Payplan vs CCCS

fiscalfool

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hi I have today also had a phone appointment with the CCCS and they were so helpful I almost cried (with relief i think that i had finally got help) he also had to re-work by budget to make it higher so we fitted in with guidelines because it looked like we should have 350 extra every month....which we have never had because of extra bank charges, bounced cheques etc....anyway i am quite looking forward to having a few spare pennies in the bank now so we can put money aside (as he suggested) in case of emergencies. I've never had an emergency fund before (just CC's!) so this will be good. Good luck with whatever you decide

Oh and i have also been told to write to creditors myself, as i type my printer is printing off copies for each one now ...long night me thinks!

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure why I chose PayPlan over CCCS, but I think it was something daft, like "I thought Payplan understood my scenario better". Still it's got to change soon!

Penelope_Penguin

fiscalfool wrote: »

Payplan on the other hand said "If it's for a car, then it's HP" ...

That's really shocking :eek: More and more, cars are financed by personal loans (even if you use the finance offered by the seller).

As a debt adviser, I've seen several things that have worried me about Payplan advice. No direct experiance of CCS.

fiscalfool

What was scary was that it wasn't just one advisor, it was several.

My initial interviewer said "ANY finance arranged for a car is HP, and they have a legal hold over the car!". I tried to argue but he told me to check the paperwork.

After checking, and telling him that it was a personal loan arranged through the car purchase, he suggested I spoke to a solicitor about it!

So, we kept the car out of the payment plan.

But then when I raised it with my case officer, they were just the same ... see comments posted above.

I really don't feel that they are best positioned/informed to be sorting out my finances!

heatherp6

I rang payplan as I have £7000 outstanding in catalogues, unfortunatelly although its in my name,I didnt actually run up the debt, my daughter lived in my house while we were abroad with my husbands work, We are now back here and trying to catch up with missed mortgage payments, thankfully only 3 payments were missed and they have been understanding about it,
I rang payplan who Id seen on here, they didnt send the information to me, I then asked could they send the items I needed via email, after a further 3 calls I finally received the paperwork 8 weeks after first requesting,I did ask them about speaking to my creditors and was told they dont do that !!! basically they send you the letters which you then print off, fill in and send to creditors,due to my circumstances I would much rather someone could help stand in my corner and help me deal with them,
Im now seriously considering using a company that charges a monthly fee so I dont have to deal with the creditors, everyday I get letters from the creditors, and Im now on anti-depressants, to help me deal with this,
my daughter went to live with a man elsewhere and I have no contact with her,so Im left to carry the can

heatherp6

Well Ive just contacte cccs, and what a waste of time that was, they want to take all our unsecured debt ie 2 loans and overdraft, put it into the payment plan,at the moment we have income of £1700 all our bills including the mortgage come to £1590, so we have £160 left to try and sort out the situation our daughter left us in,but cccs said if they put everything into the pot, we,ll have £83 left to pay off our debts , but the way they worked it our debt that ends in 2 years will actually take 19 years to pay off !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I dont see why we should have to pay all our debts off in this amount of time due to what our daughter did, if I hadnt been on anti-depressants before I spoke to cccs I certainly would be now, I thought they were meant to help, not make my situation worse

Payplan_company_representative

fiscalfool wrote: »

Thank you for your feedback. Payplan always said, "We will talk to your creditors on your behalf" hence why I've been stand-offish, and prompting them.

The one creditor who hasnt accepted my DMP is Santander, who tell me they don't accept DMPs, and will happily accept my reduced payment for six months and then review. But they've been charging 16% meaning it's shot up in what I owe!

Once I've moved house, I shall be reviewing my situation and either move my DMP to CCCS ... OR ... go with a more serious option.

Thanks for the link, I'll try that one with cahoot (Santander) ... see if I achieve anything!

Hi fiscalfool, I am so sorry that you feel you are not getting the best service from us.
I can assure you that we are there to help you with all of your queries. With all arrangements we contact all of your unsecured creditors at the beginning and ask them to freeze interest and charges but unfortunately they do not always do this and if the creditor rejects then there is nothing we can do. Usually what happens after they have rejected our offer they pass if over to a Debt Collecting Agency or they sell the debt onto someone, when this happens we will contact them and request interest and charges are frozen, which is usually a lot more successful.

We appreciate your feedback, so if you would like to contact me direct lizzy.snow@payplan.com I will ensure your case in looked into to make sure that we have done everything we can.

Lizzy.

