Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

Ma_Boswell

I have just realised that i am in trouble and can't see a way out of it - i have credit card debts of around £12000 with Halifax Mastercard and an overdraft of £2000 with the Halifax. My income is only £700 a month ( partly Civil Service pension, partly part-time earnings). I downsized to reduce my mortgage earlier this year and then lost my job and have only been able to find part-time work.I have been able to pay the minimum on my cards up to now, but am struggling to survive and won't be able to manage it for much longer. Would i be a suitable candidate for an IVA? I am trying to find a second job or full time work but until i do things are just getting worse. I live alone. Can you offer any advice?

StepChange_Pavan

Ma_Boswell wrote: »

I have just realised that i am in trouble and can't see a way out of it - i have credit card debts of around £12000 with Halifax Mastercard and an overdraft of £2000 with the Halifax. My income is only £700 a month ( partly Civil Service pension, partly part-time earnings). I downsized to reduce my mortgage earlier this year and then lost my job and have only been able to find part-time work.I have been able to pay the minimum on my cards up to now, but am struggling to survive and won't be able to manage it for much longer. Would i be a suitable candidate for an IVA? I am trying to find a second job or full time work but until i do things are just getting worse. I live alone. Can you offer any advice?

Hi Ma Boswell and thank you for your post.

It’s difficult to give you detailed advice without knowing more about your situation. An IVA is quite a complex solution, so I’d recommend that you either use our online advice facility Debt Remedy, or ring our free Helpline to book a telephone appointment with a counsellor. This way we can look at your situation as a whole and determine which your best solution is.

Debt Remedy will assist you in completing a financial statement which includes information on your household, employment, income, expenditure and debts. All this information is used as a basis to determine the options available to you to deal with your situation.

Once you’ve followed the process through and completed all the required information you will immediately be presented with an advice booklet, which will provide tailored advice for you based on your current circumstances. It will also provide advice on ways you may be able to improve your situation.

Alternatively if you would prefer to talk to a debt counsellor about your situation, you can book a telephone based appointment by calling our helpline free on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Ant69

Hi
I have a debt (few debt because of credit cards/loan)
one of this is with EGG (loan).
Very recently I discovered that my EGG loan debt is been bought by a credit Mng agency (Apex).
Till now I have been paying what I could ...As unemployed I am paying a 1 pound token.That is all I could afford and still trying to live.
Apex is now pressing on me with phone calls and letters.
My question:
can main lender sell a debt to a third party without telling the debtor?
as I heard that they can sell the debt at cheaper value, is that legal?
Could that affect te way the new debt owner could set the repayment rules?
what shall I do with this Apex as they pressing me?

Approx 2 years ago I went to seek help to CAB whose help was initially good.But after a while all that process take so much time. As they have people on volunteer work, all the replies or to be able to talk to someone you have to go at their office and anytime spend half day there for a simple min question/answer.
I used also CCCS which seemed very useful but then after a while completely disapperead or never replied to any of my messages.
Still seeking some proper help , anyone could suggest some real prompt one to one contact?

cheers!
A

BEAT_THE_DEBT

hi i have just been told that cccs paid creditors earlirer this mnth so i have missed this mths payments so to speak as it will be late i missed july AND SEPT WILL I BE TERMINATED FROM DMP? WORRIED
BTD

RedRobbo

Dear All,

I am writing regarding an outstanding debt that my mother has with Chatham finance and would like some advice on how to proceed.

My Mother took out a Loan with Colonial back in 2000 for £10K on a 36 monthly installment of £329.17, meaning total amount payable £11850.12.

My mother over time has had varies problems in repaying and maintaining the installments, so we have go to the end of 2010, and I have offered to pay of this debt, but before I make this payment I request that Chatham Finance send me everything concerning this account. I have now received a document detailing all correspondence and payments, fallow by swiftly by a letter from Chatham informing my mother that all letters would be charged at £20 if we don't contact Chatham.

I have looked through the payment schedules over the last 10 years and there are a number of charges which I can't find in the Appendix transaction code. Further more in addition to the interested agreed, Chatham have added an additional £7000 plus.

