Holding letter for joint account - ask creditors to hold off
This advice applies to England. See advice for See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Scotland, See advice for Wales
You can use this letter to ask creditors to hold off for a short period while you work out your budget or get advice.
This template is to be used for guidance and may not suit your specific situation. If you require more detailed advice and guidance, you can get more help.
If you need more help on using this tool, or you want to read about circumstances when you might use it, see Guidelines for using the letter templates.
Check if your creditor can still take action against you
Your creditors have a limited time to take you to court to repay a debt. For most debts, the time limit is 6 years. The time limit restarts if you write to your creditor or make a payment. If it’s a joint debt, this includes if the other person makes a payment.
If you haven’t got court papers after 6 years, your debt becomes ‘statute barred’ - this means your creditor can’t take court action to get their money back.
Don’t use this letter if:
it’s been over 6 years, because they might not be able to force you to pay
it will soon be 6 years, because contacting them might restart the time limit
Check if the time limit has passed or will pass soon. If you’re not sure, talk to an adviser.
Sam Hoolin and Alex Liu
8 Park Avenue
Arlton
AL1 4CA
01234 567890
sam123@mail.com
Giltham City Bank
24 Station Road
Giltham
GT16 3LP
21 December 2024
Your reference: AN1/Reminder/674
To whom it may concern,
Account names: Sam K Hoolin and Alex P Liu
Account number: 12345678
We are sorry that we are unable to keep up our monthly payments to your company. This is because:
We're sick and unable to work. We have claimed benefits and are waiting to hear the outcome of our claims. Our situation is unlikely to improve for at least 3 months.
We are writing to all our creditors asking for details of the balance outstanding on our accounts. Once we have this information we will be able to work out how much we can afford to pay to each creditor. As it may take a little time for all our creditors to reply, it would be helpful if you could hold action on our account for 2 months and agree to freeze interest and other charges to stop our debt increasing. If you are unable to agree to this, please explain your reasons.
Thank you for your help and we look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Sam Hoolin and Alex Liu
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Page last reviewed on 16 December 2020