Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

kathleeeeen

I have just made a call to a CCCS advisor who is arranged a meeting/phone call for me later in the month.

She ws really helpful and took all of my details and answered all of my questions but i forgot to ask this one.

Will i give all my money to CCCS to pay my bills? I have over £14000 in debt although i am not behind on any of the payments (yet) i have been living off overtime which has dried up at work so i am now starting to struggle.

I understand that i will give money to CCCS who will pay the companys i have a debt with but what about household bills and rent, im not behind with these so i dont have any debt with them. will i pay them myself still or will CCCS pay them also on my behalf?

Any help is appreciated

Many thanks

Kathy

boyd79

Hi Sarah !
I've been in an I.V.A. for about a year now and was wondering if it was alright for me to start saving some money each month? The amount would be around £200. I know that this would be seen on my credit file, but could the companies i owe, try to break the agreement thats in place?

CCCS_Sarah

livis wrote: »

Dear CCCS,

Can you help me with the following question please.
I have a DMP which you administer and i would like you know do you recieve statements from the Debt Collection Agencies re debtors individual accounts.
I know i receive a statement from you each month but it does say estimated balance on it, which worries me.
I am looking for total clartiy and transparancy of what i owe and how that debt has been made up.
e.g have the agency been adding charges, fee's interst etc.
How would i go about finding this information out.
many Thanks

Hi Livis,

We don’t receive statements from your creditors, if you do have up to date balances we would be able to update your account for you, either over the phone or you could pop a copy in the post.

CCCS_Sarah

asta88 wrote: »

Hi

Can anyone help? I ordered a new mobile online from the company 3 in Dec 2007. This was t o be a christmas present and was on a contract. The phone arrived around the middle of December and I quickly looked at it to see it was okay then wrapped it up. When the phone was first used around 28-29 December we had trouble getting a signal, due to the then emergency addmission to hospital with appendisitis the phone was left till after the new year. I contacted 3 and was put through to their technical support, very nice guy tried a few thing then asked me for my postcode and confirmed that 3 could not provide me with a signal at my address .

3 were not interested in cancelling the contract as it had passed the 14 day return ruling dispite having all the information. I have since Jan 2008 had 3 and then two seperate debt companys contacting me regularly by both phone and letter. My Experian report states two entries from Hutchison 3G which are settled then one with a £51 default for over 8 months. This has affected my ability to obtain finance for a new car which i desperatly need. Is there any way I can have this removed from my credit file. I still have the phone in its box and have asked 3 several times to uplift it!

Hi asta88,

I would recommend you talk to an organisation called Consumer Direct, they will be able to give you advice on where you stand with the contact and see if there are any other ways round it.

This link will take you directly to their website http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/ let me know how you get on.

Sarah

CCCS_Matthew

beanielou wrote: »

Can you tell me what is allowed for food for single person with a teenager staying every second weekend?
Thanks

Hi beanie,

That's a bit of a difficult one, there aren't really any set guidelines when the second person is only there a couple of weekends. What figure are you currently working with in your budget?

Regards
Matthew.

ErinG

Hi-

We have had our DMP for about a year now. We were paying £100 a month but have been asked to reduce the payment to £82 as otherwise it looks like have more money than we do. We are still accumulating interest and charges on our accounts and our debt has not decreased.

We are about 40k in debt (unsecured) and I am feeling really hopeless about it. Even if I were to double our monthly payment it would take about 16 years to pay off, assuming we we ever start to actually pay it down. I've recently gotten two extra jobs and would like to save some of the extra money so that I can make a settlement offer to our creditors. Is this a good idea at this point?

I don't know what else to do, bar going bankrupt. Maybe we need to consider this?

Thanks

sandalwood_2

Hi,new here,
have been reading a lot of what is on here and would like to ask a bit of advice.
Myself and my partner are expecting our first child in September,he have looked into what her maternity pay will be and it is awfull,so the nuts and bolts of it are is that we will have to enter into a DMP.We spoke to our financial advisor who put us in touch (well,the same office) with Eurodebt,all seemed good with them until they said that they would charge,so will be going to CCCS.
At the moment we can just get by on what we earn and paying off debts (total £43k) but obviously when the baby comes we will only be effectivly on one salary,so will have to enter into a DMP.unfortunatly our mortgage deal is up at the end of August,is it a good idea to get the mortgage deal done before we enter in the DMP? or start the DMP first? of course if we enter into a DMP now the figures will change once her maternity pay kicks in September,will that still be ok? bit confused with it all to be honest and just want some help
Thank you

CCCS_Matthew

lisadonaldson wrote: »

Hi hope someone can help me!

I am not behind with any payments yet everything is up to date as of today.

My husband and myself have seperated at the weekend everything amicable but only problem being he has left house to try and get accomodation of his own so will have to outlay for rent and running a house for himself, meanwhile me and the kids are living in the marital home until its sold.

