Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

[Tools]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

OK jebus nothing at all in there to be embarrassed about.

I have to start by saying that your credit file will no doubt be already shot by now. You are in a position where you are unable to repay the debt, it is more than likely Virgin will now be taking steps to recover the debt in full.

What we need to concentrate on now is your essential expenditure, rent/mortgage payments, food heating etc etc.

The rest go to the back of the queue. You mentioned you sent an I/E sheet to Virgin. Would you care to share the figures in that, I know it sounds intrusive and you may feel embarrassed doing so but if people are to offer you the best advice possible they need to know your situation as detailed as possible. Please fill in one of the I/E sheets in here Legal Beagles and either attach it to your next post or if you feel more comfortable, you can email it to me or any member of the Team.

It may be possible to negotiate several options with Virgin, have you read in the stickies at the top in this debt forum, such as negotiating freezing interest etc.

Do not be afraid to ask, everyone is here to help and not to judge, we are all in/have been in debt and struggled at some point. Also if it helps you to feel you are not alone I currently owe approx £5000 to Virgin on a credit card I am struggling to repay because the introductory 0% rate has now expired and gone to the full APR.

I suggest between us we work on another letter, post up what you are going to send and we can work from there. There are also some brilliant letter templates to send, choose which best fits your own circumstances and add/adapt it to your needs.



Jules

[jebus97]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

I don't mind emailing it to you and for you to share it with the senior team - but I am reluctant to make my personal finances public. (I'm sure you will understand why).

Do you have an email address?

The thing you said about 'payment in full' worries me. Does this mean that the deal is off with regard to the previous advice I have been given that I would be allowed to repay this sum at a minimal amount in accordance with my circumstances?

They can't ask for 'payment in full' as a) I have no money and no savings and no means of obtaining the money to repay the debt and b) I have no physical assets or goods worth seizing. So from my perspective I wonder how they can expect to obtain something I don't have? I also recently split up from my partner and am living alone in a small rented flat and the total value of the goods in the flat can't add up to more than £700 or pounds. So I think its fair to say I have fallen on some very hard times.

[Amethyst]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Tools@legalbeagles.info is umm Tools' email address

If Virgin don't reply to your offer then i would make the payments you have offered, that you are able to afford, anyway, then you are happier in your own mind it is being dealt with and if further down the track they try going to court to enforce the debt, its very likely any judge will only order you to continue payments at that rate. Just keep records of anything you send them.

The I/E sheet will be very useful and give us a better idea of your overall situation so if you can send it to Tools that would be great.

Think Tools said everything else, just really wanted to give you his email while i was passing

Love Ame xxxx

[Tools]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Thanks jebus I completely understand about not wanting to divulge your finances on open forum, rest assured it will not leave the confidence of the Team.

As for.............

The thing you said about 'payment in full' worries me. Does this mean that the deal is off with regard to the previous advice I have been given that I would be allowed to repay this sum at a minimal amount in accordance with my circumstances?

..............they may ask for it, but we all know they wont get it. As Amethyst quite rightly says they may apply to court to enforce the debt but even a court would only make you pay what you can reasonably afford, even if it is only £1/week. I was just mentioning the possibilities, what hopefully we and obviously you, would like to achieve is at the minimum acceptance of affordable payments, possibly freezing of the interest and in some circumstances(but I don`t want to get your hopes up) is the minute possibility of asking to have the debt or a fair portion of it written off.

If you could email your I/E to me (thanks Amethyst for adding the email addy) I will take a look and help you further.

Jules

[jebus97]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Email sent.

[Amethyst]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Hi Jebus. Could you pm Tools a list of your credit cards, balances and monthly payments please. Just to sort out that part on the IE. The rest looks fine but Tools will go through it later on. Many thanks. Ame xxx

[jebus97]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

That's easy to answer. I have zero other debts other than this one. (This isn't strictly accurate as I have a Littlewoods catalogue and I pay £14.95 a week to this - but this was interest free and was for a washing machine which I really needed and I expect to have this cleared within the next 8 weeks). I wasn't sure where to list this so I just listed it as a credit debt.

However I have no arrears or any other debts to speak of - and am even in credit with the majority of my utility bills.

So I haven't been entirely irresponsible with my spending.

