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debttornado

Hi,
We are gradually getting to grips with our money. We owe a lot in council tax arrears, to 2 councils, and are trying to bring this amount down as quickly as possible - this month we paid £750.

We have accounts with Natwest that are overdrawn, we no longer use them, but most of the overdraft on each is made up of charges. Obviously we are dealing with priority debts first, so what is the best way of dealing with the overdrafts? Should we write and explain that we can only pay a nominal amount until priority debts are cleared or write to challenge the charges?

Emz1987

Hi CCCS,
I need your help!
I have started setting up a DMP with yourselves and im due to make my first payment in April. I have already sent letters to my creditors to tell them that my finances are now being dealt with by CCCS however, 2 of my creditors have still taken money out of my account. One amount of £150 which is a standing order, however i cancelled the standing order online (or at least i thought i did) and another amount of £263.15 which has been taken off my debit card. This is not a standing order or direct debit. This has now left me with no money for the month. Is there any way of me claiming this money back from the people who have taken it?

Thanks,
Emma

hunnybee

My husband and I are going to apply for a DMP very soon as we have hit crisis point. Basically we are now at the point of only just making minimum payments each month but we are having to use credit cards to pay for basics such as petrol and food etc. I have heard of people being declined for DMP due to recent use on their credit cards so I'm not sure what to do.

Should we contact creditors and ask for payment holidays? I don't want to just default on a payment, but we are not going to be able to manage without them and make the minimum payment. Also we have just had some massive energy bills come in too which makes things even more stressful!

What would our best options be? I have tried to ask HSBC for a payment holiday from my loan just to get myself sorted, which to be honest a few months break from that could make a huge difference and maybe even prevent us having to do a DMP, but they basically said they don't do that (nothing like being helpful!)

The second question is that my husband has just applied for a new job which offers more money. The downside is that it does not have a company car option and he already has one with his job. We do not want to get into debt by buying a new car so if he is successful he would have my car and I would take on a lease car at work, which of course is going to affect our finances. Would it be better to wait to do this before a taking on a DMP?

I would really appreciate any help or advice!

Many thanks

CCCS_Alan

lovelybirchtrees wrote: »

Hi
I have been on a DMP but am partly self-employed and trying to figure out what I can expect when my circumstances change - they are probably going to do so in the next month or so unless I am very lucky. I have been trying the number given when I tried DebtRemedy but answered I was self-employed. However all I ever get is that the number is oversubscribed (or words to that effect) and asked to try again later. I have now done this several times. Is there a good time to call to possibly get through?

Hi Lovelybirchtrees

The online advice facility is unable to provide advice for people that are self-employed unfortunately, due to the complexities that can be involved with this type of employment.
We have a specialist team that counsel people that are self employed and that’s what you would be referred to if you came through on the line. Unfortunately with the demand increasing for all our services we can only advise you to keep trying to get through.

If you are just after a general idea on what your options may be you if things change you could just click you are employed not self employed, and go through the system with your figures to see what may change.

Regards

CCCS_Alan

CCCS_Alan

Flyboy wrote: »

hi,
Can anyone here point me to the correct page? My wife and I are making regular payments to a debt collection agency and they are now starting to make threats about 'action' if we won't increase payments! We have today asked them to clarify what they mean by this. Also, they threatened this 'action' if we did not supply an update financial statement within 5 days!! Can they do this, and what actions can they take, even when we're paying regularly? We're in Scotland.

Thx in advance.
Flyboy

Hi Flyboy

I will send your question on to our Scottish trained counsellors and we will post a response once we have an answer for you.

Regards

CCCS_Alan

CCCS_Alan

fanchon wrote: »

Hello

I have written to my 3 creditors offering reduced payments using the formula to work out payments, with my expenditure and income form, and have started making the payments.

I had a letter today to call Alliance and Leceister to discuss my offer which I did and had quite and interesting conversation which I would really appreciate thoughts on.

1) I asked them to put a stop to their debt collection company Aegis phoning me constantly as I find it pretty harrassing and intimidating to be called I don't know how many times a day. the people at the other end of the phone just do not listen and go on and on about me making the payment and how this will effect my credit file etc no matter that I tell them I do not have the money. A & L told me they cannot stop Aegis calling me and that in fact what most people think is harassing is actually what they have to do legally ! ( ie they have to call a certain amount of times a day to prove that they are trying to reclaim the debt.

