OK Ive used the budget tool and been onto the CCCS what now?

lyndorset

Following the advice from the budget tool, I am pasting my info here. Basically got into difficlulty using credit to live on when had to REPAY council tax and housing benefit. It has spiralled sice then. I am doing an OU degree to get a better paid job, currently work 38 hours and do the coursework, so no time for part time job even if I could get one. Want to hop back onto the property ladder, so do need to pay off ALL this debt!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 169.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.67
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.33
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
48. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389.05
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.75
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.92
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.32
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199.93
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.60
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
unemployment protectin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.14
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.50
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.08
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.17
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.33
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.70
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.50
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.47
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,009.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,643.91

maz1964

hiya well done on getting all your info together

unfortunately what ive learned so far for myself this year as im getting all my info together and reading a few books from the liabury too and sorting out the online budget, its surprising how much we really do spend on non essential

ive stopped the magazines and papers, i try and catch up with the news online now and read magazines whilst at the liabury

also regretfully ive stopped the charity payments i was doing monthly that saved me also 10.00 but ive promised myself i will help others out a bit more instead ie the elderly lady driving her back from the shops near to me when her family isnt available, so that makes me feel better

looking at changing my gas elec at the moment can you review your heating and cooking methods perhaps some savings there

can you ask your council to pay your council tax weekly over the 12 months i find it helpful via an online banking payment set up or monthly over 12 months on a standing order if thats better for you?

can you decrease your fuel car costs in anyway? less trips out or walk more

the loans and credit card appear to take quite a large chunk from your earnings, can you sort out any possible reduced payments for a while and have you had any late payments or ppi that is not relevant that you can claim back??

just a few of my humble thoughts that im trying to do for ourselves that seem to be starting to take shape

good luck with the ou and keep positive

cheers maz:)

Tixy

Hi

Well done for posting up your budget. It would also be helpful if you could tell us whether its just you in your household. Can you also write a list of all your debts with balance and APRs.

You seem to be overspending by over £600 each month so need to make some radical cutbacks otherwise you could end up over £7000 further in debt this time next year.

lyndorset wrote: »

Following the advice from the budget tool, I am pasting my info here. Basically got into difficlulty using credit to live on when had to REPAY council tax and housing benefit. It has spiralled sice then. I am doing an OU degree to get a better paid job, currently work 38 hours and do the coursework, so no time for part time job even if I could get one. Want to hop back onto the property ladder, so do need to pay off ALL this debt!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 169.00 what is this for?
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.67
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.33 looks pretty high for 1 person, is all your heating electric? do you have any arrears? are you with the cheapest supplier/best tariff?
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 is this metered or unmeasured? you might save by going on a meter
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00 if you live alone are you getting the 25% discount?
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
48. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389.05 rent? can you find anywhere cheaper at all? could you get a lodger? any chance of re negotiating rent price?
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110.00 if just you then you should be able to cut down, try aiming for £100 including drinks
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 see above
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.75
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.92
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.00 are these the minimum payments only?
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.32 how long to go?
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199.93 how long left to go?
Savings & Investments

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.60
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
unemployment protectin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.14
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.50 have you considered switching to freeview for a while?
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.08 try to reduce/ use the library
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.17
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00 what is this
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.33
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.70 what is this?
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.50 are you in contract? how often do you use it?
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.17
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.47 can you read online
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 maybe stop until you are showing as balancing each month at least
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,009.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,643.91

Whilst your expenses are not that high because of having a fairly low income and having such a lot of debt repayments you are still struggling each month. Any chance of getting a better paid job whilst you study? how long until you finish the course? are you likely to earn a lot more then?

What did the CCCS form suggest? I'm guessing maybe a DMP?

Are you getting all the benefits that you can?

Hopefully more people will be along soon with more suggestions

lyndorset

Hi and Thanks for your imput (so far!)
Tixey, I will work through what you query:

Benefits is Working Tax Credit
There are 2 in household - my husband unemployable after RTI injury a few years ago and not eligble for benefits as was self employed. He does what he can and brought in about £400 last year. We grow most of our own vegetables so that helps.

electric is on pre pay meter, all my appliances are A or A+ rated. but apart from a calor gas heater electric is our only heating.
Water is on a meter and we are very frugal.
CT not applicable.
Rent is already with HA - yes it does seem high, and Wiltshire is much cheaper, but alas we live in Dorset! Landlord will not budge on rent even though it is £12.00 a week more than their stated rents. Also, looked into it cannot afford the cost of moving, if we did find somewhere cheaper.
Food/Household cut back to cheaper products and shop 1/2 before closing time to get bargains.
Drinks for home, wine club now cancelled.
CC repayments ARE minimum. Unfortunately lived on credit whilst repaying housing and coucil tax benefit from before I got full time job. We had to repay 3 years worth in 6 months, when I went full time. Thats when the problem started.
P Loan another 31/2 years
Car only 11 more payments so light at the end of that tunnel!
The satilite is the deal from on here 2 years ago and works out cheaper than buying a dish and going freeview!
I had to buy a computer for Uni course - thats the 22.08 payments to Dell. (Unfortunatley I have to repay the £140.00 grant from them too as I was unable to use other grant towards the computer).
Hobbies is probably the cost of items for the garden & chickens.
the 22.50 is monthly cost of pilates once a week - really should go due to previous back trouble, but have missed last 2 months try to do at home, but back IS complaining.
Newspapers we buy one mid priced paper a week and it includes TV for week, could stop this but it is such a small savings whan we get so much from it?
Charity: I have just cancelled my PDSA Lottery dd.

