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hectorcarol

Hello
Just after a bit of advice/support...........
Contacted yourselves in approx Nov, got an SOA from you & the letters to send. Contacted creditors with the information & 1st reduced payments.
Eventually the letters have started coming thick & fast with default notices,
some saying no SOA received but they cashed the cheques !!! They are all adding tons of interest/late payment fees with the latest being Triton Credit Services on behalf of NWBank demanding the amount in full or else after receiving a letter from NWB on 24/12/2008 saying they accept our reduced payment. We are following your budget to the penny & paying the creditors, I know that it is early days but I am starting to feel out of my depth with what to do.
We only have £160 to pay an approx £50,000 debt..........do we need to find more money to do a DMP or an IVA ???
Please advise me as it is only going to get worse, I know
Many Thanks
XXX

Billey

I have recently separated from my wife and have been trying to pay towards my former house where my wife and kids still stay and also pay towards my new home with my partner.
The problem is that there are debts on credit cards where i am the main cardholder which happened prior to me splitting up with my wife.
Furthermore, our home has been up for sale for about 6 months and has since went into negative equity to the sum of around 40,000.
At present I am paying out more than is coming in and cannot make ends meet.
My initial thoughts are to pay for my wife and kids to rent somewhere and allow the house to be repossessed. I know this would probably increase the negative equity but then i would consider an IVA.
To continue this way is totally unsustainable and have just had a citation concerning the arears on the house.
I don't know what is for the best and any advice from forum members would be welcome.
Thanks

solaeclipsx

Hi iv spoken to you before about my credit problems with westcot i sent them a request for my Subject Access Request with payment by recorded delivry back in october november time but as of yet have not resived anyting but 3 letters 1 i got today saying that thay will not contact me as thay are looking in to my case and a photo copyd bank statment witch has all the wrong dats on it i got in the begining of december along with a nother letter saying thay are looking in to my case, im now at a stump as i dont know if i should leave it or get in contact with them as im not to shore how long im ment to wait for ?

mumtoangel

Hi,

Haven't posted for a while so fairly new, would just like some advice please.

I have approx £35k in debts, unfortunately one is a ccj, I am paying back £80 on the ccj which is going to take me my whole life to pay back, 2 of the debts are with debt collection agencies one is for £100 and the other £50, the last debt is with the creditor which is £50, so all in all I am paying back £280 a month, which I could afford to do when they agreed on the payments 2 years ago as I was in ajob which was paying quite good money and living with family having been made a single parent, since then I have changed jobs and I am paying rent on a private rented accomodation as the housing association won't help me (but that's another thread). I really need to be able to reduce my hours at work as my daughter is at infant school and she needs more of my time, but I can't reduce my hours because I need to find £280 a month without all the other household bills.

I was wondering if I could get any help.

Many Thanks

nad1611

Hi
I have been on a DMP with the cccs for about 2yrs now. If anyone has any doubts about starting one I can wholly recommend it. The CCCS coucsellors are incredibly understanding and supportive and have listened to a few of my tear filled phone calls.
My problem at present is that while everything has been going along brilliantly since entering into the DMP recently one of my creditors has sold the debt on to a DCA. They have been quite heavy handed and threatening legal action etc and have mentioned that our offer is not really acceptable that they want more considering we are home owners obviously trying to infer that our home will be at risk if we don't pay them more.

I really want to know what is the worst that can happen if they don't accept the offer. We have more than one creditior and are paying the maximum amount we can and payments are made pro rata. I am tempted to give them the extra £20 a month but my husbands says no as they could keep increasing the amount.

So in a nutshell, if we simply keep on paying the amount we have always paid the original creditor what could they do to us if they still won't accept the offer.
Many thanks.

Anyone know anything about the DCA First Credit and how they operate?

marshmeister

Hi All

I have been on a dmp since last march. Was at my wits end and have felt much better since starting it yet still dreadfully worried about debt.

I have 5 creditors. My largest debt is approx £9000 on a virgin credit card. Interest is 29.9% i think. I am paying a decent amount of this off each month but because of the interest i am only actually paying a tenner of the balance. This is soooo frustrating. Virgin refuse to reduce the interest or allow me an interest free period despite many requests.

My partner is in no debt at all and owns the house we both live in. He is desperate to help with my situation and up to now i have refused his help, wanting to sort this out on my own. Though recently i have swallowed my pride and he has offered to take out a low interest loan to pay off this largest creditor for me and i will then set up a direct debit to his account for the amount i was paying virgin.

How does this sit with the cccs? Is it a feasible option? I just cannot bear to have to be paying this credit card off for the next 40 years!!

Also, if this was a viable option while on a dmp and i decided to go ahead, is it worth making an offer of a reduced amount to virgin in full and final settlement of my account?

Thanks for your advice in advance.

me x

barafear799

Hi

Seems like an extremely busy thread and I have looked thru some of the advice and it does indeed relate to me somewhat - however, I cannot find an exact answer to my query and I just needed some clarification please.

I have lots of debts; one of them has been sold to a DCA (HFO, about which there is lots on MSE and other websites).

Cut a long story short - when they first got the debt, an arrangement was set up for me to pay £45 a month (on a £4500 debt) by Direct Debit. Nothing received in writing apart from an initial letter (we now have your debt, please call us to discuss repayment). I didn't know at the time that they apparently like to do their business over the phone so there is no "paper trail".

