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Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

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  • mrcow
    mrcow Posts: 15,170 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Sorry if this question has been asked 100 times before, but I couldn't find the answer.

    I spoke with CCCS today and think that my SIL will be needing to go on a DMP as soon as we can get all her information together. At the moment, she owns her own property and pays everything, but she is due to have a baby in August and my brother is going to be moving in officially and contributing to the bills.

    How will this affect the DMP? Do we just set it up for her and then reevaluate it once he's onboard?

    Also, she keeps talking about moving house as they live in a one bedroom flat. I'm guessing that no mortgage company would touch her if she's on a DMP? Is this right? And if so, are they stuck living where they are for the foreseeable long term future? She could never afford to move anyway at the moment, but if things did improve and they could clear what they owe, would their credit rate still be shot to bits?
    "One day I realised that when you are lying in your grave, it's no good saying, "I was too shy, too frightened."
    Because by then you've blown your chances. That's it."
  • VanillaDelia
    VanillaDelia Posts: 451 Forumite
    I spoke to a CCCS advisor online today about my current situation and got a debt remedy booklet. I'm now going through it before deciding to go with a DMP or not. Before I make that decision I have a few questions I need cleared up. I've tried going online again but it's currently not available so thought I would ask here. I have a few questions so I'll list them below:
    1. Will I still be in control of my HP or will I have to give up my car?
    2. I've included in my debt remedy a loan with HFC for a sofa, the outstanding balance is £503 and I only have 2 and a bit payments left, the only trouble is it's actually in my sisters name as I couldn't get credit for it and the direct debit was set up from my account instead, can this be excluded from the DMP?
    3. I have an overdraft on my current account of £342 and have an agreement with LLoyds TSB to reduce this by £50 every month, should I keep this in the DMP? I'm worried they close my account if I choose the DMP.
    4. If I were to accept the DMP say tomorrow, do I cancel all my direct debits to creditors immediately as they're due to come out my account on the 25th? I think the advisor told me to do this and use the money to pay my rent and council tax arrears but I was in such a fluster at the time I'm not 100% sure.

    Thanks in advance for any help and advice given.

    Rachael

    As I said earlier, you wont loose the Car this can not be added to a DMP. You pay this as normal and keep up repayments.

    Debts that are in someone else's name can not be added to a DMP even if they are a guarantor, it becomes the person who was the guarantors responsibility. I would imagine you will have to keep that as it is.

    I would cancel all DD if you go ahead with it. CCCS will probably recommend token £1 payments for this month before they get you up and running.

    Your bank will most probably close the account eventually, although our joint LLoyds account is still open and thats with a DMP. We dont use ours now though.

    A CCCS member will no doubt be here tomorrow to advise you properly with your concerns.
  • Thanks VanillaDelia for that. I do seem to be going on a bit but I just want everything straight in my head before I agree to anything. I really appreciate your help.
    Do what you want because in the end people will judge you anyway.
  • stickman
    stickman Posts: 163 Forumite
    Hi there, thanks for the post.

    A full and final settlement is where you can approach a creditor and offer a lump sum in one go to clear the debt. For example, if you had £10k you could consider offering it in one sum to a credit debt to the value of £15k perhaps, and they may consider accepting it. Potentially doing this with multiple debts you can save a lot of money.

    However, it's only possible if you have that kind of money available. Most people making settlement offers have a lump sum from a sale of a house, or recieved a lump sum from a family member or an insurance payout perhaps. If either of these apply to you, we could certainly discuss this with you in more detail if it's something you want to look at doing, and provide you with template letters to approach your creditors with.

    Regards,
    Matthew.
    Thanks Mathew,Just one more thing. I know I'm stating the obvious here but why are creditors reluctant to stop interest thereby opening more avenues to repay the total ammount quicker in full thus avoiding the possible option of Bancruptcy where they could potentially receive a lot less or even nothing. Surely payment in full is better than a reduced ammount or nothing.
    Thanks
  • Your welcome but im sure things will be better once you get some proper professional answers from the CCCS team here tomorrow.

