A little relief on mortgages Irish Times
THE APPARENTLY unilateral commitment by banks to try to reach an accommodation with customers who fall into difficulties with the mortgages on their homes is welcome. It goes a step further than the obligation imposed on these institutions by the statutory code of conduct on mortgage arrears, which puts a six-month moratorium on legal action – extended to 12 months in the case of AIB and Bank of Ireland. The requirement by the banks that borrowers must co-operate in trying to find an alternative solution is reasonable.
The banks, it must be said, are making something of a virtue out of necessity. The truth is that they do not want to repossess houses in this market. Not only is it a bad decision from a purely business perspective, it would be a public relations disaster. Keeping people in their homes, paying what they can is far more sensible – from the banks’ perspective – than suffering more public opprobrium whilst trying to manage and sell a large number of repossessed properties in a falling market. This realism explains the relatively low level of repossession to date, with only 70 taking place this year, according to Irish Bankers Federation (IBF) figures.
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Are debt collectors harassing you? Do they threaten to take you to court? Garnish your wages? Or even put you in jail? In South Carolina there are ...
Debt Collection agency - need expert advice?
I have been approached by a debt collection agency stating that i have an unpaid debt. However, they have not given me any documents to prove that they are now the owners of the debt. Further, the original creditor has issued me a letter stating that I have repaid the debt in full (though in error). What is the best course to follow? The debt collectors just call at all sorts of strange hours and threaten me....I am so sick of this.
I do not want to pay anyone till they give me the documentatin that they own the debt or else someone else may come along and claim the same thing. Do I just ignore them till I get the confirmations? Do I have a duty to find out or should the burden lay on them?
BTW, it is not credit card debt - just an education debt. What really annoys me is that the creditor made a mistake and they are trying to pin it on me. At no time has the creditor sent me a statement or asked me for repayment even though I updated my address with them. Then this debt collector shows up....GREAT...
Thanks for the answers - but what do I do about the underlying debt if they do not offer proof that they are the ones who own it?
I have written them a fax stating what I require from them to prove that they own the debt but they have not provided one shred of evidence.
Can they try and PIN it all on me when the creditor made a mistake by not sending notices to my updated adress even though I gave it to them?
I suspect they do not have the necessary evidence to bring a case to court as the creditor made a mistake. Should I wait to see if they sue me before trying to settle or should I do it now?
The first thing I would do, is if you owe the debt, contact the original creditor in writing expressing that you are intrested in resolving the issue and are being harassed by a collection agency...be sure to provide them with who the collection agency is. If you still owe it, they will work with you.
As far as stopping the calls, simply ask the agency for their mailing address and send them a certified letter demanding the harassment and phone calls stop and that all communiction should be in writing. Be sure to log the calls and the times and any threats or harassing they commit. After they recieve the letter, it is illegal to call you....if they do, file a complaint with a copy of your letter and the certified receipt showing they received it along with your log to the authorities. Whatever you do, do NOT discuss the debt with them at all! Simply cut them off politely and say that you need a mailing address and tell them that any future communication should be in writing. Follow up with the certified letter, and it should stop. Also, if the collection agency has reported the debt on your credit report, you can remove it by sending a letter to each of the creit reporting agencies denying the accuracy and demanding that the debt be "validated". This will give the collection agency 30 days to send a copy of the original signed credit agreement as well as a complete payment history. If they donot do this completely within the 30 days, it must be deleted by law.
Good luck....I hope this helps you.
Good Luck
Is there any agency or service that will give advice or help to restructure education debt?
(Traditional "credit solution" type agencies won't even talk about educational loans. ) My loans are so old and dispersed that I need help figuring out who I owe what to - Does anyone help with that?
Contact the college directly (You can probably do this on the net) Ask for the Financial Aid Dept. If you are far away you can set up a telephone app.
DO NOT go through a credit company who wants to lower your payments, you will pay much more in the end and the people who now own the debt will not even speak to you.
This is the web page for Federal loans. If it is a school loan from them you can start here.
https://www.dlssonline.com/borrower/BorrowerWelcomePage.jsp
Anyone know of a well known safe debt management agency?
Hello everyone, im not to smart when it comes to credit mumbo jumbo but i do know my credit is a kinda bad right now. So does anyone know of a agency that could sit down and provide me with advice or consolidate my debt into a payment plan via live person or over the web? I live in Southfield, MI... Thanks alot!