2) A& L adivsed that I get a consolidation loan ( I have 3 creditors with debts totally £38,000- yes I know I have been a complete idiot and feel very embarrassed and ashamed at my money mismanagement)

3) A&L said that they can't possiblyconsider accepting or thinking about a reduced payment plan until I have stopped using the account for at least 3 months- the last time I used it was Jan 12th to buy weekly groceries at Sainsburys. However they can start to help me by stopping late payments fees if I pay off the arrears that have started to accrue becuase I have started to pay the reduced payment that I can afford of £60 a month. I told the chap that I just do not have the money and he said ' well we can't help you then'- this seems rather harsh

Re: RBS - I can't even get them to reply -they are my largest creditor by far ( £24K on a personal loan). I have sent 3 letters incl. income and exp and a reduced payment offer of £200 a month, and haven't had a reply. I have phoned my local branch 3 times- each time told that someone will get back to me but they never do. I don't even know where to send the reduced payment amount ! Any advise pls

Sorry this has been long message but I am a newbie poster and feeling pretty anxious about owning up to my stupidity
Thankyou for any advise / support that can be offered

Fanchon

Hi Fanchon

Creditors will unfortunate

You can only pay a creditor the money that you have so no matter what they say or threaten, only pay what you can afford each month and pay by SO or over the counter so you are in control of the amounts paid to each creditor.
If the creditors call advise them that you are paying what you can afford each month and If your situation changes you will revise your budget and make alternative payment amounts, that’s all you really need to say to them as no matter how much talking they do it wont change your financial situation.

But if money is outstanding they are allowed to try and recover the debt and will normally contact you in one way or another to try and recover this.

Even if the creditors are not responding to your offers keep paying the amount you can afford, but unfortunately some creditors will place charges onto accounts for late or low payments made onto accounts as normally stated in terms and conditions of an agreement. If you search on this site for reclaiming charges it may be possible for you to claim some of the charges back.

Regards the RBS you would have to contact them yourself and ask them for payment slips or details to set up a SO to allow you to make repayments to the debt, or you may have to possibly go into a branch to get the information if they are not helping over the phone.

Normally the creditors tend to settle down a little bit once they are receiving the payments after a couple of months of regular amounts.

Regards

CCCS_Alan

CCCS_Alan

Rumpleteazer wrote: »

We have a DMP with CCCS, but one of creditors, GE Money, are saying that they will not accept out offer and that they will ultimately take action to recover the car that we bought with the loan. Can they do that? The car is not on HP and I can find nothing in the small print to say they have this power.

Hi Rumpleteazer

Normally if the car is on a HP agreement, conditional sale agreement or a clause in the contract to say the vehicle will be recovered/sold for non payment are the only times the vehicle will be at risk. If it’s just a personal loan and nothing in the contract says the vehicle is at risk for non payment the action they take is that just for a normal collections process.

Regards

CCCS_Alan

CCCS_Alan

debttornado wrote: »

Hi,
We are gradually getting to grips with our money. We owe a lot in council tax arrears, to 2 councils, and are trying to bring this amount down as quickly as possible - this month we paid £750.

We have accounts with Natwest that are overdrawn, we no longer use them, but most of the overdraft on each is made up of charges. Obviously we are dealing with priority debts first, so what is the best way of dealing with the overdrafts? Should we write and explain that we can only pay a nominal amount until priority debts are cleared or write to challenge the charges?

Hi Debttornado

You are doing the right thing regards paying your council tax debts first as they are a priority and non secured creditors are secondary.

Do contact the creditors and advise them of your situation and stick to the payments that you can afford to them, and once the council tax debts are cleared you can then move onto clearing the non priority debts. Regards the charges you can try and challenge them and further details regards this can be found on this site by searching for reclaiming charges.

Regards

CCCS_Alan

CCCS_Alan

Emz1987 wrote: »

Hi CCCS,
I need your help!
I have started setting up a DMP with yourselves and im due to make my first payment in April. I have already sent letters to my creditors to tell them that my finances are now being dealt with by CCCS however, 2 of my creditors have still taken money out of my account. One amount of £150 which is a standing order, however i cancelled the standing order online (or at least i thought i did) and another amount of £263.15 which has been taken off my debit card. This is not a standing order or direct debit. This has now left me with no money for the month. Is there any way of me claiming this money back from the people who have taken it?

Thanks,
Emma

Hi Emma

You would need to check with the bank regards the SO as you are in control of that payment to see if they can do anything about this.
The debit card payment is more difficult, below is some more information regards payments made by this method, the relevant section is quite a way down on the page.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/direct-debit

Hope this helps.

CCCS_Alan

WeeTel

hi i am from northern ireland, i have been reading several posts on this forum, i am like everyone else, in debt and trying to reduce it.
i have thought about contacting some DMP, like payplan, in fact i had an initial contact with them last night, got a welcome email today and was going to ring them this evening, the problem is 1, i am not sure if they can help me as i am from northern ireland and 2, is this DMP likely to further affect my adverse credit rating.
i am in approx £45k worth of debt to cards & Secured loans etc,
i have a £32k mortgage.
i have a house worth minimum £100k
i earn around £15k per year after tax, and to be honest i have been tackling the debts as i can, but am now looking for the long term fix as i have just had my 1st child, i will be looking in the future to purchase a house with my partner and daughter, and therefore am unsure if a debt management plan will affect me worse than repaying the debt as i have been for the last year.
can anyone please advise me wether i am beter to continue to struggle and pay debts as well as live, to keep the already dodgy credit rating i have or am i better to surrender to to DMP.. any advise would be welcome.