Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

hawkins1980

Hi, I am working full time and was following a part time university course, my employer was meant to pay the fee but could only stump up part of it which left me with an £800 debt! I am now trying to pay off the debt to the debt company it has been refered to and i have filled in a financial form (basically outlining my current financial situation with pay dockets and bank statements as evidence). My offer to pay £25 a month has been rejected and they want me to pay £200 a month!! I sent a letter explaining that my current job is ending which means i will lose £500 a month after 11th April, also i am pregnant and by June by salary will be halfed due to maternity pay but they will not accept anything less than £200 which i just cannot afford. Can you give me some advise on what i can do as im pregnant and am really worried!! I have mamaged to pay off some of the debt and its around £600 now! Help please

Thanks
xxxxx

CCCS_Sue

Girlyshopper wrote: »

Hi
I am starting a DMP with CCCS on 1 May, and have included all my creditors, including an old Littlewoods debt.

The main problem I now have is that the Littlewoods debt was sold on to their in-house DCA - NDR (national debt recovery) and after months of fighting with them, and them in turning putting up the amount whenever they saw fit, I have managed to get the debt down to £50 odd pounds. I sent off my documents for my DMP on Thursday, but yesterday received a letter from Lowell Financial stating that the debt had been sold on to them and it is now over £160 pounds.

Do I have to write to CCCS with a copy of this letter, or do I write to Lowell stating my CCCS reference and ask them to contact CCCS directly?

Thanks in anticipation
GS

Hi GS

Thanks for your message

You need to send us a copy of the letter, and you also need to send Lowell a copy of the ‘notification of DMP’ so that they are aware you are going on a plan with CCCS.Send this with a token payment as a goodwill gesture until the plan is set up.
We will contact them with an offer of payment once we have received the details.

Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

mikon wrote: »

Hi

I have over £65,000 worth of debt and have completed a SOA which shows I have approx. £520 per month in disposable income after essential outgoings are paid and this will increase to £700 disposable income in 2 yrs as part of my mortgage is paid off. If my 10 creditors agree to freeze interest and any charges then I will be debt free in 7/8 yrs hopefully.

I am thinking of undertaken a DMP with yourselves but have a few questions which I would like answers to.

1. Will my creditors appoint Bailiffs to take items to the value of the loan even though I would be making a payment albeit not the minimum?


2. I have 2 cars my wife has one and i have the other. Will my creditors make me sell one of these cars as they will be classed as assets if I undertake a DMP. My wife and I both need a car to get to work and collect the children from school.

My creditors are :

Barclays
Barclays Visa
Co-op Finance
Northern Rock
CITI
Marks & Spencers Finance
HBC
Argos Store Card
Next Store Card

3 In CCCS experience have the creditors named above been receptive to DMPs and what is the likelihood of these creditors freezing interest/charges?


4. Do creditors harass you for payment or deal with the DMP company? (This is what I am dreading as I want to pay my debts and I will but I need the payments reduced)

5. How long before the creditors stop harassing you and deal with the DMP Company or do they pester you for the life of the DMP?

6. Again in CCCS experience what are the chances of my creditors taking court action whilst I am on a DMP

7. I have read that CCCS to not work that hard at freezing interest payments as they are paid by the creditors to secure as much money as possible is this true?

8. After I have paid the debt which may be 6 yrs will my credit record be affected for a further 6yrs due to the default marker?

Thank you in anticipation to my questions. An IVA is no good as I have property and as part of the Mortgage is paid off in 2yrs the chances are the creditors will request an equity clause and I do not want to sell my property in five yrs.

Regards

Hi Mikon and thank you for your message

In reply to your questions:-

• Will my creditors appoint Bailiffs to take items to the value of the loan even though I would be making a payment albeit not the minimum?

A.By going on a DMP,it does not mean that you will get bailiff visits.
Bailiffs are appointed if you have fallen behind on payment to a CCJ. The creditor may then ask the courts to use bailiffs to collect the debt.
Other types of bailiff may visit for unpaid magistrate’s court fines, council tax arrears or high court enforcement.
A bailiff then has the power to take goods from your property and sell them at auction to clear your debt.



2. I have 2 cars my wife has one and i have the other. Will my creditors make me sell one of these cars as they will be classed as assets if I undertake a DMP. My wife and I both need a car to get to work and collect the children from school.

A. The creditors cannot make you sell your cars.
If the cars are essential for work, then would need to keep them.
You could consider getting something more economical if they were expensive to run to try and reduce your costs. This would free up extra money to clear your debts even quicker.

