Bit Disillusioned...CCCS

bunnybabyshubby

Hi Folks,
As my name says, I'm bunnybaby's other half.

We had our telephone interview today with the counsellor from CCCS about our debts.
Went through our budgets, incomings/outgoings etc.
the bloke was allowing for stuff we never even heard of let alone spend money on!!
By his workings out, we should be offering our creditors about £3 each a month!!!
He's sending us a 'next steps' info pack about arranging these 'token payments' but I'm going to be reading it with reservations.

At that rate, it'll take us about 88 years to get out of debt!!!

We'd already done our own budget in preperation for the call and worked out that we could offer at least £10 to each of them to start with. Still not really enough but it would be a start.

Tonight, because we weren't too happy with the interview, we checked out payplan because we'd seen it mentioned more than a few times on here.
Used their online calculator and worked out we could possibly offer almost £20 to each one!!
Have now sent off for their info as they also offer to act as a go-between between you and the credit companies (avoiding all the nasty phone calls)
something CCCS didn't even consider.

Has anyone else any idea why the two organisations have such different ideas of debt management?
All I want to do is get out of debt by paying as much as I possibly can so I can clear it quicker. Simply freezing the interest payments (something we have requested from the credit companies) will help a great deal.
Am I missing something? £3 a month!! A joke right?

mountainofdebt

What sort of things were CCCS were allowing you?

aimme13

hi, and welcome.......im with payplan and heard of them through my credit card company, i only heard of CCCS through this site and assumed they worked the same way, I know that the amount they pay my creditors is amazingly low, to give you an idea i pay £7.81 of one credit card Which has a balance of £1,915.07(they have frozen the interest).....i know its not much but its all divided up equally between all my creditors. Call pay plan and definatly try with them, its also easy to make additional payments with payplan.....so if you made £100 from ebay you can pay that as an additional payment to payplan and they will divide it up and pay your creditors. Obviously everyones circumstances are different so i can only tell you how it worked for me. Any way good luck!

bunnybabyshubby

mountainofdebt wrote:

What sort of things were CCCS were allowing you?

LOL
they were allowing for things like a social life and hobbies...can't honestly remember half of it now...after an hour on the phone my head was numb!!

We have 3 small children...no time or energy left for a social life!!

Online forums are our social life and trying to get some sleep is our hobby (neither of which eat into our budget!!!)

bunnybabyshubby

aimme13 wrote:

hi, and welcome.......im with payplan and heard of them through my credit card company, i only heard of CCCS through this site and assumed they worked the same way, I know that the amount they pay my creditors is amazingly low, to give you an idea i pay £7.81 of one credit card Which has a balance of £1,915.07(they have frozen the interest).....i know its not much but its all divided up equally between all my creditors. Call pay plan and definatly try with them, its also easy to make additional payments with payplan.....so if you made £100 from ebay you can pay that as an additional payment to payplan and they will divide it up and pay your creditors. Obviously everyones circumstances are different so i can only tell you how it worked for me. Any way good luck!

That sounds like a great idea.

Would we be allowed to go to payplan although we've already started the ball rolling with CCCS?
I've already contacted all our creditors quoting our CCCS reference number.

aimme13

oh, didnt realize that you had already started the ball rolling with CCCS, would stick with them....i would ask them about making one off payments, im sure they will do it as well.........I remember payplan asking me about money on social life!!!! i had to laugh!!! i had NO money!! whats one of them, think the woman thought i was mad when i said no money spent on haircuts!! people just dont realize, We were in debt and a luxury was finding something nice to eat on the reduced section at tesco :-).....also they will review things after a year (if its the same as payplan) you could increase payments then......good luck

pennylewren

Hi,

We are in a similar situation & are with the CCCS. I also have 3 small children (all under 4).

The CCCS arranged for us to repay most of our creditors £5 a month & it will take 31yrs at that rate! But, I know they review it after a while & I think they start it low to allow you time to get used to it etc. They also advised us to save any extra/spare money & then offer individual creditors a settlement which was slightly lower amount than the full debt - apparantly many will accept - just make sure you get it in writing that tehy accept it as payment in full & the debt is cleared.

Good Luck

Pennylewren

averageguy11

U talk about 3 young children and no social life..but that will chnage as they get older and yur lives will chnage to....so i agree with what they said..yur figures hav to be realistic...ther is no way u will live like a ''nun'' if u c wot i mean for ever..so to my mind its sensible to put down realistic figures...yes that u will keep to..if it takes longer..well then it just does..u hav to live in the meantime.

Excuse my ramblings

livinginhope

I think it's best to allow for every eventuality,even if you don't spend the money on what the CCCS have put it down for,things happen in life (I know too well) and no payment plan would allow you to put a lot of money down for emergencies,so if it is down elsewhere you have it available,it's just a case of juggling the figures.As your children get older they may well join clubs etc.which can drain your finances,so if you don't spend 10/month on haircuts for example,you can spend it on something else,it's easier this way than having to reduce your payments later.
We have been told it is going to take 58 years for our debt to be cleared,I know that something major will need fixing in that time,so where I have been able to I have allocated money even if not needed.

Bunnie1982

CCCS are acting as a go between for my fiance and his creditors, although they did give him the option that he could deal with the creditors directly.

moozie_2

Hello there and welcome hubby of bunnybaby :wave:

I have been following bunnybaby's threads recently and I am sorry to see the telephone appointment with CCCS didn't leave you feeling better.

In my humble view, as I've never gone through a DMP, it is best to follow the advice of the experts. They have done this enough time to know what a realistic budget is. It seems to me that if you include things in your budget for social life, that gives you some flexibility if you actually want to do something like have a day out or take a break.

Don't forget, even us that are in debt need a break from the norm and a bit of relaxation time every now and then.

If on the other hand you find you are not spending the whole budget they give you, then save the excess and at the end of the year you will have two choices. If you have had no emergencies (car problems, boiler going bust, anything else that's not in your budget etc), then you can pay your creditors an extra amount. If you have had some sort of emergency, you have the funds to deal with it without seeking more credit which will be very hard to get anyway.

Hope this makes sense. I can understand you want to pay your debt off asap but please listen to CCCS, they know what they are talking about.