Currently we have £55,000 equity in house and once sold all debts will be cleared which mainly consist of 2 loans.

My mortgage is £730 per month mortgage co gave me two options to have a six month payment hol and pay nothing or defer the mort payment and pay interest only of 560

Loan 1 is £412 per month which is in my name and loan 2 is £300 per month which is also in my name

Totaling £31,000

Hoping to sell house asap pay off debt and have money left over can someone please help me I phoned the loan companies they advised to get in touch with cccs what do or should I do next ??

Hi Lisa.

Your next step is to start asking your creditors for settlement figures. If you're looking at clearing the debts in full after you've sold the house, you maybe able to negotiate a reduced settlement figure. If you perhaps phone them up they will normally give you an idea of what they will be willing to accept. Once you've got the cash in your hand, you can then make them a formal settlement offer (we can help by providing you with a template letter if you like). Normally I would encourage client's to perhaps offer less than the settlement figure provided to see if the creditors are willing to write off more of the debt.

Ideally, you'll be able to clear the two loans off and still have some money left over for yourself.

Hope this helps.
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

mrbeef wrote: »

Hi all
Newbie here.
I have been paying my debts through CCCS for the last 4 years I thought I had come to the end and had 1 more payment to make at the end of next month then debt free at last.
I decided to ring creditors to find if thier end balances tallied with CCCS's as there was only 2 left. The first one was about £80 more which is fair enough.
I then rang Barclaycard, my CCCS statement showed £40 and the person at the other end of the phone told me it was £1084. I laughed at them and told them they had made a mistake as my CCCS statement showed £40. I was stunned when the person said that I did not cancel the payment protection and that is why the debt has gone up. My original balance was £900.
I have never received a statement from Visa since CCCS took over otherwise I would have realised and cancelled it. In fact I am not 100% sure that I had payment protection, as for the last 2 years I have been unable to work through illness.
My sunshine day has been replaced by black clouds.
Can someone give me any advice or help as to wether there is anything I can do or do I just have to pay it.
Thanks in advance

Hi there,

We'd really need to look into this one in a bit more detail. Could I ask you to call Client Support? You should have the number on you're statements, if you can't find it PM me and I'll send the the number.

Matthew.

CCCS_Sarah

helsbels1982 wrote: »

hi

i am looking for some advice/help

i am currently in reciept of incapacity benefit, housing benfit, council tax benefit, income support and dla

i have 4 credit cards and each month i pay:
1 - £40
2- £20
3- £50
4- £25

i have a loan that i pay £134.60 month
i have a catalogue that i pay £40 month
i have a loan that i pay £108 month

i have gone through all my bills and have managed to reduce 2 things but cant reduce anything else and all together i pay £243.15 month

my rent is £425 month

the worst part of all of this is my bank. i have an overdraft of £1250 which ive had since i was a 1st year at uni. now tho im having big problems with it. i am ending up over the overdraft every month. i am now being charged from £150 - £200 month charges because once my benefits go in there are just puting me back into the overdraft and then bills come out and take me over again. i am starting to get my bills to come out of anyother account and am going to try and get my benefits changed to a diferent account but all my bills are stagered through the month.

i just dont know what to do
it is getting to the stage were i am no money spare to live on! and am paying an extra £100-£200 extra because of the charges. it a viscous circle.
im worried that my benefits wont be changed in time and then ill end up owing money from the other account. what will happen with my original bank account when money stops going in although i am going to try and put money into each month as much as i can afford each month. but im just so worried that its all going to go wrong.

i am currently £200 over my overdraft and have just had my benefits and so dont get paid again for another 2 weeks but in this 2 weeks i have a few bill coming out.

please can you give me any advice on what the best way to deal with this problem. im begining to feel realy ill because of the stress. i know i am probably in a better situation than alot of people are but i just dont know what to do anymore.

please help

hels xx

Hi Hels,

You need to speak to the benefits office and ensure they pay the money into your new account.

If there is no time to do this, you will need to contact you bank and advise them you are requesting your first right of appropriation. This is where you advise your bank what money is going into your account, and that the money is needed for your priority bills.

This will all need to be done before your money has gone into the account. You will need to address the letter to the bank manager, and I would recommend that you take this in and speak to the manager rather than general staff.

I have copied a letter below that you could use

Hope this helps

Example letter – first right of appropriation

From:
Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Date:
CCCS Client No:
To:
Creditor’s Name:
Account/Agreement No:
Dear Sir/Madam
Account Number: First Right of Appropriation
A payment of £(amount) will be paid into the above account on this date (date). The account is currently overdrawn; however I need the money to meet my living expenses, utilities and rent payments over the next week.
I am writing to give notice that I intend to use my ‘first right of appropriation’ to earmark the £(amount) for this purpose and will withdraw the sum of £(amount) on this date (date) in order to do so.
I will contact you separately to make arrangements to repay my accounts which remain with you.
Yours faithfully
(Signature)
(Print name)