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CCCS_Sarah

euronorris wrote: »

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your advice. Last week was....difficult for me. I was getting very upset. But this week is a new week and my situation has changed.

Currently, my boyfriend and I have been 'officially' living in two separate apartments. I spent most of my time at his anyway, but his landlady rejected his original request to add me to his rental contract back in December. As I needed to have a place to register myself as a resident (in Holland) and get my social security number, set up a bank account etc etc I had to find a place of my own to rent until his contract came to an end and we could get somewhere together.

The rent here is VERY expensive as there is a housing shortage and so I was paying out €875 per month (gas, water, elec, tv and internet was included). This is what was crippling me. That and having to pay back premiums for medical insurance!

Anyway, since December I have met the landlady a few times and we got on really well so my bf decided to try asking her again (as it would save both of us a great deal of money on a monthly basis, but also on the cost of moving).

She said yes! This has halved my monthly rent and I'll be saving over €400 per month! Thank God!

Luckily my contract has a 6 month break out clause in it and I have advised my landlord today (who were fine as they are lovely). Which means I only have one more rent payment to make at the start of July and then I will be able to cope a lot easier and even send additional funds back to the UK to clear my debt quicker.

I called my Mum this morning and asked for my parents help in making one of the monthly CC payments in July, as after this I will be able to return the money to them etc and she agreed.

I cannot tell you how relieved I am. Not only am I going to be able to get back on track, but I can also afford to make more than the minimum payments on CC and overdraft in the UK. Phew!

I just wanted to thank all of the advisors and people on here who offer support, guidance, practical advice and a shoulder to cry on.

THANK YOU

This is fantastic news, you really do seem so much happier! :T

Your next step would be trying to reduce that balances as much as possible. You could look at doing this by paying the higher interest accounts first, this would mean that you would be paying less interest overall.

If you need anything else just give one of us a shout and we would be happy to help!

Sarah

angelflower_2

I have received a notification that my bank are applying for a repossession order for my property and need to respond to the court within 21 days. Is this something CCCS can help with? I cant afford to get a solicitor at the moment and am worried about trying to find one.

CCCS_Sarah

angelflower wrote: »

I have received a notification that my bank are applying for a repossession order for my property and need to respond to the court within 21 days. Is this something CCCS can help with? I cant afford to get a solicitor at the moment and am worried about trying to find one.

We sure can, we have a specialised mortgage counselling team that will be able to help you put together a budget. Your counsellor will then let you know what your best options are based on it.

If you gather details of your income, expenditure and debts and call 0800 138 1111, they maybe able to get you booked straight through for an appointment, if not they will book you in for one.

seh567

Need some advice please. My son has an interview with one of your counsellors on 17th July due to being unemployed and unable to meet minimum payments on his debts. So far as advised he has been paying £1 token payments per month to each of his creditors. Before becoming unemployed he realised on one of the loans he was paying PPI insurance which was missold because he was self employed at the time he took out the loan so he asked them to cancel and requested compensation which they have agreed. However before they refund his compensation they have sent him a new agreement to sign. Can you advise what he should do as he has already sent a hardship notice confirming his CCCS appointment, token payments etc. Should he sign this new agreement at this moment in time?

PaulB79

Hi

I have recently started a DMP and one of my creditors, HSBC has offered a managed loan in place of the credit card and overdraft and will reduce annual interest. The rate there offering is quite attractive compared to the overdraft and cc interest rate but I was wondering if there may be a catch.

I was wondering if you have had any dealings with these loans or if you would recommend taking this out?

Many thanks

Paul

euronorris

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

This is fantastic news, you really do seem so much happier! :T

Your next step would be trying to reduce that balances as much as possible. You could look at doing this by paying the higher interest accounts first, this would mean that you would be paying less interest overall.

If you need anything else just give one of us a shout and we would be happy to help!

Sarah

Thanks Sarah.

I am a lot happier and greatly relieved.

I am going to use the budget calculator from this site, together with the interest calculator (to tell me which is best to pay off first etc) and then stick to it. I plan to review it whenever my circumstances change, ie, I have 3 more payments to make for medical insurance back premiums and after that, I will then have a further €105 per month. Pay reviews and bonus time is in Sep (I won't hold my breath on this though! Not at the moment!).

I'm also going to take up a few ideas from this site like putting the odd euro away into a sealed pot to save for christmas etc

OK, I will go now as I don't want to hog the thread.

Thank you again.

sams247

Hello. My partner is a student, and at the moment is also between jobs. She starts a new summer job at the end of July. At the moment she has an arrangement set up with Marks and Spencer and pays them £60 a month. When she knew she would have a job break she called them to ask if she could reduce her payment to them for three months (i.e until her new pay came in at the end of August). They said that would be fine, and they said £10 a month would be acceptable. They also said they could set this up until next March to give her flexibility of payment. All good so far. They then said that they would now be charging interest, and would charge interest from now on even if the original £60 was reinstated. They advised the interest would be as much as £30 a month so this would obviously be increasing the loan for the next 3 months and then half the payment would be swallowed up by the intererst after that. Is there anything we can do please?

thedrum

Hi, My Father has just revealed that he is in debt with thVAT man to the tune of £30000 and he doesn't have the money to pay! I also believe that there may be some other debts that are causing him a problem aswell. I just wanted to know if anyone out there could give me an idea on what the outcome might be if he was to go Bankrupt whilst owing this VAT? Would it work in the same way as a normal Bankruptcy? He is worried about the prospect of Prison!

heybankrobber

Hi,

I purchased a car on HP in May 2001 but left my job in December that year. The car was taken back by the finance company and sold at auction leaving a balance of over just over £6000. I started paying £50 a month towards the debt on a payment card but I stopped making payments in August 2002 (confirmed by my credit reports from Equifax and Experian). A default went on both CRAs in May 2003.

I recently received a letter from Marlin FS, who had taken over recovery of the debt, asking for payment in full. I sent off a Statute Barred letter in the hope this would be sufficient. They have now responded saying that, "We have a computer record showing that you have made payments to this office, which in itself is an acknowledgement of the debt, we have also enclosed a copy of agreement and statement of account which concludes that you still remain liable for the outstanding balance". They also enclosed a copy of my signed Conditional Sale Agreement.

The 3 payments shown on their attached records are in June, July and September of 2004. I am almost certain (they have got me thinking to myself and driving myself mad!) that I did not make these payments and that their info is at best innaccurate, and at worst falsified.

How important are the CRAs reporting of payments towards this debt? Is this any kind of proof? Why would I have paid towards the debt a year after defaulting despite no correspondence from Marlin? And if I had, why was that not reported to the CRAs?

Does anyone have any help/advice they can give me, or has anyone had any experience of DCAs falsifying payment records?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

jk8_2

Hi
We are in the process of setting up a DMP with the CCCS,and my husbands disability payments have been included as part of our income-could you please specify which benefits should be included as income in order to calculate our DMP payments.I'd like to clarify this before our payments are set up to avoid having to review the payments straight away.
jk8