Ask a CCCS counsellor a question

CCCS_Sarah

michellew wrote: »

Hi
Hope you can answer a few questions for me please.
1/ Is DLA taken into consideration? We get DLA for our son and tbh most is actually spent on him to give him a better quality of life - activities, petrol etc.
2/ Are there a list of allowable amounts for shopping etc as we only spend whats available each week / month and are usually really scraping the freezer out at some point each month.
3/ If were able to get a new bank account (ideally that has a debit card as I often cant get out due to my own health problems) do we have to tell our old bank before hand?
Thanks

Hi Michellew,

Thank you for your message.

Hope you can answer a few questions for me please.

1/ Is DLA taken into consideration? We get DLA for our son and tbh most is actually spent on him to give him a better quality of life - activities, petrol etc.

We would include DLA as an income on the budget, but as this money is for your son’s disability it would be balanced out in the expenditure.


2/ Are there a list of allowable amounts for shopping etc as we only spend whats available each week / month and are usually really scraping the freezer out at some point each month.

We do have guidelines that we work towards, this is to ensure that you have enough money in your budget to support you priority expenditure. Once we have allocated enough money to cover your priorities the surplus then goes to your creditors.



3/ If were able to get a new bank account (ideally that has a debit card as I often cant get out due to my own health problems) do we have to tell our old bank before hand?

Different banks have different criteria and offer slightly different services. I have attached this link to a booklet that lists different banks and what services they provide. You will need to open a basic bank account at a bank where you have no debts. If you have any money outstanding at your current bank, they won’t allow you to close this account until you have cleared the debts, but you will be able to make arrangements to clear the debt based on your budget.

Hope this helps
Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

Worried_Soul wrote: »

Hi CCCS_Sarah

Thank you for your response. But do you know if I am really required to get the CCCS to write a letter to NatWest stating that you are the third party?

Hello,

CCCS will only act as a third party on a debt management plan, if this has not been discussed with you during your appointment – it may be not an option for you at the moment.

Once Natwest receive the paperwork from you, they will be able to tell that you have had an appointment with ourselves and you are trying to sort things out. If you need another copy of your budget or sample letters, give us another call and we can arrange for some more to be sent out to you.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

ZED wrote: »

Hi ~

I am currently paying off credit card debts to 3 different debt collection agencies ... Fenton Cooper, Geoffrey Parker Bourne, and Cabot. The debts were originally with NatWest Credit Card, Barclaycard, and M&S storecard. I ran into financial difficulties when I was made redundant, and have been regularly paying each of these agencies £15 per month for several years now.

I've lost track of exactly how much money I still owe, but I think the M&S and Barclaycard debts are approximately £250 each and I still owe NatWest about £600.

The problem is that I have been struggling more and more to meet the 3 x £15 monthly payments, and I was wondering whether it is possible to pay debt collection firms a lesser amount. I seem to remember being told some time ago that £15 is the minimum amount that they will accept ... please could you tell me whether this is still the case?

I live alone and am currently unable to work due to ill-health, so my income consists solely of disability benefit which is £86.35 per week. From this sum I am paying an amount towards my mortgage, and the obligatory buildings insurance on the property.

Being able to reduce my monthly debt repayments would be a big help - I'm not in the least bothered about my credit rating being negatively affected by prolonging the time-cale of the debts.

Thanks.

Hi ZED,

There is no minimum, the amount you pay your creditors has to be affordable to yourself. You would be able to lower your payments if you are struggling. I would recommend that you put together a new budget and send this to the collection agencies with a new offer of repayment.

If the collection agencies were to decline your offer, then sent the payment anyway as this shows willing from your side.

Do you have any other debs?

Let me know how things go!
Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

jamierogan26 wrote: »

Hi i'm Jamie This is my little problem!

Ok i bought a laptop from dell 2yrs ago and got it on HP throught dell finance. 3years or so £20 a month. No problems!

In aprill 2008 my company asked me to work away till december so i agreed but i had to change my account from HSBC to Lloyds TSB to do with their pay system. Lloyds said they would take all my deirect debits across from HSBC which they did no trouble. So went to work away came back a few weeks ago to find letters from Dell saying i haven't paid them since April (Oh my God!) and i have a default notice!