This give me a final balance of £3616 and increasing everyday, how do I resolve this debt as chathams action in every attempt to resolve this account has been to increase charges, add Fee's charge interested etc. what advice would anyone have to give, thank you for your time and advice in this matter.
Charles

CCCS_Sue

Ant69 wrote: »

Hi
I have a debt (few debt because of credit cards/loan)
one of this is with EGG (loan).
Very recently I discovered that my EGG loan debt is been bought by a credit Mng agency (Apex).
Till now I have been paying what I could ...As unemployed I am paying a 1 pound token.That is all I could afford and still trying to live.
Apex is now pressing on me with phone calls and letters.
My question:
can main lender sell a debt to a third party without telling the debtor?
as I heard that they can sell the debt at cheaper value, is that legal?
Could that affect te way the new debt owner could set the repayment rules?
what shall I do with this Apex as they pressing me?

Approx 2 years ago I went to seek help to CAB whose help was initially good.But after a while all that process take so much time. As they have people on volunteer work, all the replies or to be able to talk to someone you have to go at their office and anytime spend half day there for a simple min question/answer.
I used also CCCS which seemed very useful but then after a while completely disapperead or never replied to any of my messages.
Still seeking some proper help , anyone could suggest some real prompt one to one contact?

cheers!
A

Hi Ant69 and thank you for your message

The creditor should keep you informed if a debt has been passed to another debt collection agency.
Not to do so would be considered ‘unfair practice’ (Page 5 OFT Debt Collection Guidelines 2.6e)

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

If the collection agency try to pressure you into paying more money, you need to continue offering a £1 token payment if this is all you can afford.
Send them your offer of £1 supported by an up to date copy of your income and expenditure.
Then stick to what you can afford. Even if they refuse your offer, then send it anyway. You cannot pay them money you do not have.


I am concerned to hear that you were not happy with the service you received in the past regarding contacting CCCS. If you would like to discuss this further, please feel free to send me a PM so that I can look into this for you.

If you would like to get immediate advice on your situation, follow the link to go directly to our online debt advice facility Debt Remedy: http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu

Kind Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

BEAT_THE_DEBT wrote: »

hi i have just been told that cccs paid creditors earlirer this mnth so i have missed this mths payments so to speak as it will be late i missed july AND SEPT WILL I BE TERMINATED FROM DMP? WORRIED
BTD

Hi Beat the Debt and thank you for your message.

Try not to worry!

I would recommend that you contact our client support team and explain what has happened.

They will advise you further as they have all your payment details.

Kind Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

RedRobbo wrote: »

Dear All,

I am writing regarding an outstanding debt that my mother has with Chatham finance and would like some advice on how to proceed.

My Mother took out a Loan with Colonial back in 2000 for £10K on a 36 monthly installment of £329.17, meaning total amount payable £11850.12.

My mother over time has had varies problems in repaying and maintaining the installments, so we have go to the end of 2010, and I have offered to pay of this debt, but before I make this payment I request that Chatham Finance send me everything concerning this account. I have now received a document detailing all correspondence and payments, fallow by swiftly by a letter from Chatham informing my mother that all letters would be charged at £20 if we don't contact Chatham.

I have looked through the payment schedules over the last 10 years and there are a number of charges which I can't find in the Appendix transaction code. Further more in addition to the interested agreed, Chatham have added an additional £7000 plus.

This give me a final balance of £3616 and increasing everyday, how do I resolve this debt as chathams action in every attempt to resolve this account has been to increase charges, add Fee's charge interested etc. what advice would anyone have to give, thank you for your time and advice in this matter.
Charles

Hi Charles and thank you for your message

Unfortunately, the creditors do not have to agree to stop interest and charges but if there are charges and fees showing that you are unsure about, you could ask for further clarification from the creditor.

Consumer Direct may be able to help if you do not receive a satisfactory reply and you need further advice.
http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

They are funded by the Office of Fair Trading and delivered in partnership with Local Authority Trading Standards Services.