Credit Solutions
http://www.creditscorequick.com/loans/
www.knowdebt.org
Any advice on debt consolidation agencies?
Any advice on getting rid of credit card debt with a low paying salary?
I recommend you getting a part time job and using that money to pay off your debt. If you can't do that, then try to save $20 from each paycheck and sending it to a creditor and paying them back. It may take a while but you'll eventually become debt free.
I agree with the above regard CCCS type services with one addition, most lender companies will treat you worse than a bankruptcy.
You allocate every single dollar you'll earn next month on paper this month.
When you list everything, it'll help plug the leaks in your wallet.
By "detailed", I mean this:
$2570 Income after taxes
$257 Give to charity
$549 Rent
$10 Renter's insurance ($120/yr)
$50 Electric Bill
$23 Water Bill
$19 Gas Bill
$35 Phone Bill
$17 Trash Bill
$106 Cable/Internet Bill
$180 Food (groceries, $6/day, so no steaks)
$60 Restaurants
$400 Car payment
$60 Gasoline
$16 Oil Change (once every two months for $29.99 + tax)
$5 Car Tags ($60/year)
$60 Car Insurance ($360/6 months)
$60 Car Repairs ($720/year, something's going to break, just don't know what.)
$100 Save for a better car
$40 Clothes
$20 Laundry
$10 Doctor's and Dentist's office visits
$50 Household Stuff (toothpaste, T-P, etc.)
$8 Hair cut ($14.99 + tax/2 months)
$15 Sport's Illustrated subscription
$5 Dues ($60/yr) (Club for whatever your hobby is)
$80 Entertainment
$40 Save for Christmas ($480 for all the presents and the flight to grandma's)
$666 Visa Cards.
And then, if you find you're not paying the minimums, you need to find some things to cut out. Like selling the car and getting out from under the $400 car payment.
I used "Credit Solution" to settle my debt and improve my credit score.They managed to reduce my debt up to 58%.It's legitimate.I came across this company on NBC News Special Edition.Check it out here:
http://urlcut.com/1kvhf
Where can i seek for Free Financial advice concerning, Mortgage/Debt. Are there any 1-800's/ non profit agency?
Help, my parents are in deep trouble and they need help, with our mortgage and other debt. Im doing this for my parents, because they dont speak English. They can no longer afford to pay for out house, and would like to consolidate loans/lines of credit/credit cards...are there any non profit company that can help us for some advice.
Thanks in advance
Please do not consolidate. It is not free, they will lower your payments by increasing the length of time until you are debt free, and you will take a hit on your credit score. There is a better way.
A. Have a garage sale and sell anything that you no longer need or want.
B.Get a temporary part time job, if you have one, get another. The holidays are coming and there will be plenty of temporary jobs available. It is better to have a no fun year or two than a no fun decade.
C.Do NOT get a home equity loan. Taking on more debt will not get you Out of debt.
Here is a plan that can help you. If you work the plan, the plan will work for you:
1. Make a budget. Make the budget a week before you get paid. A budget is not a punishment! It is a tool which will free you from ever having to worry about money again. Put everything in your budget. Especially those annual, biannual, or quarterly bills like car registration, insurance, etc. Give every dollar you are going to bring home the name of where it is going. Add an "emergency fund" category to your budget for 25 dollars and save up until you have 1000-1250 dollars. Your emergency fund will help keep you from getting into new debt because of an emergency. If you can, set up a direct transfer to a savings account for your emergency fund. That way it moves automatically and you don't even have to worry about it. You must cut your spending and live on less than you make.
2.First get current on all of you debts and make no more late payments. Stop using your credit cards immediately. Do not take on any more debt. Credit cards are like quicksand only the death is much slower. Make a list of all of your debts in order of highest interest rate to lowest interest. Use cash only for your spending from now on.
3.Pay the minimum due on all of your debts and then put your extra money towards paying off the highest interest one first. After you get that one paid off, you put the money you were paying on debt #1 (the minimum payment and the extra payment) towards debt #2. That will pay debt #2 off faster. When that is paid off, you put all three payments towards card #3 and that one will be paid off pretty quickly. As an example:
To start :
Debt #1 (highest interest): minimum payment+ extra payment
Debt #2 (middle interest): minimum payment
Debt #3(lowest interest): minimum payment
Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: minimum payment from Debt #1+ Minimum payment from Debt #2 +extra payment
Debt #3: minimum payment
Debt #1: paid off
Debt #2: paid off
Debt #3:Mimimum payment from card #1+ minimum payment from Debt #2+ minimum payment from Debt #3+ extra payment.
