Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Matthew

Nearly_Floating wrote: »

First of all let me be the X hundredth person to say what a great thread this is. Thankyou
I have been on a DMP for about a year. I am paying all my creditors about 1% per month of the amounts outstanding at the time the DMP started. I have a catalogue account which I didn’t include on my DMP as they weren’t actively chasing me for some reason and I wasn’t paying them anything. They are now pursuing this debt so I wrote to them and sent them the same budget as I sent the DM co, except I reduced my monthly spend for groceries by £5 which is what I offered them as a monthly payment. This represents 1% of the debt and so is in line with the other payments I am making.
They refused this offer and have passed the debt do a DCA. The DCA called me the other day and said that this amount is too low for them to accept unless the offer is made by a DM co.
I pointed out that the offer is pro-rata with the other payments I am making and that if they took me to court I would only be ordered to pay a similar amount.
The guy I spoke to then said that they had options other than court action available. “What other options?” I asked. He said that the debt would be passed to an enforcement agency and they could send bailiffs and so on.
My questions are:
1. If I contact my DM co would they be prepared to add a new debt to the plan?
2. If they were, is it likely to cause problems with my other creditors? i.e. would they want to know why I couldn’t come up with an extra £5 per month before now?
3. Does their possible reluctance to go to court mean they are planning to hike up my bill with a load of solicitors’ letters at £50 a go and/or visits from debt collectors at £100 a go before they finally take me to court, thus securing a higher monthly repayment for themselves?
4. Should I start paying them what I have offered regardless?
Apologies for the length of this but I wanted to try to get all the information in.
Thanks

Hi there. In answer to your questions:

1) It would probably be down to their discretion to whether it could be added or not. With CCCS added debts can lead to us closing the plan down. Having said that, that is mainly in the case where another debt has been taken out after the DMP start date.

2) In the grand scheme of things there shouldn't be a reason to why it would cause massive disruption. The amounts paid into DMP's aren't set in stone so creditors expect things to alter at some point.

3) I would say their relcutance is probably more to do with the fact they want more per month than you've offered in order to clear the debt within a timescale they see fit. However, when you have your other debts to consider and you only have £xx to offer everyone then they can't have it. It won't stop them trying though.

4) Definitely. Pay what you can regardless to show your intention that you won't be pressured into paying more, and illustrate you are doing your best to pay what you can afford.

Hope that helps,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

ljm23k wrote: »

Hi, I have been in touch with cccs and plan to go ahead with a dmp. I have a current account with a bank to whom I owe no money and have never had an overdraft with. All my debts are credit cards with other banks and are in no way linked to my bank account. I have no direct debits set up either. Can I stay with this bank or do I still need to change account?

Thankyou in advance

If you don't owe anything to your bank with no overdraft, there is no need to change.

Good luck with the DMP!

Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

Isis_79 wrote: »

Hi, I could use some advice.

My husband and I have just sent off our DMP and written to creditors. He is now successfully using a different bank account (a previously inactive one he already had open in his name with no cc). We recently applied to make it a joint account and I found out today the application's been refused due to my credit rating.

Whilst I'm not entirely surprised, I don't think I prepared properly for this possibility. I'm now in the worrying position of not being able to open a new bank account! I haven't yet closed my existing account, but I don't feel I will be able to continue to use it since I also have a loan and credit card attached to it, with repayments due.

Can anybody offer me any advice as to how I should proceed? Are there any banks out there willing to take on new customers with poor credit ratings?

Hi Isis.

It's important when asking for a new account to specify a basic bank account, as not all banks need to do a full credit search. The banking code states everyone is entitled to a basic bank account regardless of their credit worthiness.

Often, bank staff try to sell you a current account as they get no comission on basic accounts so you need to insist a basic account is all you require. The link below illustrates the different basic accounts available which may help:

http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/pdfs/bank_accounts.pdf

Regards,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

Jacey53 wrote: »

Hello

Can you plesae advise me if i have anything to worry about.

I had a call from Nationwide Credit Cards today. They have just received my form saying that matters have been referred to CCCS, and also my payment which was approx £30 under the minimum and late.

The lad on the phone said that since he had received the form my account was to be marked "no calls" from today, but since it hadn't been activated he would call me. He wanted to know if i could make up the minimum payment (no) and when i would bring my account up-to-date (duh)
Then he started asking when i had first got into difficulties and other things. He kept saying that the file will be marked no calls but asked for work and home phone.
There was an implication that if i did not answer his questions they would not agree to anything.
It felt wrong but is it? I don't really understand what he wanted.

Very strange.

Certainly don't agree to giving any other contact details. I would see what happens, if you continue to get calls then request the name of the person calling you and the time when thet call you and write a letter of complaint that despite them agreeing to not call you.

CCCS_Matthew

paspuggie wrote: »

Thank you for the great work you do Sarah

I am major in debt BUT have managed to agree with all of my 13 creditors to stop the interest and over the last 5-7 years have been managing to reduce this debt. Recently I negotiated with one a 60% reduced settlement fee which was great and I'm on the way to reducing/elminating my debt (a few years to go yet though).

My question is this, I have just received a letter from a credit card company that says I owe £1800. Since I organised my debt payments around 2003 I never took this one into consideration as I had either forgotten it or the paperwork was missing.

Can they still claim this money, even after this long?

Regards
Paul

Hi Paul.

