Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

wigglers

hi my girlfriend and me have a £5000 barclaycard maxed out at 17.9 % and a virgin credit card at £2000 (about the same apr) maxed out too we tried doing a balance transfer but now the virgin card isnt 0% interest and is full. we just got an insurance payout of £3000 and not sure which is the best way to go about paying it to reduce them? please help thanx matt

wigglers

ohhh and i may have just been offered a hsbc cc with a limit of £1000 could i balance transfer a bit of my girlfriends £7000 as it would be interest free for 15 months thanx matt

lyndorset

CCCS_Sue wrote: »

Hi lyndorset and thank you for your message

If you are on a DMP with CCCS then you should explain that we are dealing with the payments and there is no more money. You should not pay them any extra than the amount you are paying through your plan.
They should certainly not be suggesting that you borrow money from family and friends to repay their debt and they should not be continually harassing and phoning you.
You can send them a letter requesting that they no longer contact you by phone and that all correspondence should be done in writing only.

I have attached a sample letter you could use:-

To whom it may concern

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to ask that you no longer contact me by telephone as your calls are causing me considerable stress due to the frequency, and that they are being made at inappropriate times. Please remove my telephone number from your database and send all future communication in writing to my home address.

I have provided the most recent copy of my income and expenditure to make you aware of my current financial situation. I will continue to make my payment of x on the x of every month and will keep you informed of any changes in my circumstances as I am keen to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

I understand that following this request if you continue to call I can contact the Office of Fair Trading to make a formal complaint.

Please confirm in writing that your records have been amended.

Yours sincerely

As the letter says, if they continue to harass you then you can report them to the OFT.
You don’t have to phone them. This can be very costly and most of the time you are usually kept on hold.
Put any correspondence in the post to us, especially any that say you have been passed to another debt collection company so that we can start paying them on your behalf. Send them as soon as you receive them. We do not need any default notices you receive.

Do not to be pressured into anything and remember you don’t have to put up with harassment. You are doing all you can to repay your debts.
If you have any more problems with these creditors, you can contact our support team who will advise you further.

Kind Regards
Sue

Thanks for that and the prompt reply - you are so helpful to people like me, thanks! I have used your letter and will get in the post, I thought what they were doing was wrong, hopefully this will stop it. Thanks again.

StepChange_Pavan

BellaFiga wrote: »

When MKRR did not reply with a copy of the credit agreement I sent them the template letter that you kindly provided me with here. On Friday I received a letter from them with copies of my old bank statements saying that they intend to pursue me for the debt. What do I do now?

Hi BellaFiga and thanks for your update.

As they have now provided you with proof that you owe the debt, you need to come to an arrangement to repay it.

I’d recommend that you put together an income and expenditure to show them how much you can realistically afford to pay each month.

If you’d like us to look at your situation in more detail to see what options are available, you can 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.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

tenpence_shy wrote: »

Hi

i've just one quick question,
i've setup a DMP with CCCS and the first DD is due to be taken on 1st April
how soon will i get the logon/password to access my DMP account online
and can i 'up' the payment to you online, if i feel able to after a month or so?

tenpence

Hi tenpence and thanks for your question.

You should receive your log in details soon, but you could contact our support department to find out exactly when.

With regards to your payment, you would need to speak to one of our counsellors before changing it. It’s probably best to see how your plan goes for the first few months and then give us a call for a review if you feel you need to change it.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Lucy111 wrote: »

Hi, Pavan, thanks for your reply. I already have opened an account with another bank and swopped the direct debits to here. I have my salary paid in here. I also have a couple of payments to me in the overdraft account, plus my mortgage and car payments come out of it. Would I be better transferring all payments in and out to the basic account then and work at paying small amount off the overdraft? Also if I cancel my direct debits can the companies take me to court without me arranging or asking to reduce payments?

It has been a bit of a process but I am getting lots of info off here and I am making progress. I want to pay what I owe if possible, I borrowed the money. Its just going to take longer. Hoping they work with me.

Thanks

Hi there,

Yes, it’s better to transfer everything to your new account and pay off the overdraft at a rate that you can afford.

With regards to taking you to court, your creditors can do this at any stage after you have defaulted. You can read more on our website about the standard debt collection process.

It sounds as though you’re well on your way to repaying your debts, but just let us know if you need any further guidance.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

wigglers wrote: »

hi my girlfriend and me have a £5000 barclaycard maxed out at 17.9 % and a virgin credit card at £2000 (about the same apr) maxed out too we tried doing a balance transfer but now the virgin card isnt 0% interest and is full. we just got an insurance payout of £3000 and not sure which is the best way to go about paying it to reduce them? please help thanx matt

Hi Matt and thanks for your question.

I’d recommend that you repay the debts with the highest interest rates first. If you do have the option of switching some of the debt to a 0% interest credit card, this could be a good option, provided that you don’t continue to use any of your available credit.

This article may give you some more information: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/pay-off-debts

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

ticklemonkey

Is there such a thing as being one month ahead with CCJ payments?

If im paying off a CCJ and the first month it was due i made two payments, one before the due date and one shortly after both for the full amounts, does this make me one month ahead of the payments?
Reason im asking is that im paying off through Payplan and this is what they told me. They cant guarantee to get the payment to the creditor by the due date so i made an extra payment in the first month to stay "one month ahead" of the payments so that if the payment they make each month is late it wil be ok as im one month ahead??
Is this right does anyone know?

thanks

HBRAD123

This is my soa. My mortgage is currently on svr 3.5% With Halifax (int only) (no rep vehicle in place) and my cc are on 0% usually just do a bal transfer if can't pay off in 0% period... personal loan is 218 os bal 7500 is paid off in 36mths and won't have to pay childcare as of sept next year.. (but what we have or don't have that causes me concern)!!

(Thankfully my husband is a technician so don't need to pay for maintenance of the cars..

The thing that worries me the most is that were not paying any capital off our mortgage due to having no money left over at the end of the month.. (int rates are only gonna go up).. so need to get my finances in order or we will end up loosing our house...

At the moment I am working all the overtime I possibly can and selling unwanted things on ebay..

Any advice would be appreciated..

Thankyou.


[tt]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1200
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1600
Benefits................................ 138.5
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2938.5

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 577
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 218
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 185
Electricity............................. 51
Gas..................................... 51
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 29
Telephone (land line)................... 13
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 33
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 250
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 300
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 33.57
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2255


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 240000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 244000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 193000...(577.16)......3.5
Secured Debt.................. 7500.....(218.51)......6.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 200500....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
TESCO CC.......................2100......63........0
BARCLAYS CC....................2400......72........0
Total unsecured debts..........4500......135.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,938.5
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,255
Available for debt repayments........... 683.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 135
Amount left after debt repayments....... 548.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 244,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -200,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,500
Net Assets.............................. 39,000

ruby12

Hi all, I'm a newby on here so please be gentle!:)
We have been on a DMP with CCCS for 16 months. Our main creditor is LLoyds. We have a loan, two credit cards and two overdrafts with them. We have sent loads of letters to them asking them to freeze the interest but they have refused everytime. Our loan is the biggest debt with them. We asked them to pass the debt to Debt Recovery but they refused. They sent us a letter saying while we were making payments that they would not pass the debt on, however if we missed a payment, then the account would be closed and passed on to the Debt Recovery where interest would be frozen.
Can I ask CCCS not to pay LLoyds this month but pay all the other creditors?(who so far have been ok). At the rate we are going we will be paying interest forever!

Any advice would be greatly received