That way, you will get them all paid off, on time, and pay the least interest. It will also help towards rebuilding your credit since you will no longer have any late payments. This works no matter how many different debts you may have.
4. After you get all of your debts paid off, add to your emergency fund until you have 6-12 months of income saved up. Put that emergency fund money into a liquid money market fund or into a Bank of America no-risk CD so that if you need the money you can take it out without penalty.
5a. When you have your emergency fund in place, add a category for "fun" to your budget. Save for a holiday, a vacation, a big screen, or dinners out, whatever goal you want. Remember to enjoy your life.
5b. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your retirement. Join the 401(k) plan at work and contribute the maximum. Your employer probably matches at least part of your contribution so why give up free money? Open a Roth IRA and contribute the maximum on a monthly basis. If you start saving for your retirement now, you will probably retire a millionaire.
5c. When you have your emergency fund in place, start saving for your next car. Only buy cars, or other things that depreciate, with cash. Save up for a nicer car. That way you get the interest instead of paying the interest.
You can do it and it isn't as hard as you think. Just follow the plan.
They will help for free.
"HOPE NOW is an alliance between counselors, servicers, investors, and other mortgage market participants. This alliance will maximize outreach efforts to homeowners in distress to help them stay in their homes and will create a unified, coordinated plan to reach and help as many homeowners as possible. The members of this alliance recognize that by working together, they will be more effective than by working independently."
They offer free financial advice on all sort of topics: Retirement, college, estate planning, getting out of debt, ect. The mortgage page is blank and there is a statement that they will be populating it soon.
what can I do with the debt collection agency?
I got one letter from direct legal and collections regarding my Orange bill. The reason I own Orange company is because this April I lost my sim card and someone found it and used my simcard to call internationally for over 1500 pounds, when I found out my simcard was lost, I immediately reported to Orange, but it's been 10 days and my bill was already that much. Orange could not help me at all with this huge bill and they just used terms and conditions all the time to let me pay. But I asked them why they did not stop my account when my bill was that much using the terms and conditions as well, they could not give me any answer. Now they do not want to communicate with me any more so they send my case to debt agency. At the moment, the letter asked me to pay immediately, otherwise they will issue country court claim which will cost 200 pounds more or someone will visit my house. I really do not know how to do this now. Anything bad will happen to me? Could anyone give me some advice?
Firstly, don't be so sure going to the County Court is BAD for you. Often the company initiating the action loses.
No one can "visit your house" at this stage. The bailiffs can only call after the court case, and after a breach of a court order, and with a warning beyond that, so don't fall for the threats.
I would take their letters and the bill to a solicitor, I think you shouldn't have to pay for the phonecalls made by a thief after you reported the theft. There is also a possibilty they would accept staggered payment of any money owed, since this is likely to be what a court would order anyway, in the unlikely event things go that far. Sometimes, after a period of keeping up payments, companies make an offer of a reduced bill in full settlement, if you can pay it off by a given deadline.
Question about medical debt, need advice?
My stepmom had surgery 1 year ago and was in debt since then, we can't afford health insurance.
now one of the doctors forwarded our case to this debt collection agency when we clearly made payment arrangement with them 1 year ago. they basically stopped sending us statement for 3 months and now we are seriously past due.
this debt collection agency is threatening us they will do whatever necessary to collect this money and threatening they will screw my stepmom's credit. Can they actually take our asset or whatever we had in our bank account? is this legit since we have already made payment arrangement with the doctor and we have NEVER missed a payment until they stopped sending us statement on purpose? We have to deal with 10 seperate doctors and we didn't realize this doctor hasn't sent us any statement until we got this letter from debt collection agency.
any advice on how to deal with them will be appreciated.
What i really want to know is.. are the debt collection agency abusing its power and do they have legal right to do what they are threatening us with since we never missed a payment?
I used to work for a company where we had to look at peoples credit. Now I was told that when we were passing or failing credit that under no circumstances were we allowed to fail a persons based on delinquent medical accounts. You can not help that you get sick. Now, as far as them abusing the power, yes they do in a sense but from personal experience, they can put something on your credit but they are supposed to specify what it is for. Now whether they do or not is another story.
