Blockbusters debt collectors
I recall once I had the debt collectors chasing me....

It seems that one night I returned a video to Blockbuster and was about 15 minutes late. Since I only rented one about every 6 months they called in the debt collectors before I returned to the store where they could have told me in person...

The debt: £1.50
The attempted collectors charge: £61.50!!!

Instead I went into blockbusters and rented a video, while chatting to the till operator I said, "Oh I think my last rental might have been late, can I pay the fine?". Paid the £1.50 and sent the receipt to the debt collectors with a note that was pretty much a polite "fuck off".

See, sometimes there is a way around debt!

EDIT: For the benefit of Chriswakey and anyone else who doesn't get it. I returned the video 15 mins late. Then several months later I got a debt collector letter for the £1.50 of late fees. That is when I went into the store to rent another video and pay off the original fine thus avoiding the debt collector. Note the part of the story where I said "I only rented one about every 6 months" and you'd realise that it would be months between me returning 1 video and getting the next one.
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Tue 28 Nov 2006, 0:17, Reply)

I have no debt
Im a student and I have no debt partly due to the fact that my Dad is in so much debt that hes calculated its gonna take 130 years to clear and also has had our old house repossessed therefore understandably I have a fear of debt. But also, luckily my dads poor so I don't pay uni fees and I haven't took out a student loan but have worked and avoided overspending so that I am sitting comfortably financially, well for a student anyway.
I don't mean to boast, I've seen what debt can do to people and I wish to avoid it as much as I can.
On a general note, people who moan about Visa Electrons and them being useless, I had one for years and I could buy things online and in most shops, I would like to see where you spend your money!
(purplefairy, Tue 28 Nov 2006, 0:12, Reply)

Harrington Brooks / Allclear Finance
avoid these cunts at all cost! they will just rip you off!

Also burtons are bastards - they werent happy with me paying back my debt to them at the asking price of £30 a month so they took me to court - i now pay £1 a month but have a CCJ. the lovely people who administer the CCJ also recently claimed not to have recieved my payment and stuck me with a £122 pay now or we send the balliffs in bill!

as i say - such lovely people! My other debts i only pay £1 a month - yes i'm never gonna pay it off - but at the moment its about as much as i can afford
( Rev. Jesse. broke his ankle, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 20:51, Reply)

why not put all your debts together in to one affordable payment......?
I really hate those debt consolidation companies. The adverts, the concept, the stupid celeberities who endorse them and have probably never actually been in debt and as they count their piles of money probably chuckle greedily and evily over the stupidity of the common oiks they have fooled (defrauded).

But then again why get screwed by several small cocks, when you could get shafted by one enormous one over an even longer period of time!?
(serial lurker, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 20:17, Reply)

Killed a man once...
I now have a 25 year debt to society.


Edit- I killed him over his money filled wallet. HA! now this story has relevance.
(Good Looking Deity Grew a magnificent beard on, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 20:02, Reply)

to those
posting how scary it is when they get debt letters from the agencies - is it really? I mean all their letters are fucking guff. I've had so many 'if we don't get the money in 48 hours you will go to court' letters, and then they do fuck all for 3 months and send you another one.

For those of you in debt and paying back a lot each month, DEFAULT! it's fucking easy and simple. I owe around 7k over 4 cards and i pay back (sometimes) 40 quid a month tops. When they ask you for money say you have none, or you're out of work. It is in their interest to take WHATEVER you can offer them. So say you can afford a tenner a month.

And to those people posting 'ooh once my mum lent me a hundred quid for uni and i haven't paid it back yet' - get real.
(thejazzassassin, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 19:52, Reply)

Do not buy a large, expensive vehicle in the first year of marriage.
Really. Don't.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 19:07, Reply)

A cheap lesson learned
In the course of some volunteer work I do, I come into contact with a lot of people down on their luck. He introduced himself as "Timothy, like in the Bible." (That should have been my first clue).

