Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

kayleighj_2

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Hello,

The first thing I would suggest is to open a basic bank account at a bank where you have no debts, this will then mean that your money is safe, as your bank will not be able to access your money.

You need to make sure that the money you do have coming in covers your priority expenditure, this includes board, food etc. any cash you have left over, you can use to offer reduced payments to your unsecured debts.

I would suggest that you don’t sign any loan agreement, just make the reduced payments. As your situation starts to improve you can then look to increase your payments and then bring your accounts back up to date.

Sarah

Thanks!
Do you suggest I contact the people with set direct debits to and ask to temp reduce the amounts?
I have a new account I haven't used, do you think it would be worth transfering my wages into this and then transfer some of the money into the account my bills come from?
Thanks for your help

CCCS_Sarah

kayleighj wrote: »

Thanks!
Do you suggest I contact the people with set direct debits to and ask to temp reduce the amounts?
I have a new account I haven't used, do you think it would be worth transfering my wages into this and then transfer some of the money into the account my bills come from?
Thanks for your help

If they were to let you have a lower payment for a couple of months that would be the ideal situation. If they don’t allow you too, then just send it anyway. Don’t let them pressure you into signing anything.

Have your wages transferred over as soon as possible and make sure priorities are paid first, if your bills come out of an account where you have debts, these will need to be swapped over too.

Unlucky_Lucy

My husband and I both have professional jobs and we also have a young family. My husband earns approx 48K and I earn 14k. We bought our house 2 years ago with a NR together mortgage. We owe £139k for the mortgage plus 22k as an unsecured loan. The problem is that instead of house prices rising like we predicted, they have fallen and we're now about 30k in negative equity. In addition to this, we have an £8500 loan for a car and another outstanding £4500 for another car and £21000 in credit cards. So as you can see, this eats up a lot of our available cash. We are managing to pay all our bills on time but are very worried that we will be in this mess forever. I'm tempted to hand back the keys, rent a house somewhere and declare ourselves bankrupt so that we can start afresh. I know it's probably not as easy as that, but I'm starting to feel utterly miserable that we've got ourselves into this awful situation and can't see a way out. We have cut back on everything but we are only making minimum payments. Any advice out there would be appreciated.

CCCS_Matthew

Hi Lucy.

It's difficult to see what your best advice is without seeing all of your facts and figures in front of me. Handing the keys back to the mortgage provider would be a big step to take, and you would definitely need some indepth advice to see whether it's the best way to move forward.

If you want to speak to one of our debt counsellors about your situation, you can call our helpline on 0800 138 1111. We have a team of counsellors that deal specifically with people having difficulty with mortgages or those facing repossession so they will be able to discuss your available options.

It might also help starting a new thread showing a statement of affairs in order for us to be able to look at things for you in a bit more detail. There are plenty of friendly folk on here in similar situations who can provide great advice on making things easier.

Regards,
Matthew.

Unlucky_Lucy

Your Budget

The figures in this budget are based on those supplied by you during the preparation of your Debt Remedy.

Your Income Amount

Your take home pay £900
Your partner's take home pay £2,500
Rent/board received
Pension received
Any other income received
Income Support
Jobseekers Allowance

Your Income Amount

Incapacity Benefit
Disability Living Allowance
Working Tax Credit
Child Benefit
Child Tax Credit
Child Support

Total income £3,400

Housing Amount Comment

Rent
Mortgage £1,000 inc 22k loan
Secured loans/2nd mortgage
Mortgage endowment premium
Service charge/ground rent
Water
Council tax £132
Gas £50
Electricity £50
Other household fuel

Household services

Building and contents insurance £25
Telephone, mobile & internet £58
TV licence £15
Satellite £20
Repairs and maintenance
Household appliance rental
Child maintenance
Childcare £150
Fines, CCJs, Decrees
Life insurance/pensions £20
Medical/accident insurance
Hire purchase £140 28 months left

