Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. As a nation we've racked up nearly £1.5 trillion of personal debt, and are increasingly falling behind with payments on our credit cards, overdrafts and bank loans. But now many financial institutions - also strapped for cash - want their money back and they are calling in specialist companies to chase up non-payers. Panorama's Can't Pay, Won't Pay looks at how lenders are using the courts to retrieve their money, while some people are refusing to pay a penny back. One couple, who claim the law is on their side, managed to avoid paying almost £100,000 out of their £120,000 debts. After studying the Consumer Credit Act, Basil and Amanda Rankine looked for a number of potential slips in their credit agreements. These included checking that the correct APR was included, that the forms had actually been signed and that the lenders had kept a copy of the paperwork. Tougher tactics The Rankines said they wrote to their credit card firms and managed to get a total of £37,000 written off.

Take the debt test Following this success, they decided to take some of their other creditors to court. But it proved to be a step too far. In the High Court, the judge dismissed the case and said they were trying to wriggle out of debt. A legal technicality meant that as their lenders hadn't pursued their claim in the courtroom, they could no longer enforce the outstanding debts. But while they'd avoided repaying nearly £100,000 in debt, the Rankines now face a legal bill of almost the same amount. Creditors are using tougher tactics to make debtors pay back their debts - with a recent surge in applications for charging orders. These court orders enable lenders to secure bad debt on plastic and on loans against borrowers' properties. When unsecured loans become attached to the sale of a house, the debtor is obliged to pay off a chunk of the debt if they ever sell up or re-mortgage. However, some lenders are now unwilling to wait, and are applying for an 'order for sale' which forces the property-owner to sell up straight away and pay off their debt from the capital. Bad debt In the first six months of this year alone, UK banks and building societies wrote off £1.8bn in bad consumer debts for various reasons.

1st Credit statement Loopholes clear couple's debts Chasing bad debt is time-consuming and expensive and lenders are increasingly opting to sell on our bad loans at a knockdown price to firms that specialise in debt collection. One of the industry's largest debt purchasers is 1st Credit. It says it acquires 12,000 new debtors every month, and claims to be sympathetic to those who genuinely cannot pay. However, when Leanne Blurton had to deal with her stepfather's financial problems after he was committed to a psychiatric hospital, she found it didn't live up to that claim. While other creditors suspended repayments, 1st Credit was the only one to refuse to freeze his account. Instead, it continued to take £54 a month. In a series of phone calls, Ms Blurton is asked to provide evidence of her stepfather's illness but when she does, she is then told repeatedly there is still nothing the company can do to help. When Panorama contacted 1st Credit, it apologised to Ms Blurton and said in a statement: "We're very sorry that our actions have caused him and his daughter considerable distress. "1st Credit is re-training staff members concerned and issuing clearer guidelines to all staff regarding the handling of cases such as this." 1st Credit have now frozen his account. Sale threat Driving charging orders through the courts is a new breed of debt collector, which do not purchase debts, but pursue them. Malina Bergeman found that her £1,700 sofa shot up to £6,200 after interest and penalty charges were added. She bought the sofa on a 'pay nothing for a year' deal, but by the time the year was up had lost her job and was struggling financially. A debt charity advised reducing monthly re-payments on the sofa from £121 to £40. She took its advice. But Creation Finance - which operates Land of Leather's credit agreements - demanded the entire amount owed, and then applied for a charging order on Ms Bergeman's home. The company went further and threatened her with an order for sale. Her father was forced to step in and paid a settlement of £4,700 using a credit card. However, consumer advice agencies say they are dealing with rising numbers of applications, which puts those in debt increasingly at risk of losing their homes. Panorama: Can't Pay, Won't Pay will be on BBC One on Monday 10 November at 8.30pm



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