r/Glasgow Tools

I'm pretty sure anything like this won't help your credit rating, so if you have a decent rating - is it worth losing it. But, your debt of £770 is nothing IMHO. Some of these collectors from England don't know or hope you don't know that the law in England is different in Scotland, I believe we do have bailiffs or at least our version but they aren't the same as down south. Down south they can come to your house/business and start taking your stuff regardless of what it is, in Scotland many items in your home are protected and can't be touched, they can look at taking stuff from your garden or garage which is weird, I think they can take your bicycle if it's in your garage but can't if it is in your house. Think we have all seen "Can't pay and we will take it away" on the TV.

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As for your debt, it isn't that much so you could call them and make an offer to pay it up. I would make a stupid offer like £20 a month or even £10. If they refuse I would just play hard ball and explain that I have no money and even £20 a month is going to affect my finances and also highlight how much stress, mental anguish and problems this debt is causing to you which in turn is having an effect on your day to day life. If they still refuse I would just stick to my guns and inform them that this is the best you can offer and if they aren't willing to accept this then it seems you have both come to an impasse, this leaves the ball in their court where they can accept the payment (it's not much, but lets face it your debt is really low and they aren't short of money) and get their money, even if it is slowly but surely. The other option they have is to take you to court to get the money in which case a judge would determine the amount you pay (this would prob be the amount you offered anyway) which will cost them more money. many debts are not so much written of but are forgot about as the court costs to get it back are more than the debt.

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A while ago I got into debt with my Council Tax of £4000 and Glasgow City Council sent it to the Sheriff Officers, Glasgow City Council are notorious and don't care about the poor folks in the street and use low life scum debt collectors who don't care about anyone and have a reputation of being horrible and try to bully folks. They sent me a letter demanding I pay something like £2500 before the end of the week or they would take the matter further, I called them and explained that I don't have this type of money and offered a payment of £100 a month to pay the debt off, I told them that this is all I can afford and if they don't want to accept it then I would need to consolidate all my debts into a Trust Deed, in this case they would need to wait 4 or 5 years and see how much they get from the Trust Deed pot, needless to say after I told them this they were more than happy to accept the £100 a month payment offer, so don't be scared of the big bad debt collector who will try to scare you.

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When I was at college I used my Clydesdale bank account to pay my SKY TV and once I was £1 short and I never knew. A little while later I got a letter saying I owed them a few hundred pounds, I went to the bank and they said that their policy is to charge £30 every day an account is overdrawn, I said I can't afford this and they didn't care. Years later a debt collector contacted me about the debt which had now jumped up several hundred pounds to something like £600. I called the debt collector and said how this all spawned from being £1 overdrawn, and that I refused to pay and I was willing to take my chance in court and that I didn't believe there was a judge in the land that would force me to pay £600 for a £1 debt, I never heard from them again.

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With your debt I wouldn't get upset or stressed out as nothing bad will happen to you. But as I said at the start, if you have a decent credit rating - is it worth losing it for £770 which you can pay back in instalments. If your credit rating is already piss poor and you don't care you can just ignore it as all they will do is send you a letter every now and again saying you owe them money. After 5/6 years of ignoring them the debt will be written off anyway and won't show on your credit report.