Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Sarah

debtfreenewbie wrote: »

Dear cccs:
I received a letter from a dca about a debt that I am positive that it is more than 6 years old. It is not a joint debt,I have had no contact with this company or previous one for 6 years.
I gather it is under that rule but my question is what do I do about it?I have had another letter this morning,not threatening though.
Do I ignore it? I am not disputing it although had forgotten about it,think its at least 10 years ago.
Help.

Creditors are unable to legally purse you for the debt if, after six years;

• The creditor has not already obtained a county court judgment (CCJ)

• You or any one else owing the money (on a debt in joint names) has not made a payment

• You have not written to the creditor admitting they owe the debt

This is known as statute barred and refers to the Limitation Act.
If you believe that the creditor is timed out to collect the debt, you may wish to use the template letter below.

Example letter – limitations act

From:
Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Date:
CCCS Client No:
To:
Creditor’s Name:
Account/Agreement No:

Without Prejudice

Dear Sirs
Ref
I do not admit any liability for your claim and will not be making any payment towards it, as it is now more than six-years since any cause of action may have accrued. Any claim would, therefore, appear to be statute barred under section 5 of The Limitations Act 1980 and any court claim will be defended on that basis.
In addition section 2.14 of The Office of Fair Trading Collection guidance states that it is unfair to pursue such claims where, as here, the creditor has made no contact during the relevant limitation period.
If, however, you have substantive evidence that your claim is not statute barred then please supply it to me within 21 days. If you are unable to provide such evidence please confirm that no further action will be taken against me.
Yours faithfully
(Signature)
(Print name)

icecube2009

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Hiya,

A default notice is standard procedure; you don’t need to contact them. Just make them token payments until your plan is up and running.

A default notice is a legal requirement that ends the contract between you and them. So now they could choose to pass the debt on to a collection agency. If they do transfer the debt then let CCCS know and then we will change who we are paying.

Sarah

Thanks Sarah, so its just standard then? will I be getting these from everyone? I panic too much!!
What difference does it make to my situation if the pass the debt to a debt collection agency?
They also put in a leaflet with the letter, 'getting back on your feet again' which on reading seemed reallyhelpful & understanding, it mentions contacting the CCCS or Payplan, but also says I should ring them to tell them whats going on, I sent the letter 'notification of debt management plan' with my £1 so assume they know whats going on, but do you think it would be better to ring anyway or I am best not speaking to anyone?

CCCS_Sarah

icecube2009 wrote: »

Thanks Sarah, so its just standard then? will I be getting these from everyone? I panic too much!!
What difference does it make to my situation if the pass the debt to a debt collection agency?
They also put in a leaflet with the letter, 'getting back on your feet again' which on reading seemed reallyhelpful & understanding, it mentions contacting the CCCS or Payplan, but also says I should ring them to tell them whats going on, I sent the letter 'notification of debt management plan' with my £1 so assume they know whats going on, but do you think it would be better to ring anyway or I am best not speaking to anyone?

It is standard, nothing to be worried about. All you creditors at some point may go down the route of a default.

Default notices now have to include where to seek advice, so these letters are just system generated so that’s why it does not mention your token payment.

There is no need to contact your creditors if you have already sent them the notification of debt management plan.

throughthebathroomwindow

Hi, CCCS counsellors and MSEs
Sorry - I feel a bit bad taking your time as I'm not in perilous debt - although my heart goes out to those who are really struggling.

I have a conundrum I'm trying to solve.
I have about 6,300 on credit cards. One is with Egg, about £3,000 at 0% until Sept, when it goes up to 16.9. £3,300 is with LLoyds at 11.9%

I have two options.
Have been accepted for a tesco loan of £7,000 (to pay off my o/d, too) at 8.5APR for 4 years. Payments are about £172 a month, and I end up paying about £8,420.

Have also been accepted for a Barclaycard Simplicity at 6.8 per cent for the life of the balance transfer. However, I have no idea what the credit limit will be - I doubt it would be as high as £6,500.

Would it be best to switch to the loan, pay off credit cards and close them, or transfer what I can to the new card?

Thanks in advance

foolishqueen

Evening folks,

I posted my DMP stuff back to CCCS today. How long does it take you guys to set it up and actually contact the creditors? My new bank account has yet to be set up, and one of my creditors is my existing bank account. Obviously when they find out could quite conceivable cnacel my OD straight away leaving me drastically short. I might just transfer all the money out now to my partners account......is that worth doing do you think?

Thanks.

digits

Hi can anyone help or get Martin on the case.
I had a debt sold on to a company called Cabot, the Debt was for a credit card, i have recently reclaimed my charges back, and with them have been clearing my debts. I cleared one debt with a company called Ultimate Credit who knocked of £300 off of my balance to close the account. Great i thought if Cabot do that I'd have spare money to use to help reduce a third debt. So i phoned Cabot as i wanted to clear that debt to, these guys had put charges on my account and i ended up repaying more then the oridginal debt. Is there a way of getting these back? The FSA have told me it's up to Cabot to charge or not, and as yet no one has tried to force them, I'd like to give it a go and would like to hear from other people who have had this problem. If i could get Martin on board as well we could have another section on reclaiming, get the money back into our pockets, and then back into the economy. Sorry if this is on the wrong board but seemed the most relevent.

