Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

jon-kingdom

i owe £20,000 on credit cards and overdraft and need help sorting it out. I also have a morgage which I am up to date and never missed a payment on . If I sort somethign out with CCCS will this affect my motgage at all? As said I have no problems with that payment but everything else is starting to get the better of me .

Jon

CCCS_Sarah

bobbyday wrote: »

Hi!

Having been to the CCCS website, their suggestion for me is a DMP. I have 28k of card or loan debt, of which I can pay £600 a month, so taking about 3.5 years assuming a freezing of interest. I also spoke to CCCS on the phone yesterday and having a councillor meeting set up for Nov 16th.
I think though, the DMP is the best course of action for me and what do get the ball moving asap, so can I go ahead and do this online now or should I wait for the councillor?
How long does the process normally take etc?
I'm in the process of changing my wages to go to a seperate basic bank account and have cancelled all DD's.
I have minimum payments which are due in the next couple of weeks but can't afford all of these or won't be able to live so what is the best thing to do? Make smaller payments to each? Should I phone up the banks and say what I'm doing? What do you say and am I likely to get interest frozen or fees not charged? I'm obviously trying to reduce any extras as much as possible. Which banks are normally the most helpful (I seem to be with most!)? So far, having asked for help from HSBC and Halifax, both have been as helpful as a hole in head, all saying there is nothing they can do and fobbing me off to a different department or reading out the terms and conditions. Which department is typically best to talk to?

I am quite young and hope never to be in the situation again and I'm quickly learning which banks I won't bank or deal with in the future!

Also, how severely does this affect your credit rating and for how long. My DMP would pay back all the debt in hopefully under 4 years.

Thanks in advance, and all or any advice on what I do from here would be really useful. I just want to the right thing as soon as possible!

Hi!

Having been to the CCCS website, their suggestion for me is a DMP. I have 28k of card or loan debt, of which I can pay £600 a month, so taking about 3.5 years assuming a freezing of interest. I also spoke to CCCS on the phone yesterday and having a councillor meeting set up for Nov 16th.
I think though, the DMP is the best course of action for me and what do get the ball moving asap, so can I go ahead and do this online now or should I wait for the councillor? If you have already got all the paperwork from Debt Remedy, this will be the quickest way. If you do decide to use the Debt Remedy route then just call us to cancel your phone appointment.
How long does the process normally take etc? Once we have received all your paperwork back then it’s all ready to go. If you sending the paperwork back in the next weeks then I think your DMP would start from the 1st of December – you would need to confirm this though.
I'm in the process of changing my wages to go to a seperate basic bank account and have cancelled all DD's.
I have minimum payments which are due in the next couple of weeks but can't afford all of these or won't be able to live so what is the best thing to do? Make smaller payments to each? Should I phone up the banks and say what I'm doing?
I would recommend that you all cancel your direct debits to the creditors and make token payments. If you have any debts with your current bank and have not fully switched over your wages etc then try and keep up with these for the moment.

What do you say and am I likely to get interest frozen or fees not charged? I'm obviously trying to reduce any extras as much as possible. Which banks are normally the most helpful (I seem to be with most!)? So far, having asked for help from HSBC and Halifax, both have been as helpful as a hole in head, all saying there is nothing they can do and fobbing me off to a different department or reading out the terms and conditions. Which department is typically best to talk to? You don’t have to talk to them. There will be a letter in your pack to send to them explaining that you are going on a debt management plan. With regards interest and charges, they are under no obligation to stop these and they really do take it on a case by case basis. You may want to post on the DMP mutual support thread to see how different creditors react.
I am quite young and hope never to be in the situation again and I'm quickly learning which banks I won't bank or deal with in the future!

Also, how severely does this affect your credit rating and for how long. My DMP would pay back all the debt in hopefully under 4 years. Things will stay on your credit file for six years, so for example if you are issued with a default notice this will stay on there six years from the date of issue.

Thanks in advance, and all or any advice on what I do from here would be really useful. I just want to the right thing as soon as possible!

CCCS_Sarah

bailey59 wrote: »

Thank you for answering my questions Sarah.

I will send the token payments then set up the DMP.

Have you ever had cases before where a creditor has refused a DMP from the CCCS? I wondered what would happen then to the debt. Thanks

Hi Bailey,

A creditor would not refuse to deal with a third party such as the CCCS as this goes against the debt collection guidelines, however they can not accept the offers. If a creditor did not accept the offer then the key is to send the payments anyway and try and find out the reason why they are not accepting the offer i.e. high expenditure, too long to clear etc

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

MaKaToM wrote: »

Hi,

Could a member of the CCCS team please have a quick look at my voluntary repossession thread over at http:// forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2042227 ? We're in desperate need of advice and any help will be appreciated greatly!

