Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

StepChange_Pavan

enigma247 wrote: »

hi, i hope im posting my message correctly, apologies if i'm not. i have just had to confess to my partner of debts on my b'card of £2500, Next £1000, i dont work and have no income apart from child allowance. i am not on the mortgage for our property and have no assets either. my partner cant afford to pay my debts off and we are now getting phone calls after i have missed one payment of each card. my partner says they have been irresponsible in giving me the amount of credit they have. i have never been in this position before and am desperatley seeking work as of today. i would appreciate any help/advice you could give me. my minimum payments are now at £170 per month and i have been using my partners account to pay them until today that is!!
please help me as i am at my wits end,
thanks
sam

Hi enigma247 and thank you for your post.

I’d recommend that you put together a sustainable budget showing your household income and expenditure to help you work out how much you can realistically afford at this moment. Hopefully once you find some work, you will be able to increase your payments and clear the debts quicker.

To get some more detailed advice, we would need to know more about your situation so you could either use our online advice facility Debt Remedy, or ring our free Helpline to book a telephone appointment with a counsellor.

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.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your questions and comments during 2010; we've enjoyed reading and responding to them and being a part of the MSE community. We hope we've helped you with any debt problems you may have had along the way.

The CCCS MoneyAware team are now off for a well-earned break. We'll be back in the office on Tuesday 4th January 2011. Apologies for any delay in replying to your questions.

In the meantime you can still get debt counselling through our online service Debt Remedy 24 hours a day, or phone our Helpline on 0800 138 1111 (our Christmas opening times).

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy and debt-free 2011.

Regards,

Sue and Pavan from the CCCS MoneyAware team
http://www.cccs.co.uk
http://www.moneyaware.co.uk

blackkbeauty

Please can you give me some advise.

Two years ago i made a pledge to clear up my debts and to never obtain a credit/loan again. I have kept this pledge.

Two years ago i made arrangement with Virgin (credit card - owe approx £6200.00) and RSB(Tesco loan- owe approx £6000) to pay them at a rate of £60.00 each per month. Both agreed to freeze the interest. I attempted to offer RSB a firm and final value but this was rejected in 2009. I want to pay more than £60.00 per month to clear the debts quicker but i am afraid that they may them start charging me interest. Would it be better to offer firm and final offers or could that be detrimental to me?

I have other debts such as an overdraft (£2700.00) which i will tackle seriously in 2011 having paid off my egg account this month (hurrah!!!) .

This website has been my lifeline.I have managed to reduce my debts and day to day living expenses year on year thanks to this website.

Thank you

Blackkbeauty

pickledpenguins

Hi,
I am in the very early stages of my involvement with CCCS and have a ref number but have not got a plan or anything set up yet.
Basically we were waiting for family to go home after Christmas so we could sit down and work out where all the debts are.
My question is one of my creditors called yesterday (cc company) I explained that I was going to go with CCCS but they then offered to freeze interest and offer me a payment plan as an alternative.
Should I stick to my guns and get sorted with CCCS or try to negotiate with my creditors individually? Many thanks for your help!

presley32

Hi, I am struggling with my credit cards and also day to day living.
I have 2 credit cards and a car loan. My cards add up to:
card 1 = £9861.00
card 2 = 13,000.00
Car loan= 15,000.00
I have been in touch with a company called DFH and after reading various posts I am a little worried about proceding with them.
They have offered me a Consolidation Plan which says that I can be debt free in 7 years by paying £550.00 per month which would be a great help as it reduces my payments from £900.00 a month.
The only thing is thay say I would be advised to change my bank account as the Car finance is with barclays finance, and there is the chance of the bank still taking the amount from my account even though it is part of the Consolidation Plan.
Any help would be most grateful in this matter, before I sign the papers.
Thanks Andrew

fermi

presley32 wrote: »

I have been in touch with a company called DFH and after reading various posts I am a little worried about proceding with them.

:eek::eek:

Avoid them like the plague!

Problem Debts: what to do and where to get help

Martin_Lewis wrote:

The wrong people to go to...

Avoid any debt help or loan consolidation companies that advertise on the telly or in some newspapers. Their job is to make money out of you, plain and simple.

