Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

Nigemck

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Hello Niall,

Thank you for your message.

As I don’t know what company has approached you it would be hard to say if they are reputable, however you should never pay a company for debt advice as you can get that free from us or other non profit organisations such as the citizens advice or National Debtline.

After you completed debt remedy, it would have given you tailored advice to deal with your situation, unless there was something that stood out in the budget and it should have prompted you to call the support team. I am unable to access the accounts of the people I chat to online for data protection reasons, however I will PM you the support teams contact number so you can chase them up.

One other thing that I should point out is, no company is able to make your creditors stop interest and charges, this is always at the creditors discretion.

Hi Sue..

Thanks for the reply. The name of the company was Kensington Financial Consultants. They are charging me an admin fee of £100 and £35 per month to manage my debt management plan. Do CCCS offer such a service and what does it cost? Also how badly will me credit rating be affected if I am on a debt mangement plan? I have all of these companies offering to look after my finaces for me and I feel judging by this website that your service is most genuine so i would like to prcie how much it is for you to take control of my debt management plan.

Many Thanks
Niall

CCCS_Sarah

Nigemck wrote: »

Hi Sue..

Thanks for the reply. The name of the company was Kensington Financial Consultants. They are charging me an admin fee of £100 and £35 per month to manage my debt management plan. Do CCCS offer such a service and what does it cost? Also how badly will me credit rating be affected if I am on a debt mangement plan? I have all of these companies offering to look after my finaces for me and I feel judging by this website that your service is most genuine so i would like to prcie how much it is for you to take control of my debt management plan.

Many Thanks
Niall

Sue??? She always gets the credit!

We do, but you would need to have an appointment to see if a dmp is your best option. If a debt management plan is the best way forward for your there would be no charge.

Nigemck

Ahh sorry Sarah....

I knew as soon as I had sent it that I had the wrond name sorry :rolleyes:
I have just contaced someone at your office so it turns out that other company were charging me when I am getting the same service off you for free :j . I will be receiving my DMP paper work this wekk so hopefully I am now on the way to getting my life sorted out!!

Many Thanks SARAH for all the help!!

Blankie

Hello there.
We are currently receiving advice from you by telephone but wondered if I could ask a question here.
We are paying our creditors £1 a month and have been for several months as our expenditure exceeds our income.

Sainburys bank have been calling us more or less daily for several months now and have now sent us a letter stating that we must pay them £2300 by 24th Dec or they will instigate court action. My question is: the original loan which was taken out in 2005 was for £25,001. Although our original request was for £25,000 there was a specific reason why they said we should take £25,001. On looking at the information on MSE I believe this means that our loan is unregulated but what effect does this have on us now that we are in this situation?? What are our options once the deadline date arrives?

We were advised by yourselves not to send any of our creditors our SOA.

Please could someone help as I am really really worried about our situation and its really starting to make me ill with stress.

Thank you.
Blankie

pau11n3

I need a bit of advice ..im currently on a DMP with CCCS.. 18months in and 6ish yrs to go...

our safe account is HALIFAX basic bank account ...but i have debt with Lloyds tsb ..O/D credit card and loan!!! i was told when the merger was announced not to panic and wait...so now that this merger is going through..do i now have to change my bank again...my hubby is in the Navy and is away..so getting a new joint account is gonna be near impossible til June... im really worried they will seize our account... i really need advice...
thank you in adance...
Pauline

determinedtodothis

Hi

Just wondered..i have not recieved a statement from any of the creditors on my DMP - does CCCS get those now?

CCCS_Matthew

Candygirl_007 wrote: »

Hi there

I have already emailed CCCS and they have replied, however I have some questions.

We came back to England in November after being out of the country for 7 months. During that time we were unable to pay any of our creditors. We have a loan with HSBC and they have closed our account. I have since been to Natwest and Lloyds and both have declined a basic bank account - think its because of our credit rating. Problem is we now have jobs and need an account to pay our money into and get dd's set up again to pay our creditors. What can we do if nobody will give us a bank account??

Thanks :-)

Hi there.

