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CCCS_Sue

simond503 wrote: »

Thanks for that reply. my wife has informed me that we actually got a cccs account as we went though all the details in november. She has fished the forms out of the cupboard for us to make our token payments with. Can you tell me what will happen next once they recieve this information. I think we may be able to do a dmp. How do we go about this, do we do it prior to the token payments or can we do it afterwards. Many thanks again for your reply simon

Hi Simon

First of all you need to look at your income and expenditure and put together an up to date budget, to show your creditors how much you can afford after all your priorities have been paid.

If there is nothing left, then you need to continue to offer token payments as a gesture of good will until your circumstances change.

If you have a surplus amount, then this needs to be shared among your creditors on a pro rata basis so they all get a fair share. You have the option of doing this yourselves, or, you could look at a DMP, but you would need to make an appointment with one of our counsellors first to see if this was your best option. The counsellor could also help you to prepare your budget.
To make an appointment, please call our free helpline on the number given on our previous message.

Hope this helps!

Regards
Sue

simond503

Thanks again for your reply. The budget is the same nothing has changed at all. I will send out the token payments and then call for an appointment when and if my circumstances change. thanks simon

car77

Hi there,

I'm hoping that somebody can give me some advice on what is probably quite basic stuff, but I can't find the answers.

My girlfriend currently has debts of around £2.5k - £3k in total. She is currently on a DMP (not a free one, as her initial debt was not large enough to qualify). She has been on the DMP for quite some time now, paying £175/month of which they take £25, leaving £150, and they have told her that it is due to end in April 2010. By my calculations this makes the debt approx £2800 through DMP, or approx £2400 without DMP admin costs.

I have some money which I have said I will lend her so she can pay these debts off, however, the more time I spend thinking about it, the more confused I am getting, and the more questions I am coming up with - maybe I'm over-complicating it. My queries are:

1. If I am to pay these debts off for her should I pay DMP people the total amount to distribute (surely they'll take a cut won't they?) or go directly to the creditors?

2. When trying to ascertain the exact amounts required to clear each debt should we ask the DMP people to do this or go direct to creditors? Is it the outstanding balance we should ask for or is there another name for what we want?

3. One of the creditors she had phoned her one day and said that if she could pay in the next few days they would reduce her debt from £800 to £400. We took them up on this offer and I whipped out my credit card - job done. From reading these forums I have discovered that this seems to be termed a full and final settlement. Can we ask her other creditors if they would be willing to do something similar?

4. Is there anything else that we need to be aware of that we haven't even thought of yet?

Apologies if these questions are a bit basic, or already answered somewhere else. I just want to do the right things and get this all sorted with as few complications as possible.

Thanks in advance.

nosser230469

Thanks Sarah for your previous advice.
Being a newbie my head is 'spinning'

A couple of things if you dont mind?

1) Lloyds tsb Credit card is my biggest debt, I have closed my bank account but my wife has an account and My joint account is with them. Do I have to worry about that? I have trawled the forum you suggested 'DMP support' and Lloyds tend to be a 'nightmare'. My wife does know about everything I am doing (That was the first hurdle).

2) How do you actually work out the portions you give to creditors? The main reason for asking this is because I have done myself a spreadsheet to 'brighten that light at the end of the tunnel' But I think I'm getting my sums wrong:cool: So for example: If I can afford an increase payment I want to be able to see the impact on my Debt, but I need the sums to put in my spreadsheet (I know a bit 'anorak') but it inspires and encourages me


Lastly, I have been a registered Mental Nurse for 20 Years, and no therapy can be any better than this forum for debt :T

My Mother was right "Money is the root of all evil"

Once again you're a 'Star'

a2062cad

Can you help answer this question. I have a Private Transfer bond created out of a company pension some 20 years ago. Can I at all use this to ofset/settle any of my debts. ?

Honeybee_2

Hi CCCS people.

My husband has a credit card debt which was passed onto collections a few years back. We were paying £50 per month towards it until they dca got stroppy and started to demand more. I then went through the cca route in summer and they replied after first letter to say they were trying to locate it, then after second letter to say that the cca law was not applicable so pay up. I ignored it and we heard nothing since.

Today, we have a letter stating that the dca (Marlin) is advising the credit card company to commence bankruptcy proceedings.

Should we be worried or is it scare tactics on their behalf?

We paid off £8k last year and intend to keep plugging on with it until debts are paid off, this debt is the only one we cca'd as they weren't playing ball with us.

red_machenka

Hi,

We have been advised by CCCS to set up DMP with our creditors which we sent IE and letters to all creditors, we have been told by all our creditors (with the exception of Abbey) that they have aggreed to our token payments etc.

We have been called a number of times by Abbey stating that they have not recieved our IE and token payment (which they must have recieved due to the fact that they cashed the cheque which we sent with the IE and the letter, which was sent on 11th Nov) so we sent it out again on the 1st Dec, which they said the hadn't recieved (even though they have chased the cheque that was sent with it again.) so we sent it all again on the 18th including another cheque. I checked our (abbey) bank account yesterday and Abbey have taken £279.00 to clear the arrers on the account.