He recently arrived in town and was looking for connections for work, housing, etc. He asked me if I could take him to Wal-Mart to get a razor, soap, etc as he said the shelter he was staying in didn't provide them. Knowing better than to give him cash, I drove him to Wal-Mart and took him to the $1 travel supplies aisle. He kept trying to lead me down the other aisles to buy more stuff, and I'll confess he got a $7 bottle of aftershave off me. I was getting annoyed with this dude, and getting more on my guard.

As we were walking past the pharmacy, he suddenly said "you know, there's something else I wonder if I could get you to get me." I looked over at the condoms and told him "Bud, if I'm going pay for anyone to get laid, it will be me." He laughed and said he wanted cigarettes. Getting pissed off at him, I told him "Looks like you're gonna run out of smokes, buddy." All told, his stuff came to about $25.

As we were getting into the car, he said "let me hold on to this receipt, so I know exactly how much I owe you."

Thicko me: "Uh, sure, that'd be good."

The next night I picked him up to go to a chili supper, and he flashes this wad of cash around saying how someone else had taken him to get clothes that day, and he found - amazingly - $25 in the parking lot. Big dumb old me: "Wow, that's an amazing coincidence."

It seriously took me months (after Timothy was long gone, of course) to get it that he'd returned all the stuff I'd bought him.

Okay, so it's not ruinous, but I still blush a little at my gullibility.
( setimret likes his metaphors mixed, not stirred, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 19:02, Reply)

I faked my own death
After screwing up some pension scheme or something... so I swam to shore and left my boat floating in the ocean.

I've still got my "RM" monogrammed lifebelt!!

Hehehehe.... suckers!
(Darkpie 3.243F6A8885A308D31319, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 19:00, Reply)

Friend of mine
got a credit card, and was thrilled. We wanted to do an intervention, but she was so cute running up to the atm, cheerily giving herself a one thousand euro debt.

"Look! Free Money!", she would say. Bless.
(RitalinFreak is dying in a clichéd manner, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 18:01, Reply)

An ex-girlfriend convinced me
that spending 250 quid on a jumper from some incredibly cunty shop in covent garden was worth it. One of the first times I wore it a lad at work referred to me as 'Cosby' due to the jumper looking like something bill cosby might have worn back in the day. It instantly dawned on me just how shit it was and it has never seen the light of day again. I bought the same girl a 280 quid top in Brighton....jesus wept.
(hazey, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 17:59, Reply)

Josh - ya dads foond ya skoootah.
Fuck yeah. How I loathe those Picture the Loan adverts. Somehow, they manage to be even worse than Phil "Nothing to pay for 5 months? Happy days!" Tufnell and Vorderman's consolidated loan whoring.

Cue: jaunty music off the Take Hart gallery. Cue shots of lovely house interior ("Yes! We do have a mortgage!"). Cue happy phone conversation with Picture - "They'd better not cancel the football!". Oh, and on more trivial matters: "We'd like to borrow £25,000." Cue delighted nodding from partner. See how comfortable and blase they are with their significant debt! To the point that on one of the adverts, some silly tart is actually capturing the conversation between smug multi-chinned hubby and Picture on camcorder for posterity.

"Shall we put on a video, precious?"

"Oh yes, let's watch the one where you took the £25,000 loan out to keep the bailiffs from the door."

"Ah! Happy memories." (snuggle, snuggle)

I suspect the only blue-sky fantasies Picture the Loan really have are ones where every household in Britain is up to their neck in fiscal shit, so that they can step in and "consolidate" aforementioned shit. Picture it. It still stinks.
( weebear1974 discovering the joy of cat rape since, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 17:40, Reply)

stupid barclays idiots
had a student overdraft with barclays only £500 under but being it was up to £1000 intrest free overdraft I was ok.
Howevever barstard barclays closed it down for no reason gave it to the debt collectors and took no responsibility for the matter.
So they put on £200 admin fee and 300 intrest I told them to stick it where the sun dont shine gave them the £500 back and told them they would ahve to take me to court to get teh rest neve heard about it since
moral of the story barclays = crap.
( The invisible ham Fig rolls are the best, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 17:21, Reply)