CCCS_Matthew

throughthebathroomwindow wrote: »

Hi, CCCS counsellors and MSEs
Sorry - I feel a bit bad taking your time as I'm not in perilous debt - although my heart goes out to those who are really struggling.

I have a conundrum I'm trying to solve.
I have about 6,300 on credit cards. One is with Egg, about £3,000 at 0% until Sept, when it goes up to 16.9. £3,300 is with LLoyds at 11.9%

I have two options.
Have been accepted for a tesco loan of £7,000 (to pay off my o/d, too) at 8.5APR for 4 years. Payments are about £172 a month, and I end up paying about £8,420.

Have also been accepted for a Barclaycard Simplicity at 6.8 per cent for the life of the balance transfer. However, I have no idea what the credit limit will be - I doubt it would be as high as £6,500.

Would it be best to switch to the loan, pay off credit cards and close them, or transfer what I can to the new card?

Thanks in advance

Hi there, thanks for posting.

This isn't something we can give specific advice on, as our advice tends to concentrate on helping people that are unable to make the minimum payments on their debts.

However, moving the debt to a loan or a card can be a good option if it’s saving you money on interest over time. I would be inclined to move the balance to the product that offers you the greatest saving. If you haven’t already done so, you may want to see if there are any other credit cards offering 0% interest on balance transfers for a set time. If so, just ensure you pay off as much as you can in the given timescale and remember to look to switch again at the end of the term to prevent paying a much higher rate of interest. Furthermore, avoid spending on the card as this often invalidates the 0% interest.

Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

foolishqueen wrote: »

Evening folks,

I posted my DMP stuff back to CCCS today. How long does it take you guys to set it up and actually contact the creditors? My new bank account has yet to be set up, and one of my creditors is my existing bank account. Obviously when they find out could quite conceivable cnacel my OD straight away leaving me drastically short. I might just transfer all the money out now to my partners account......is that worth doing do you think?

Thanks.

Hi there.

Once we've recieved the information we will start to send the proposals off to the creditors pretty much straight away as we aim to start a DMP for the start of the following month.

Transferring any money out of your existing account would be a good idea to ensure you protect what money you have to pay your priorities until the DMP is up and running. Then you can transfer it all into your new account when that has been set up.

Hope this helps,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

digits wrote: »

Hi can anyone help or get Martin on the case.
I had a debt sold on to a company called Cabot, the Debt was for a credit card, i have recently reclaimed my charges back, and with them have been clearing my debts. I cleared one debt with a company called Ultimate Credit who knocked of £300 off of my balance to close the account. Great i thought if Cabot do that I'd have spare money to use to help reduce a third debt. So i phoned Cabot as i wanted to clear that debt to, these guys had put charges on my account and i ended up repaying more then the oridginal debt. Is there a way of getting these back? The FSA have told me it's up to Cabot to charge or not, and as yet no one has tried to force them, I'd like to give it a go and would like to hear from other people who have had this problem. If i could get Martin on board as well we could have another section on reclaiming, get the money back into our pockets, and then back into the economy. Sorry if this is on the wrong board but seemed the most relevent.

Hi there, thanks for posting.

It might be worth moving this post to the reclaiming bank charges board as the folk on there may have better advice as far as claiming charges are concerned.

As far as Cabot are concerned what were the charges for? Were they registered for late payments?

Matthew.

Tricia53

Hi

I have been receiving Incapacity Benefit, Income Support (with corresponding Housing and Council Tax Benefits) and Disability Living Allowance for approximately one year. I am still not fit enough (a number of different medical reasons) to return to work and the local council I was working for dismissed me in February 2009, in line with their sick leave procedure.

I currently have a DMP in place with CCCS ( a review of my budget has just been conducted and I will be paying £135 from June 2009 - up from £107).

In July 2005 I had a road traffic accident for which I claimed compensation and I am about to receive a substantial amount of money (the counter offer put in by my solicitor has been accepted). I wish to use the bulk of this money to pay for gastric band surgery (privately) as this will go a long way to returning me to full health and enable my return to work late this year/early next year.

I know I have to advise the DWP of any change in circumstances. My solicitor has advised that there is a 12 month period of grace from receipt of my personal injury award when the award will not be considered in assessing my entitlement to benefits.

What does this mean for my DMP? The surgery is not for aesthetic but health reasons and I believe it is a necessity in order to get me back to work. Once I have paid for this there will be a small amount of money left over which I would like to put into my savings account. Am I obliged to pay this towards my debts?

I would be grateful for some generic advice before I receive this payout, when I will contact both the DWP and CCCS.

Regards

Tricia