OH has contacted CCCS - what will happen now?

melt71

Bit of background;

My partner has got into financial difficulty due to his father dying and him moving back to help out his mum. He paid out quite a lot of expenses for his mum and for the funeral which all went on credit cards. This coincided with him changing his career and he is now only working part time on minimum wage until he becomes qualified (he's also a part time student).

His debt is about £10000 on 3 separate cards. I've been pleading with him for the last couple of months to contact CCCS as he can't even manage to pay his minimum payments anymore and is getting further and further into debt. His credit record is shot to pieces as he has been paying late virtually every month. He currently earns just over £400 a month in his new job (which is helping him on his way to a qualification). He is trying to find other work, but this won't be easy as it will need to work around his existing shift pattern.

He has now called CCCS and they are putting the wheels in motion but I just wondered what happens now? If anybody has any experience of them I would be really grateful if you would let me know what happens. We're both very worried.

spud30

We are lucky enough to have Wonder_Girl and others that post on here, and work for CCCS. :j

Hopefully one of them will be along in a bit and will be able to fill you in.

I am in the very early stages of a DMP with CCCS.

In my initial call, they advised me to set up a new basic bank account, as some of my debts are with my bank. They then sent me a welcome pack, with the info needed to prepare a Statement of Account (SOA). I was also given an hour long appointment with a counsellor 2 weeks later.

On the day of my appointment, a really nice girl called and went through all my figures. Wonder Girl had already helped me loads with the preparation, and kept me calm.

A while after the call, I received the agreement to sign, and return with the information on all my creditors.

My DMP starts on 1st August.

Hope this helps, but as I said, the experts will be along to answer any specifics.

x

melt71

thanks spud30, I'm really worried but not nearly as much as he is. I know he's done the right thing by calling them but I think he just wanted to ignore the problem for a long as possible and hope it went away!

spud30

Dont worry Melt love.

I felt sooo relieved once I had had my appointment.

I wasn't made to feel stupid, and wasn't treated like an idiot (our debt, as you can see from my sig, is over 3 times your OH's). They are all lovely, and put you at your ease straight away.

As I said, Wonder Girl will hopefully be along shortly and she really is so helpful and down to earth.

He's done the right thing by making the call.

When is his appointment?

Jules

Hi Melt,
I think the hardest bit has been done - the intial phone call - I was quaking with fear when I rung but the CCCS really are wonderful.

I am 2 years into my DMP through the CCCS and have to say I haven't looked back. I had to ring them just today as one of my creditors is getting a bit grumbly, this happens from time to time, and they have sent out my budget to them so hopefully this may keep them happy.

Don't worry, it's time to look forward and get back on track and no matter what the CCCS are alway there at the end of the phone to reassure and help.

Good Luck

Jules

melt71

Many thanks for all your replies. I hope we can start to look forward now then, it certainly seems like a positive step.

Spud30 - they have told him to ring his c/c companies to confirm that he is now dealing with CCCS and they will contact him again on 15th Aug. I'm not sure if this is his official appointment, but I assume it is to discuss his figures/income. So I'm going to get him organised before then so he knows all his facts. He's useless with finances so I have started to get them organised into a file so you can find things easily and see the current state of play.

Jules; yes he said he was shaking and felt sick after speaking to them. It's all very official now, no more burying his head in the sand (hopefully!).

Thanks again for all your replies, if Wonder Girl is about I would be interested to have your input. If nothing else, just to put his mind at rest!

Mel x

spud30

Dont worry Melt love,

WG will more than likely be around in a bit to give her expert advice.

She's fab :A

Macduff_3

melt71 wrote:

Many thanks for all your replies. I hope we can start to look forward now then, it certainly seems like a positive step.

Spud30 - they have told him to ring his c/c companies to confirm that he is now dealing with CCCS and they will contact him again on 15th Aug. I'm not sure if this is his official appointment, but I assume it is to discuss his figures/income. So I'm going to get him organised before then so he knows all his facts. He's useless with finances so I have started to get them organised into a file so you can find things easily and see the current state of play.

Jules; yes he said he was shaking and felt sick after speaking to them. It's all very official now, no more burying his head in the sand (hopefully!).

Thanks again for all your replies, if Wonder Girl is about I would be interested to have your input. If nothing else, just to put his mind at rest!

Mel x

Yes, this will be his official appointment. It will take about an hour and they will go through his budget (his income and expenditure) and his creditor list. He will need to have bank statements handy as well as account details, balances etc for all his creditors. He will need to give a figure for everything he pays for - even little things like newspapers and haircuts. The counsellor will then give him advice on how to pare back his spending and what his best option is. This may be a DMP, it may be something else.

If he is useless with finances then it might help if you are with him for the appointment and if he does get offered a DMP he could perhaps send us a letter of authority for you to deal with his account as well. If there is a problem or something he doesn't understand then you could speak to us and it might help him face up to things if he knows you are there to back him up.

He's done the hard bit now by facing up to it and calling us so he needs to congratulate himself for that!:beer:

Wonder_Girl

It's pretty much as Spuddy said

Spuddy - You alright hun?:o

melt71

Macduff wrote:

If he is useless with finances then it might help if you are with him for the appointment and if he does get offered a DMP he could perhaps send us a letter of authority for you to deal with his account as well. If there is a problem or something he doesn't understand then you could speak to us and it might help him face up to things if he knows you are there to back him up.

Thanks very much for your input. That's a great idea as he hates dealing with people on the phone and gets flustered. I will definitely be there with all the information to hand. I'm going to work out his monthly expenditure beforehand so he knows what he's talking about.

He's really ashamed and fed up at the moment, but I'm really proud of him especially now that he is taking the necessary steps to resolve the situation.

Mel

Macduff_3

He shouldn't be ashamed. A lot of people never face up to their debt. He's very lucky he has your support. His debt is definitely conquerable!