Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

baggilou

I have signed up to CCCS and have application for Barclays Bank Account.

I get paid next week and hoped to start the plan on the 1st of May. From what I read on here could I start the plan on 1st April and then send the letters with payments this month?

That means I would be all ready to go with bigger and better payments next month and for a change this month may have enough money to live off??

I am not sure that I can do this and obviously I need to make sure that the important DD's for water, council tax, mortgage go out of my current bank account with Lloyds before I send them their letter.

Is this something that I can legitimately do and do I have a process of calculating what sort of minimum payment I should make to show them that I am willing to get to the end of this?

Thanks, Lou

CCCS_Sue

bluesy2shoes wrote: »

Hi All,

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post my question, but I'll give it a try....

I recently obtained a copy of my free credit report with Equifax and on it it shows that there is a settled credit agreement with Welcome Finance, whereby I had agreed with them that I would pay an amount for full and final settlement and this would show on my credit file.
But - it shows 'Partial settlement - Payment recieved as full and final settlement althought payment would not clear the balance.

Is that fair that they can state this seeing as I was in dispute with them ovet the amount in the first place and they made me an offer to settle the account?

Another question I have is that it also shows on my report, that there is a default placed on there from a company called 'Arrow Global Ltd' - now I have no idea who they are and it shows that I have never paid them - which is of course correct as I have no idea who and why they are there. Now if I contact the company to find this information out, do they have to prove that I did indeed take out an agreement with them? Such as provide me with proof of a signed contract of some sort that you take out whenever you take on a credit agreement?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks all

Hi bluesy2shoes and thank you for your email

When you made the full and final settlement offer, you should have got the creditors to put it in writing to confirm that the offer was made on the understanding that if accepted neither the creditor or any associate company would take any other action to enforce or pursue the debt in any way and that you would be released from any liability.
You should have also requested they make an entry on your credit reference agency file relating to the above account as ‘settled in full’.
If you did not then I’m afraid it would show as partial settlement and they could return at a later date to pursue the outstanding debt.
If you did request this and you have a copy of the letter you sent to them, then you could write and ask them to correct your file.
I have attached a link to a booklet called Credit Explained which explains this in more detail. click here
With regards to Arrow Global Ltd, I would write and request a copy of the original agreement to prove the debt. They are obliged to send you this information.

Hope this helps

Regards
CCCS_Sue

CCCS_Sue

preciousb wrote: »

Hi i have a question for a CCCS Representative. I was on a Debt Plan and it was terminated because i couldnt keep up with the payment with CCCS last August i think.

The reason was i was off work for a few weeks and then i was laid off. Now i am self employed and still in a financial mess. The creditors are on my back and i just wanted to know if i could get on a plan again.

Hi preciousb

Please give us a ring on our free helpline number to make an appointment to speak to one of our debt counsellors for a review of your situation.
It may be that a DMP is no longer the best option, but the counsellor will discuss all available options for your circumstances
The number is 0800 138 1111.
Regards
CCCS_Sue

CCCS_Sue

jen_cam_har wrote: »

Hi,

I am struggling to pay all bills, credit cards and loans. I have come to the conclusion that I can no longer afford my car. I bought it 2 and a half years ago and still have 2 and half years to go. What I am wondering is - what happens if I no longer pay it. Will I still owe them the money if they take my car?

Hi jen-cam-har and thanks for your message

First of all you need to look at the agreement to confirm whether it is a loan or hire purchase

If it is a personal unsecured loan (not a log book loan) then you own the car and you can come to an arrangement to pay back reduced payments you can afford, or you can sell the car and pay it off.

If it is hire purchase, then the most important difference is that the goods do not legally belong to you until you have made the final payment.

If you have paid 50% or more of the total purchase price the item can be returned and you will not be responsible for any further payments. However, if there are any arrears, damage or excess wear and tear you may be liable for these costs.

You have the right, at any time, to return the goods and terminate your agreement under Section 99 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (unless the creditor has already terminated it or the full balance has become due). This is known as Voluntary Termination. You will only be liable to pay up to half of the total loan plus any arrears and the cost of any damage, less the payments already made (including deposit). You must write to your creditor to inform them that you are terminating the agreement. If you do not terminate in writing, the creditor will not treat it as a voluntary termination and you will not benefit from the 50% limit on liability clause. Keep copies of all letters
you send to your creditor.

