any other costs. This will then leave you with a surplus amount; this is what is offered to the creditors and what you would pay into you DMP.

What you need to remember is that you will no longer have your creditor payments to make; they will all be included in your plan, unless you have a car on Hire Purchase or a secured loan which will be accounted for in your expenditure.

A creditor pursues legal action? We have a team of people who will deal with all of the paperwork for you. You would just need to send in the claim form and we will do all of the hard work and take the stress away from you.

My situation changes? Throughout your plan we will complete regular reviews to make sure your payments are affordable. If things do change, so will you payment.

Written by davemac on January 4th, 2011

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Posted in: Management

Debt Consolidation Launch

We are pleased to announce the arrival of our brand new website http://www.debtconsolidation.org.uk/. The site provides all of the help and information that you should need.

Follow the link and have a look around the site, and please send me your feedback and tell me what you think.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Written by davemac on February 11th, 2011

Filed Under  Debt News   |  Trackback  |   1 Comment

daniel says

If you are really struggling with debt and do not want to go bankrupt debt consolidation is another way out. there are some new government schemes out to help you with debt too so you are not alone. I think you have a great site here with lots of valuable information

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Posted in: Consolidation,Launch

Low base rate may not help homeowners struggling to pay mortgage increases says Payplan.

Payplan, a leading provider of free debt advice, has today welcomed the Bank of England’s decision to leave the base rate at 0.5% – but say it may not help homeowners already struggling to pay mortgage increases.

Jason Eaves, a Director at Payplan, said:

“Whilst the base rate has remained unchanged we have already seen a number of mortgage lenders increase their SVR (standard variable rate), and the Euro crisis could push the cost of mortgage borrowing even higher.

“Many households have faced a sustained squeezing of their incomes in the last few years while prices have continued to rise. Now an increase in their mortgage payment could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

The group who will feel the economic pinch the most are the 800,000 mortgage customers who have struggled to meet their mortgage commitments and already been provided with some level of mortgage forbearance by their lenders.

He added:

“Prior to the credit crunch, financial deregulation, low interest rates and supreme confidence in the economy, led to a significant expansion of credit.  For many low and middle income earners spending exceeded earnings for the ten years leading up to 2007 and this was fuelled by increased borrowing.

“Whilst there is evidence that some consumers have been using the windfall of super low mortgage rates to repay personal debt, there are many who continue to have significant unsecured debt outstanding.

“At Payplan we have almost 20 years’ experience of helping people with debt problems.  We know some consumers take out new debt just to make payments on existing loans. This may provide some breathing space but is not sustainable.

“Our advice to anyone who is worried about falling into debt is to seek help as soon as possible. Further information is available here on our website or we can be contacted free on 0800 294 5205.”

For further information, or to arrange an interview, please contact Jane Jenkins, PR Manager on 01476 581 279.

Written by Gemma on June 7th, 2012

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Posted in: homeowners,increases,mortgage,Payplan,struggling