I always knew I was 'different'.........
I got about 7 grand in the hole when I was 18-20.
I realised that I was a dopey bastard and paid it off. Luckily I invested in my own house at 19 and caught the housing market boom in time to make £50,000 and have been working like a dog for the last 10 years so I'm now £80,000 in the hole (but I have a £200,000 house!)
Life is sweet and debts are shit - the end

oh and


Josh - ya dads foond ya skoootah. (I hate that bitch!)
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 17:14, Reply)

I was in debt once....
1. I lived in a cardboard box once owned by a lovely housing association (id been kicked out v young and had zero pences and was earning £60 a week as a modern apprentice). I moved my evil spawn of satan ex bf in. Im gona cut out most of it but the basics.

Basically he trashed my flat, so when i kicked him out (and i moved elsewhere too) we arranged for him to replaster some of the walls that hed punched in and other small jobs. Did he do them? no!

Cue me getting an invoice for basically a full months untaxed wage demanding payment in full in 7 days otherwise legalities will ensue. I spend TWO DAYS ringing them constantly only to be told the person i wanted wasnt in. When i finally got in touch with them i explained that i am a poor unfourtunate child (i wasnt, and still am not on that much money) and can pay in installments. So i did. On time all the time....

The month i paid my last installment i destroyed my payment card with a certain sense of achievement since id paid every penny back myself with no help from the spawn of satan. No more letters from housing association!

One month later i get another letter from them. I start going oh my GOD not these people again??! And i opened the letter feeling very frightened....

For some reason they had decided that THEY OWED ME £800 and would i like to sign the form and they will send me a cheque! Ex bf does not know of this cheque. I send signed letter back in the post 1st class that night.

For two months i chased them most aggresively, as i am skilled in this particular act of life. Eventually when their piss poor systems decided to chunder out my much beloved cheque, i banked it, went to amsterdam for an almighty pissup and general shroomfest with current bf and bought everyone really nice xmas presents! (not in amstedam though, i was so blathered i couldnt even send a postcard). I made them write to me and say that i had nothing to do with them anymore. I have no idea why they owed me 800.

2)There is a company that is named british gas but im not going to tell you that. One day they saw it fit to triple my monthly direct debit payment. I rang them up and shouted at them and told them they were despicable so they backed down and whacked the monthly fee down to about £20. I asked them to confirm this in writing. I have not received the letter yet but i will be watching my bank account earnestly.

3)The only debt that i am in at the moment is im 700 into my 1100 overdraft. asides to other stuff mentioned above, the only other debt i have been in is a 100 council tax bill which i paid off three years ago. I have lived in my current place for two years now yet nobody will give me any credit! I see this as a good thing nowadays, since some of my friends are in serious debt and cannot do anything. Next year im going to try and get a phone line :O....

My main aim is to pay off my overdraft (an offshoot of the days with spawn of satan ex bf) and ive got a savings account now to save for things i want like... computers and things!

I dropped out of alevels and left home and have been fending for myself now for 4 years. any parental money has always been under 250 and has been paid back asap.

Im quite lucky really. I dont earn that much, but i have cheap rent (my grandma is my landlord), no uni debts, no parental debts, a fear of spending large amounts of money at once and a hatred of capitalism and banks. I enjoy the fact that i can piss away my pennies on what i like which is usually things like beer and food.

My chosen profession? Im starting chartered accounting in two months (having qualified as an Accounting techie - company paid all exam fees as did the government for my course fees)

It costs around 11500 to become a chartered accountant with my college. The bumrape is that im exempt from the first three exams (yay, only TWELVE more exams to do), yet the exemption charge is about 250 quid. I may have to pay for all this myself. Maybe one day ill earn more money...