    Please dont panic.
  • CCCS_Matthew
    CCCS_Matthew Posts: 922 Organisation Representative
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    OH and I have a DMP running with CCCS. I have now returned to full time work and as such we have a lot more available income to give to our creditors. With the increase we would be able go back to our original payment with all our creditors. Would we be better leaving CCCS and just paying our creditors ourselves. Also how would this work if the original creditor has sold the debt on.

    Many thanks.

    Hi there,

    Your best bet is to give Client Support a call to discuss your options. If you can make contractual payments you could certainly consider dealing with the creditors directly, particularly if you can even overpay perhaps? If any debts had been sold on you would just need to set up Standing Order with them with the amount you can afford. If this is something you want to do, we could advise what payments to offer based on your surplus.

    Matthew.
    I am a Debt Counsellor that works for the CCCS and have specific permission from Martin, to post on these boards to try and help those in debt. Read more information on the CCCS and what it does in the Debt Problems: What to do and where to get help article.

    CCCS is a registered charity, and there is no charge whatsoever for any of the services we provide to our clients. We take great pride in offering first class help and advice, but we only offer this where we have been able to fully explore and understand your circumstances with you. We want to help you understand these choices and their possible implications but not make them for you.
  • CCCS_Matthew
    CCCS_Matthew Posts: 922 Organisation Representative
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    My head is in a whirl. Can anyone clarify my main questions which are these:

    At this moment I have not missed any payments on any of my debts.

    Should I contact the Credit Cards via the number on the statement as it suggests and tell them I'm in trouble and cannot make the payments, (which are covering the interest only.)

    What is the likely outcome? Has any CC ever responded by freezing the interest, and generally tried to be helpful. Or am I in for a world of abuse and threat by bringing my problem to their notice?

    Secondly. If I entered into a DMP for my credit card debts (one is with HBOS), what is the chances of getting a new morgage deal in 2 years when my current one ends (I'm morgaged with HBOS) I have never missed a payment, and don't intend to.

    My OH is worried that they'll refuse to offer us a morgage (or anyone else for that matter) and we'll have to sell the house because they'll demand the 50,000 we owe on it.

    My OH has point blank refused to remorgage (I'm not sure if we could even at this stage ie: no missed payments on anything ... yet.) Would it ever be a feasable option?

    Ultimatem: The OH is just about talking to me but if the house goes, so does she.


    Hi there.

    Creditors are sometimes willing to accept reducing or freezing interest if you can show that you are in real financial difficulty, which you would need to illustrate by giving them a breakdown of income and expenditure as well as other credit debts you have.

    If you entered a DMP, your credit is likely to be effected if your creditors decided to default your accounts. Defaults stay on your file for 6 years and may have a negative impact on getting another mortgage. It won’t normally stop you from mortgage completely, it normally means you may struggle to be given the most competitive rates.

    Remortgaging now would be impossible to advise without seeing your figures. In some cases it can be feasible providing it doesn’t increase your payments, so for most people this is only an option if they can stretch out the term. It can be difficult to do this in some cases due to redemption fees as well as lenders being quite prudent with their lending, given the current climate.

    I’d suggest perhaps either booking an appointment with one of our debt counsellors to discuss your options by ringing 0800 138 1111, or perhaps try Debt Remedy by clicking here.

    Hope this helps,
    Matthew.
    I am a Debt Counsellor that works for the CCCS and have specific permission from Martin, to post on these boards to try and help those in debt. Read more information on the CCCS and what it does in the Debt Problems: What to do and where to get help article.