What you should do is send them what you can. they are not going to turn away payments.
They can not touch your bank account at all. If so, no one would be in debt. Nor your assets.
They can threaten all they want. I have been in that position before and I actually stopped paying them, It eventually was turned over to another agency and I then was offered a lump sum settlement. ( i am not suggesting you do that, that is my temper.) Do not let them push you around.
Can collection agency collect debt over 10 years old?
It was sold to 1 collection agency and I received a notice from another agency saying they will consider the debt valid if I don't dispute it. I heard that debts over 7 years old are noncollectable and that I can ask that they be removed from my credit report. I also heard that I can state to the collection agencies that the debt is noncollectable and they usually don't take legal action on these types of debts but try to re-activate the debt through a response from me. Please advice; I live in IL
This debt is WAY outside the statute of limitations for all 50 states...it is also past the allowable 7-year reporting cycle on credit reports....so they can't place this on your credit file . This is ancient, time barred debt....because of this, the collection agency is powerless over you....other than trying to scare/annoy you into paying.
Technically, a debt collector can come after you forever...however, once the statute of limitations is up...they've lost the power to successfully take legal action. Per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act you can send them a "cease communications" letter and that will be all that you need to do. Per this law they must cease collection activity.
Send the collection agency a letter via Certified Mail + Return Receipt stating:
Per the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, I am requesting that you cease all communications with me about this alleged debt.
-----------------------------
* DO NOT sign your signature on any document that you mail to a debt collector. It could end up on a forged document that can be used against you. Simply type your full name.
i am in a lot of debt and have been advised by a debt agency to go bankrupt does anybody have any advice plz?
What about a IVA - Individual voluntary Arrangement - See this website for details of what this about and how it differs from bankruptcy..
http://www.libertytreegroup.com/
Go to the link which says "Our Products". the go to the part which says IVA...
This is part of what it says IVA's are:
"An IVA is an alternative to bankruptcy introduced by the government as part of the Insolvency Act 1986. It enables an individual in debt (debtor) to make a proposal to the people they owe money to (creditors) to reach a settlement. Should the proposal be approved by a majority of the creditors, the IVA then stands as a contract that binds all parties and prevents any further action.
A standard IVA will offer to pay whatever is affordable monthly into a fund over a five year period, and after that the debt is cleared. This can be the case even if the creditors end up getting less than 30% of their debts repaid, and so monthly payments into an IVA can be as little as £250 per month. Payments are based on what an individual or household can actually afford and are normally over £300-400, but still tends to be significantly less than the existing minimum payments on credit cards and loans".
Nope I don't work for the company but came across the site myself today.. it just explains how IVA's differ from bankruptcy and at least you wouldn;t lose everything!! Lots of people are going for IVA's apparently.
Also contact your local CAB who will be able to offer you advice...
Take care...
Can a UK debt recovery agency issue a court order against me in another country ie Australia?
After a long drawn out issue over a credit card debt I have while I was living in the UK, the bank has now passed it on to a debt recovery agency (I'm an Australian citizen). I've just received a letter from the agency explaining that if I dont pay the full outstanding amount (which is well under $10,000) it may result in legal proceedings being issued in the country of which I reside, which is Australia. Can a UK debt collections company actually do this...I mean summon me to court in Australia even though the debt was with a UK bank?
Please spare me any preaching about having to pay for my own debt etc, I have tried to on more than a few occasions to make payment arrangements with the bank, however due to their inconpetence they either gave me the wrong bank account details so I could use telegraphic transfer, or they lost a large payment amount I made to them (eventually they found it). I gave up trusting their advice on the bank details I needed to give my Australian bank to transfer the money after numerous phone calls from Australia to the UK and misinformation from their customer service, so I decided not to pay them.
Hi
I don't belive they can - even so the worst they can do is list you. It will only last 5 yrs - if you can hang on I would try and dodge it. F*k em! They make a lot of money - don't worry about it and just hide. The only way they can find you is via white pages and electorial roll. Just stay off those and you should not hear from them.
I have done something similar recently - the phone calls lasted about 3 months - then all of a sudden - STOP.... I will strike problems if I apply for credit - so I don't do that :)
Good luck - and from now on - just pay cash.... It's what we should have done in the first place - right?
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