Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

cookiemonster30

Hi, Can you give me some advice please?

I have unsecured debts of about £6,500- a loan, 3 credit cards and an overdraft. The thing is, I've had no contact with any of the companies for about two years, they've had no payments from me in this time. I've been well and truly burying my head and because I've moved a couple of times, they don't have my present address.

I really want to sort this out and start paying my debts back, my income is limited but I can pay something each month.

I'm just about to get married(in 4 Days...), hubby to be doesn't know about these debts (yet), but I don't want to involve him or his income as these debts are in my name from before I met him, and I don't think he should pay for my stupidity.

I don't have any paperwork as I threw it all away a while ago. Can CCS help me, I don't know the best place to start.

Thanks in advance!

Godiva500

SOA for debt relief order
I intend to apply for DRO end of next week when my new bank acct is up and running. I meet all of the criteria that has been specified on here, so wondered if you could take a look and advise me please?

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1052
Partners monthly income after tax....... 100
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1152
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 322
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 43
Gas..................................... 43
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 29
Telephone (land line)................... 30
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 350 -Special diet and 2 cats
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 50
Road tax................................ 17
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30 - over 60 so opticians and dentists bills more regular.
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25 - 2 cats
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1151

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 510
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 510

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
RBS CC.........................765.......17........0
HSBC CC........................4806......121.......0
NAT WEST CC....................2400......43........0
HSBC OD........................2000......0.........0
IF Loan........................3314......245.6.....0
Total unsecured debts..........13285.....426.6.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,152
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,151
Available for debt repayments........... 1
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 426.6
Amount short for making debt repayments. -425.6
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 510
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,285
Net Assets.............................. -12,775
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

CCCS_Sarah

demonrat wrote: »

Hi we have dmp with CCCS and all has been going OK.

Recently we noticed that Barclaycard has started to charge us interest again. Not a huge amount, certainly not the full rate but until a few months ago no interest was charged on our balance.

Is this normal behaviour for creditors?

Thanks.

Hi demonrat,

It sometimes does happen. Sometimes creditors agree to stop the interest and charges for a certain amount of time i.e. after this amount of time they would like to see an updated budget.

Say for example if it’s been over 12 months since your last review, they would want to see a new budget. If a review is not due on your account, you could write them a short letter asking them to reconsider as there has been no changes to your situation.

Unfortunately if they don’t agree to stop the interest there is no way of making them as it’s at their discretion.

Hope this helps

CCCS_Sarah

icecube2009 wrote: »

Thanks Matthew, just got in from work & notification letter waiting for me. I wondered if you can tell me how I know when my DMP will start, it doesnt say on the letter, can I request for it to start a particular month or does it have to start in May?

The reason i ask is that pay day here is 15th of the month, we have paid all March's debts up to date from march's pay so the DMP if it were to start on 1st May would have to be paid from Aprils wages & I was hoping to have a month with nothing to pay out so I can put something away for emergencies before starting the DMP


Thanks

If you need to change your start date then this should not be a problem. In your pack there will be a contact number you can call, just give them a quick call and they will change your start day on the system.

If you do start the following month, you would need to just make a token payment to your creditor until your plan starts – even if this is just £1 as a goodwill gesture.

CCCS_Sarah

Markymarky wrote: »

I currently have a Land Rover as my hobby (working on it in the garage is as much a hobby as driving it off road!). It also gets used as a tow car when we take Scouts out. The mandatory costs per year (tax, mot etc) only come to a maximum of £500 a year. I do the maintenance myself, and can often get parts second hand for cheap money or swaps for current parts I have. The Landy is not my main commuting car.

My wife and I are looking at a DMP (she has already been posting on her re that, thanks already for the advice!), where would I stand with the Land Rover? I do not want to get rid of her but wonder how she would be seen if we're entering into a DMP.

Any advice gratefully received!

Hi Markymarky,

Thank you for your post.

It would be hard to say without knowing your full budget; your counsellor would be able to look at this in detail for you on your appointment.

If the counsellor did offer a dmp, as this is not an essential item the creditors may look at your car and reject your offer, as they would expect any spare available funds to be distributed between them all.

