When you’re in a lot of debt, your creditors can become a big problem. Constantly getting phone calls and letters from them demanding money that you just don’t have is incredibly stressful. Money worries are one of the biggest causes of high stress levels and it really doesn’t help when you’ve got people harassing you all of the time. It’s even harder to sort out your finances and pay off your debts when you’re under all of that extra stress so you need to do something about your debtors and stop them from harassing you all of the time. These are some of the easiest ways to deal with difficult debtors.
Debt Consolidation
If you’ve got lots of different debts from different places, that just increases the number of different companies that are contacting you and asking for money. But if you can combine all of those debts into one and deal with a single company, it massively reduces the amount of calls and letters that you’re going to be getting. It’s definitely worth considering debt consolidation if you owe money to a lot of different people. By combining all of your debts into one single repayment, you can make it a lot less stressful. You can also reduce the amount of interest that you’re paying so it’s easier to clear your debts.
Individual Voluntary Arrangements
An individual voluntary agreement is a legal agreement with your debtors that says you only pay what you can afford, even if it isn’t the full amount that you owe. Most importantly, it also forbids your debtors from contacting you directly to demand payments from you. You can get IVA solutions from Bennett Jones and other similar companies that can help you to set up the agreement. Once the agreement is in place, you just make whatever payments you can reasonably afford to make each month.
Trade Associations
Legally, creditors are allowed to contact you to ask for payment as long as they’re not calling multiple times a day or calling early in the morning or late at night. That doesn’t technically count as harassment. However, if they’re being excessive with their contact and you think that they might be breaching the law, you should consider speaking with a trade association. There are different trade associations for different types of lender and they all have their own set of rules. For example, banks and building societies belong to the Standards of Lending Practice. If you think that a debtor is harassing you, you can contact the relevant trade association and report them. If it is found that they’re breaking the law, they will be ordered to cease immediately.
Illegal Loans
If you borrowed money from somebody that isn’t certified, they’re not legally allowed to lend money. In that case, you’re not legally obliged to pay the money back at all because it’s not recognized as a loan by the authorities. It’s worth checking out your lenders to make sure that they’re all above board. If they aren’t, report them and forget about the loan.
Dealing with harassment from debtors can be tough but a lot of the time, they’re breaking the law and there is something that you can do about it.
