Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Sarah

debrag wrote: »

can I start over with my DMP? I mean can I contact my creditors to find out the right amounts & make new payments?

Are you currently on a dmp? Or were you previously on a dmp?

If you are on a dmp, you can find out how much you owe your creditors then have a review if there has been any changes in your situation.

If you were previously on a dmp – then there is nothing wrong with starting up another dmp. You can call for an appointment and then we will be able to see if this is you best option. If you would like an appointment, please call 0800 138 111.

Sarah

bensmith007

Hello,

Firstly thanks for the work you have done for everyone here, and hopefully now me!

Debt details:
Barclaycard £3800 or so, agreed repayments of £50 per month, all seems fine.

Barclays Current Account Overdraft £1818.60 (limit was £1600), can't agree repayments.

So, today I got a letter from Barclays saying my account faciliteis have been withdrawn and to return debit card/cheque book. I thought I had told them on the phone that I would pay £50 per month like my credit card, but they told me today that never happened- perhaps I confused this with my credit card. Anyway, I said today that I would pay the £50 per month.

However, this was refused. I was made a very kind offer of turning the OD into a loan, upping my payments just a tiny bit to £63 per month, paying that for 48 months, for a total repayable of £3024. They seemed somewhat surprised that I didn't go for it! The upshot of the phone call was I said I'd pay the £50 and that was it, they said the Collections and Recoveries department would hunt me down.

Ok, the income details.

Mine is a slightly different position in that I am Managing Director of my limited company. Unfortunately the company is in severe financial difficulty. In order to help the company I stopped paying myself a wage in May this year until this month when I paid myself £150- £50 for Barclaycard, £50 for current account and £50 for me (I'm so greedy, I know). I have no other debts or payments to make as I live at the business premises (a pub) and it pays my mobile phone bills. Due to being the MD of my company, the Citizens Advice Bureau won't help me.

The other thing I have done is tried to reclaim bank charges- just before the test case hold was put on it! Subsequently I applied under financial hardship, and the 40 days reply time is up any day now, but of course this makes no difference to anyone I speak to at Barclays, i.e. they don't seem prepared to wait a few days to see if they will repay me more than the debt is anyway.....

I have borrowed money from my family to help the business and am unwilling to borrow more as the company can't pay back the initial monies.

So, is there something I can do to appease the mighty imperial Barclays eagle? Or have I no leg to stand on and they can turn the screws at leisure?

Thanks for any advice, and keep up the good work!

Ben

CCCS_Sarah

lilysgarden wrote: »

Hi, I'm hoping you might be able to help, although it might totally be the wrong place to post! I've just finished my degree this summer and like most mature students, went into education with existing debts. While studying I've paid the minimum on these debts in order to avoid defaulting on them and managed this fine with student loans and my wages, which has suited me well over the last four years.

I've finally got a starting date for my first graduate job as a social worker, but over the summer, I've struggled with the rent etc. I've used up my savings, maxed out my credit card and gone over my overdraft limit and now have charges pending for the overdraft. I'm not too concerned over this as once I start getting paid from my new job, I can clear the rent, bills etc and start clearing some of my debts quite easily with a bit of careful spending!

However, my problem lies within the wait for my first pay from the new job! I currently get paid weekly and will be moving onto monthly pay, so will have no money behind me to start the job with. Because of the nature of the job, I don't really want to be carrying on my evening job whilst starting this as I'll be putting myself under far too much pressure. But on top of paying the bills etc, I'll now be commuting nearly an hour each way to work, so will need money for petrol. However, my first pay from the new job isn't due till around the 23rd december!

I appreciate I'm a bad candidate for loans etc due to poor credit rating, but can you advise me of anywhere that may do a short term loan just to cover the bills till the first pay comes in? I've worked out that £1000 will be enough to cover the rent bills, petrol etc and leave me with some left over for emergencies (knowing my luck, something WILL go wrong!). I've emailed the Bristol Credit Union as I couldn't get hold of the one in Gloucester to see if they might be able to help, but haven't had a reply yet and I only have this week to get things sorted before starting the new job. Can you offer any advice as to who else might be able to help over the short term?

Many thanks in advance for any advice, Nikki

Hi Nikki,

Thank you for your message.

It is really hard going from weekly to monthly pay. If you will be able to manage your finances ok when your start your new job and it is just some thing to ‘tick you over’, then your local credit union would be a better choice as the terms are a lot more flexible than general creditors.

Alternatively if you have enough to cover your priority expenditure, then you could pay these and the catch up on your credit debts at a later date i.e. the next month.

Sarah

murphs2

I am already a CCCS customer and have been on my DMP for almost a year. I have obviously been budgeting hard and carefully watching my money. There has been alot of press recently surrounding claiming back credit card charges and I was wondering how feasible you thought this would be for me?

I have gone through the process previously with my bank, when this first became available, so I fully understand the process. I have 12 credit cards registered with you, I know there would be alot of money to claim back. Having said this, I would not want any of the companies to change their lower payment plans with me.

I would appreciate some advice on this issue.

Thank you,

CCCS_Sarah

thefoolonthehill wrote: »

Hi

I have received a letter from a debt collection agency advising they have started proceedings against me for a debt of 3,600. this they advise stems from an original debt of 285 which they are advising that i havent paid. This debt was paid off through CCCS in Feb this year so i have no idea why they would send this letter now. I am going to write to them and tell them that I do not recognise the debt and the Nationwide debt that I originally had has been paid off. Can you give me any further advice?

