Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Sarah

LittleOne83 wrote: »

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.

Hello thank you for your message.

Sounds like it’s only a temporary blip you’re having. When you are offering reduced payments, pay what you can afford. The creditors often put pressure on for higher payments, but if you do not have the money then you can’t give them anymore.

I would suggest you call for an appointment and speak to a counsellor rather than using Debt Remedy, and then you can let your counsellor know that your situation is going to change.

They may say offer what you can afford until you go full time or they may look at a low start dmp if this is a good option for you, as a debt management plan is not always the best option for everyone.

Hope this helps, if you would like an appointment please call 0800 138 1111.

Sarah

o99

Hi,

Great forum, keep up the good work.

Over the past 4 years I've got myself into a mess and need help to get out of it.

I have debts totalling 64k, I have nothing to show for the debt. i had been meeting the minimum payments of approx £2000 every month to date. I cannot do this anymore.

I am self employed and due to the state of the economy at the moment, the business cannot support me anymore as our sales are down. However, if i reduce my salary, I should be able to make the business work and over time increase my earnings to pay off the debt.

Is a DMP suitable for me? If I take a reduced salary then via a DMP i'll be paying about 560 per month.

I think I'll be able to pay more in about 6 months time as I'm confident I can get the business to pick up.

Also, I have mortgage, loans and O/D with one particular bank. What are they likley to do?

CCCS_Sarah

Vicky70 wrote: »

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

Hi Vicky,

Welcome to the boards! You will find loads of useful information on this website and get loads of support from people going through similar situations to you.

I have attached a link to a booklet that has a list of basic bank accounts for you to look over. Natwest should be fine anyway.

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

After you have had your appointment, come back and let us know how you get on and if you need anything just give us a shout.

Sarah

CCCS_Sue

callywally wrote: »

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

Hi Callywally and thanks for your message

If you have written to the creditors and asked them to put all correspondence in writing, then they should stick to this and they should not be ringing you.
If you are on a DMP and your payments are up to date then you do not have to ring them back as we are making the regular monthly payments to them.
If you do answer the call just tell them that CCCS are dealing with their debt and all payments are now made by us.

As you have only just set up your plan, it may be that MBNA have only just received their first payment as your payment would have been disbursed to them around the 25th November.

If any of the creditors are not happy with the offer on your DMP, we would still send the amount as this is what you can realistically afford. You cannot pay money you do not have!
When you have been on the plan a couple of months and you have made regular payments, things usually settle down.

If MBNA continue to ring you, I would keep a log of what has been said,
note the callers names, and the frequency of the calls. If they continue to harass you, then you could report them to Trading Standards, especially if you have specifically requested that they correspond with you in writing.
Hope this helps!
Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

kingcheese wrote: »

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.

Hi kingcheese and thank you for your message

Unfortunately, when you sign up for the credit cards, you agree to the interest amount being added.
So if you continue to make the minimum payments only on your cards, then it could take years to repay the debt.
The only way to pay off the debt quickly is to pay as much as you can over the minimum amount each month.
However before you can do this, it is essential that you keep all your priorities up to date. These are things like rent/mortgage/utility bills/food etc.

It would help if you put together a budget showing all your income and expenditure. This will show what you can realistically afford to pay your cards each month.
If the surplus is more than the minimum amount you need to pay, then you need to offer extra to the cards with the highest interest first and then work on clearing the smaller ones.

However, if the budget shows you are struggling to make even the minimum payments, then it may help you if you made an appointment to speak to one our debt counsellors to look at options to deal with your situation. Our free helpline telephone number is 0800 138 1111.

Hope this helps

Regards

CCCS

CCCS_Sarah

o99 wrote: »

Hi,

Great forum, keep up the good work.

Over the past 4 years I've got myself into a mess and need help to get out of it.

I have debts totalling 64k, I have nothing to show for the debt. i had been meeting the minimum payments of approx £2000 every month to date. I cannot do this anymore.

I am self employed and due to the state of the economy at the moment, the business cannot support me anymore as our sales are down. However, if i reduce my salary, I should be able to make the business work and over time increase my earnings to pay off the debt.

Is a DMP suitable for me? If I take a reduced salary then via a DMP i'll be paying about 560 per month.

I think I'll be able to pay more in about 6 months time as I'm confident I can get the business to pick up.

Also, I have mortgage, loans and O/D with one particular bank. What are they likley to do?

It would be hard to say if a debt management plan is the best option for you as I don’t have all your details, but we can look into it for you.

You would be able to have an appointment with ourselves and then a counsellor can help you put together a budget and see what your options are.

If you would like an appointment please call 0800 138 1111.

Sarah

shropshirelad_3

Hi,

First post...

My OH and I have been on a DMP for about 10 months with a long way to go. It has been going well so far, but a long way to go. It is our own fault, but at least we are trying to get on with it.

We both have cards with Citi bank, and have both been contacted today by First Credit by phone.

My call was at work, and after confirming details, they essentially wanted me to pay in full. I said I couldn't and they went through a big list of questions, which I basically declined to answer, but they wanted to know who my employer was, how much I earned, and how much equity was in the house.

I told them I was with CCCS and they said that they would send a letter for me to pass on to them, although they would be declining the amount that Citi had agreed.

My wifes call was much different and hers was much more aggressive. The bloke essentially said it was her own fault that she was in debt, and why should they have any sympathy. They demanded full payment and gave her 7 days to tap friends and family to come up with the cash or a) they would set a solicitor on it, b) take us to court, c) get a CCJ, d) send bailiffs to remove proprty, e) get a charge on the property.

She is normally very good, but was distraught by their onslaught.

I have looked at the forums and the CCCS faq, and don't believe that they can do this, maybe get a CCJ, but if we are on a DMP and all up to date would hope a judge would look favourably on it.

I would like to know whether we can complain about this as it seemed to be bordering on harrasment as per OFT guidelines? Or do we suck it up as we need them to be on board to agree a reduced payment?

Any views appreciated.

bunty1983

hi we signed up to a dmp with you and are making our 1st payment 1st jan ,last week we recieved welcome pack and repayment proposals but ive just had call from one of our creditors mercers and theyve said they still havent heard anything.just wondering how long it takes for you to send repayment proposals to them?

scott_1975

Hi,

I am on a DMP with yourselves, however... Yesterday at work I was told that my position will probably be made redundant. I have a meeting later on today to discuss this further. So I will contact you as and when I know anything 'concrete'.

But for now, is there anything that I should do, or be aware of etc. in terms of my finances.

Many thanks in advance,

Scott.

solaeclipsx

iv been having peoblems with wescot for a loan i took out 5 years it has taken them this long to get in contact with me , ago i have sent a letter asking them not to call me as thay where making ill, we also sent a letter to them asking for subject access request back in september i have not had anyting bk till today but all thay have sent me is a statement of account witch just looks like a photo copy of my bank statement ,i have oferd them the minimal i can pay as i dont work and dont get benifits was only £10 thay said no thay want the full amount and at least £200 pm what i want to know is there anyting els i cn offer them or can do as i havent got my subject access request from them please help