[Amethyst]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Thats okay that answers that question ace thank you xxx Just making sure that £14.95 wasn't a number of cards split up.

[jebus97]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

OK there has been another development today and Virgin have acknowledged that they have received my offer. However they are insisting that I need to speak to them on the phone "before they can reach a final decision."

I really don't want to do this as I am certain their plan is to try to nail me on the phone and to make me agree to something I can't afford. Also it is their potential rudeness that I find upsetting. (I am quite a nervous person and I think I might crumble and agree to anything on the phone - which is why I don't think that me calling them is a good idea).

In any case what else is there to discuss? They already know my financial situation, due to the budget sheet I sent them, so what exactly do they need to talk about?

What do I do?

[Tools]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Good news that they have acknowledged receipt of your letter jebus.

Stick to your guns regarding telephone contact, insist that all communication is by letter, that way you are afforded time to consider any decisions you may have to make and not be pressured into anything.

If they do have a contact number for you and you do answer the phone to them do not panic. No matter what they say to you on the phone, tell them that you insist any contact with you is by letter and inform them you want your telephone number removed from their system.

You say that.......

OK there has been another development today and Virgin have acknowledged that they have received my offer. However they are insisting that I need to speak to them on the phone "before they can reach a final decision."

.............was this by letter? If so could you scan/type out the contents of the letter, again, if you would prefer to email me the contents then that is fine.

I have looked over your I/E sheet and I just need to clarify your council tax. You mention Council tax benefit of £xx as an income and an outgoing ground rent of £xx and Water rates of £xx. What do you actually pay out in Council Tax per week/month?

Depending on their next letter to you, you need to highlight what has changed in your circumstances and how it has affected your ability to repay the card debt. Give them as much detail as possible.

The figures on your I/E make it quite clear you are unable to pay any substantial amount per month to the debt, you also mention that in 8 weeks you will have another 14.95/week spare once Littlewoods is paid off.

I would be inclined to add to your letter a request to freeze the account, any interest or charges etc and offer your original amount with a view to increase that payment by a further £10/week once Littlewoods is finished. State that you will review your repayment proposals every 3 months and if your circumstances change for the better you would wish to increase your repayments to reduce the debt quicker.

Draft a letter and email it to me before you send so I can make any suggestions.

Good luck jebus I really hope we can help you.

[jebus97]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

I get council tax benefit so effectively I pay zero for council tax. I will do as you say - although it may take a couple of days to get round to due to prior commitments.

I may as well be frank though, I don't know how to put things better than I put them in my original letter? I was working as a part time IT admin for a local charity called the DePaul Trust. It was paid work but it didn't pay a great deal. This ended due to lack of funding. My dad died unexpectedly leaving little money to cover funeral and other expenses and I also suffered what I suppose I can only call a mental breakdown due to stress (for which I am now receiving treatment - hence why I'm currently in receipt of Disability Living Allowance).

Should I simply say this and is this likely to prove sufficient clarification?

[Tools]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Write what you feel appropriate, email it to me and if it needs more adding I will work on it with you and help you in any way I can. Similarly, my MIL died recently and left lots of debts and not enough to cover funeral expenses so I do understand your situation, if you need any assistance in dealing with your fathers remaining finances maybe we can help you with this too.

I will adjust your I/E sheet to show the CT, bear in mind that the additional outgoing will reduce the spare money in the calculations or have you accounted for that somewhere else in step 2? i.e ground rent/water rates.

Glad to hear that you are receiving help for your loss, on top of financial worries that can be hard to deal with. Everyone here is here to help, do not be afraid to ask for it, no-one judges.

[WendyB]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Just a thought....
if you haven't been paying Virgin at all, does this mean that there are charges (i.e. late peyment, overlimit fees etc) that you can reclaim from them? If this is the case it may be worth looking at doing this. Might not make a great difference and you would not actually get money back into your pocket, but it would no doubt go against the balance due and reduce the debt owing to Virgin. Which has got to be a bonus....

[Tools]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

Totally agree with you Wendy, however, the main priority is to get a payment agreement in place to prevent them taking further action i.e DCA`s. Once reduced payments have been arranged then yes, look into reducing the balance by the amount of charges.

[WendyB]

Re: Help, up to my neck in it! Virgin Money.

That's what I meant