Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

flabadabado

Hi,

I'd like to ask for my interest to be frozen on my credit cards, this would allow me to pay off the debts in a much shorter time scale. How would I phrase this to the company? At present I can only pay the minimum payment and the interest is putting it over the limit therefore I receive a charge, etc, etc.

From where I stand it'd be mutually beneficient as they'd get their payments and I'd be clearing the debt. But how do I convince them of this?

Thanks

CCCS_Sue

terriblemess wrote: »

Hi

Im attempting to tackle all my debts and i have noticed on my credit file that i have a ccj back in 2008 for £350.00 at the northampton court. I intend to pay this but how do i go about getting all the information relating to it? Is it as straight forward as just writing to the court requesting information?

many thanks for your help

Hi terriblemess and thank you for your message

You can write to the court to get this information.
You can also contact the credit reference agency to do a search and provide you with any case / claim numbers.
The addresses and contact numbers for the credit reference agencies are listed in this booklet.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/credit_explained_leaflet_2005.pdf

A CCJ does stay on your credit file for six years

If you intend to pay it off in full, you can then obtain a ‘certificate of satisfaction’ so that your credit file is updated to show this
There is a charge for a certificate of satisfaction which is currently £15

I have attached a link to HM court services for further help and information
http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1093.htm

Kind Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

flabadabado wrote: »

Hi,

I'd like to ask for my interest to be frozen on my credit cards, this would allow me to pay off the debts in a much shorter time scale. How would I phrase this to the company? At present I can only pay the minimum payment and the interest is putting it over the limit therefore I receive a charge, etc, etc.

From where I stand it'd be mutually beneficient as they'd get their payments and I'd be clearing the debt. But how do I convince them of this? Thanks

Hi flabadabado and thank you for your message

Unfortunately, if you are maintaining the minimum payments, it is unlikely they will stop the interest and charges.

A creditor has the right to add charges and interest. All charges that can be added are stated upfront in the terms and conditions of the credit application which you are required to sign to take out credit.
Until you are able to pay more than the minimum payment each month, then it will take a long time for the debt to start reducing as you are paying mainly interest and very little capital.
Try and pay off as much as you can to get the balance below the credit card limit as most of the charges will be increasing because you are going over the limit each month.
You don’t say how much debt you have, but another option might be to transfer the balances to a 0% credit card. There is a fee to do this, but all the money you pay will be reducing the debt.
Be aware though that it is important not to use the new card for purchases as the interest on purchases can be very high.

Kind regards
Sue

skintbutworkingonit

Hi,
We are in the process of entering a debt management plan with the CCCS. My worry is that i have a horse and yes he is a luxury, especially in the eyes of others but he is a big part of our family too and a great friend to me that is helping to keep me sane through our current situation. I'm fortunate that the livery yard where i keep him does not charge me to keep him there or for any hay or feed as i work unpaid for one day a week in return for his keep. The only extra cost i have with him are for his insurance (public liability and vets bills) £34 per month, his shoes £65 every six weeks and annual vaccinations and dentists approx £100-£120 per year.

My question is should i be declaring him and his costs in my budget planner in the same way that my other pets are and if i do declare him are my creditors likely to want me to sell him to pay off part of my debts? I am entering the DMP as a joint debtor alongside my husband, our unsecured debts are just below £50,000 and the horse would probably sell for between £1,000-£1,500

Many Thanks.

wobblymummy

Hi there

I have recently started at Uni as a mature student after working since leaving school.

I get help from student finance and a small amount of tax credits as we have two fairly young children.

Ostrich2011

Hi
I have just signed up to this forum after having spent much of the weekend on this site, reading advice and doing a budget - which didn't totally shock me as I had expected to be over budget!

However working out that it would take me to 21 yrs to pay off my credit cards at my current rate of paying off the minimum was a little soul destroying to say the least! Someone told me I should get some advice from the CCCS or citizens advise buro. I seem to be in financial trouble rather then crisis and have always got by ok, but the debt has been at the £24/£25K mark for the last 5 yrs and there seems to be no headway. I am paying off £514 a month in repayments and all but £100 of that is on interest alone. Two of the biggest cards are with MBNA and they have probably made quite a lot of money out of me. Is there someway I can pay them off and freeze the interest without having a black mark on my credit file? I would love to be in a position to buy a house if I ever get this sorted. I'm starting to feel like my options are running out as I have moved to cheaper accommodation, reduced my car costs and gone through all my utility bills. I recognise I need to work further on my non essential spending, but with the interest the way it is I can't see a way out. I can't get any cards to shuffle onto and I doubt I'd get a lone any cheaper either. I feel like I have run out of options....

foreveradevil

Hi,

I have a question regarding my CCCS DMP, i hope you can help me.