Payplan_company_representative

heatherp6 wrote: »

I rang payplan as I have £7000 outstanding in catalogues, unfortunatelly although its in my name,I didnt actually run up the debt, my daughter lived in my house while we were abroad with my husbands work, We are now back here and trying to catch up with missed mortgage payments, thankfully only 3 payments were missed and they have been understanding about it,
I rang payplan who Id seen on here, they didnt send the information to me, I then asked could they send the items I needed via email, after a further 3 calls I finally received the paperwork 8 weeks after first requesting,I did ask them about speaking to my creditors and was told they dont do that !!! basically they send you the letters which you then print off, fill in and send to creditors,due to my circumstances I would much rather someone could help stand in my corner and help me deal with them,
Im now seriously considering using a company that charges a monthly fee so I dont have to deal with the creditors, everyday I get letters from the creditors, and Im now on anti-depressants, to help me deal with this,
my daughter went to live with a man elsewhere and I have no contact with her,so Im left to carry the can

Hi heatherp6, just so I can get a little bit of background into you case, do you know which department you were dealing with? If you were about to enter into a DMP then we definately contact all of your unsecured creditors for you. However you were going to our Special Advice Team, that is where you set up your own plan with your creditors, with help from us, but you would need to contact your creditors yourself.

If you would like to email me lizzy.snow@payplan.com then I can look into you case for you.

Lizzy.

fiscalfool

Hi Lizzy,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to me.

What I have encountered is:
Offer letters were sent to all of my creditors, and most responded and accepted the offer. Great.
One of the lenders was listed as "Pending" for a considerable amount of time.
I started receiving snotty letters from this lender, so called them to advise I was dealing with PayPlan, and that an offer had been sent to them.
They advised that they hadn't received the letter, and that they did not accept DMP's within the first 6 months.
It's now been almost 12 months, so for about the 4th time, I asked my Account Manager to contact them to ask for the interest to be Frozen.

Usually I get the stock reply of "Payplan cannot guarantee that your lenders will freeze interest or charges". Which is all well and good, but I'd have expected them to be a little more proactive on my behalf. I realise you are all very busy, but I'd still have appreciated taking the time to deal with any issues I raised.

Anyway, the most recent message after I had noticed it is still listed as "Pending" has resulted in my Case Officer sending my I&E statement across to the creditor by post, and asking them to freeze the interest.


It just seems a little daft to be paying X amount when 10x X interest is added each month. It's one step forwards and then 10 steps back.

If all the lenders don't play ball together then the overall debt does not reduce, and I might as well seek a different solution really.

fiscalfool

heatherp6 wrote: »

Well Ive just contacte cccs, and what a waste of time that was, they want to take all our unsecured debt ie 2 loans and overdraft, put it into the payment plan,at the moment we have income of £1700 all our bills including the mortgage come to £1590, so we have £160 left to try and sort out the situation our daughter left us in,but cccs said if they put everything into the pot, we,ll have £83 left to pay off our debts , but the way they worked it our debt that ends in 2 years will actually take 19 years to pay off !!!!!!!!!!!!!
I dont see why we should have to pay all our debts off in this amount of time due to what our daughter did, if I hadnt been on anti-depressants before I spoke to cccs I certainly would be now, I thought they were meant to help, not make my situation worse

Heather,
To be fair, what CCCS and also what Payplan did was fair.

They look at all your incoming and outgoings, assess which ones are appropriate. By that I mean, you can't say you spend £2k a month on food, but say £150 per person approximately.
They then tally up your budget and see after you have paid your bills, used fuel to get to work, and money to eat food, what amount of money you have left to "Service your debt".

Effectively what they are saying is:
You currently have £83 a month that should be paying debt. currently you are paying £160, but that must be coming from somewhere that you will eventually need. The 19 years quoted is based upon repaying at the rate at which they think you can afford.

Try also PayPlan, CAB and NationalDebtline ... I'm sure the advice will all be roughly similar. Although they might be able to offer a different solution, such as a Debt Relief Order rather than a Debt Management Plan.

fingers crossed and good luck

missindependant

I noticed the Payplan representative was online so wanted to ask a question if possible...

I have recently sent all my paperwork back to National Debtline to get the ball rolling on a DMP.

I had requested I went with Payplan as I have a friend that works at CCCS and I don't want her to know (I am very private).

I had been told by National Debtline that all the docs sent back would be passed onto PP, how long can I expect that to take?

I have opened a basic bank account and have written to all creditors, I am just keen to get started on the programme!

Any advice would be great!

Thanks