Bankruptcy and Judgements

Having a County Court Judgement or CCJ issued against you will have a severe impact on your credit rating, as it signifies that you have had serious problems paying back a loan or other form of credit, to the extent where your creditor has had to take court action against you to try and recover the debt. If you were unaware of the debt, for instance if you’d moved house and lost contact with the creditor, then repaying the full debt now will stop proceedings going any further. If however you can’t clear the debt, then you should fill out an ‘Admissions Form’ which will also have been sent to you.

This form asks for information about your income and expenses, which the court will take into account when hearing your case. The Admissions Form should be returned within 16 days of the postmark it holds, although if you intend to dispute or defend the claim then you can apply to have the hearing delayed an extra 14 days in order to prepare your defence.

Once you’ve filled in these forms and returned them to the court, there will be a simple hearing carried out in private. You don’t have to attend the hearing so long as you’ve completely filled in the necessary forms, or unless you wish to dispute aspects of the claim.

At the hearing, the court will objectively review the claim and the information you’ve provided, and come to a decision about the amount of money (if any) you owe, and how it should be repaid. It’s important to note that no one is being found ‘guilty’ or ‘innocent’ here, the court is simply trying to fairly resolve a civil financial dispute.

If the decision upholds the claim against you, then the court order or CCJ is issued. Even at this stage you can stop the damage to your credit record, as you’ll have one month from the date of the court hearing to repay the debt in full to stop the CCJ being put on record.

After a month, the CCJ will be entered on to the Register of County Court Judgements, and from there it will make its way onto your credit files held by the various credit reference agencies.

The presence of one or more CCJs on your credit file will effectively close off most kinds of finance to you, as most lenders will be very reluctant to advance credit to people in these circumstances. Once, however, you’ve cleared the debt, then the judgement will be marked as ‘satisfied’, and while this will not remove it from your record it is a lot less harmful to your credit worthiness than an uncleared CCJ.

If you have a CCJ on your record, you might be tempted by companies promising to remove it and clean up your rating. Unfortunately, this is only feasible in a few cases. Sometimes, the CCJ is entered on to your record by mistake even though you cleared the debt within the one month time limit. If this has happened then you have the right to have it removed from your records.

The only other ways to have a CCJ removed is to show that there was something wrong with the way in which the judgement was awarded. If, for example, you didn’t receive the initial Claim Form, and you were unaware of the proceedings, then you didn’t have the chance to defend yourself and so the judgement is invalid.

In these circumstances, you can apply to the court to ‘set aside’ the judgement and it will be removed from your file, with the whole process starting again with a new claim and hearing. Any attempt to gain a ‘set aside’ without a reasonable argument could be seen as wasting the court’s time, with all the legal penalties that would entail.

If you receive a Claim Form through the post, it’s important not to panic. Although a CCJ against your name is harmful to your credit rating, it isn’t a criminal matter and won’t lead to further action such as repossession of your home or bankruptcy. The CCJ procedure is there so that the court can help to resolve your debt in a way that is fair to both you and your creditor.

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Bad Credit Score

When you have a bad credit rating obtaining a credit card is more difficult.  Most credit card companies will just deny your request.  This then makes finding a bad credit, credit card extremely important.  Now when you are applying for a bad credit, credit card there are several important factors to consider



First, if you have a bad credit and are now in a better financial situation do not make the mistake of applying for every credit card offer there is.  Your credit score will lower with each credit card inquiry.  To eliminate excessive inquires, reduce your selections down to one or two companies that specialize in bad credit, credit cards.  The reason for this is the likely hood of being accepted is much better than it would be with a regular credit card company.  This is a great first step in bringing your credit rating and history back up to an acceptable level.



Before applying or accepting an offer from a bad credit, credit card Company, it is wise to research the company and other various offers.  Most companies are attempting to help you change your situation, but there are some companies that use this as a time to take advantage of your situation for their benefit.  Unfortunately as a rule you will not be able to obtain low interest rates at first but some are still better than others when it comes to bad credit, credit cards.