Transport

Vehicle spares and servicing £20
Road tax £30
Motor insurance £85
Vehicle breakdown cover £4
Fuel & parking £260
Public Transport

Food & housekeeping

Food, toiletries, cleaning £390
School meals/meals at work £25
Pets, pet food/insurance
Tobacco

Misc. goods & services

School trips/activities £5
Medicines/prescriptions £7
Dentist/opticians £10
Hairdressing £21
Union/professional fees
Laundry/dry cleaning £45
Education fees

Personal & leisure

Clothing & footwear £43
Sports, hobbies, entertainment £20
Children's pocket money £10

Sundries/emergencies/other costs

Sundries/emergencies £20

Total expenses £2,655

Additional information Comment

No of adults 2
Dependants 2

Totals Amount

Total income £3,400
Total expenses £2,655

Surplus (Deficit) £745 (almost all of this goes towards paying unsecured credit)

The Debt remedy suggested a DMP over 6 years. I just feel that is a long time to pay £745 per month. Anyway. Hope the info above is of use. Thanks for your help.

Lucy

CCCS_Matthew

Hi Lucy.

6 Years is considered a fairly reasonable amount of time to clear debt in. If you handed the keys back and rented somewhere cheaper and found that your available surplus was more, you maybe in a position where bankruptcy is not even considered a viable option by the judge as on paper you can show you can repay your debts in a reasonable amount of time.

If you want to discuss your situation further to discuss what options you do have then you are welcome to book an appointment to speak to a debt counsellor.

Regards,
Matthew.

tinkerbell12

Hi,

I am currently around 9 months into a DMP with CCCS and all our creditors have been great so far with minimal hassling! However, today we received a letter from Northern Rock saying that our temporary payment arrangement is coming to an end and they want us to contact them. They also want to know ALL our outstanding debts and our income and expenditure!

We did not disclose this to them before and don't want to now - what is our best course of action? Refer them to CCCS for this information or do we have to give it to them if they request it.

I don't want to do nothing as the letter states that if we don't respond within 7 days they will assume that we can make our normal payments again!

Any advice much appreciated.

LCT

Hi - hope someone is around to help!
I've lost my CCCS Transcash slip to make Decembers payment - can i pay with the little tabs that get sent with your welcome pack? I'm in a right panic because its only payment number2 and its going to be late now

neveragain

I've had a DMP since 2003 and i now owe a relatively small amount compared with what i started with - thanks to sell my flat and having £18000 equity.

I lost my job earlier this year ( i worked in mortgage industry) and have taken lesser paid job ( over £3000 less a year). Even though i know i'm making payments and its what i can afford i feel worse than ever. I dont socialise with friends as i cant afford to go out and i've been single for well over a year because i dont think anyone will want me with all this debt.

To make matters worse i had a goldfish card i've been paying through my dmp with interest frozen and this was sold onto Cabot Finance in March and they are adding interest - £211 since they took it over!!! This is only £18 less than the payments i have made so i feel like i am getting nowhere. They are little help and had asked when i was out of work for interest to be frozen twice but it fell on deaf ears. I just feel like i am never going to be free of them - I owe them £2541. My other two debtors are more understanding.

I just dont know what to do next - i feel helpless and trapped by Cabot. I will never pay them off at this rate and will owe them more!

I have asked them to forward a copy of the agreement detailing interest calculations and rates....no response

Fossildog

Great.

My wifes ex-husband, who is on a DMP with CCCS, has just got Sky +HD multi-room for his 4 bed detached house. Im afraid the CCCS is a joke when they take on trust that the SOA provided to them is actually a true picture. Surely some form of checking needs to take place? Surely there is something very wrong with a situation when someone on a DMP can take 4 foreign holidays a year, change their car every 6 months (for a brand new one each time), live in a luxury 4 bed house and wear designer clothes? And on top of that he pays zero maintenance for his children as he has 'no assets no income' (he works in financial services and is good at hiding his true status).

What a joke. It makes a mockery of all the decent people who use CCCS as a means of paying their debts off in a responsible manner.