I have been on a dmp for over 6 years with my then wife, we are now divorced and i still pay funds in to her account which then go direct to CCCS to pay our creditors. My question is, how can i go about splitting the plan so that i have complete control of the debts in my name and i can then concentrate on paying off my debts rather than continue to pay off debts that are not mine. None of the debts are joint so i assume i have no obligation to her what so ever. I would like to continue paying the amount agreed with my creditors and so would not like this arrangement to be upset, thus effecting my ever improving credit rating. I would however like at some point to pay more off my debts to clear them faster as my circumstances are changing.

I know this sounds complicated but I just want control of my own debts and be free of any ties to my ex wife.

Any help would be gratefully received...

Regards

fermi

CCCS_Sue?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12191832

StepChange_Pavan

skintbutworkingonit wrote: »

Hi,
We are in the process of entering a debt management plan with the CCCS. My worry is that i have a horse and yes he is a luxury, especially in the eyes of others but he is a big part of our family too and a great friend to me that is helping to keep me sane through our current situation. I'm fortunate that the livery yard where i keep him does not charge me to keep him there or for any hay or feed as i work unpaid for one day a week in return for his keep. The only extra cost i have with him are for his insurance (public liability and vets bills) £34 per month, his shoes £65 every six weeks and annual vaccinations and dentists approx £100-£120 per year.

My question is should i be declaring him and his costs in my budget planner in the same way that my other pets are and if i do declare him are my creditors likely to want me to sell him to pay off part of my debts? I am entering the DMP as a joint debtor alongside my husband, our unsecured debts are just below £50,000 and the horse would probably sell for between £1,000-£1,500

Many Thanks.

Hi Skintbutworkingonit and thank you for your post.

This is a tricky one and I can appreciate your predicament.

Your budget needs to reflect your spending as accurately as possible to ensure that you can afford to live and you can successfully repay your debts within a reasonable timescale.

If you would like to keep your horse, you will need to allocate his expenditure in the budget so that you can afford to keep him. It is up to you whether you explain that the expenditure is for a pet or specifically for a horse. However if the amount is unusually high, your creditors may question this. You could consider cutting back on other areas to compensate for it.

It would also depend on how your plan is affected in terms of the amount of time it takes you to clear your debts..

I’d recommend that you call our support team so that we can discuss this with you in a bit more detail.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

wobblymummy wrote: »

Hi there

I have recently started at Uni as a mature student after working since leaving school.
Myself and my OH are on a CCCS plan and have been for about 2/3 years now, its been fairly plain sailing.
I get help from student finance and a small amount of tax credits as we have two fairly young children.
None of my student finance, except the Adult Learning/Dependent Grant is counted for tax credits purposes, I guess because a lot of it is loan and will be paid back and cannot be counted as income as such, even though realistically it is.
As OH now has a decent job we are hoping to try and pay off some of our debts this year. We are due a review soon with CCCS, how will the loans and stuff affect our budget ?

We have had a good chunk of finance both loan and grant since September but owed our family quite a bit of money and our car has cost us a fortune in repairs even though its fairly old its looking as though we might need to replace it this year as well.

I would prefer to defer the review till July when we may have had chance to pay off some of our debts and then look at things, would this be possible as by this time we may have reduced our debt quite a bit we just need the breathing space to do so without being stalked and hopefully interest frozen.

Hi wobblymummy and thank you for your post.

I’d recommend that you call our client support team as we will be able to discuss all of this with you. Any priority debts would be included in your budget so we will allocate amounts for these.

It’s a good idea to review your budget regularly and your creditors may question why they haven’t received an update of your situation if you don’t. This could also mean that they automatically start adding interest and charges again.

You could update your budget to reflect your expenditure at the moment, then if you expect it to change again in July; you could have another review then.

Kind regards,
Pavan