If no payment has been made to them for 6 years, and you've not discussed the debt with them within this time then it's likely the debt is statute barred. This means that despite them making a claim for the money, they cannot get a court judgement against you (CCJ) if you don't make them an offer of payment. Although this doesn't wipe the debt, most creditors will stop persuing you for it because they know they cannot enforce it through the courts.

There is a template letter below you can use should you want to claim the debt is statute barred.

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

Hope this helps,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

halphy wrote: »

Hi ive had my appointment with CCCS And they have included my together unsecured loan from my mortgage, I need to write to my mortgage company and ask them to put all the money i pay to my mortagage, Can you advise what to put in the letter? Thanks

Hi there.

I'm assuming you must have a Northern Rock together mortgage? Were you offered a DMP from your counsellor?

If so, drop me an email on [EMAIL="contactus@cccs.co.uk"]contactus@cccs.co.uk[/EMAIL] and I can forward you a template letter we use. If you put FAO Matthew in the subject field that will make things easier for me.

Cheers,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

thepedestrian wrote: »

Hi CCCS

Just a quick one ! - I have managed to scrape enough money together to offer a Full and Final settlement with BARCLAYCARD ( being dealt with thru MERCERS ) - which one of their operators have verbally accepted over the phone
My sticking point is that they wont give me anything in writing before I actually pay them the lump sum - only afterwards - a verbal agreement only

where do I stand ? - what is there to prevent them from taking the lump sum from what I owe them and carry on hounding me for the rest - with only a verbal agreement from an operator who wont even give me her full name ?

thanks in advance

Hi there.

Never agree to a settlement until you have it in writing. Otherwise despite the fact somone has agreed it over the phone, it's very difficult to prove should they turn round and persue you for the remaining amount.

I would be very cautious to why they will refuse to give you anything in writing, and why they require the money up front. From my experience, creditors will issue a letter confirming the settlement and give you so many days to pay the money in before the offer expires.

When making the offer it's best to do it in writing yourself as you are more likely to get an offer back in writing. When doing it over the phone you only have the discretion of the person you are speaking to.

Regards,
Matthew.

thepedestrian

CCCS_Matthew wrote: »

Hi there.

Never agree to a settlement until you have it in writing. Otherwise despite the fact somone has agreed it over the phone, it's very difficult to prove should they turn round and persue you for the remaining amount.

I would be very cautious to why they will refuse to give you anything in writing, and why they require the money up front. From my experience, creditors will issue a letter confirming the settlement and give you so many days to pay the money in before the offer expires.

When making the offer it's best to do it in writing yourself as you are more likely to get an offer back in writing. When doing it over the phone you only have the discretion of the person you are speaking to.

Regards,
Matthew.

Yes thanks - does sound dodgy dosent it ! - I did write to Mercers and Bcard with the same offer and when no letter of acceptance came I rang them to find out what was happening ( incidently , how does it work if Mercers act for Bcard and then Bcard sell it to Mercers eventually at a greatly reduced cost - what incentive is there for Mercers to accept a F AND F for Bcard ? )

Regards - and thanks for all the good work !!

roomtobreathe

Evening all.

Not in any arrears or missed any payments yet but the minimum repayments on a number of cards and loans are getting very difficult to handle.

I've run through the process at CCCS and very helpful it was too. So I have the option to try and deal with my debts that way.

However, I have a couple of smaller loans with large repayments that I can probably clear within 12 to 18 months if I can get a bit of a breathing space. This would give me enough leeway to start attacking the bigger cards.

What I don't really want to do is to extend the debt on my smaller loans into years when I could pay them off quickish given the chance.

So how amenable do you think the larger debt credit cards would be to reducing interest and accepting a reduced payment? Is it practical?

Hope I've made myself clear!

Ta.

Triggles

I just have a question regarding bank accounts. Debts (other than a joint overdraft, which I am slowly making small payments on) are in DH's name only. I have a separate bank account with my name on it only.

Because our joint banking account is well into the overdraft (to the limit really), DH's pay packet is deposited into my personal account, and I send out payments by standing order for him to various creditors. He does not have any other bank account, as he figured he wouldn't be able to get one. The problem comes if he ends up getting brought into court regarding any of these debts. He's just received a notice of legal action from solicitors for MBNA, as they state he hasn't been in contact with them or paid them (which isn't true - up until October he was making full payments, then in Nov/Dec token payments, and in January greatly reduced payments but at least more than token payments, with a letter each and every month, including SOA and explaining what was going on). If he has to go to court, the only banking info he has of his own is the joint account, which isn't being used right now as I am trying to whittle away at paying off the overdraft. I don't want to send my personal banking details to court, as these bills are not in my name. Would it be best for him to open a basic account at Barclays or a cashminder at Coop so that he can set up standing orders himself and have banking records to show in court if need be?? I don't know the best way to handle this.

Also a brief question regarding inhouse collections - 2 accounts of DH's have had the arrears sent to "inhouse" collections, and they are charging regular charges as well (such as £12 extra each month for attempting to contact us numerous times by phone - even though we told the main account months ago that we only wanted contact by post in writing - plus I am puzzled as they don't have our current phone number, so heaven only knows if they are calling someone else or simply getting messages saying number no longer in service). I am a bit frustrated with this. What is the best way to handle this? Do we just send a letter to them saying that we are dealing with this directly with the main account? We can't afford to send a payment to main company PLUS a payment to their inhouse collections for arrears. It just seems like they are making it ridiculously more complicated than it needs to be.