3 In CCCS experience have the creditors named above been receptive to DMPs and what is the likelihood of these creditors freezing interest/charges?


A. With the regards to the creditors accepting your plan, there is nothing set in stone I’m afraid. They do not have to agree to stop interest and charges either. It is entirely at their discretion.
The key thing is to continue paying what you can afford on your plan.
If the creditors reject your offer, we would send it anyway.
If your budget is realistic and there is no excessive spending on the budget, then they are more likely to accept. The majority usually do.



4. Do creditors harass you for payment or deal with the DMP company? (This is what I am dreading as I want to pay my debts and I will but I need the payments reduced)

A.Your creditors can still contact you whilst you are on the plan, but they should not harass you. If they call, tell them you are on a plan with CCCS and that we are dealing with the payments.
If you feel they calling too frequently after your plan is set up, then you would need to contact us and let us know so we could advise you how to deal with them

5. How long before the creditors stop harassing you and deal with the DMP Company or do they pester you for the life of the DMP?

A.They can contact you at any time during the plan, but things should settle down once you are paying regularly and you do not default on the payments



6. Again in CCCS experience what are the chances of my creditors taking court action whilst I am on a DMP

A. Again, no set ruling on this.
If you are making regular, realistic payments based on affordability after paying all your priority bills, and nothing in your budget is excessive, then you should be fine.

7. I have read that CCCS to not work that hard at freezing interest payments as they are paid by the creditors to secure as much money as possible is this true?

A. If the creditors do not stop the interest and charges, then we do make more requests for them to consider stopping them.
I have attached a link for you from our website regarding how CCCS are funded to give you a better idea how the creditors support us.http://www.cccs.co.uk/Corporate/Supporters.aspx

8. After I have paid the debt which may be 6 yrs will my credit record be affected for a further 6yrs due to the default marker?

A. A default will remain on your file for six years
I have attached a link for you which explains this in more detail

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/credit_explained_leaflet_2005.pdf

Hope this helps

Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

bigmacman wrote: »

Hi

Just recently phoned the CCCS and was advised to do a DMP recieved my pack today which is great my questions are as followed.

1)Ive used the template letter to send to my 3 creditors do i have to send them anything else apart from that e.g copy of my budget planner etc.

2)Do i have to write to the 3 companies asking them to freeze interest and charges?

3) It says in your welcome pack you should have something to pay your 1st monthat the post office. Will it come as soon as i send back the agreement sheet plus my up todate bills?

Hi bigmacman and thank you for your message

You need to send each creditor a copy of the ‘notification of DMP’ to let them know you are going on a plan, and if you have not paid them anything for the month preceding the plan, then you can offer a token payment of what you can afford as a token gesture until the plan is set up.
You do not have to write to them asking them to freeze the interest and charges.
The first payment to your DMP is on the 1st of the month at the post office on a transcash slip. After that, the payments can be made by direct debit.
This transcash slip will be in your ‘Welcome Pack’ which will follow once we receive your up to date statements, proof of income and the signed agreement.

Hope this helps

Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

Danzo wrote: »

I have just recieved a letter from Bryan Carter Dated 16 March with a court claim form inside asking me to respond to the debt of £2900 within 21 days.
I phoned them up an they gave me Two options which were. 1.) arrange payment to repay the full balance within 10 months or fill in and return the Court form with an offer ect.
I mentioned that I want to go through a plan with CCCS if possible but they said it could take upto 8 weeks for that and that it is not good enough for them.

Is there a way that CCCS can help me get around this or am I doomed.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Danzo and thank you for your message

Yes….CCCS can help you with this!

I would recommend that you call us for an appointment as soon as possible to discuss your situation with one of our debt counsellors. The counsellor will be able to advice you what to offer for the CCJ based on your income and expenditure and the surplus you have left in your budget after paying all your priorities.
You can then use the budget to support your offer of payment.

To make an appointment, you would need to contact our helpline free on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00. It would be helpful that when you call you have details ready regarding your income, expenditure and creditors, as this can help speed up the referral process. If you have this information ready it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor if one is available, otherwise we will arrange a time that is convenient for you to be called back for an appointment.
You will then be able to get straight back to Bryan Carter with a realistic offer towards your CCJ.
The counsellor will also discuss all options to deal with your debt situation.

Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

AndyLGR wrote: »

I have a loan with Welcome Finance that comes to an end at the end of this month and they wrote to me last month to say there would be a shortfall of approx £700, this was because of arrears accrued earlier in the term of the loan. I wrote back to ask them what would happen at the end, do I just repay in a lump sum or does the monthly DD continue until its settled?

