Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

CCCS_Sarah

nolongerindenial wrote: »

Is there a good time to phone the CCCS? Every time I call I end up spending a long time on hold (I understand it is a free call) however usually have a client phone me and have to hang up.

I am quickly coming to the conclusion I am desperate for help yet dont have a clue what to do, yet cant not answer my clients calls as I need the money they provide to feed my family.

Hello,

I would recommend that you just keep trying; there is not a lead time at the moment for appointments. If you prefer you could try our online advice tool. This is a 24hour facility so you could do it once you have finished work. This link will take you directly to Debt Remedy www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drmse

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

lady21 wrote: »

Hi last year I got a letter regarding my council tax, which I thought I had been paying but turns out I had not, telling me I had to go to court on whatever date or pay the whole years council tax in full straight away which would then stop proceedings. I paid it immediately and have had no issues since. My work are now doing credit checks and I am worried that this might show up on mine. Is this classed as a CCJ even though I paid the whole years straight away and court proceedings were stopped?

Hello,

As far as I am aware I don’t think this would show on your credit file. Not as a CCJ anyway.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

FOJC wrote: »

Good Evening, I am hoping one of the counsellors on here will be able to help. I have already posted a thread with my scenario (unfortunately I can't post links as a new user but a search under my id of FOJC will show you this).
I have had a few replies (which is appreciate) but nothing really which I didn't already know. I realise there are a couple of areas where I can save but this does not answer the whole problem. For instance at the moment I am paying off about £50 a month on my CC as £250 of the £300 is in interest. Added to this though I am having to use it day to day with little credit left.
The main concern is that a significant amount of my debt is with my employers through Credit Cards and I do not want to affect my employment by choosing the incorrect course of action.
The SOA I have posted does also not cater for cash needed day to day and a few other things but mostly is correct.
I am tempted to bite the bullet and go and speak to an advisor in my bank to see what they can do for us. I am hoping they can come up with a plan we can stick to like a large loan which will obviously take quite a few years to pay off but at least we will be paying the debt off. This obviously then will bring my employment to the fore.
Also as my mortgage is on a tracker and my rate is 0.5% this will not last forever but it is ok for the moment. Also my salary will probably drop towards the end of the year as some of my shift work may stop. These will seriously affect my income so I need to look into this as soon as possible.
Any advice on these points will be greatfully received.

Hello,

I would recommend that you have a telephone appointment with the CCCS and then we can look into your options and also discuss your work situation. If you would like an appointment, please call 0800 138 1111.

I would not recommend consolidating debts, as all this does is move the debt from one place to another and increases the overall interest paid. You are better dealing with the debts you have.

Sarah

elnino1978

Sue

Many thanks I've made the call and have an appointment set up for next tuesday. Hopefully the plan will then switch to yourselves

Cheers
John

CCCS_Sue wrote: »

Hi John

It would make sense to either start making the payments yourself, or switch to a non fee charging debt management company, as the £840 you are paying them in fees could be reducing your outstanding debt faster. It would mean extra to pay your creditors so they are likely to be happier too!

If you would like CCCS to look at your situation and give you further assistance , you could call for an appointment to speak to one our debt counsellors on 0800 138 1111.
CCCS do not charge anything at all for their help and advice.

We can assist you in putting together a budget to send to your creditors and also discuss all options available for your situation.

If the counsellor is happy to offer a DMP as a result of your appointment, we would then discuss with you how to end the current arrangement you have and how to set it up with ourselves. CCCS does not charge for setting up or administering a Debt Management Plan.

Regards
Sue

VICTIMOFTHEBANKS

Hi All,
I am new to the forum but I read a lot of posts before. The issue I have is that I had an Amex Card account with RPP until 2005. The account was cancelled as I felt into some financial difficulties. I wrote to Amex requesting refund for both charges and RPP. Still waiting to hear about the charges but for the Insurance, they said their investigation revealed that I accepted it over the phone. They went on to say that the insurance was sold correctly on information –only basis. Therefore, it was provided in a fair and reasonable basis. However, without accepting liability, they are willing to make a payment equal to the premiums charged to me for the RPP plus statutory interest as Goodwill Gesture.
This offer is made without any admission of liability. They continued that if I accept the offer then I sign and return the letter so they may arrange for the payment to be applied to the Card account to be offset against the outstanding balance.
This account was cancelled by Amex and sold t a DCA which now owns it. They took me to court and the court ordered that I pay them £20.00 per month.
I read somewhere in the Forum that if a company makes a Goodwill offer without accepting liability then they can only make that payment to the complainant by cheque but not to a third party. IS THAT CORRECT?? If so, could someone please direct me to the rules??
Secondly, I can not understand which account they want to apply the refund to as they have sold this account already to DCA.
The debt was sold with the RPP. Therefore, the judgment amount includes the Insurance.
Please Advice. Thanks

michael50

Hi

The wife currently owes Fifty plus three differing amounts on three seperate accounts.Reliable collections are currently dealing with this under the JD Williams umberella.