Re another job, I am in a well paid job for this area. Since pay rise in September and work 38 hours a week. I am in first year of UG course.

What is a DMP?

I have been looking into study grants but get nowhere as I work. The OU told me about ACCESS to learn - but I cannot find any relevent info on them.

CCCS suggested I use template to try and get lower repayments st up - also advise changing bank account - but not sure I can.
The fact I have laid my finances bare on here means I am desperate not to go under. So any help gratefully received Thank you!

Tixy

Hi

Thanks for clearing that up, as there are 2 of you then I think you have managed a lot of your costs well. As you say growing fresh veg helps.

Regarding your bank account - do you have an overdraft? if so then sometimes it helps to open a new account elsewhere with no overdraft for your current banking and then you can treat the overdraft as a 'normal' debt and set up a standing order to start paying it back.
CCCS usually recommend a new account if your credit cards or loan are with the same bank as your current account. This is to protect you from offsetting if you try to set up a lower repayment plan.
You should be able to get a new bank account - if you are worried about the credit check then apply for a basic bank account (no overdraft so no credit check- anyone can get one).

A DMP - debt management plan is an agreement with your creditors and a third party such a CCCS. Basically you work out the amount you can afford for all debt repayments and pay that amount to CCCS each month, they then split the amount fairly between your creditors (based on the balance owing) and pay it to your creditors. They also deal with the hassle your creditors may give. But because you are paying lower than the minimums it does have a big impact on your credit file. For some people its the only option (aside from insolvency).
If you use someone like CCCS they don't charge a fee, there are companies out there that take a % of your monthly repayment for their fee - we never recommend them.

Hope that helps.

lyndorset

Thaks again Tixy, I have re-read the on-line booklet from CCCS and they dont administer my debts for me, there is a template letter and I send that to creditors. I am now worried that it does say shows for 6 years on my credit record. Is that 6 years from now if I send the letters or 6 years from when I pay off? I do want to pay it all back and then move forward and not make the same mistakes again! But if I reduce CC payments down to what I can see I can afford it will take years to pay and and cannot see beyond that at the moment? I have cut back and cut back in the vain hope not to end up like this, but here I am after all. This 6 year thing is now bothering me and I am scared of taking htat step of posting the letters as the booklet says I will have defaults set against me and possibly even get taken to court over it. As I cannot take time off of work except at set holiday times - I wont be able to go to court to defend myself armed only with the truth, that they may not believe from a letter? Plus if I could get to court how do I afford the petrol to get there?

Thanks

Tixy

Hi Lyn

Usually if you pay less than the minimum payment (as per the original terms) then you can expect to be defaulted. In practice this usually happens after around 3months. You would get a default notice in the post, then the default will be registered at the credit reference agencies. This will then appear for 6years from the date it is registered. After that is disappears. They cannot put on another default or change the date of the default so it stays on longer.

Most people find that their creditors are 'happy' to default them and then quite often creditors sell on the debts after a year or so of low payments to a debt collecting agency (this is a generalisation, there is no hard & fast rule).

Sometimes a creditor will be difficult and still try to get a CCJ against you for the debt. This does happen but by no means to everyone or for every debt. If this is the case you have to apply to the court to pay the debt in installments (usually you offer what you were paying anyway) and the judge will decide what you can afford.
If you get a CCJ it also stays on your report for 6years from the date it was entered.
You don't have to attend court for a CCJ hearing, some people do, some don't. You can apply to have the CCJ hearing in your local court so that its easier for you to attend (otherwise they are normally at the bulk court in northampton).

Whilst having defaults and even the possibility of CCJs is not great for your credit report its often that people have no alternatives. You can't keep borrowing money if your outgoings exceed your incomings so short of something more drastic like bankruptcy this is usually the best option. Its certainly better to make reduced payments rather than paying nothing and just ignoring the creditors.

Lots of people on here are on DMPs or reduced payment schemes (some with the charities like CCCS, some working on their own like you). Whatever happens someone is bound to have had the same thing happen to them so you'll be in the best place to get advice as you need.

Good luck

lyndorset

So they keep on adding the "missed" payment fee each month then? plus interest So debt keeps going up?

Is there a way I can pay a reduced amount so that I eventually repay it, but they dont hcarge the fees?

Tixy

I think the template letter you have probably asks that the freeze interest & charges. Some will, some won't. If you can demonstrate you are treating all creditors fairly, and are paying all you can afford that usually helps get them to freeze it. They may refuse at first but keep asking them (there is a template letter on national debtline to send if they won't at first -basically just asking them to reconsider).

lyndorset

I have left an encouraging message for someone else to take the plunge and yet I am so scared to do it myself!

I have applied for new bank account - how long if they accept me before I send out the letters?

lyndorset

Hurray been excepted for new account. Thats a start. But they say it could take 3 months to switch? and its got a saving account linked that I can put my day to day money into each month. I am so pleased about that! (little things and all that)!

BUT:

So at what point do I cancel my DD's as need to leave maximum overdraft with old bank for this to make sense and therefore work. Cant have old bank offsetting my salary/OD towards debt with them.

Main salary paid into bank.
HP payments carry on as ususal.

Do I delay the letter to bank CC and loan and start with others until I am sure my salary going into new bank?

PS To anyone else like me, that reads the other threads for inspiration moral support; I am so amazed how many of us there are, it doesent help but it is encouraging that we are in this together.