I got no reply and today I received a default notice from them, to tell me I have 14 days to pay the full amount owed. I have spoken to them today and they tell me that if I repay the full amount within the 14 days then the default notice will not go on my credit file. Is this correct what they have told me? Thanks.

Hi AndyLGR and thank you for your email


A default notice is a formal letter telling you how much to pay to bring the account up to date and when you need to pay.
Your creditor will usually send you a default notice after three to six missed payments. You are given at least fourteen days to pay.
A default notice will also warn you that if you cannot pay your account will be cancelled and be ‘defaulted’. This means you can no longer use this facility to borrow money. The creditor can then:

• Demand the full balance is paid immediately
• Sell the debt to a collection agency
• Begin court action to recover the debt
• If the agreement is hire purchase, start proceedings to repossess the goods

The creditor can only carry out these actions after the account has defaulted. If you pay back the arrears amount stated within fourteen days, no further action is taken. If future payments are missed a default notice can be issued again.
A default notice is only required for debts regulated by the Consumer Credit Act.
You do not have to make the full payment if you are unable to do so.
You can carry on making payments through your DD.


Regards
Sue

chwaer

Hi,

I have just missed out on a job due to a default on a debt that we have. We were paying it off via a DMP with CCCS. We spent some time living overseas and maintained the payments. Our mail was forwarded and we did speak to the lender more than once from overseas. It turns out that the account was put into default in January 2009.

I do understand that this is something that we are responsible for this and the consequences are ours to deal with. Just wondering if there is anything that can be done about the default notice to possibly not make me miss out on jobs.

The worst thing is the job I have just missed could have settled all my debts in a matter of months!

Any advice/info would be appreciated.

Paolo_H_UK

Hello fellow DFWs. Hope you are all well.

I'm currently nine months into a CCCS administered DMP and it is going great guns; started off with around £29k of debt and have so far reduced it to just under £25k. :beer: Most creditors have frozen interest and I've not been pestered, save for a loan company still claiming they haven't received notification from CCCS. (I know who I believe !!)

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is...in three months' time I will start a new job which will give me an extra £450 to throw at the plan. Using the debt-free calculator this will take the overall time down to just under 2 years.

I have two loan companies who are creditors (no interest or charges added).

Two credit card companies (no interest or charges added).

One DCA (formerly credit card but no interest or charges added).

One overdraft with my old bank (interest still being added but overall debt reducing)


My questions are thus:

1. Shall I save the extra money for a couple of months to create an emergency pot? Or shall I immediately put it into the DMP. I've mixed views on this.

2. With the extra money at the plan, where is it best going on? Throw it at the loans to get the payments back to what they where and use the rest on the overdraft?

3. My current payments to the credit card companies are not far off the original minimum payments. My concern is, that if I increase payments to them, the interest they have so kindly frozen will suddenly come back.

4. If I pay off the loans, which would take around six months, it would give me more scope with the four remaining creditors, and maybe look to snowball payments.

Sorry for the long, rambling message, but I would appreciate any thoughts or opinions.

Also, a big thank-you to all the posters on this forum - you are inspirational!

Best,

Paolo

hawkins1980

Hi, I am working full time and was following a part time university course, my employer was meant to pay the fee but could only stump up part of it which left me with an £800 debt! I am now trying to pay off the debt to the debt company it has been refered to and i have filled in a financial form (basically outlining my current financial situation with pay dockets and bank statements as evidence). My offer to pay £25 a month has been rejected and they want me to pay £200 a month!! I sent a letter explaining that my current job is ending which means i will lose £500 a month after 11th April, also i am pregnant and by June by salary will be halfed due to maternity pay but they will not accept anything less than £200 which i just cannot afford. Can you give me some advise on what i can do as im pregnant and am really worried!! I have mamaged to pay off some of the debt and its around £600 now! Help please

Thanks
xxxxx

CCCS_Sue

lookingforthelight wrote: »

Hi,

I have seen in these forums that in year 4 of an IVA you may be asked to release equity in your house to pay off the remaining debt. But if you are on an IVA wouldn't the mortgage company refuse as you are on an IVA, i.e a bad credit report.

If I have got it wrong then can equity release also be used part way through a DMP?

Thanks for yiour help.

Hi lookingforthelight and thank you for your email

If you were unable to remortgage in the fourth year, then you may be asked to extend the IVA a further year.

With regards to a DMP, this would depend on your situation and would need to be discussed with your adviser.

Regards
Sue