Thank you for your message.

Ask them for a breakdown of the debt, we will be able to send proof of payment if they advise that no payments were made.

Do you think this could be another debt that was originally missed off the dmp? as there is a big difference in the amounts.

Let me know how you get on with the breakdown and then we can take it from there.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

sacbaby37 wrote: »

Hi Sarah, i have been having debt management ith the cccs for 6 months now and everything has been going good, i can now sleep at night. A friend of mine suggested that i reclaim my credit card charges back, as it was these that got me deeper into debt in the first place. Can i do this while the cccs is dealing with these companies for me? Thanks sez.

Glad everything is going well for you.

You can try and reclaim your charges, if you do manage to get anything back from the creditors let us know as we maybe able to suggest when to pay the money.

I believe there is a step by step guide on this website you would be able to follow.

Fingers crossed for you!

CCCS_Sarah

rugbymum wrote: »

I want to ask a quick question. One of my creditors hasn't stopped charging interest & late fees. I now owe more than when I started on my DMP. I really really want them to default me so that the charges will stop. Will CCCS stop paying them if I ask them to? Or should I take the company off my list of creditors till the default happens & then put them back on?

How long have you been on your dmp for? Sometimes it does take some time for them to default the account and then pass it on to a collection agency.

You are not in a contract with your dmp, so you would be able to stop it at anytime. You would not be able to just remove one debt from the dmp, as all debts do need to be included.

What I would recommend is stick with it for the moment, and see how you get on, if they do continue give us a call and we will be able to send them a letter asking them to consider stopping the interest and charges, however they are under no obligation to do so.

If they do continue after all this I would advise you to have a review of your account to see if there are any other options available to you.

CCCS_Sarah

FiFo wrote: »

Hi
After trawling the forum on here, i filled in the the online debt remedy form about on cccs and i am a little confused as to what i do next. Amongst other things i have an overdraft of £600 which seemed to default to £30. Am i not to pay my overdraft off only pay the £30 and still pay the minimum payments on credit cards, store cards etc , i wonder if i am better ringing cccs, i thought i would be advised to have an IVA or is this only advised once you have spoken to your advisors? I think i deperatly need help i am left with not a lot to live on every month. Very confused. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello,

Aeshna is spot on – couldn’t of answered it better myself!

Did you have an outcome once you completed Debt Remedy? I will PM you the Debt Remedy support team’s number so they can look at your account for you and answer this in more detail.

Sarah

CCCS_Matthew

missyp123 wrote: »

Wrong agreement given and signed by us
Please we are in urgent need of feedback...

we have a charging order hearing on 5 jan, papers came through today and i called debt advice line to query the fact they have said 'and intrest of 12.39%'.
We have been on this website thorugh this whole process and thought that the consumer credit act secured us to not pay intrest on the charging order balance.
Debt advice line put us on hold, came back and told us to double check the agreement and dates, amounts etc.

I called them back, confirmed that the amount was £30.000 unsecured and the ageement clearly states it is regulated under the consumer credit act 1974 at the top. And where we signed it says 'this agreement is regulated by the consumer credit act 1974.Sign it only if you want to be legally boundb y its terms'.

Debt advice line has told us we must call our local trading standars office monday and have asked us to send all our paperwork in and they will be urgentently looking into it too! aparently the act should only cover loans of up to £25.000.

My heart is still racing from all the comotion on the other side of the phone, im not sure whats going on?

My initall query was concerning intrest being addeded at a rate we would never be able to pay back.

Please can anybody tell us what this means?????????????? Are going to have to go through court etc to defend this? Has anyone been through this?

*I had posted this in the loans board, but not sure if its the right place for it.

My understanding is that the Consumer Credit Act only covers credit debts up to the value of £25,000 as you have mentioned. It’s also my understanding that creditors cannot add interest on a debt as a charging order if is regulated by the CCA. The first issue, which you are already looking into is to raise the issue regarding the fact that they are trying to claim the debt is regulated by the CCA when officially it cannot be.

The other issue is that they are trying to claim interest on the debt, when the CCA also states that interest cannot be added on a charging order if it is regulated by the CCA. Can I ask what the debt was originally?

Hopefully this will get resolved if you are taking it up with your trading standards, but if I were you I would also respond to the court documents to get the hearing changed to your local county court and set the date aside to attend it. That way if the issue regarding whether the debt is regulated by the CCA is still there, you can have the opportunity to explain this in front of a judge. Even if you find that the debt is regulated, you would still have the chance to defend the charging order if you attend the hearing so I would strongly advise you to attend.

It might also be worth speaking to the OFT about the matter if you haven’t already done so, as they offer great advice regarding the Consumer Credit Act.

Hope this helps.
Matthew.

rugbymum

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

How long have you been on your dmp for? Sometimes it does take some time for them to default the account and then pass it on to a collection agency.

You are not in a contract with your dmp, so you would be able to stop it at anytime. You would not be able to just remove one debt from the dmp, as all debts do need to be included.

What I would recommend is stick with it for the moment, and see how you get on, if they do continue give us a call and we will be able to send them a letter asking them to consider stopping the interest and charges, however they are under no obligation to do so.

If they do continue after all this I would advise you to have a review of your account to see if there are any other options available to you.

Thank you for reply but this situation is not sutainable. They are now charging 3x more in interset than I am repaying on the DMP. At that rate I will take the debt to the grave!