Being in the accounting profession means i am a tight bastard ^_^

With my future riches i am going to build myself a hobbit hole and hopefully engineer a life where i am not the slave of corporate bastards. Thats if i dont kill myself before i finish my exams....

i know its long......but when ive bitten it, it should shrink a little....
(Salbo_baggins, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 17:10, Reply)

Current Financial Situation = Fucked up
I've been stupid with my money - I'm 22 and have 1 grand of debt for every year I've been alive - which is a pretty hefty sum for someone living in Wales (where wages do not increase with inflation!!!)

I've been running from my creditors for the past 3 years and have finally got an attachment of earnings order (the bit after a CCJ where they take directly from your wages) - for £90 a month which ain't too bad on a 12.5k loan (the fuckers gave me a 12.5k loan when I was 19 (coz I lied and told them I was earning 18k as a security guard!)

Anyway, being somewhat near desperation last year I took out a credit card with a company called 'Vanquis'. For anyone who hasn't heard of this company - you start off with a £250 credit limit and pay about 60% APR on purchase transactions. Cracking Deal!!. Advice - NOT WORTH THE HASSLE

This year - even worse scenario - car breaks down and have to put up with a 2.5hr bus journey one way (Wales remember) to get to work. Need some quick cash to fix car. Apply for a loan. Company offers me 5k over 5 years at 15% - which is reasonable for someone with my credit history. I cough up an £80 admin fee - they then tell me that they can only offer me 2k over 3yrs at.....55%apr!!! wooo. I had nowhere else to go (lack of family) so I took the offer (and went to financial ombudsman and asked them about the initial offer and final offer and the fee - which I was told was highly illegal and breach of FSA rules but I can't be arsed chasing £80 at the moment). Anyway, I've ran out of money again, and this loan company - Welcome Finance - charge you £5.00 every time they have to phone you or send you a letter! Twunts.

I've gone to the CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) and they've been really helpful - I was with a debt management company before them called Harrington Brooks / Allclear Finance - they were total shits - took 17.5% cut and fucked up all the paperwork.

CCCS do it for free and come up with a plan for you - they do all the work coz it's a charity - and it's all free.

Ideally, I'd go bankrupt (a hell of a thing at 22) - it's my fault I'm in this position - I don't deny it - it's my fault I blew the cash on boozing at 18, and keeping up with the trends, clothes, nice food, technology all that shit - and I know I'm in a much better position than someone who was forced to go into debt simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However, the credit companies make it too easy for you - it's too tempting - I mean if I could get a loan at 12.5k from a high street bank at when I was 19 - who else are they doing it too?

I wanted a 3k loan back then, and they instantly said I can have up to 12.5k - it wasn't me going back and asking for a bigger loan. It was there on a plate. I was out of work and had been chucked out by my parents - it was the only thing I could do to afford to live.

Again, I would go bankrupt but I can't - I'm doing my accounting qualifications at the moment so I can maybe one day become chartered (you cant become chartered with a bankruptcy order against your name).....

so I'll just plod on - paying my debts back at the most I can afford (fuck all at the moment) - and hope that one day I'll get that high paying job where I can clear my debts within 3 months of working, rather than the 15 years it's gonna take me at the moment.

Or I'll leave the country! (not such a bad idea seeing the way the country's going at the mo!)





Apologies for length - But at least I can see it going in.
( Chicken Skin Bag Making pearl necklaces since, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 16:33, Reply)

Apologies for reply; story will follow
apeloverage - It's entirely possible that you need/wish to buy something that you currently don't have the funds for, but will shortly. It still covers you before the interest kicks in, but you still needed the credit.
I also quite often get tasked with buying gig tickets for myself and mates when something comes up that we want to go to. I can't afford to pay straight off, so I whack it on credit, knowing that by the time the bill comes round, I'll have everyone else's money to cover it.