If you are struggling with other debts too, you could make an appointment to speak to one of our debt counsellors. The free helpline number is 0800 138 1111

Hope this helps

Regards
CCCS_Sue

financefreak

Hi Sarah

First time posting so not sure idf this will work but here goes!

We have started a DMP last month with Payplan. We have a total debt of 40k and are paying 296 per month. My creditors are all still levying interest and charges on my accounts so the token payment Payplan is making is a tiny drop in the ocean and my debt is still growing. I have asked them about it and they said that after a few months the creditors would be more likely to freeze the charges and interest.
So
a) Do I call the creditors and ask for this or do I rely on Payplan?
b) How long would they be likely to do this for?
c) How do I get debt free? I can just see this plan stretching ahead into the future with us never being able to clear the total debt.

Many thanks

financefreak

KMTHOMPSON

Hi, I would like some advice about my 1st credit experience.
In 2005, Direct Line assigned our debt to 1st credit. They first wrote to my husband (although it is a joint debt) in March 2006 to ask for an installment plan to be agreed. At the time it was agreed that we pay 119 months at £234.04 and a final payment in month 120 of £199.48. We have been paying £250 a month since 9th March 2006.
In November 2008, we requested a copy of the terms and conditions of the debt. Since that letter went, we have been bombarded with phone calls insisting that we pay more money as their solicitors have requested it and if we didn't they would put a charge on the house. I'm pretty sure they can't do that as we live in a rented house! As they didn't reply within 8 weeks I sent my complaint to the FOS but they couldn't help as 1st credit was not in their jurisdiction until 2007.
On 31st January 2009 I wrote to them and requested the terms and conditions again and on this occasion I told them that if they didn't reply within 28 days I would stop all future payments. Needless to say I didn't hear from them so I cancelled my standing order. I then had a phone call to say that because they have my bank details I have admitted liability for the debt and they couldn't give me the terms I requested because the debt is too old!! I set up the standing order to them using my internet banking so they do not have a copy of my bank details.
My next move was this week when I sent a recorded letter with my £1 cheque in line with the CCA conditions. If after the 12 + 2 day waiting time they don't produce the original agreement do I have to pay them anymore? Have I admitted liability and can they force me to pay? I don't want to go to court I had to declare myself bankrupt in June 2005 and that was not a great experience. This was a joint debt so wasn't cleared through the bankruptcy.
I would appreciate any advice or thoughts.

CCCS_Sue

Paloma wrote: »

Hi, I am on a CCCS payment plan and have recently been reviewing all my outstanding balances. I have two overdrafts with Natwest and IF where the payment I am making through my CCCS plan isn't covering the interest that is still being charged, and therefore the outstanding amount is gradually creeping up rather than down. If I write to these two creditors asking them again to freeze the interest and stating how committed I am to clearing my debts asap, do you think they are likely to be receptive or will it be a waste of my time?

Hi Paloma and thank you for your message

I understand it can be very frustrating when you are making regular payments to your plan and the debt does not seem to be reducing.

When you go on a DMP with us, we always request that the creditors consider stopping all interest and charges.

However, this is entirely at their discretion.

Normally, when the plan is up and running and you are making regular payments, the creditors generally agree to our request.

I would recommend that you ring our client support line and ask them to contact your creditors again and ask that they reconsider, rather than you contacting them yourself.
It may be that they need an update of your circumstances if you have been on the plan a while.
If you need the telephone number for client support, then send me a PM and I will let you have the number.

Regards
CCCS_Sue

CCCS_Sue

oneday wrote: »

Hi,

I am in a debt management plan and all has been well for sometime now, This morning i received a letter from A&L telling me they were applying for a charging order on my property. I called My DMP manager and he then contacted A&L, the order is to go ahead unless i can give them an extra £125 a month, well this is not possible.

I am now worried sick, will i have to go to court, do i lose my house, will officials appear at my door to serve me papers. I am so worried i feel sick. I have not missed any of my payments since entering into the plan so this has come as a complete shock!!

Can anyone give me any advice or info.

I live in scotland so reading other posts on here i pressume it will change from a charging order to a IO but is this better or worse

Lynne

Hi oneday and thank you for your email

I have forwarded your query to a colleague in Scotland to get some further info on this for you.Will let you know as soon as I find out

Regards
CCCS_Sue

jmorrissey290

I have a question for a CCCS representative:

Further to yesterday's long post (#1409 & #1410i), Barclaycard have gone from villain to hero, in that they have (verbally) offered 50% F&F.

