No money left to pay your non-priority creditors? If you have nothing left to pay your creditors, ask them to hold action until your circumstances improve. If you can find the money to do so, you can offer a token payment of £1 a month to each creditor. Don’t worry that your offer is small or think that it is pointless. In our experience, your creditors want you to contact them and offer what you can actually afford to pay. See Ways to pay your creditors and make offers of payment on page 51. Also see our Token payment or no offer of payment sample letter on page 89. What if your non-priority creditor refuses your offer? This sometimes happens. Just make your offer again and ask your creditor to reconsider. Tell them that your offer is reasonable and is all you can afford. Don’t be tempted to pay more. The offers in the Summary budget for creditors are fair to all your creditors. If you let one creditor persuade you to pay more, you won’t have enough for your living costs and other creditors. If other creditors have accepted your offer, tell the creditor that refused. See our Payment offer – what to do if a creditor refuses fact sheet. If you still struggle to get your offers accepted, contact us for advice. Have you been asked for extra proof? Sometimes creditors ask for extra proof, such as wage slips or letters from other creditors. You may agree to reasonable requests, but if the creditor wants proof of all your spending, point out that the court wouldn’t usually ask for this. Many creditors are members of trade associations and will have agreed to follow a code of practice. The code usually says that creditors should be sympathetic in cases of financial hardship. Contact us for advice if you feel a creditor is acting unreasonably. We can give you details of their trade association and advise you about the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) Consumer Credit sourcebook (CONC). CONC sets out rules and guidance which most creditors must follow when collecting debt. We can also tell you how to make a complaint. Page 90