Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Matthew

JoRob wrote: »

Hi, I have just received a phone call from Aktive Capital asking me to pay a figure £1,656.08 which I apparently owe to Halifax over 10 years ago, I do remember an overdraft outstanding but it was no way near the amount I am being asked, they said if I can pay £400 now then the debt is clear, I can not afford this and I have told them I will call back at the end of the week with an offer of monthly payment, a couple of Q's

I honestly forgot about this and as I did forget do I have the right to know the amount I actually was overdrawn I estimate this was in the region of £150 - £200 about 10 years ago.

I have my mortgage with the Halifax so why wasnt this raised by them at this point.

I will offer £20 a month as I can not afford any higher, I have a wife and 4 children to support and that is on my 1 income. If I offer £20 is this legal and enough to offer or is there a standard rate?

I asked for coorespondance by post and they refused?

I can not beleive they would reduce a debt of £1656 to £400 if I pay now, how can they make this offer?

Thanks

Hi there.

If this debt is 10 years old and you’ve had no correspondence in regards to it over the last 6 years – it’s likely to be statute barred.

The Limitations Act 1980 state that debts are unenforceable if no contact has been made over a 6 year period and when no payment has been made. If this applies to you then you are within your rights not to make any payment towards it.

You could use the following letter:

From:
Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Date:
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)

Hope this helps,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

tiddler79 wrote: »

I wonder if someone can give me some advice please. My husband has a debt of 9k with a car company from about 6 yrs ago, payments were made for about a year and then the car was repossessed. My husband offered a payment but it was rejected and they chose to put an order on his flat instead. He gave his flat up for voluntary repossession last yr and we have just had a letter delivered asking him to go to court for questioning. We can only oresume his flat has been sold with negative equity but haven't been informed by the mortgage provider of the sale. What should we do now? Is there any way to make an offer now without it having to go to court? or any other suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Hi there.

If the letter he recieved was an "order to obtain information" it's likely that one of his creditors wants to know more about his current financial situation, such as whether he is working or whether he owns any other property. Making an offer of payment to clear the debt in instalments may prevent them from doing this, but ultimately it's down to their discretion. If the proceed with this it is important that he does attend.

I think his next step would be to try and contact his old mortgage provider to find out what the property sold for. If you think it was sold for less than the mortgage then there may also be a shortfall of that to pay as well as the debt which was secured against the house.

Regards,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

davidlouis wrote: »

I have tried several times to contact Debt Counselors but failed....
Your 1st option is good let me try that also.

I'm not really sure what you mean here. Could you elaborate on how we can help?

Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

CanaryAds wrote: »

Hi there.

Background story. I have been out of work for a couple of months but have accepted a offer and am due to start back to work next Monday (Hooray!!!) on a Salary of £18000pa. I have managed to keep up my commitments but am flat broke now. I have £150ish to pay on credit cards (min payments) this month which I should find, but that will leave me with nothing.

The penny has dropped that I have really been carrying more debt that I should have and now I have taken a paycut and having carried out the online assessment the DMP suggests that I pay £323 on a combined debt of £11703.

I am seriously considering a DMP with CCCS but have a few questions.

1st - what effect does this have on my credit and how long does it take to rebuild.

2nd - could I increase the monthly payment easily if i was able to afford to. ie if I had say £50 extra in the month could I make a additional payment?

3rd - I am a personal licence holder and this is vital for my job. Does a DMP affect this? I have heard a few scare stories!!!

4th - I hold current accounts with Barclays and Lloyds TSB. I am planning on setting up a basic account with CO-OP. Will the Barclays and LloydsTSB accounts close and will this affect my CO-OP account?

5th I have a mobile contact with Orange which is paid for with DD. Will this be affected of will the cancel the contract? Would I still owe the balance of the term?, and would I be able to continue using a contract phone. Again its important for my work.

This is all very scary for me. Ideally I would like to be in the clear in 3 years as I have ambitions to open my own business etc. I like to get the DMP and pay as quickly as possible.

Thanks in advance.

Ads

Hi Ads. Congrats on getting back into work so soon!

In answer to your questions…

• It’s likely that most of your creditors will issue a default notice against you when your on a DMP. A default will stay on your credit file for 6 years from date of entry. Once it’s dropped off, it doesn’t affect you anymore

• Certainly. A DMP payment is not set in stone. If things improve we can always reassess your budget and increase payment if needs be. Likewise if things go the other way we can always consider reducing payment too. We will conduct an annual review, but if you want to discuss things sooner you can give us a call.

• A DMP shouldn’t affect this. To be on the safe side I would always advise checking with your HR department or reading through your employment contract. A DMP doesn’t constitute a legally binding agreement, nor is it classed as a form of insolvency.

• If you have any overdraft with either Lloyds or Barclays it’s unlikely they will close the accounts until the overdrafts are cleared (I assume you have included any overdrafts as debts). The existing accounts you have won’t have any negative impact on your new account with Co-op.

• Orange won’t cancel your phone contract as long as you keep up with the payments. If you were to get another contract at any stage they will take into consideration your existing credit worthiness, so if creditors have issued defaults against you it could potentially go against you. However this is always down to discretion, there are plenty of people that have managed to get new contracts even with defaults registered against them.