Hope this helps

Kentmumof1

hi,
ive been with the cccs for years now,and have been paying token payments to my creditors for many years, I have now decided to go bankrupt as I am just not getting anywhere, I am a single mum (made redundant when pregannt) and I rent my property priviety from the council so only survive at the moment on income support, child benefit and child benefit, I need to try to save to pay for bankrupty and have stopped paying my creditors this month but thats only a total of £40 a month (£40,000+ debt from over 10 years ago) its going to take forever to save, is there any other options with the courts ?

thanks
natasha

Markymarky_2

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Hi Markymarky,

Thank you for your post.

It would be hard to say without knowing your full budget; your counsellor would be able to look at this in detail for you on your appointment.

If the counsellor did offer a dmp, as this is not an essential item the creditors may look at your car and reject your offer, as they would expect any spare available funds to be distributed between them all.

Hope this helps

Thanks Sarah, appricieate your help. Whilst I fully appricieate that I should be paying off as much as possible to creditors (indeed this is what I want to do!) is there a line somewhere between sacrifices to pay creditors (again, appricieate that I need to make sacrifices) but also still having hobbies etc? Or is it down to what the level of funds I am distributing to them?

Thanks again,


Mark

icecube2009

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

If you need to change your start date then this should not be a problem. In your pack there will be a contact number you can call, just give them a quick call and they will change your start day on the system.

If you do start the following month, you would need to just make a token payment to your creditor until your plan starts – even if this is just £1 as a goodwill gesture.

I dont have a start date yet, just received my letter from CCCS yesterday & am in middle of filling in form to send back (with pay slips) so can I request a start date? maybe put a letter in with it???
Thanks

CCCS_Sarah

cookiemonster30 wrote: »

Hi, Can you give me some advice please?

I have unsecured debts of about £6,500- a loan, 3 credit cards and an overdraft. The thing is, I've had no contact with any of the companies for about two years, they've had no payments from me in this time. I've been well and truly burying my head and because I've moved a couple of times, they don't have my present address.

I really want to sort this out and start paying my debts back, my income is limited but I can pay something each month.

I'm just about to get married(in 4 Days...), hubby to be doesn't know about these debts (yet), but I don't want to involve him or his income as these debts are in my name from before I met him, and I don't think he should pay for my stupidity.

I don't have any paperwork as I threw it all away a while ago. Can CCS help me, I don't know the best place to start.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Cookiemonster,

Your first step would be to get a copy of your credit file from one of the 3 credit reference agencies. Once you have this information you will be able to see how much you owe and to who.

While you are waiting for this information to arrive you could start putting together a detailed budget, for this you would need to list all your priority income and expenditure. This would then show you how much surplus you have left over to pay your unsecured debts.

Below I have added the details of the credit reference agencies for you:

Experian Ltd
Consumer Help Service
PO Box 8000
Nottingham
NG80 7WF
Tel: 0844 481 8000
www.experian.co.uk
(you can order your credit report on the internet or by telephone)
Equifax plc
Credit File Advice Centre
PO Box 1140
Bradford
BD1 5US
Tel: 0870 010 0583
www.equifax.co.uk
(you can order your credit report on the internet)
Callcredit Ltd
Consumer Services Team
PO Box 491
Leeds
LS3 1WZ
Tel: 0870 060 1414
www.callcredit.co.uk
(you can order your credit report on the internet)

CCCS_Sarah

natashayannis wrote: »

hi,
ive been with the cccs for years now,and have been paying token payments to my creditors for many years, I have now decided to go bankrupt as I am just not getting anywhere, I am a single mum (made redundant when pregannt) and I rent my property priviety from the council so only survive at the moment on income support, child benefit and child benefit, I need to try to save to pay for bankrupty and have stopped paying my creditors this month but thats only a total of £40 a month (£40,000+ debt from over 10 years ago) its going to take forever to save, is there any other options with the courts ?

thanks
natasha

Hi Natasha,

As you are on a low income you should be exempt from the court fees, you would need to complete a form called an EX160A. The Official Receivers fees from the 6th April will be £360 so this is the amount you would need to try and pay. Some utility companies have trust funds that you could try and apply to. If you are not eligible for the trust funds you would be able to reduce your payments to your creditors and offer them £1pcm until you have saved enough.

We do have a bankruptcy support department if you would an appointment to discuss this in more detail.