Thank you very much in advance.

I have tried copy and pasting the link but does not seem to be working. Could you copy the question and post it on this thread and then I will take a look at it for you.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

flipflop1 wrote: »

Need advice pls i was advised by the cccs to make token payments after losing my job and to open a basic bank account. I have opened i barclays one. One of my main debtors is Barclaycard. Should i open another baisc account with a different bank??

Yup, needs to be a bank account where you have no debts.

CCCS_Sarah

welshnworried wrote: »

hi, I currently have a debt management plan however i am a partner (50%) in a company which has been hit by recession and is now £100,000 in debt. Due to company set up costs i am also in about £25,000 worth of personal debt. Would bankruptcy be the option now? I have no assets only a very old car, no property or savings. My share of the debts in total account for £75,000 but I have no income from the company (i have never worked for it, my husband does and he's not received much in wages for the past year). The other partner is not my husband but a friend. I know I am responsible individually and wholly for the company debt. Any advice would be most welcome???

Hello,

Because you are struggling with business and personal debt I would recommend that you contact another charity called Business Debtline. I have attached a link to their website for you to take a look at.

http://www.bdl.org.uk/

Good luck
Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

jon-kingdom wrote: »

i owe £20,000 on credit cards and overdraft and need help sorting it out. I also have a morgage which I am up to date and never missed a payment on . If I sort somethign out with CCCS will this affect my motgage at all? As said I have no problems with that payment but everything else is starting to get the better of me .

Jon

Hello,

You would need to have an appointment initially. During your appointment your counsellor will help you complete a detailed financial statement and look at all your options not just a DMP. Your mortgage would always be treated as a priority though so we do put this in the main budget for you. Its hard to discuss the impacts without knowing what your options are.

If you would like an appointment to look at your options please call 0800 138 1111

Triggles

When doing a DMP, I know you're supposed to treat all creditors fairly and equally, but I just want to know about paying off smaller balances. If we eventually manage to scrape up enough to pay the creditor with the smallest amount (or ask if we can pay it off at a reduced amount if they will accept it), is that allowed? Or is it frowned on? I would think the other creditors would realise that the money sent to that bill each month would then be able to be distributed amongst the other creditors each month.

Also, all the debts (except one) are in DH's name. The only one that isn't is our overdraft on our joint current account. Since DH will be sending them a token payment, what then happens on my part? I know I am jointly on it, but do we make two payments If so, how would this be done? I am a SAHM, with really no income, so I would only be able to make token payments as well. Do I technically enter the DMP with him just for that bill? Or just send in his token payment initially and see what the do from there?

lisab2009

Hi,

I am quite new to all of this and have a few questions. I have approx £14K debt over about 8 different companies all pre 2007. I have checked my credit report and they have all issued default notices. I was advised by a debt helpline that one of the options would be to wait for the statue of limitation to take effect in 20112012, however i am wondering if any of these debts would actually be enforceable and whether i should do a CCA sec 78 request?

1. if i send the CCA sec 78 request would this constitute admitting liability of the debt hence the statue of limitation law would no longer apply in the 6 years is up or is it merely in the way i word the letter?

2. I did have a HP agreement of £2600 who agreed verbally with me that they would accept just £700 to settle the debt which leads me to think that they know time is running out to take me to court or they know something may be wrong with the contract? Also i was advised that becuase i had only made them an offer over the phone to repay the debt this would not constitute addmitting i owed it.

The other problem is that some of the creditors havnt actually wrote to me for a few years and i was hoping that they may have forgotten and the limitation law would apply, but on the off chance (more than likley) that they havnt I am wanting to see if the contracts are enforceable at all in an effort to experdite matters rather than having to wait for the 6 years to run out.

I would appreciate any help you could give me. Thanks

liam20021

Hi ive been with the cccs dmp now for 1 year,ive just had a death in the family,and had to help out with some of the cost.This is a very sad time for me and the wife, it was her dad that died, i pay 300 a month on my plan i was woundering, if its posible to ask the cccs if i could have a payment brake this mouth there is 9 days till the ddr goes out and i cant meet the payment this mouth,and i dont know what to do please can you help me Thanks