Anyway, on to the story. It's not the greatest of stories, and not strictly speaking a debt, but I don't care.
Last week, I had a nightmare behind the wheel. I got a speeding fine (I was caught doing 38 in a 30 zone. The signs quite clearly said 40), and the tiniest of tiny prangs, within the space of 2 days of each other. Until then, I'd never even come close to any driving related mishap in over 3 years of driving.
This got me to the tune of £185. The fine came out at about £70, and repairing the flipping tiny scratches on the other guys bumper came to £115.
Being a student, a cost like that from out of nowhere is something of a pain.
I'm not going to get all preachy. I've only ever really been in fairly minor short term debt.

I do have a mortgage, although my parents are helping with that.
(sky blue sam, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 16:01, Reply)

Ooooo ooo oo ooo ooo
Just remembered this one...

While at Uni, my parents decided to support me on a small amount a month, and my student loan would go into a high interest account. After consulting Which, mother dear decided that Sainsbury's Bank would be the best. OK, get me student load, open up a Sainsbury's account, but they never send me out the card... "Ah well, I wasn't going to spend it anyway" thinks I.

Fool.

Having finished Uni I get in touch with Sainsbury's (they're shite at letting you know what's going on) and find out the balance isn't quite what I was expecting. I ask them for the statements they never sent me... Once they arrive, I have a look and they've had my address in halls of residence wrong for three years.

I was in Room 199, Uni halls, A road, Deptford. They sent the card, pin number, statements indidcating when money was going in etc to 199, A Road, Deptford.

Obviously whoever had recieved these items had decided that they would use them (as you do if something arrives addressed to someone else at your house). My entire student loan was withdrawn from cash machines in South London over a period of three years. So much for the interest at the end of it.

Sainsbury's deny that this was their fuck up, but were at least kind enough to return my money to me after a lengthy enquiry.

Twunts.
( Sonic James Doom forgetting the date since... umm..., Mon 27 Nov 2006, 15:48, Reply)

Close the Account
Barclay Card - i see you havent used your card
in a while. we'll lower the interest rate by 1%

Barclay Card - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll lower the transfer rate by 5%

Barclay Card - i see you havent used your card in a while. For security we're closing the account. please destroy the card.

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll lower the interest rate by 0.000000001%

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll lower the interest rate by 0.000000001%

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll lower the interest rate by 0.000000001%

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll lower the interest rate by 0.000000001%

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll lower the interest rate by 0.000000001%

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll allow you to withdraw cash at 3000%

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll allow you to write cheques to yourself at 400000% interest.

MBNA - i see you havent used your card in a while. we'll allow you to write cheques to yourself at 400000% interest - go on please!

Ah...mbna where would the world be without your responsible banking?
(hatofjam built a friend out of lego on, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 15:38, Reply)

Foolproof Money Making Scheme!
Further to my Lloyds F***cking TSB post, I thought that I'd add my marvelous uni money-making plan.

Stundent account - interest free overdraft generally in excess of £1k.

Simple - open several accounts, and shove those £1k's into a decent savings account.

Repeat every year until uni is over, jobs a goodun - I had some crazy spreadsheet going which suggested that I'd be in pocket to the tune of around £16k. Not quite sure how I arrived at that amount, as it was clearly complete bollox, but anyway, I digress.

Of course this didn't quite go to plan - opened 3 student accounts in the first year, generally they wanted a grant or student loan payment going in to open them, so didn't manage the 4 that I had intended, and decided that the paperwork was too much to keep track of if I was going to continue doing so in following years.

Of course what my grand plan didn't account for, was some muppet (me) promptly spending all this free money as soon as it became available, hence finishing uni with a load of debt instead of huge wads of cash.

Such is life!
(turboferret, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 15:18, Reply)

Buying on credit.. or not.
ape: yes, you should buy things on credit card even if you can afford to buy it.

1) You get protection from your supplier going bump, etc.
2) Interest on the money for your purchase for up to 30 days..
3) Possible cashback, points, or money to your favourite causes.
4) If buying over the web it needs a credit card
5) The amount you can purchase may be limited in comparison with a switch card, which is directly backed by your bank account!

