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CCCS_Matthew

P_Kelly wrote: »

Hi Guy's
I have a son who is keen to use a debt clearing house which says for £900.00 it will clear his huge debts etc.
The company is called 'First debt eliminator'.
This sounds to good.
can you advise please.
P Kelly

Hi there.

Doing a quick search on this company they suggest they offer a service to write off debts by finding loop-holes in the credit agreements. At the moment the Office of Fair Trading is investigating such companies. So in a word, yes, it's too good to be true. The following article is worth taking a look at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8113482.stm

Matthew.

Weekend_warrior

Hi All,

I have a mortgage which due to ill health is being paid by the DHSS.
The mortgage had back in 2005 a shortfall between the benefit paid on the
mortgage intrest and the money paid by DHSS.
I was informed by the bank in 2005 I would have to make additional payments of £68 per month myself.
I decided to pay £100 per month to be ultra safe due to the intrest rate rises
etc.
I had to contact the bank again mid June after a change in my claim because I
had received a letter from the bank saying I had a shortfall of £16 per month
( I was still paying unwittingly £100 per month).
I was informed my mortgage was over £2600 in advance due to my £100 per
month payments.
I said jokingly I could do with some of that back, the operative said the bank
can't refund DHSS payments, I said my overpayments were not DHSS payments but personnal cash.
The operative said he would put it in the diary for someone t the bank to look at
and they will be in touch.
Today 2/7/2009 I received a call from the bank about the overpayment the girl said it was not possible to pay the £2600 back to me as the DHSS could ask for their money back at any time and this would leave me in a bad position.
I countered by saying that would be true with anyone on DHSS mortgage payments and if the DHSS decided to take back all their payments from 2005
I would be in real trouble so why do I have to leave the bank with basically a £2600 retainer.
The lady then said the bank rules had changed and they couldn't give the overpayment back and her line manager as a token of goodwill would give me my last months payment back of £100.
I said if that is the case that the £2600 can't be refunded why offer me anything, but she repeated bank policy and that was that.
I know this to be untrue as previous to me getting help from the DHSS I
was paying my mortgage myself and got into an overpayment situation
of £2300 which the bank refunded without hesitation.
The bank is Bank of Scotland.
Could anyone who is reading this help me out and advise me if the bank
is telling the truth or trying to brush me of because we know all the banks are now very reluctant to part with anything.

W.W.

Goodtimesahead

Has anyone actually been successful in having a creditor remove their data (ie. default etc from their credit file, ie. wiped clean, not just satisfied after paying the debt either as a full & final settlement deal or in full? The data is owned by the creditor so they can legally remove it at any time if they agree, it does not legally have to remain on file for 6 years, there is no law on this.

Just interested to know of anyone's success?

CCCS_Matthew

arneldlayne wrote: »

Hi. I'm at wits end . I have run the DR option on the CCCS web site which recommends a DMP, paying back £424 per month for 5 years and 7 months. I then come here and read that creditors can refuse this and send in the bailiffs....I might have misread that bit but it seems a possibility. We have circa £30k of unsecured debt, plus a car lease agreement. We can manage the mortgage and critical stuff but the credit card debts are out of control. I'm unsure about the DMP vs the IVA option - can we selectively apply either to cetain unsecured debts or is either applicable for all?

Its a big step but all my savings are in company share schemes - I can't touch them yet without a tax hit as the shares are bought direct from salary. Are they also likely to be grabbed?

Hi there,

Bailiffs are not sent by the creditors as a result of them rejecting payments on a DMP. Bailiffs can only be sent as a result of you failing to meet agreed payments set on a (CCJ) County Court Judgment. Creditors can obtain a CCJ if they reject the reduced offer of payment, but the court will not expect you to pay more than you can afford if you illustrate your financial position. With that in mind, if you get a CCJ and keep up to date with the agreed payments you don’t have to worry about bailiffs.

When selected an option to deal with your debts you have to choose one solution for all your creditors. You cannot choose to do a DMP for some debts and an IVA for others. Even so, if an IVA wasn’t included within your advice booklet as a solution it’s not going to be relevant to your situation.