Anyway - after making about 15 payments, one of my DD payments bounced. My bank promptly charged me £30 plus other charges as a result!!! I decided that DD was not the most appropriate form of payment. I wrote to them and explained the situation - I believe they called whilst the letter was in the post and I arranged to make a debit card payment (over the phone) to cover the bounced DD payment.

At this stage, I had reduced the debt to approx £3750.

The letter was sent to HFO in April08; Nothing heard from them........until a phone call in Oct08 from their "legal team" - I explained I had sent a letter, and stated I would only deal with them via letter. Then a couple of weeks later, a call from a "new account manager for my account" seeking a settlement - I asked about my letter - he said that it had been recieved - but the member of staff who had received it was not in a position to reply to it - it should have been passed to an account manager but it wasn't!!! The tone of the phone call was to "set up a new direct debit" - I stated I could not pay by DD - the caller persisted -

after about 24 mins on the phone, I asked out of curiousity what my outstanding balance was - when he said £4950 I nearly fell off my chair!!!

I asked why? He said as I had been "refusing to pay" interest had been accruing on my account at a rate of 12% pa - I asked how 12%pa on a debt of £3750 could add £1200 in 6 months - he said he did not have a breakdown!! I ended the phone call by asking for a LETTER giving details of my balance and asking for alternative methods of payment (other than DD or debit card).
I didn't get any letter.

Then this week I get a letter from their solicitors - threatening legal action because I am a "REFUSE TO PAY" customer - urging me to phone them to discuss repayment of the debt (now at £5100, due to legal costs having been added).


So the basic question is: Are DCAs allowed to add interest on to a debt without first obtaining a CCJ against me?

Any advice on how to deal with my latest dilemma (Solicitors letter) would also help.

Thanks

bobb42

Hello all,

Could some please advise me, i am living in rented accomodation and i have accured rents arrears of £2085 (3months rent) and i have explained to letting agency that i am have difficulty paying the arrears and asked them that i can continue paying the rent every month from now on time and if i could pay a little extra and deduct that of my arrears on a monthly basis, and then over some months the arears will finish, they have refused this offer and said that they are going to persue a Statutory Demand. another now that the house i am living has many faults, like the combi boiler leaks water, there is no loft insulation, no energy certificate report, damp in the house and the list goes on, i have asked them to fix the problems but they keep saying they will fix the problems and dont turn up for the repairs at the agreed times, with all the problems with the house i am still willing to come to a arrangement but they will not agree, would someone be able to adise me as i am worried about the statutory demand.

many thanks
bob

solaeclipsx

solaeclipsx wrote: »

Hi iv spoken to you before about my credit problems with westcot i sent them a request for my Subject Access Request with payment by recorded delivry back in october november time but as of yet have not resived anyting but 3 letters 1 i got today saying that thay will not contact me as thay are looking in to my case and a photo copyd bank statment witch has all the wrong dats on it i got in the begining of december along with a nother letter saying thay are looking in to my case, im now at a stump as i dont know if i should leave it or get in contact with them as im not to shore how long im ment to wait for ?
i have also receved a letter from Equita saying that we need to pay £488.78 for unpaid council tax now we moved out of this propty bk in march last year and part of the contract with the landlord was that we did not have to pay council tax he is now saying that we need to pay it as its our problem he also took our depostet to pay 1 month rent we missd out on witch we where fine with we also left some stuff in our neighbour's care that he also took 1 thing beeing a new freezer my father gave us,now becuse of all this Equita have now sent us a letter saying that we are going to have the bailiffs round to remove our belongings to pay for this dose anyone know if there is anyway to start to sort this problem out? we can not talk to the old landlord as he refuses to speek to us,the letting place we went thru no longer have him on there books so not there problem and the council say it's not there problem ether i cant see y we have to pay when we no longer live there

CCCS_Matthew

Bimble wrote: »

Helloo..

This thread has given me so much more hope. I am planning on starting a DMP asap.

One of the things that has stopped me in the past is regarding the maintenance my ex husband gives me.

He gives me £1000 per month .. a lot I know.. lucky me. BUT! I am in a huuuge amount of debt.. I'm not even sure HOW much anymore.. about £35 thousand.. maybe. So most of the maintenance ends up going to pay my debts..

My concern is.. that my husbands payments are VERY hit and miss.. Sometimes he pays it monthly.. sometimes.. £250 per week.. sometimes not for weeks and weeks.. its all over the place. So I cannot rely on WHEN he pays me at all.

This is what worries me when taking out a DMP..

ALSO.. he says he is not sure how long he can continue to pay me at all..

So what would happen if he stopped? .. and the DMP was already up and running..
Or.. when I have to wait weeks and weeks for him to pay?

I'm scared of starting a DMP then it all going so wrong with the maintenance payments But I desperately need to do this.

Hi Bimble,

It can be difficult trying to budget when your income is a little bit hit and miss. Does your ex-partner know about your financial situation, and that you are trying to clear your debts? If the money is irregular, you could consider contacting the CSA to try and get something a little more formal set up.

I suppose looking at the bigger picture, you need to see how long the money will be coming in for. How old are your children? As far as a DMP is concerned, your payments towards your creditors is never set in stone. By that I mean that if your situation changes and you find your income has gone down, you payments towards creditors will therefore have to be reduced to make the DMP affordable.

I think really the next stage would be to speak to one of our debt counsellors to look at what your options are. To book an appointment, our helpline is 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Mon-Fri 08:00-20:00.

Regards,
Matthew.