It's unlikely that banks will reject you for a basic bank account due to your credit history. Basic accounts come with no credit facility, so therfore are no threat to the bank. You often tend to find that banks will try and force an application for a current account rather than a basic account, so you need to make it clear you only want a basic account. If you've had trouble opening a new account with a couple of banks, you could always try the others. I've attached a fact sheet on basic bank accounts which outlines all the basic accounts available so you know exactly what to ask for when you speak to them.

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

Hope this helps,
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

redkev76 wrote: »

Checked on the Debt Remedy Plan and it gives me a figure of £234 per month which I can just about afford to pay. I understand that you can never confirm for definite that a creditor will accept this payment but presumably, the more you offer, the greater the chance of being accepted?

Really, my question is about a CCJ as I am concerned that if I get a CCJ that I will struggle to move jobs if I wish to do so in the future. It says in the online guide I received after completeing my plan that they are likely to try to obtain a CCj if I don't stick to the agreement. Does that mean stick to the agreement I have with them now ie pay the minimum payment every month as per usual or stick to the DMP with CCCS?

Sorry if that's waffle but feeling very stressed and confused at the moment!!!

Thanks

Kevin

Hi Kevin, thanks for your message.

A creditor would not go for a CCJ against you after the DMP is complete as there would be nothing left to pay on the debt and therefore no further arrangement would need to be made.

A creditor can petition for a CCJ whilst you are making payments into the plan. This is because the payments made into the plan are less than the amount you agreed to pay when you signed the agreement. The larger the payments are, generally the less likely they will go for a CCJ if they consider the term of repayment realistic.

If you were to stop making payments to the creditors completely, they are much more likely to try and go for a CCJ in order to enforce some sort of regular repayment through the County Court.

Hope this clears things up for you.
Matthew.

CCCS_Matthew

needitsorted wrote: »

They are called TCF Debt solutions. Could you please tell me wether or not they are a good choice to use, will they provide a free service to me or will it end up costing me in the long run?

I need help, not ripping off, not someone else trying to make money out of me!

This is another financial minefield that I need to get right as I am now at risk of losing my house!

Will these people provide me with the best advice? will it be completely free? will they advise me on my best option (IVA, Debt plan, bankruptcy)? and will they deal with my creditors on my behalf?

Can you advise me of the best people to use who will be completley free and actually work to help me and my family out of debt without lining there own pockets?

Sorry to moan but its very stressfull. Regards P&R

Hi P&R,

I have no knowledge of who TCF Debt Solutions are, and can only assume that they are a fee charging company. If so, I would advise against you paying anything to get the advice you need.

Seen as you’ve posted on our thread, have you tried speaking to ourselves? CCCS is a debt advice charity that offers free and impartial advice to those in financial difficulty. We would be able to discuss all options, including DMP’s, IVA’s and bankruptcy.

If you want to discuss your situation, feel free to call the helpline on 0800 138 1111 (lines are open Mon-Fri 08:00-20:00). Alternatively, you can try our online advice facility Debt Remedy. Debt Remedy assists you in completing a financial statement and you would be provided with tailored advice on the best way to deal with your situation. Click here to go directly to Debt Remedy.

Hope this helps!
Matthew

CCCS_Matthew

thermalaudio wrote: »

If a debt has been sold by a creditor to a debt collection company, how many years does it take before the debt is wiped off the balance sheets if there has been zero contact, despite sending a couple of cheques as monthly payments, the cheques had not been cashed & were returned, I've been told in the past that its 5 years before they wipe it clean off your credit report.

This is from a card i stupidly got when i was 18.. over 9 years ago.. I've heard nothing from the card company & they say they know nothing about me.. !

Hi there,

A credit debt will become Statute Barred when there has been no attempt of contact for 6 years. This basically means the debt becomes unenforceable and can no longer be chased. The fact that the creditor in question knows nothing of the debt and are returning your cheques suggests that at some point the debt was probably sold on to another collections company. If it's been 6 years since anyone contacted you about this debt then you've not got a lot to worry about, especially as no one by the sounds of it is requesting money at this stage anyway.

Matthew.