HELP PLEASE ADVICE NEEDED

[Blurock]

Please never wait until the $#!t hits the fan before asking for help. $h!t splatters and most people don't want to be splattered.

You signed for the credit so you are liable. Its too late to go to the bank to ask for help as they have already taken legal action. It does take a few months before they (the bank) get to this stage, so what have you been doing about it? The only avenue now left is debt counselling. Not ideal, but it will give you a chance if you can demonstrate a willingness to pay. Put your cards (all of them) on the table and stick to the repayment plan. READ the documents and make sure that you understand everything. If not sure, ask them to explain again. Ask for options.

[adrianh]

She can still talk to the bank and they can withdraw the action, Nedbank did that for me twice. The worst thing to do is to hide from them, just speak to them openly and explain that you really want to pay them back.

[adrianh]

I want to add anoher thing; Don't freak out....

Just phone the bank 'on behalf of a friend' and speak with a senio person at their legal department. You will be surprisedchow helpful people are when you ask them for advice.

Different banks have different systems of 'handing over' Most firts hand you over to their legal department and their lawyers chase you around for a bit. When they eventually give up they hand you off to a 3d party. Some banks don't go through their own legal department for small debts because it is not cost effective to pay their own lawyers lots of money to bring in funny money. Ok, so one they've handed you over to the 3rd party group of lawyers then you are driven mad by them. Many banks have a deal whereby the bank takes a cut and the lawyers take a fat cut of the money that they get from you. Remember, it all goes about money, if it is going to cost the bank more to get the money out of you than what the debt is worth then they are not going to go after you themselves. Ok, so now the 3rd party lawyers hound you all the time. The problem at this point is that the lawyers add on all sorts of strange fees like, R50 each time they call you, R50 forceach emailvsent etc. You now find that your debt startsbecoming very expensive. The more they hound you the more they add to what you owe. It takes a very long time and a hell of a lot of mesing about before they actually take you to court. Our courts are very understanding and I cannot see a court allow them to take the caravan givenvthat it is your only acommodation.

The bottom line is not to panic or freak out. The guy the other side of the phone is a numbskull who gets paid to freak you out and scare you. I reached a point where I got to know them by name and we would talk rubbish when they phoned. Remember, they are paid to scare you so that you pay so that their boss takes a cut from the debt.

[Alice Rain]

If you want real help then PM me and lay your cards on the table. I sure wont have all the answers but I may be able to relieve a bit of the stress by looking at the problem from a purely 3rd party non-emotional.

Hi Adrianh

Thank you and all the others for the advice given. I will PM you probably over the weekend as I'm presently working every moment possible, while the work's available.

Until then, much appreciated

Regards Alice

[adrianh]

Cool

[sterne.law@gmail.com]

I think the first part of the post spoje of a caravan.
Presumably there is a loan over that.
Where a lender wants to attach a home, the court looks at many factors, all in an attempt to allow a person to keep their house.
I seem to remember, and I could be wrong, someone argued that a caravan that serves as a home gets the same consideration.

Turning to adrians post - when looking at the list of debts you need to consider what debts are for luxuries.
Luxuries, in my view is anything over our home, neccessary clothes and food. That means TV, phones etc. Many tim3s people hang on to it, defending their action by saying I already paid R2000 so I would be losing that money.