Ok i admit was partly my fault as i didn't check my statements that in depth. BUT on the list of direct debits from my lloyds account is DELL so the Direct debit was set. I've always had money in the account for the £20.

Now non of the letters asked if i had changed banks to confirm security.

SO.......LLoyds change my direct debits over.....its listed in my direct debit list but dell haven't taken any. So who's fault???? Lloyds or Dell or Me?

The main thing is when i've rang dell to try and sort it i.e pay the remainder not a huge sum at all they've said the account is settled. Passed me around 3-4-5 departments no-one knows whats happed. Now i've asked them why they didn't transfer the payments when its set up with my bank and get this everytime i ring to ask whats happened they hang up on me! 4 times now

So what can i do? i've said i want to pay the remainder they said there is nothing to pay. I asked them can they take the details off my credit file they said its not their mistake. But i said surly it is as i've had money in there and told them my new account is it not their problem they didn't update their system? I don't know what to do

Any help sorry for long rant

Cheers Jamie

Hi Jamie,

This sounds like a nightmare.

You will need to try find out at what point there has been a breakdown in communication.

If you can prove that Lloyds have sent notification to dell with the new direct debit details, then this will be dells responsibility and therefore you can start taking actions to correct your credit file.

Contact Lloyds and see if they can provide you with a letter confirming that the instruction had been sent.

Let me know how you get on with this and then I will look at the next step for you.

Sarah

o99

Hi Sarah,

Wonder if you can help, I've just started Pro-rata payments. On CCCS advice I have opend a new account away from NW. I have a joint account with them with a balance of 0.00 and an account in my sole name with a balance of -£3700.00, can they use Right of offset to force my wife to pay back the O/D account?

CCCS_Sarah

caramia1812 wrote: »

My ex-husband divorced me last year after promising me the earth and ofc, like a fool, I fell for it. The year prior to that he had been unemployed (after being a high earner) and I stupidly used my cc's to maintain us throughout that time. Anyways, without getting boring, I was left with a great deal of debt and didn't know who to turn to. For the first couple of months I was numb and was selling jewellery every month to meet my payment then I found CCCS and had heard that they were a "Godsend"....not for me. After booking my telephone consultation, I waited for 10 days thinking that I would be sorted out. After spending over an hour on the phone with an adviser, I was told that a pack would be sent to me, fill in the balance sheet, send it to your creditors and ask them to freeze the interest and btw, try to get a better mortgage deal. The lady I spoke to mentioned "bankruptcy" quite a lot and made me feel worse than I had before the telephone call.

Now then, prior to my ex-husband leaving, "we" had decided that "I" could maybe get a better mortgage deal so I went ahead and arranged a mortgage on my own (another stupid thing, but I had no idea what was going on in his head at the time). Anyways another mortgage deal was out of the question as I already had secured a very good deal a couple of months before but with PENALTY of £3.5k if I changed within 2 years.

I contacted my cc companies and they refused to play.

I was, by this time, suicidal and my doctor referred me for psychiatric help and put me on anti-depressants (still on them). I lose over 2 stone in weight and could not concentrate on anything. I couldnt settle and couldnt sleep either. I searched the internet daily and found a debt managment company who offered to help me but they would be charging me £30 a month for their help. In the end, I went to CAB who wrote on my behalf but STILL the cc company would not agree to freeze the interest on the two accounts I had.

It took FOUR months for HBOS and I to come to an agreement and in that time the interest accrued was almost £900. Finally, I agreed to pay them back DOUBLE the amount that CAB said I could afford which left me with the grand sum of £30 a week to live on.

One year on and I am going to have the same trouble all over again as the arrangement we made was for a year and that year is up on 29th January.

Can someone tell me what to do or where to go to?

It seems I do not meet the criteria for "debt help" in the form of a "debt management plan" as I do not have three or more creditors. I have two credit cards and both are with HBOS.

Sorry for the rant but I just don't know what to do. Today I wrote to them to ask for them to extend the agreement for a further year at the end of which my family are clubbing together to give me £7k to help reduce the debt. I am now owe about £13k............help anyone? If they dont agree a further year, I actually think I would be better off stopping payments and forcing them to take me to Court.

