Debt advice in the UK?

Contact CCCS and let them deal with the catalogue company.

They may have more luck in getting the inetrest reduced or frozen.

there is only 1 way they CAN help

By increasing your monthly repayments so it covers interests+repays a bit of the capital

You say "the minimum they'd except was £100 a month which I agreed to but it turns out that that doesn't even cover the interest each month"

This says that YOU wanted to pay less than £100/month but they would not let you

Before you were forced to paying £100/month did you not find out how much of that £100 was interest?

It aint ridiculous, its simple maths -

You have been paying less then the interest on your debt, so the unpaid interest has been added to it - result is the debt AND the interest on it has increased.

That aint their fault - YOU wanted to pay even less than the £100.you did pay.

What is the interest on your debt NOW?- (you should get a monthly statement from them - if not then ASK)

What good would it do them sending a debt collector? -

Not only does it NOT stop the interest being added, the cost of sending the debt collectors will be added to your debt. (interest will continue to be added until the debt is repaid)

I realise that this may seem a bit hard- but the sooner you grasp the financial and mathematical realities the better.

There is NO way out unless either

1) YOU increase your monthly payments to cover interest on the amount you NOW owe

or

2) they write off some of the interest/debt so that you owe less, but you STILL have to increase your monthly repayments (but not as much as in 1)

or

3) they write off the debt (extremely unlikely)

or

4) you go bankrupt

It all depends on how much capital you owe them, if it is thousands of pounds then you are finished. There is no way you will be able to stop the interest and it will keep on going up and up till you are made homeless and all of your electrical goods repossessed.

If that is the case (as you make no mention of how much capital you owe them) then all you can do is declare bankruptcy so that they leave you alone. But do be aware that once you declare bankruptcy you will find it impossible to open and operate any bank account, you can forget about loans and credit cards and you will have to survive on cash jobs and paying for all your expenses in cash.

As long as there is a balance, you pay interest.

Sorry for the bad news.

Companies do not just stop charging interest when there is a balance due on an acct.

I suggest you close this account and never use it again.

Hi Hardie I was in a similar circumstance the other day what I found useful was the debt calculator ive listed as a source. Ive ended up on a debt management plany - hope this helps.

Go to your local citizens advice bureau they will give you the correct advice for free. I would do it soon as sounds a bit dodgy to me.