    CCCS is a registered charity, and there is no charge whatsoever for any of the services we provide to our clients. We take great pride in offering first class help and advice, but we only offer this where we have been able to fully explore and understand your circumstances with you. We want to help you understand these choices and their possible implications but not make them for you.
  • CCCS_Matthew
    CCCS_Matthew Posts: 922 Organisation Representative
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I spoke to a CCCS advisor online today about my current situation and got a debt remedy booklet. I'm now going through it before deciding to go with a DMP or not. Before I make that decision I have a few questions I need cleared up. I've tried going online again but it's currently not available so thought I would ask here. I have a few questions so I'll list them below:
    1. Will I still be in control of my HP or will I have to give up my car?
    2. I've included in my debt remedy a loan with HFC for a sofa, the outstanding balance is £503 and I only have 2 and a bit payments left, the only trouble is it's actually in my sisters name as I couldn't get credit for it and the direct debit was set up from my account instead, can this be excluded from the DMP?
    3. I have an overdraft on my current account of £342 and have an agreement with LLoyds TSB to reduce this by £50 every month, should I keep this in the DMP? I'm worried they close my account if I choose the DMP.
    4. If I were to accept the DMP say tomorrow, do I cancel all my direct debits to creditors immediately as they're due to come out my account on the 25th? I think the advisor told me to do this and use the money to pay my rent and council tax arrears but I was in such a fluster at the time I'm not 100% sure.

    Thanks in advance for any help and advice given.


    Hi Rachael,

    Looks like VanillaDelia has answered your questions spot on, but I thought I would just reply as well to confirm!

    1) As HP is a priority debt, you will need to continue full repayments yourself, this will not be included within the DMP.

    2) You will need to remove the sofa debt from the DMP, as legally this is your Sister's debt and the DMP is in your name only. You would need to include a payment to your Sister with in your priority expenditure until the balance has been cleared, and then the money can go into the DMP to clear your debts off a little quicker.

    3) All credit debts need to be included within a DMP, including an overdraft. I would suggest setting up another account away from Lloyds to ensure your money is protected in there, as their payment through the DMP may not be £50 a month.

    4) You definitely need to get any rent and Council Tax arrears up to date. If you feel you can do this by offering token payments to your creditors until the DMP is set up then I would certainly go down this route. If the arrears are not cleared by the start of the DMP we would need to postpone it until everything is back up to date. The only exeption would be if you have a long term arrangment to pay back £xx amount back each month to them, and have documented this within your budget.

    Hope that helps, any questions give us a shout!

    Matthew.
    I am a Debt Counsellor that works for the CCCS and have specific permission from Martin, to post on these boards to try and help those in debt. Read more information on the CCCS and what it does in the Debt Problems: What to do and where to get help article.

    CCCS is a registered charity, and there is no charge whatsoever for any of the services we provide to our clients. We take great pride in offering first class help and advice, but we only offer this where we have been able to fully explore and understand your circumstances with you. We want to help you understand these choices and their possible implications but not make them for you.
  • CCCS_Matthew
    CCCS_Matthew Posts: 922 Organisation Representative
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    stickman wrote: »
    Thanks Mathew,Just one more thing. I know I'm stating the obvious here but why are creditors reluctant to stop interest thereby opening more avenues to repay the total ammount quicker in full thus avoiding the possible option of Bancruptcy where they could potentially receive a lot less or even nothing. Surely payment in full is better than a reduced ammount or nothing.
    Thanks

    I completely understand where you are coming from, but that's a bit difficult one. Only the creditors can explain why they are sometimes reluctant to stop interest!

    I know that doesn't really help, but it's not really something I'm qualified to be able to answer.

    Matthew.
    I am a Debt Counsellor that works for the CCCS and have specific permission from Martin, to post on these boards to try and help those in debt. Read more information on the CCCS and what it does in the Debt Problems: What to do and where to get help article.

    CCCS is a registered charity, and there is no charge whatsoever for any of the services we provide to our clients. We take great pride in offering first class help and advice, but we only offer this where we have been able to fully explore and understand your circumstances with you. We want to help you understand these choices and their possible implications but not make them for you.
  • Thank you for clearing up those questions for me. I've now taken the plunge and accepted a DMP. I'm scared and excited to be finally doing something about it! :p
    Do what you want because in the end people will judge you anyway.
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