(I am currently paying back £65 and £83 which represents 1% of the debt at the time we made the agreement. Nor can I pursue my ex through the Courts as he has moved abroad to somewhere in Nigeria. I can't sell my house as the lease only has 65 years, can't take a lodger as it only has one bedroom and rent in this area is more expensive than my current mortgage payment).

Hi Caramia,

Thank you for your message.

It can be difficult to try and get out of debt, and sometimes unfortunately there is no quick fix. A debt management plan is not always the best option for everyone. At the CCCS we do try to put together realistic budgets where you have enough to support your living costs. This is so you have enough money for essential items such as food. If you try and cut back you budget too much you are much less likely to succeed as you will feel like you are struggling constantly.

Going down the route of bankruptcy is a hard decision to make and sometimes if this solution is suggested and it’s something that you had not previously thought about, it could come as a big shock. If you would like another appointment to see if there are any other options available then you would be more than welcome to speak to us again.

With regards the arrangements that you have in place at the moment, if there have been no changes in your circumstances then you could stick to paying the same amount. If you wanted to do this then you would need to send another copy of your budget with a covering letter asking them to accept your arrangement and to consider stopping the interest and charges again for you. If they do decline your offer then send it anyway.

If you would like to PM me with any questions, I’m happy to help.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

o99 wrote: »

Hi Sarah,

Wonder if you can help, I've just started Pro-rata payments. On CCCS advice I have opend a new account away from NW. I have a joint account with them with a balance of 0.00 and an account in my sole name with a balance of -£3700.00, can they use Right of offset to force my wife to pay back the O/D account?

Hello,

You both would be joint and several liable for the joint account, so if the other account holder has another account with Natwest they would be able to take the funds from their account. To ensure that this does not happen, it would be better if they also opened another account at a different bank.

Hope this helps!

CCCS_Matthew

hectorcarol wrote: »

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

Hi Hectorcarol,

We would always suggest sending copies of the budget recorded delivery to ensure they can't turn around and say they've not recieved it, as you can prove that they have!

It is going to be tough, as offering £160 to debts of 50k suggests that it will take you 26 years to clear your debts. Based on that timescale a DMP or IVA is not really a suitable option.

Was anything else discussed with the counsellor is an alternative? Such as selling property, or ways in which to reduce expenditure/increase income?

In the mean time, if you are managing to stick to the budget and pay the creditors what you can afford you cannot be asked to do any more. You tend to find the first few months of making reduced payments are the most difficult but then as time goes on you may find that your debts start to get passed on which helps with the chance that the interest will stop.

Regards,
Matthew.

o99

CCCS_Sarah wrote: »

Hello,

You both would be joint and several liable for the joint account, so if the other account holder has another account with Natwest they would be able to take the funds from their account. To ensure that this does not happen, it would be better if they also opened another account at a different bank.

Hope this helps!

Sorry, I think I've confused the issue.

My wife has her salary paid to her own account at Barclays.

I have a large overdrawn account at a branch where both my wife and I have a joint account with zero funds.

My question is, is the bank able to write to my wife asking for payment of an account that is not in her name because she is on another account at the same branch?

Sorry for making it sound so complicated..

little_minx21

Hi

I am self-employed and contacted the CCCS a few years ago and they said they couldn't help me so l went to a private company who l had to pay 17% off the monthly arrangement to manage my debit. This was a five year plan which has a year to go. I know have the funds available to clear this debit and they said they could try and get the companies involved to reduce the final settlement and save me up to 50%.

I asked for the balances which they gave me and then told me that they wanted the full balance before they would speak to my creditors and also keep 10% off what they have saved me. I rang my creditors myself and they told me the balances but where less than the third party had quoted me.

I have checked my terms and conditions and it says l just have to give 2 weeks notice to cancel my arrangement with this company. I just wanted to know if l am within my rights to re-pay me debit direct to my creditors.

They also said they would be able to get me a better deal on the final balances but how can l when they take so much of the money!

Best wishes
Sarah