When will it end?

cooldad_2

I've been with the CCCS for nearly 6 years and I have been gradually paying off my debt of £32K. I now owe £24K but anytime I try to open a bank account they refuse me because they say until my debts are fully paid up they will not allow me to open an account.

At this rate I'll be about 80 before my debts are fully paid up.

Does this mean that I will not be able to get a mortgage or get a bank account until then?

pwally2

hiya cooldad you should be able to open a basic bank account with several banks. The co-op cashminder account gets high praise on here and is also bankcrupt freedly. I have one of those and have debts over £25000!! Also lloyds tsb do a basic account only drawback is that you can only withdraw money from a lloyds atm hence why i opened my co-op account!!!

hope that helps and keep your chin up you will see a light at the end of the tunnel I have found this site really helpful in my debt free journey!!

immoral_angeluk

I think it might be time to start looking at other options to be fair if it's looking unlikely you will ever pay the debt off. Have you looked into whether you would be eligible for a debt relief order? Another option to consider would be bankruptcy depending on your circumstances/assets etc.

david_hellier

I agree, if you're renting, go bankrupt.

cooldad_2

What is a debt relief order? The other thing is, someone told me that CCCS are really a front for the banks and although they look after your debts, at the end of the day once in debt forever in debt as the banks only freeze the interest on the debts, which means that once you think you have paid off your debt they unfreeze the interest and you're back to square1. I can't go bankrupt because I have a mortgage on my house and if I go bankrupt they take my house

katsu

CCCS receive funding from banks I believe. They are an independant charity, not a part of a bank or banks. People here have used CCCS to help them with DMPs and have been able to pay their debts off. I don't really understand what this "someone" is getting at about unfreezing interest to take you back to square one after you have paid off the debt.

If you look on the bankrupcy boards, it is possible to go BR with a house and mortgage, but if your house has equity in it then a payment will need to be made to the official receiver if you do not want to sell the house. You can look on the BR board to find out more.

Good luck.

Tixy

cooldad wrote: »

What is a debt relief order? The other thing is, someone told me that CCCS are really a front for the banks and although they look after your debts, at the end of the day once in debt forever in debt as the banks only freeze the interest on the debts, which means that once you think you have paid off your debt they unfreeze the interest and you're back to square1. I can't go bankrupt because I have a mortgage on my house and if I go bankrupt they take my house

Never seen a case of this happening on here, where you suddenly owe interest after all debts are repaid. Are you certain all creditors have frozen interest?

It is sometimes possible to keep your house with bankruptcy depending on your family and financial situation (I assume you have kids from your family name) so you could look into this. A debt relief order is a form of bankruptcy for people who owe less than £15k and have very few assets so it appears you wouldn't be eligible for that.

Are your CCCS payments remaining fairly static, as if you've paid £6k in 6years you are going to be repaying a DMP for a long time. Obviously if your payments can increase or if you are able to save some money towards full & final settlements then you could pay things off much sooner.

Might be worth talking to CCCS again and seeing what they advise (and they are partially funded by banks but not a front for the banks)

dancingfairy

You seem to have had some weird/duff advice in the past - I've never heard of banks suddenly piling the interest on again at the end of a payment plan - they can start charging you interest if they want to -ie some companies will give you a grace period of 1 year where they agree to stop charges etc and after that they will start charging again but I've never heard of them piling it on at the end of the plan.
With regards to the banks you need to get a basic bank account and one that does not require an overdraft or any form of credit check - you need to make this quite clear to whichever bank you are applying to and generally the idea is to get one that is not connected to any of your creditors in any one (some of the banks are owned by each other so you need to check this out) - the idea being that you are in charge of you money and any company you owe money to can't suddenly decide to take it back -as mentioned above the co-op seem to have a good reputation for a good basic bank account.
I agree with the others above - perhaps it's time to review your options as you dmp does seem to be going on for a while and may not be the most suitable thing for you anymore.
Debts will stay on your file for a certain time after they are satisfied (I believe it's 6 years) so 6 years after you finish your dmp or 6 years after they are paid off or 6 years after any bankruptcy etc - after that you will find it easier to get credit but it will also depend on the state of the economy and whether the country is suffering a recession or not how easy it is to get credit.
df

cooldad_2

The reason why I say that the CCCS are a front for the banks is because I get a regular statement from CCCS which gives me an account of my balance. If as some say that the interest has not been frozen then shouldn't the CCCS be looking into this rather than let me keep paying my monthly repayments?

You say perhaps it's time to review my options. I can't afford to repay more than what I'm paying now, so I'll be 80 when I finish. I can't go bankrupt because the will sell my house, I can't apply for a debt relief order because I owe more than £15K. So what other options are there and what's going to happen when I retire and can't afford to pay my monthly payments to the CCCS. I am 62 years old.

Tixy

How much equity do you have in your house? Would it be feasible to sell and downsize to a smaller property either to free up equity or to reduce your mortgage?

Do you live on your own? how does your mortgage repayment compare to renting?

Interest may well have been frozen but with any debt management plan its worth checking and you should be receiving statements from your creditors (at least once a year) as well as from CCCS so that you can double check for yourself that they agree.

No creditor has to agree to freeze interest, it is voluntary on their behalf but CCCS will act on your behalf to request that it is. At the end of the day if the creditor refuses there is not much more CCCS can do.