Being in financial hardship is a horrible place to be, but by taking simple steps to minimise debt you can begin to get control of your finances once more. The following letter is one you can send to anyone you owe money to, telling them you are unable to pay and asking for a pause in payments for a specific amount of time.
How do you tell creditors that you are unable to pay them?
Keep the Letter to Creditors Realistic.
As this is a letter detailing the inability to make payments there is no point requesting a new payment plan or any other type of repayment option such as interest only payments. The point of this letter is to make creditors aware that payments will not be met for a period of time. Many people who cannot make payments will panic and include offers of reduced monthly payments. There is no point including unrealistic offers of payments that cannot be made as this will be looked on unfavourably by creditors.
You are in effect throwing yourself on their mercy as they are under no legal obligation to agree to your request. However the fact that you are contacting them and explaining your situation is in your favour so it’s definitely worth a try.
Letter Explaining Inability to Pay Creditors – sample 1
[Your name
Address
Postcode]
Credit Company Name
Address
Postcode
Dear Sir/Madam
Re: Account No:
I regret to inform you that I am presently unable to make payments to my credit account due to [state reason here].
Please find enclosed a copy of my monthly income and expenditure. As you can see from this information it would not be realistic of me to make a financial offer of payment towards this account. My only income at the moment is [state income such as unemployment benefits, income support, pension credits, etc]. This income is enough to simply cover my basic monthly outgoings.
I am requesting that my account is placed on hold for six months along with suspended interest amounts. This timescale is approximate and should my financial situation change before the six month period has ended I will inform you of the change.
I am presently making every effort to increase my income and will contact your company as soon as any financial change occurs.
Your understanding and patience in this matter is much appreciated and I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully
[Your name]
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