Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Sue

_shel wrote: »

Hi, I have a question re the provision of statements. I have a couple of old debts, over 5 years, I am making small payments. One to a solicitor acting on behalf, One to the company direct - HFC, on a revamped interest free loan, the other intrest free to a company which bought the debt.

Anyway, non provide me statements, not in over 2 years despite asking and asking. I only know what I owe by phoning and lots of hassle.

I was just searching and found this http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2006/en/ukpgaen_20060014_en.pdf which says if they dont provide statements they have no right to collect the debt or charge interest!!!!

Is this right? Could I challange them and wipe the debt as in this Act?

Hi Shel and thank you for your email

If you have asked for the statements in writing and enclosed the £1 fee and you are not receiving any responses to your requests, then you could report the matter to Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as they may be in breach of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I have attached a link for you to look at sections 8 to 9 which will give you more information.
click here .

Hope this helps

Regards

Sue

HarryFlashman

Sue, thanks for the prompt reply. Good advice as ever.

'Have you sent a copy of the letter from Mercers Debt collections to us?'

Ha! They sent me a text message(!) informing me that they were handling the account for BCard. I have had nothing in writing although I did request that all correspondence be sent in writing from now on. All relevant paperwork will be forwarded to CCCS.

I was just concerned by the use of the words "doorstep collection" so openly by them, intimating that if you don't pay us what we want now, we will come and take what we want. I can only assume it's a ploy to get you to sign up to an agreement with the DCA direct by using fear.

CCCS_Sue

Miggie wrote: »

My oh and I are in a dmp and it is going well. Howver, I've just found out that one of my credit cards has been cloned and used several times over the last 6 weeks. I didn't notice earlier because I didn't owe any money on the ac and didn't check it. I've contacted the ccard co and they are looking into it. I'm so worried as it now looks as though we've broken the terms of our dmp - even though the ccard co are confident that they will clear the a/c (and close it).

If my creditors pick up on the fact that the ac was used and then paid off will they cancel my dmp?

I'm so scared and mad as we've been doing really well and should be in a position to increase our payments when we have a review in 3 months.

Hi Miggie

Can you just confirm whether you are you on a DMP with us or another debt management company?

Thanks
Sue

CCCS_Sue

HarryFlashman wrote: »

Sue, thanks for the prompt reply. Good advice as ever.

'Have you sent a copy of the letter from Mercers Debt collections to us?'

Ha! They sent me a text message(!) informing me that they were handling the account for BCard. I have had nothing in writing although I did request that all correspondence be sent in writing from now on. All relevant paperwork will be forwarded to CCCS.

I was just concerned by the use of the words "doorstep collection" so openly by them, intimating that if you don't pay us what we want now, we will come and take what we want. I can only assume it's a ploy to get you to sign up to an agreement with the DCA direct by using fear.

The door step collector has no special powers.He is a person employed by the debt collection company to collect money.

He has no rights regarding “coming to take goods to pay for your debts” .
Bailiffs are the only ones who have this power and there would have to be a CCJ issued first and it would have to be one you had defaulted on or ignored.

Regards
Sue

callywally

Hello,
I started a dmp qith cccs in nov. I contacted all creditors and asked for all contact to be in writing only due to health problems i cant cope with all the phone calls up to now I had not recieved any calls just a lot of letters.
Today I was left a message from someone giving only his first name and not giving any company name or reason for ringing just asking me to call the number he left. I thought this was strange and checked the number to find it was mbna who are one of my creditors. is this a crafty way of getting me to ring them? should I just ignore it and see if they ring again? this has really worried me just when I thought I was beginning to sort things out. I am paying all I can though cccs with the budget worked out for me by them. What happens if they decide not to accept my dmp? I cant cope with lots of phone calls and thought that if I requested contact in writing only they had to stick to this. Any advice would be welcome Thanks

LittleOne83

Hi
Hoping you can help! I'm a student midwife recieving a bursary of £520 a month. I have credit card debt that i aquired prior to starting university. I currently owe £5200 which is on 2 credit cards and an overdraft. I don't include my overdraft on my student current account as it's interest free and I don't need to repay it yet. Over the past 6 or so months I've had problems keeping up with re-payments. I've offered my creditors reduced payments but they've not been accepted. I've been missing calls from one creditor and sometimes the number of times they've called is in the double figures! Today I recieved a letter from MBNA threatening court action or debt collectors.
Due to the nature of my course and the clinical placements during which I have to work shifts it's very difficult to get regular paid work.
I have about £50 left per month for creditors. Do you think I'm eligible for a DMP?
In 10 months i'll be a qualified midwife earning £20,000 pa and should be able to pay off the debts quite quikly but untill then I just can't cope. I suffer with depression and the stress is really starting to get to me. I don't know what to do.

Vicky70

Hi All,

My first posting on the site so quite nervous!!!

We are in a financial mess and are about to try and sort it out. My husband has spoken with CCCS this evening and he has an appointment in Jan. They are sending a spreadsheet for us to fill in. In the meantime they advised that we cancel all Direct Debits to our credit card companies and and our bank (that we have an overdraught with) and ask them to freeze debts and accept token payments until after our appointment with CCCS. They also advised us to open a new bank account for my husbands salary to be paid into.

Our existing joint account is with First Direct and we have credit cards with Barclaycard, Egg, Tesco , MBNA and Halifax. We also have a loan with Cahoot and our mortgage is with the Halifax. We not all that long ago closed down a bank account that we had with Alliance and Leicester.

I prefer banks that have a branch locally and we do have in our town a Natwest and a Lloyds TSB. Lloyds TSB are buying Halifax (unless I'm getting mixed up) so don't think this would be good as we owe money to the Halifax. So my thinking is that we go Natwest as I don't think they are connected to any of the existing companies that we owe money too. Any advice on this matter???

Thanks for any guidance.
Vicky

kingcheese

i'm growing increasingly frustrated over my combined credit card debt of around 35k i am just about managing to pay my monthly payments of £800 but this is being eaten up by interest. i want to be clear within 2 years but can't see the end due to the interest.

Miggie

CCCS_Sue wrote: »

Hi Miggie

Can you just confirm whether you are you on a DMP with us or another debt management company?

Thanks
Sue

Thank you for coming back to me Sue. I'm with Payplan and have now spoken to them. They are fine about it. Also the ccard company have come back to me and cancelled everything so we can stop worrying. I've cancelled all my 'open' accounts apart from Capital One (I don't owe them anything) to keep the identity fraud cover open. I'd love to know how this happened as I've not used the card since last Christmas, before we went on a dmp.

Thanks again, you guys are fantastic and I can't tell you how much being in control again has turned my life around.

Miggie

[Deleted User]

CCCS_Sue wrote: »

Hi Shel and thank you for your email

If you have asked for the statements in writing and enclosed the £1 fee and you are not receiving any responses to your requests, then you could report the matter to Office of Fair Trading (OFT) as they may be in breach of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I have attached a link for you to look at sections 8 to 9 which will give you more information.
click here .

Hope this helps

Regards

Sue

Thank you very much, I'll do this today.