Common sense, surely?
(EssY, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 15:18, Reply)

The best solution
I'm a third year molecular medicine student with a student loan looking to go on to teach science (the goverment gives you 250 a week to train and 5000 golden hello when you qualify, sweet)so im not too worried allthough the loans are pilling up and im into my overdraft.

My little brother however flunked out of college, fucked up getting into the police force and works at JJB sports.

Yet he's still better off than me, why?
He gets married to his girlfriend next year, her dad's a multimillionaire and has bought them a house (no joke). To make matters worse i think shes an evil cow so am unlikely to see any of this money myself.
What a jammy funt
(Orangeygoodness clicks cartoons hard, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 15:05, Reply)

Ape
Probably not, but it can be handy if it's a few days till payday and you need food or something now.

(mind you I'm not sure when interest starts kicking in, is it the same day?)

(sorry for replying to a message it might not be the right thing to do)
(stapleface, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 15:01, Reply)

if you can pay it off before the interest kicks in

then you don't need to buy it on credit do you.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 14:43, Reply)

this topic is getting off the normal b3ta track

so...I fucked a goat.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 14:41, Reply)

Lloyds f***ing TSB
Whilst at Uni, I moved house several times, and instead of keeping my same home address, and expecting my parents to forward all my mail to me, I used my current address as my correspondence address. When I moved, I'd tell my bank, and they'd then send my statements etc to the new place.

Or so I thought....

Lloyds, being so super efficient, didn't quite grasp the concept of sending all of my post to this address. They also had this ridiculous scheme of requiring you to renew your overdraft every year, which was a bit of a PITA, but not too much of a hardship for their interest free cash.

By the time I was in the 3rd year, this O/D had crept up to £1500, and I thought that all was fine and dandy, statements were arriving, I wasn't going over my limit etc, was managing my finances reasonably well.

What I wasn't aware of, was that Lloyds were sending increasingly nasty letters to an old address asking me to renew my overdraft, until they phoned me up one day asking me to repay it all immediately.

When I suggested that it might have been useful to send these letters to the same address as the one they used for my statements, this was dismissed as a crazy notion. I also foolishly thought that they might be able to reinstate this overdraft for me. Yes, not a problem, as soon as you pay it all off.

So, let me get this correct, if I give you £1500, you will let me borrow it again.

Yes sir, that's correct.

What if I don't have £1500 right this very moment.

Not a problem, you can arrange to pay it off over a period of time, and for every month we will shaft your credit rating.

So, I paid it off to the tune of £100/month, and promptly shut the account, never to deal with Lloyds f***ing TSB ever again.

That was of course until a couple of years later, when I was in a bit of a hole, and stupidly took out a loan, and due to them shafting my credit rating previously, were the only ones who would touch me, and I agreed to the tune of around 30% APR on £2k.

Fortunately I then got a decent job, with a nice overseas bonus, and could afford to pay it off early, and not be raped quite so badly.

Since then, things haven't been so bad, but looking back, it could have got a lot worse

Apologies for length, it’s my first time
(turboferret, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 14:18, Reply)

When I was 15...
I opened acounts at all the high street banks, without making a deposit so that I could get their opening offers - in order to sell the goodies for hard cash.

Because I was at boarding school, I told the banks that my mum lived abroad and that I needed to open an account so that she could transfer over £1,000 both complete lies. It was amazing how gleefully they waived away the standard opening amount with a promise of an imminent grand.

One of the banks even gave me an overdraft of £100, which I swiftly maxed out. When they asked me to repay them, I informed them that I was under 18 and therefore it was highly illegal what they had done.

That and the other dorment accounts all eventually closed and it wasn't until much later in life that I had any problems with banks.
( @><|= w0nu!) or cunt to my friends, Mon 27 Nov 2006, 13:50, Reply)