If you are thinking of paying off the loan on behalf of your mother, because she is struggling to make the repayments, you could offer a full and final settlement based on what you can afford. This is where you offer the creditor a one-off lump sum payment, of less than the full amount owed, in return for them agreeing to write off the rest of the debt.
The creditors might accept a settlement offer based on a one-off payment because your mother’s financial circumstances are such that she is unable to maintain full payments from her income.

If they refuse, then write again and ask them to reconsider,

You would need to put the offer in writing to the creditor.
If the offer is accepted, ask them to make an entry on any credit reference agency files relating to the account as ‘satisfied in full’.
Otherwise they may come back at a later date to reclaim the outstanding balance.

If you would like more help and information regarding this, your mother could call for an appointment to discuss her situation with one of our counsellors. If she prefers you to do the appointment on her behalf, she can send a letter of authorisation.

To book an appointment with one of our trained counsellors she would need to contact our helpline free on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00.

Kind Regards
Sue

justlaugh2

I am in the process of applying for a DRO with the cccs as i only have around £35 per month left over after living expenses. I cannot see another way and im at my wits end with creditors calling night and day.
Also at the risk of throwing myself to the lions, I refinanced my provident loan a few weeks ago in order to pay a couple of the other debts + 2 weeks of payments to provident as the agent didnt show up the previous week. I was just reading through another thread on here that didnt go too well! in my own defence i really thought i could cope with the payments as my dad was gifting/lending me a little every week as i do his shopping and errands for him. Although with hindsight i had my head in the clouds or the sand and would not have knowingly taken another loan if id realised the payments plus all the other debts would have been too much to handle.
Perhaps i would be better off ( not financially) if i applied for a DMP instead of a DRO. I havent submitted any paperwork to anyone yet. Or Neither if that would mean being fraudulent.
Im not look for a magic wand or for any consoling words, but just need a way forward and out of this mess.
I spoke to a nice lady at provident head office this morning and she was very pleasant. But this afternoon the local provident office called and were not so nice! they said i fraudulently took a loan without any means of paying it back. They also suggested that i just reduce my payments to them for a while but i said i couldnt as that would be favouring one creditor over another. In truth if it was just provident i could probably scrape £62.50 together every week but with all the others its just too much.
Any advice anyone can give would be great and go someway to putting my mind at rest a little.
Becky

CCCS_Sue

justlaugh2 wrote: »

I am in the process of applying for a DRO with the cccs as i only have around £35 per month left over after living expenses. I cannot see another way and im at my wits end with creditors calling night and day.
Also at the risk of throwing myself to the lions, I refinanced my provident loan a few weeks ago in order to pay a couple of the other debts + 2 weeks of payments to provident as the agent didnt show up the previous week. I was just reading through another thread on here that didnt go too well! in my own defence i really thought i could cope with the payments as my dad was gifting/lending me a little every week as i do his shopping and errands for him. Although with hindsight i had my head in the clouds or the sand and would not have knowingly taken another loan if id realised the payments plus all the other debts would have been too much to handle.
Perhaps i would be better off ( not financially) if i applied for a DMP instead of a DRO. I havent submitted any paperwork to anyone yet. Or Neither if that would mean being fraudulent.
Im not look for a magic wand or for any consoling words, but just need a way forward and out of this mess.
I spoke to a nice lady at provident head office this morning and she was very pleasant. But this afternoon the local provident office called and were not so nice! they said i fraudulently took a loan without any means of paying it back. They also suggested that i just reduce my payments to them for a while but i said i couldnt as that would be favouring one creditor over another. In truth if it was just provident i could probably scrape £62.50 together every week but with all the others its just too much.
Any advice anyone can give would be great and go someway to putting my mind at rest a little.
Becky

Hi Becky and thank you for your message.


Without knowing your full financial situation, I am not able to advise you on your best option

If you are an existing client with CCCS, then you can call our client support team for further help and advice regarding how to proceed. You will need your client reference number when you call us.

Otherwise, if you would like an appointment to speak to one of our counsellors you can book a telephone based appointment by calling our helpline free on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00. If

Kind Regards

Sue