Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Sarah

samcat wrote: »

I'd like to hear the answer to this. what do you do when you've got no statements, no breakdown and no idea of what the total debt is made up of?

If the account is in dispute then the creditors should not be taking further action or passing the debt on, as this would be in breach of the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidelines – if you are wanting to take this further then you could take this up directly with the OFT.

If you want breakdown of balances, statements, notes etc you can ask for a Subject Access Request. I have attached this link to the Information Commissioners Office that explains in more detail for you http://www.ico.gov.uk/tools_and_resources/glossary.aspx

Also as part of the Debt Collection Guidelines it does mention that a creditor has to supply statements.

Hope this helps
Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

gaztop26 wrote: »

Hi all, I am sending out token payments this week. I have previously sent the CCCS DMP notification letter to my creditors. I have been looking for a token payment template letter to include with my £1 postal order but couldn't find one, so I have created this one using bits from other templates I found on the internet. Before I send it can someone have a read through to make sure its acceptable?

Thanks

gaz

name


address


June 7, 2009

The Loan Company
Company House,
Church Street,
Newtown,
Kent,
R1 7HG

Account No/Reference No:- 123456


Dear Sir/Madam

Since making that above agreement with you, our circumstances have changed.
I/We cannot now afford to the agreed monthly payments because the household income has been vastly reduced and I/we are/am over committed on credit.
I/We enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of our household. As you can see we have little money left to make offers of payment to my/our creditors.
I/we am seeking help from the consumer credit counselling service (CCCS) and intend to shortly produce a statement of affairs / debt management plan. My CCCS client number is 11111111, should you wish to discuss my/our situation with them.
In view of my/our circumstances, would you please accept this token payment at present to be reviewed in six months. If interest or other charges are being added to the account, I/we would be grateful if you would freeze these so my/our debt does not increase.
Should my circumstances improve I/we will contact you again.

Can you also send me any policy documents / information leaflets etc you produce for someone in my circumstances?
Thank you for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.


Yours faithfully


Mr A N Other

I have wrote something on your last post that you could use.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

Chiqqy wrote: »

Still waiting for a reply

Hi Chiqqy,

What was your question? Let me know and then I will get back to you.

Sarah

debtfreewish_2

Many thanks. Sorry but I have one more question. I have had to use one of the credit cards to be included in the DMP recently as I am on Statutory Maternity Pay and am finding it hard to pay for basics. Once a DMP gets started I should be fine and also I hope to be able to return to work soon. It is a problem that I have used the card?

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Hello,

If you are offering any type of reduced payments then you would need to change accounts. HSBC would be able to dip into your account to bring your credit card up to date and this could leave your short for other priority bills.

All debts would also need to be included in a dmp, as the key thing is to treat all your creditors equally and not favour one debt over another.

When your budget is put together there should be a section called ‘repairs and maintenance’ you could add some money in here for household repairs. You can never budget for everything this would be impossible, so if one off costs do occur when on a dmp let your provider know so you can come to an arrangement for a month or so if necessary.

CCCS_Sarah

debtfreewish wrote: »

Many thanks. Sorry but I have one more question. I have had to use one of the credit cards to be included in the DMP recently as I am on Statutory Maternity Pay and am finding it hard to pay for basics. Once a DMP gets started I should be fine and also I hope to be able to return to work soon. It is a problem that I have used the card?

Just to confirm your dmp has not already started? If not, you should be fine but you need to chop it up and give it back to the creditor as soon as possible.

debtfreewish_2

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Just to confirm your dmp has not already started? If not, you should be fine but you need to chop it up and give it back to the creditor as soon as possible.

Thats right it hasn't started as I'm looking into whether there are any other options for me without having to resort to a DMP. Thanks for all your help.

newreclaimer

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this question. If not please move to where it should be.

I need some advice on a debt I owe. I owe a courier company just over £2000. I cant afford to pay in 1 lump sum and they werent prepared to wait so took me to court. Obviously I lost and received the court order. Then I received a letter from a solicitor acting for them asking me to pay and then within a few days of that a bailiff turned up at the door. Now, first off, this isnt my house, its my parents. I wasnt in and my parents believed this person to be a police officer. He asked some questions apparently then left. He left a letter for me, which when I came round later said he was a High Court bailiff and he was acting on a writ to recover the money.

This is the first I heard mention of a writ. Should I not have been told?

Anyway I contacted Northampton court and I told them I want to come to an arrangement to pay in instalments. They told me to fill in forms N244 and N245. N244 was to ask for the writ to be suspended and N245 was to show my income and expenditure and state what amount I could pay per month. Ive filled these in and sent them off today. Then today I received a phone call from the bailiff. I told him that Id filled in these forms and he said that doesnt stop him carrying out the writ. Is that correct?
I also told him that this is not my house but my parents and I have nothing in it. Obviously when I come round my car will be parked in the drive.