Hope this has helped.
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

2005lisaj wrote: »

Hi,

I moved out of my home 3 months ago,due to huge debts and deciding to rent a property before i apply for bankruptcy.

Now im not sure whether to hand the keys back to my morgtage company or wait for re-possesion to take place.

Any help on this subject ?

Many Thanks

If you've made the decision to go bankrupt, then handing the keys back or allowing repossession really doesn't make much of a difference if I'm honest. If it's going to be some time before you go bankrupt then handing the keys back may be better as it's one less thing to worry about I suppose. Either way the official reciever will deal with property once you've gone bankrupt.

Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

pandababies wrote: »

we are currently with payplan our original debt was approx £60K which we have paid off £9000 over the last 15 months @ £600. I was quite shocked that the debt which is my husbands debt will be paid off over 10yrs and the total is £72K. I would rather use that extra money to pay off the original debt sooner, I think it's quite shocking that we are paying that much extra but at the time he was desperate to get sorted out.

help !!

Hi there.

I'm a little confused here, so bear with me!

When your husband took out the DMP his debts accounted for £60,000 and for the last 15 months he's been paying £600 a month. Assuming that creditors stopped interest and charges from the start then you would expect the balance to be approximately £51,000.

If they didn't stop the interest then it's fair to say the balances may not have come down as much as that. For the debts to jump up to £72,000 is where I'm confused.

When he said initially he owed £60,000 was that an exact amount or was it based on esitmates? Could he have underestimated what was owed? When asking for balances for his debts it's important that he gets actual balances as opposed to settlement figures which often causes confusion.

Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

manicboy wrote: »

Hi have not posted for a while due to massive panic attacks now on top of my manic depression and have not been out of the house in eight weeks. Most of the time i just want to curl in ball and sleep as when im sleeping i dont have to worry...

Ok this is as far as I have got so far and right now think that its unlikely Im going to find a way out of this mess. As bills keep mounting.

I phoned the CCCS and they had a nice man who advised me to change my bank account straight away which i did and transfer my incapacity benefit to it, and any bills like my dent plan. I was given a letter to take to the bank about my bank charges, and B*******s then sent me a letter some twelve days later saying as they are in court right now fighting this and think that its ok charging that they would not be giving me the charges back until the case was over and that was unlikely even then.
I was sent a pack in the post which I read and still do not understand fully even after ringing them and talking with them. It was sudgested I get a DRO but have no idea even were to start as when I try I can never get through i have spent days trying .
I have a letter in the pack Im supposed send and make a payment to the creditors but after what happened the other week when, I tried to get the charges dropped Im not to frightened as I do not know what they would do.
I still cant figure out why all the years i paid insurance on my credit card that Im know out of the £100 they are taking at B********Card that they instead split the money only taking £50 for the payment and the other £50 in insurance so what did I pay Insurance for.

Now I have opened a new bank account as advised by cccs and they have said to make sure my money goes in there, so got a flexi account with N***********e, but know im starting to worry as i what will happen to my old account it will still be overdrawn and the payments still have to be made for the bank charges and credit card, Now i have followed the advice Im not sure a sits looking worse as know no money will go into my B**********s account this month.
Its a mess I have tried to talk to the CCCS debt relief order people but they are always engaged... Im now sinking fast and im now in a bigger mess than when i didnt get the advice so what do i do know. with mounting bills and debts not much left for me.
Im really starting to panic I really do not know what to do anymore.
I read the pack but they sent me but still have no idea what to do. I get worried that creditors will call as i live with my mum who is very old I really dont know what is left for me to do. And dont know how much more i can take.

Hi there, sorry to hear about your situation.

Do you want to PM me your name and CCCS client reference number and I will try and get someone to give you a call from the DRO team to try and get this sorted for you.

Matthew.

rosiekat

Hi

Hope you can help, i had a CCJ two years ago and it was settled within 1month, i was wondering if there is any posible way of getting this removed from my credit report ?

Thanks

Whirley

Hi I have a DMP with cccs been running for a while now, I will be made redundant next year feb/march time and will receive some redundancy money. i have calculated that i will still owe by then about £5000 split between 4 creditors. My redundancy is unlikely to be enough to clear the debts, prob be about £2000. Do I have to use this money to pay my creditors with it? As obviously I will have to sign on and will have worries about how long it takes to get the claim and housing benefit sorted out and could possibly need some money as a buffer for my rent etc... are the creditors likely to accept this amount as full and final payment between them if they know i am made redundant and would therefore have to pay them considerably less whilst i remain unemployed? (which in the current climate could be a while..) I know this isnt happeneing till next year but i am already worrying bout it... thanks

olettaadams

Hello Sarah. I need advice. Over the years I've managed to pile up 27k on 3 credit cards and then I lost my job, split up from my husband and went onto benefits. I've buried my head in the sand. I did try to talk to these people but they call my mobile over 3 times a day and when I do talk to the likes of MBNA they push me till I put the phone down. All I want is the interest to be frozen and them let me pay £50 per month until I start a new job in November and maybe I can do more in January. Capital one sent mine to an external debt collection so the interest has been frozen. I don't care about my credit file. Should I let Egg and MBNA send me to debt collection. I am just ignoring at the mo as I don't know the process. All advice is appreciated. Many thanks.