New Member

[chrisw10]

Hi, I am so glad to join you all, this site has given me the motivation and hope that i needed to see an end to all this debt gloom i have. I know feel positive about there being a way of dealing with all this misery which has been dragging me and my family down.

I can;t wait to post my results on the forum and tell as many people about this site.

Here is a breakdown of my situation:-

Barclays Overdraft 1 = approx £3000
Barclays Overdraft 2 = approx £3500
Barclay Card = approx £1300
Barclays Loan = approx £5000
Cabolt = approx £4200 (was Egg credit card)
MBNA Credit Card = approx £3200

I defaulted on all these when i was made redundant from work about 2 1/2 years ago and sent them token payments at the time of £1 under advice from government help centre for about 6 months.

Over the last 2 years have started paying them back in agreed monthly payments, but this is costing me over £500 per month combined and i'm sick of having no life as the majority of my wages is used up on these bills.

I am back on good terms with all the lenders although they have removed all my facilities, there is only the Egg debt which is in the hands of a debt agency, Cabolt who ring me every 6 months to review and push me to increase my payments. (they are calling me know but ignoring them at the moment)

So can you guys help me with these questions...

Should I stop paying them first and wait for them to contact me then send the letters?

Should I deal with them all at once, or one at a time?

Any advice is most appreciated!

[Powerdemon]

I would say stop paying them, then wait for them to pass it onto debt collectors, then you can start doing the letters to the collectors.
Also if your quite good at organising and keeping track of things it should be reletively easy to be doing more than one at a time.

[ceylon]

but if your not do one first to get use to it but the choice is yours

[chrisw10]

Thanks for you time in responding, but just to help me be clear, should i cancel the direct debits and wait for them to respond before sending the letters or keep paying whilst sending them??

Thanks again, i know there are a lot of people all eager for feedback.

[Powerdemon]

Just cancel the direct debits and wait for them to get in touch with you.

[PaulieWallie]

Welcome Chrisw10, I have 4 (alleged) debts and am a fairly newbie (joined 6 months ago). Agree totally with advice already given. Until you are 100% confident with what you are doing then do one at a time. My first debt was for just over £11k so have done the 3 letters to DC and only one reply from them acknowledging my first letter (after I sent 3rd letter) so going to wait another couple of weeks and then go for the other smaller debts. I'm sure I can speak for every1 on the forum in that we will be looking forward to reading your posts and the more you read and learn about the fraudulant system and doing the letters the more confident you will be and start to enjoy receiving letters and telephone calls from these (wa*&ers) and playing the game. Honestly it will feel like such a weight has lifted from your shoulders.

Enjoy!

[chrisw10]

Its great being part of such a positive community, thanks for all your help i will jeep you posted!!!!

"Game on" as they say!

[guardianofwithinaolcom]

I have only been on this site for about a year. I had 5 alleged debts totaling £31,000,00, the largest being £21.000.00. I went down the ©%TM route. I was so frustrated that I did all 5 at the same time. Some were for banks others for DCA's. Make sure you do not make the mistake of sending bank letters to DCA's and DCA letters to Banks. There is a difference in what we ask them for.

In Hind site I should have done one at a time, it would have been easier and I would have made less mistakes. But if you follow the method correctly keep a positive attitude (Hard at times) and believe you deserve a better life. Then this system will work for you.

I have had no contact from 4 of them for about 9 months now, the only positive feedback letter I have had was from BarclayCard, they have admitted they cannot enforce collection from me because they do not have the Terms And Conditions relating to my account I had been fleeced by them for nearly 25 years. I sent a very polite response telling them that I knew they could not enforce it as I had never been given a Terms and Conditions from the beginning. I have heard nothing back from them since, mind you I did warn them that the next communication from them would have a price tag of over £2,000.000.00.

As for phone calls they have stopped.I developed my own phone technique, based in large part from what I learned from this site, teat it as a game. When the phone rang, I would start off by saying Hello, when the caller responded and asked If I was Mr David ***** I would say, one moment please, I am about to record this conversation, for evidential purposes. I then Tap the table where the phone is like I am turning on a device and say the following. "You have dialed a secure and restricted number, Who are you? What is the name of your company, Your Direct Land line number, Years of service with this organization. Who gave you authority to dial this number? Do you know the seriousness of calling a restricted secure number? Note I never say who I am, nor who I work for. In my mind even if your telephone number is ex directory or you are registered with the Telephone preference society, you could say your number is restricted, and secured against spam calls by the preference society.. What they think I mean, and who they think they have rung is their problem. Ha ha. They have normally put the phone down by the time I ask them about the seriousness of ringing secured/restricted numbers.

I have had times when I have felt down, I have had pangs of guilt, until I understood how money was really created. Then you go through an anger stage, you think of what you could have used the money for if you didn't have to pay these leeches. Better food, better holidays, holidays for those that couldn't afford them before. You think how much better you could have made it for your kids taking them places, doing things with them, like trips to the coast, or the local swimming pool. You may also go through a frustration period as the anger dies down, You think why didn't I know about this before? Well all this happens for a reason, people are waking up they are now taking on the system in larger and larger numbers, if we had all done it one by one years ago it might not have had the sort of impact it is having now. I am just glad I am out of it. I am only fighting one now, but thats because I want compensation or at least a full refund because I believe they falsely represented them selves and their products in order to coerce me into a training scheme that was fraudulent, that to me is dishonorable, My MP is asking questions to relevent representatives in the house of commons and house of lords as well as the Advertising standards agency, lets see where it goes. This is the only alleged debt left for £609.00 they owe me £2,100.00 for what I have already paid them.

Anyway best of luck, you will find many friends on here, most of us are here for the same reason. Have had the same problems, and are at various points along the path to freedom.

Dave.

[guardianofwithinaolcom]

One further bit of advice is to open a different bank account, one that is not in any way connected with Barclays before you start the letter route, Then have any wages paid into the new account. Banks have the unlawful but Legal ability to move money from one account to another so for instance take money from a deposit account to pay a loan/overdraft on another account you hold. If your new account is with a bank that is not owned by barclays your money will be safe from that threat. You will find the Lawful and Legal are different things as you progress along the route to financial freedom

Best wishes

Dave

[chrisw10]

Wow Dave, than you for taking the time to tell me about your experience, this has given me a great confidence boost, also thanks for the advice with the Bank account, fortunaly i did this when i couldnt pay anything to these leeches over 2 years ago, this is a basic account with Halifax, so confident there is no way they can get to my funds.

My plan is to gen up on what to do when i get calls and letters so i am slick to respond to them this month as i have already paid them all at this point, and i will start to cancel the direct debits at the end of this month before the next payment come out and go from there with it.

What really anoyed me about this is that even though the last 2 years i have nether made another late payment to these scutters they have still black listed my credit report! (i checked it last night)

Well that is the last straw.

I will keep in touch with my progress,

Again thankyou, and to all the other members who have taken the time to support me through this

Chris.