Your company shares cannot be touched by anyone unless you were choosing to go bankrupt, so don’t worry about this.

Hope this helps,
Matthew.

paulinemcc

CCCS_ Sarah, can you help i am currently on a dmp and in my second month however i am concerned as some of my creditors are still charging interest on loans, Northern Rock especially. This means that i am going to be paying them until i die (Im only 31 LOL) !!!.
i was adivised to write to them asking them to stop interest due to financial hardship, or i would contact the financial ombudsman or oft. However i am not comfortable doing this and would like a template, i came on this website looking for one after one of your collegues advised me i would get one here. however i cannot find this.
Please help me.
Thanks v much

CCCS_Matthew

Bishops wrote: »

I agreed a payment with Lloyds TSB when I realised that I was having financial problems and I had to pay a set amount of money into my bank account for the overdraft and loan. I did that and am horrified that the Trustcard people have taken that sum of money from my bank account to repay the debt on the credit card. I have no agreement for them to take money out of my bank accoun, can some one please advise me on what to do as it now looks as though I have failed in my agreement with the bank.

As far as I'm aware Trustcard are part of Lloyds TSB. As a result they have the ability to offset money from your bank account to cover the repayments of the card, regardless of whether or not a Direct Debit or Standing Order was set up. This is known as the right to offset, and unfortunately the bank are within their rights to do this.

To prevent this from happening again, I would suggest you open a basic account away from Lloyds with another bank you have no financial connection with as you then become more in control of your money as you eliminate the possibility of your creditors dipping into the account as and when they want to.

Regards,
Matthew.

seh567

Hi have been on Jobseekers for a short while. Have a review with CCCS counsellor on 17th July regarding £15k credit card/loan/overdraft debt. Have been paying £1 token monthly payments whilst waiting for review at their suggestion.

I have now been very lucky in securing a job which starts a few days after my CCCS review. My problem is that I will be part paid on salary and commision so I don't really know how much I will be earning. I am hoping that my review will result in a DMP and without commission my Income/Expenses shows there will be a small balance available for this. However would this be acceptable to CCCS because it would not be a true reflection on my potential earnings but impossible at the moment to confirm by how much. I notice that I need to supply proof of earnings which I won't have straight away as I will be paid monthly.

Goodtimesahead

Can someone confirm if its correct that CRA's cannot by law hold information on file if the credit agreement was opened before 1994?

A friend of mine has an entry showing from a high street bank for a credit card that was opened in 1987, his credit history has gone down hill during the credit slump and this file shows various late payments & a default ,surely if the above is correct he can ask the CRA's to remove this data from their records regardless of the history showing?

bigjohnuk

Hi there,

I have now got to the stage where I need help with my debts. I was once a single person who enjoyed a good style of life with a good job. Today I dont earn as much as I did and I am now Married with four children, (two are mine)

I was going to go to the CCCS and arrange for a reduction in my payments in order to try and pay my debts off. However my wife, who is far better with money than me, does not want me to do this as it would damage her credit rating for the future.

Is there a way that I can myself agree with the credit card companies as to how much I can afford to pay back and some how stop the intrest charges?

I did try and open a 0% balance credit card to transfer my balances, but this did not work as they would not approve me although my credit rating is good. May be the amount I was asking was to high?

I need some advice and I do not know what to do. What I do know is that I need to get my debt down.

Worried_Mum_3

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Thanks for this Wendy.

As Wendy has advised, please feel free to message any of us.

We are happy to help!

Sarah

Hi
I have a son who is being chased by his bank over un unpaid bank loan. He has been working on a self employed basis but has got into difficulty when his commercial landlord started taking his earnings off him after doubling his rent and threatening him. That is now subject to police action, He currently cannot open a new bank account due to to his poor credit rating and is currently not working at all so not earning. He needs a bank account to move into new lodgings. He is currently sleeping on sofas and Im not sure what his best course of action is. He is a bit in denial but knows he needs to do something so I have emailed him info on debt counselling etc. he seems to be caught in a vicius circle. Any suggestions would be appreciated.