While in the short term their plans will make your payments lower, in the long run it'll cost you dear. Avoid them.

Don't touch them. Don’t go near them.

I think this post from the Forum explains it better than I ever can:

"We, my wife and I, are on a seven-year plan with CCCS" (the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, one of my suggested agencies – Martin) "having recently changed from a commercial debt management company after hearing Martin on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show. The simple action of swapping to the CCCS has shaved over two years off the length of our plan as the money we were paying the management company now goes to our creditors instead! Of course, that also means a financial saving of nearly eight grand over the term of the original plans 10 year period."

This includes IVAs and debt wiping companies. While they sound good, they're only for a few people. If either is for you the debt counselling agencies should suggest it.

Fees for DFH.

• An initial fee - your first two monthly payments and an administration fee of £70.
• Ongoing monthly fees, which are 17.625% of each monthly payment you make or a minimum of £35 (whichever is greater).

Fees for CCCS.

£0

Candy757

Hi,
In 2004 being young and stupid, I ran up a credit card bill of £4000. I then took out a loan to pay off the credit card but could not make the payments. The bank I had the loan with have passed the debt onto a debt company. The company have been sending letters to my parent's house but I have been on speaking terms with them for a long time so have not seen the letters until recently. I can't afford to pay the debt off all at once but could afford a repayment plan. I'm scared if I get in contact with the company, they will want the amount in full, please advise.
Many thanks
C

cinders-3

We recently had a drop in income and have found ourselves unable to keep up with all our expenditure. To combat this we worked out all our essentials like mortgage, council tax, etc and decided that our two largest other bills which were still up to date with regards payments to keep paying the same. This left us with 4 bills that we needed to make different payment amounts to. The first being owed £1500 has accepted our offer of lower payment. The second being a credit card owed £525 which we offered to pay at £50 a month has rejected offer straight away and sent us a default notice stating that it will be put on my husbands credit file for the next 6 years and that they are either sending collectors to our address or selling on the debt for payment in full. Can they do this straight away we already made the first payment of £50 just before christmas with the next one due 18th jan? The third and fourth are both debts that have been sent to NDR. NDR are not being helpful at all. With one they insisted we pay £96 a month on a debt of £550 which i did try to pay but we can't afford that much and i was finding it increasing difficult to keep up payments.They have now sent a notice stating that they want payment in full by the 18th january or else they will take court action or sell on the debt. The second that NDR have is a much larger debt of £2300 as yet the only thing we have heard about this debt is that they cannot except our offer of payment. But this debt was originally with Very who have sent us a letter offering to reduce the interest on the debt for 3yrs down from 39% to 10%. I have sent a letter to NDR about this debt saying that i am sticking to the offer of payment that i made and that i want all communication to be in writing rather than phone calls as that is how i was bullied into making the high payments on other debt that i just couldn't do. Will NDR just sell on my debt to another company with the first one or am i looking at court? And can they insist on my telephoning them to make arrangements for payment as they claim that i have to phone them? This is all stressing me out now as its coming to the end of a fixed term on our mortgage and we wanted to sign up for another deal but i'm worried all this will affect our ability to sign for one. Any help plz.

wackyjacky06

Hi I have had a DMP with CCCS for over a year. Lloyds have just written to me to say that the plan has now expired and interest will now be charged. This month's interest was £16. This reduces their monthly payment from £42 to £26. Can they do this?

skintscottishgirl

Hi All

I have searched the threads but not had much luck with this. I took out a debt management plan with CCCS in March and everything was fine till recently September time I was going through a difficult time and drinking a lot, I got three payday loans and am now approaching crisis point.

I am not proud of what happened as i know I broke my agreement not to take out anymore credit. I think I have now defaulted on my most recent payment to the CCCS and i am afraid to call them. I have been advised that they would not be able to help by adding the payday loans onto my current debt with them, so my only option would be to get a different company to take a new DMP with them ( with a charge ) and they would take over from the CCCS.

I just donb't know what to do, should i call them or would they not be able to help me on this? Or would they say they couldn't deal with my other debts either now? I know I have breached my agreement and feel so guilty.... But I absolutely want to sort things out once and for all.

Thanks

I hope someone can help just to know what the procedure would be would be a great help.

SSG