What should I do next? Can he come and take things including my car?

Thanks for any help anybody can give.

OverCommitted

I've just pressed the "DMP" button on the debt remedy site today and I'm now waiting for the starter pack.
I talked to a councellor at CCCS and he said that I would need to send back my most recent statements for each creditor as proof of the debt and to enable CCCS to set the DMP up.
Due to recent over zealous paper shredding I am finding it difficult to find the paper work. But for my 5 credit cards I now have 2 most recent statements, and 2 older statements (I was told that an older statement plus a recent screen dump from the online account would suffice - Please confirm). The last card, I can not find any statements or official documentation for at all (they don't actually send me statements anymore - being paperless).
Now, I am already short this month and I have had to cancel the direct debit for this particular card immediately because it will be drawn from my account on the 10th. Of course I have not received my cccs pack and therefore not sent any notification letters out yet with the token payment. I have put an electronic message on the creditors site asking for a printed statement to be sent. But I am concerned that it might not get sent (or delayed). I am also concerned that perhaps I should talk to them or leave a message about the fact that I have cancelled the direct debit. It seems wrong that I have cancelled the DD and just left it for them to find out.

Please advise. I don't want to delay the start of the cccs because I don't have a statement - do I really need an official credit card statement?

CCCS_Sue

newreclaimer wrote: »

Not sure if this is the correct place to put this question. If not please move to where it should be.

I need some advice on a debt I owe. I owe a courier company just over £2000. I cant afford to pay in 1 lump sum and they werent prepared to wait so took me to court. Obviously I lost and received the court order. Then I received a letter from a solicitor acting for them asking me to pay and then within a few days of that a bailiff turned up at the door. Now, first off, this isnt my house, its my parents. I wasnt in and my parents believed this person to be a police officer. He asked some questions apparently then left. He left a letter for me, which when I came round later said he was a High Court bailiff and he was acting on a writ to recover the money.

This is the first I heard mention of a writ. Should I not have been told?

Anyway I contacted Northampton court and I told them I want to come to an arrangement to pay in instalments. They told me to fill in forms N244 and N245. N244 was to ask for the writ to be suspended and N245 was to show my income and expenditure and state what amount I could pay per month. Ive filled these in and sent them off today. Then today I received a phone call from the bailiff. I told him that Id filled in these forms and he said that doesnt stop him carrying out the writ. Is that correct?
I also told him that this is not my house but my parents and I have nothing in it. Obviously when I come round my car will be parked in the drive.

What should I do next? Can he come and take things including my car?

Thanks for any help anybody can give.

Hi newreclaimer and thank you for your email

An N245 normally suspends a warrant and enables you to request a variation on the payment, so I do not understand why the bailiff is still pursuing you.

I would contact the court and let them know.
Ask them if the bailiffs have been informed as there could be a break down in communication.

If you require any further help with your financial statement, offer of payment etc, you can ring our free helpline on 0800 138 1111.


Regards
CCCS

CCCS_Sue

OverCommitted wrote: »

I've just pressed the "DMP" button on the debt remedy site today and I'm now waiting for the starter pack.
I talked to a councellor at CCCS and he said that I would need to send back my most recent statements for each creditor as proof of the debt and to enable CCCS to set the DMP up.
Due to recent over zealous paper shredding I am finding it difficult to find the paper work. But for my 5 credit cards I now have 2 most recent statements, and 2 older statements (I was told that an older statement plus a recent screen dump from the online account would suffice - Please confirm). The last card, I can not find any statements or official documentation for at all (they don't actually send me statements anymore - being paperless).
Now, I am already short this month and I have had to cancel the direct debit for this particular card immediately because it will be drawn from my account on the 10th. Of course I have not received my cccs pack and therefore not sent any notification letters out yet with the token payment. I have put an electronic message on the creditors site asking for a printed statement to be sent. But I am concerned that it might not get sent (or delayed). I am also concerned that perhaps I should talk to them or leave a message about the fact that I have cancelled the direct debit. It seems wrong that I have cancelled the DD and just left it for them to find out.

Please advise. I don't want to delay the start of the cccs because I don't have a statement - do I really need an official credit card statement?

Hi overcommitted and thank you for your message

We need a copy of a statement from all your creditors, not only as proof of the debts, but also to get an up to date balances and the addresses of the creditors and account numbers. If you only have an older statement and a screen copy, then send those to us. If the debts have been passed to a collections agency, then we need that information also.

If you are having problems getting some of the information, then send us what you have so far, and forward the rest as soon as you receive it.

You should receive the pack shortly, but if it does not arrive, then please contact our Debt Remedy support team as soon as possible to let them know.

You can let your creditor know that you cancelled the DD because you are setting up a DMP with us and that we will be in touch shortly with an offer of payment.

Regards
CCCS_Sue