You will want to be sure to read all the disclosures and other information in regards to any user fees, penalties, and other possible hidden costs.  As an example; if you are applying for a secured credit card you will need to open a savings account with that particular bank.  This amount varies and will be the collateral for your card.  So your credit limit will be the same amount as your savings account and if you do not pay the bank then claims it.  In addition to the deposit most will have a startup fee, a annual fee and a monthly service fee.  Many companies will charge that to your credit card so you already have a balance before you actually receive the card.



You will probably not be able to do away with all extra fees, such as above, that are associated with bad credit, credit cards.  But if you read all the information from several companies you should be able to find the two with the lowest interest rate and least amount of user fees.

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Are You Deep In Debt?

If you have ever been in deep debt before, you know what a traumatic thing it can be.  It happened to me just a couple of years ago, and I’m still feeling the effects.  It wasn’t all at once.  It was a slow process.

Many people do not realize it, but as strange as it seems,    $20,000 of debt can sneak up on you.  It happened to me, so I know.  If it were not for bad credit debt consolidation loans,  I would be done for. You see, bad credit loans were all I could get.  I had a decent well-paying job, but I was awful with money.  When I saw something that I wanted, I could not help but buy it.  At first it was only minor debt, which I could pay off at a later point.  Soon, however, it started to really pile on and become substantial.  It was not long before I began to get calls from the bad credit debt consolidation loan companies.  I had never requested any bad credit debt consolidation loans, but it seemed like I was being offered them every day.

You really have to be careful with bad credit debt consolidation loans.  You see, for every ethical company out there offering you a way out of debt, there are probably three or four out there that are only trying to rip you off.  A lot of the bad credit debt consolidation loans are set up to take advantage of people who are not good with money and are in a desperate situation to begin with.  They lure you in with the promise of low interest loans, but all their promises are distortions or outright lies.

Fortunately, I was able to find a company offering bad credit debt consolidation loans that really were all that they were cracked up to be.  My experience helped me with this.  You see, I have worked in a wide variety of financial institutions and know all about credit.  Although I failed to use this knowledge to stop my finances from getting out of control in the first place, I did manage to use it to pick out the correct bad credit debt consolidation loans.  Now just two years later, things have turned around. Although I am still paying back the bad credit debt consolidation loans, I am able to do it at a slow enough rate that I’m not crushed by the payments.

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Bad Credit Loans

Those with bad credit often know exactly why they have it. Sometimes it is something that they did on their own, and other times it happens because they had a twist of fate that changed everything, and this meant problems with money.



Whatever the reasons for credit problems, there are always times when people may think it would be best to get a loan to cover things. This might even help rebuild credit if it is done right, but those thinking of getting something like bad credit personal loans should think it over before they sign up.



There are some people that do offer bad credit personal loans to those who need them, but there are still some that should not do this. If you are in debt, there is a reason for it. It might be that you don’t make a lot, but there are other reasons. Some don’t know how to limit spending, and some have had a medical issue or even a death in the family that has messed up their finances. Divorce is a common reason for bad credit, and that sometimes can not be helped.



Whatever the case is for you, think about what it really means to take out bad credit personal loans. If you haven’t thought about and tried to correct the problems that got you into debt in the first place, these might not be a good idea just yet. Instead, you might want to put off a bad credit personal loan for a few months until you can see your spending habits for what they are. If this is something that you have thought about, then perhaps you are ready to get one of these loans.



You are going to pay a higher interest rate with bad credit personal loans, but if you want to rebuild your credit, or you have an emergency that you just can’t pay for any other way, this might be your only option. They can be great for a family in debt if they are paid back in a timely manner, but should never be taken lightly. When you contact someone about bad credit personal loans, discuss all of your options so that you get the very best loan for your situation. Get a loan if you need one, but if you don’t do anything to make your situation with debt and spending any better, you aren’t doing yourself any favors.

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