We called them last night to ask why they have taken the money they said that WE told them that my other half is unemployed and when they checked his bank account they found he had over £1000 in the account... well of course he has, it's his wages ready to pay our essential bills at the beginning of the next month.

there is no way we would have told them that he was unemployed... they would have only had to check his account to see his wages going in!

is there any way of getting this money back or at least trying to get it back.
If they had set up the payment plan when we sent the first IE, letter and token payment we wouldn't be having this trouble.

We will now have to use our overdraft this month just to pay the bills which is surly defeating the object... gettin into more debt???

should we even bother to try and get the money back... We are both so furious about how they have treated us I'd be happy to take them to court as I think this is unfair treatment, not to mention the arrogent woman on the other end of the phone!

Sorry for the rant... any help greatfully recieved!

CCCS_Sue

car77 wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm hoping that somebody can give me some advice on what is probably quite basic stuff, but I can't find the answers.

My girlfriend currently has debts of around £2.5k - £3k in total. She is currently on a DMP (not a free one, as her initial debt was not large enough to qualify). She has been on the DMP for quite some time now, paying £175/month of which they take £25, leaving £150, and they have told her that it is due to end in April 2010. By my calculations this makes the debt approx £2800 through DMP, or approx £2400 without DMP admin costs.

I have some money which I have said I will lend her so she can pay these debts off, however, the more time I spend thinking about it, the more confused I am getting, and the more questions I am coming up with - maybe I'm over-complicating it. My queries are:

1. If I am to pay these debts off for her should I pay DMP people the total amount to distribute (surely they'll take a cut won't they?) or go directly to the creditors?

2. When trying to ascertain the exact amounts required to clear each debt should we ask the DMP people to do this or go direct to creditors? Is it the outstanding balance we should ask for or is there another name for what we want?

3. One of the creditors she had phoned her one day and said that if she could pay in the next few days they would reduce her debt from £800 to £400. We took them up on this offer and I whipped out my credit card - job done. From reading these forums I have discovered that this seems to be termed a full and final settlement. Can we ask her other creditors if they would be willing to do something similar?

4. Is there anything else that we need to be aware of that we haven't even thought of yet?

Apologies if these questions are a bit basic, or already answered somewhere else. I just want to do the right things and get this all sorted with as few complications as possible.

Thanks in advance.

Hi car77 and thank you for your email

The problem with paying a DMP through a fee charging agency is that it will take longer to clear the debt, as the fee your girlfriend is paying could be going towards paying off the debt.
You could either start making the payments to her creditors yourself and not through the debt management company to save the fee, or you could go to a company who do not charge for the service such as ourselves.
If you want to manage the debts yourself, she will need to put together a budget showing her income and expenditure.
Whatever surplus is left after paying all her priorities is the amount she needs to offer her creditors, so, if she has £175 month spare, she needs to work out the amount to offer each creditor on a pro rata basis ,so that they all get a fair share.
If she would like help in preparing a budget or if she would like to discuss all her options with a debt counsellor she can call for a telephone appointment on 0800 138 1111.
If she has been struggling to pay reduced payments for some time, then some creditors are happy to look at taking a lump sum as a full and final payment but we can discuss this further at the appointment if she decides she would like to speak to one of our counsellors.
Hope this helps!
Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

nosser230469 wrote: »

Thanks Sarah for your previous advice.
Being a newbie my head is 'spinning'

A couple of things if you dont mind?

1) Lloyds tsb Credit card is my biggest debt, I have closed my bank account but my wife has an account and My joint account is with them. Do I have to worry about that? I have trawled the forum you suggested 'DMP support' and Lloyds tend to be a 'nightmare'. My wife does know about everything I am doing (That was the first hurdle).

2) How do you actually work out the portions you give to creditors? The main reason for asking this is because I have done myself a spreadsheet to 'brighten that light at the end of the tunnel' But I think I'm getting my sums wrong:cool: So for example: If I can afford an increase payment I want to be able to see the impact on my Debt, but I need the sums to put in my spreadsheet (I know a bit 'anorak') but it inspires and encourages me


Lastly, I have been a registered Mental Nurse for 20 Years, and no therapy can be any better than this forum for debt :T

My Mother was right "Money is the root of all evil"

Once again you're a 'Star'

Hi nosser230469 and thanks for your message

So glad you are finding the forum useful!!

In reply to your queries:-

It is always advisable to change to a basic bank account elsewhere if you have debt with your current bank as your money is at risk as the account can be frozen.
By changing to a basic account, you ensure you are back in charge of your finances.
The amounts you offer to each creditor are worked out on a pro rata basis based on what surplus is left after all priorities have been paid.
This ensures that each creditor gets a fair share of any surplus you have.

Hope this helps!

Regards
Sue

car77

Hi CCCS_Sue,
Thanks for your reply, however, with respect, this does not actually answer any of my questions, and only tells me what I already know from reading several FAQ's on DMP websites.
I probably should have said that I have a lump sum I have made available to her to hopefully pay the lot off in one hit, I was querying the most economical way of doing this. Incidentally, we'd love to have gone with a non-fee DMP but her debt wasn't big enough (as I said in original message) - is there a fee free DMP for a 'small' debt such as this then? The ones I saw were only interested in debts of £5k+.
I know you will have successfully helped many people on here, and appreciate that it's difficult to advise without knowing the full case but I am feeling very disappointed by your response. I/we don't want to manage the debts ourselves, I just want shot off them asap. The money is in my account ready to go, but I'm unsure of the best way to go about it.
Regards
car77