This will leave our fighting fund a bit low for the other creditors, but I am tempted get my dad to accept (assuming written offer removes all future liability etc etc) as it will get one monkey off our back.

What I want to know is, is there a legal requirement to disclose this to the other creditors, or settle at the same level, in a similar way to the fact that when on a DMP you should not favour one creditor over another.

Or as these are independent negotations undertaken by myself, can Barclaycard get a premium for being first to settle without impacting my ability to negotiate with the others?

Any advice gratefully received, as want to get back to them today

CCCS_Sue

jmorrissey290 wrote: »

Hi there - I just posted this note on a DMP thread, but knew there was a CCCS on-line service here, and just found it. [I have tried phoning CCCS and CAB many times, but can never get connected or stay on hold long enough to get through - you guys must be so busy at the moment]

Anyway, we found out just before Christmas that my father had run up quite significant debt – a £120k mortgage from one of those punitive double-digit rate companies, which he had been drawing down on over a number of years and latterly servicing with credit card debt, to the extent he now owes c£30k (roughly even over Capital One, MBNA and Barclaycard)

Last month, we have managed to get him a proper mortgage with a decent rate, slashing the payment down to £600/month. But this and utility/insurance/oil etc eats up the £800 pension he gets, meaning we still have to contribute food and some living costs, but at least it’s better than it was and manageable for us in the long run.

I have also been corresponding and conversing with the credit card companies, and have managed to get the MBNA and Capital One accounts frozen. [Barclaycard are insisting it needs to be done through a debt management company, but I have been trying both the CCCS and CAB almost daily but can’t get through and am loath to pay as we need all the funds we can to help. At one point they told me they had frozen the account on the phone, but when they next bill came in, they hadn’t in reality. I have also recently sent in an extract from CCCS advice on-line re the self-administration option, in the hope that will spur them into action.]. We continue to make token £5 payments each month, but it is not enough to prevent default and debt being passed on.

I can spare c£200/month to contribute to a payment plan, but at that rate it would take over 12 years to pay off the debt, and cannot commit to that length of time. Ideally what I would like is to make a lump sum payment to clear the debt now, and be done with it all.

I originally offered a total of £7,500 (26% of debt) – refused by all – but lower loan rates now mean for £205 I could get a 5yr loan of £10k (35% of total debt) so I recently offered that as a lump sum (or said they could take the £200/month themselves for 5 years and get £12k, 42% of the debt, but over a longer period). I have yet to hear back.

MBNA and Capital One have alluded to the fact that they will accept short payment as settlement, but won’t say at what level. MBNA suggested 95% to preserve his rating, but that is out of the question (besides, I am not worried about my dad’s rating – if never gets credit again, it would be a good thing). I think that realistically if I remortgaged I could get raise £20k (70% of debt), but I would need acceptance first before I began proceedings, and a couple of months to complete (assuming I could get the extra– I could afford the extra payments, but in current climate possibly not the funds)

We don’t want to go down the bankruptcy route, and my mum (miraculously) is unaware of this all and it would send her over the edge if she found out. Surely this would net them more than if they sold the debt onto a third party, be quicker than a drawn out payment plan, and help me solve the problem quickly – a win, win situation all round?

From rather a long post, in summary I would like advice as to how I can:
a) get Barclaycard to freeze the account, and
b) negotiate a lump sum short settlement, so that I know what total I’m dealing with and go about obtaining the funds

Any help most appreciated

Hi jmorrisey290 and thank you for your message

It is never a good idea to take out further borrowing to pay off debt as you are increasing the amount owed by the addition of extra interest.

It sounds from your email as though you have already done quite a lot to try and sort out your father’s debt.

It is good that some creditors have agreed to freeze the interest and charges
They do not have to however. It is entirely at their discretion.

It is difficult to give you detailed advice via the forum as we do not know the full situation.

It would help if you made a telephone appointment to speak to one of our debt counsellors at CCCS.
The counsellor would put together a budget showing your father’s income and expenditure which could be used to send to his creditors and then they could discuss with you the options available for his situation.
They could also discuss how to go about making a realistic full and final settlement .

We are experiencing a massive demand for our service at the moment, I'm sorry you were not able to get through when you tried to contact us previously.
Lines are open from 8am (Mon-Fri) and the best time to call is as early in the morning as possible. It would be helpful that when you call you have his details ready regarding his income, expenditure and creditors, as this can help speed up the referral process. If you have this information ready it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor if one is available, otherwise we will arrange a time that is convenient for you to be called back for an appointment.

Regards
CCCS_Sue