She set up a debt management plan with Kensington finance in January 2010 to deal with this.So far she has payed just under £500 to kensington but with set up costs and a monthly management fee and the admin charges (that have only just been frozen) it has barely made a dent in what she owes.

She pays Kensington finance £80 per month (never missed) and her three accounts with JD Williams are for the amounts £200 £400 £1,000 give or take a few pounds.The monthly management fee is £35-25p her three monthly payments are £6-82p £11-13p and £26-80P ON the three seperate accounts.

She/we are quite willing to pay this debt my question is would a non fee paying company like yourselfs consider taking over the DMP or would it be best to go it alone or stick as we are ?


Kind regards Michael.

donatello_2

Hi,

I am on a DMP with Payplan which is due to end in 14 months, it originally started in 2006 with another fee charging company. I will be in a position soon to offer F & F settlements to all creditors. As part of this i want a default notice removing (which I think should not be on my file and I'm currently trying to get it taken off) If the creditor doesn't agree to remove the default, I will withdraw the offer and continue on the DMP. My aim is to improve my credit record so I can get a good mortgage.
My question is - Is it better to let a DMP company do the negotiating? Do they have more clout. I don't think that payplan will ask for the default to be removed. Shall I send letters direct to the creditors behind Payplans back?

How do I approach this?

Thanks

zppp

donatello wrote: »

Hi,

I am on a DMP with Payplan which is due to end in 14 months, it originally started in 2006 with another fee charging company. I will be in a position soon to offer F & F settlements to all creditors. As part of this i want a default notice removing (which I think should not be on my file and I'm currently trying to get it taken off) If the creditor doesn't agree to remove the default, I will withdraw the offer and continue on the DMP. My aim is to improve my credit record so I can get a good mortgage.
My question is - Is it better to let a DMP company do the negotiating? Do they have more clout. I don't think that payplan will ask for the default to be removed. Shall I send letters direct to the creditors behind Payplans back?

How do I approach this?

Thanks

If you come to an agreement on a repayment, the creditor is under no onligation to remove the default, irrespective of whether you go through Payplan or not. If you look to settle full and final, some creditors will agree to remove the default if this is conditional on the amount offered.

You need to have an explicit offer from them (in writing) that they will remove the default as part of ful and final. Don't pay them until you have this.

sam_star86

Hi,
I have a loan with a firm called FLM (who ive since found to be horrible). Circumstances changed in January, and I wrote to them and explained and offered £20 a month despite being on income support and that was a push. I have paid it every month, despite them ignoring my letters except one in which they told me they would never accept reduced payments and that i had to speak to them on the phone- despite me repeatedly explaining i am pregnant and have suffered a threatened miscarriage before following stress, so do not want to speak to them on the phone as they are bullies- and what difference would it make if they refuse any lower payment?!
They have this week used old card details to take £300 frommy account, making me overdrawn, swalowing up two weeks worth of housing benefit and income support and child tax credit, and leaving me with no money, behind on rent and utilities. I am having to apply for a crisis loan tomorrow and am praying that I will be accepted and get enough to put me right otherwise I do not know what I will do. The bank has said they are charging me almost £100 for the pleasure of this, due to my direct debits bouncing. Apparently Flm have it in the terms that they can use cards at any time to take money, and although i had changed my card twice in this time, the bank says it doesnt matter as its a revolving order on the card- depsite FLM not taking any money from that account for that past 5 months. The only thing I can assume is that they know that if they took me to court any decent judge should rule in my favour as I have done everything i can, whilst they have harrassed me with upto 4 text messages a day declaring that I will be taken to court if I dont respond that day (every day for the past 5months!), and telling me I need to "sort it out", and that because of that they have just decided to try the card- although they are telling me theyve tried everyday for the past 5 months which seems unbelievable as then anytime Ive been in credit they would have taken it. Im also annoyed at the bank for allowing a debit card transaction for an amount that isnt in the bank- something that wouldnt happen if i went on a spending spree.
As a result of them doing this, Im now behind on everything, with no food, overdrawn, and getting charged by the bank, as well as running up a huge phone bill ringing all the benefit departments and the bank to change details now I cant get paid into there.
Can they do this? Is there any action I can take? I would have preferred court to argue my case and point out how they are behaving. I have complained to the office of fair trading, and have had to freeze my account and set up a new one. Ive been in tears all weekend due to this, thankfully I had a milk token and a £5 tesco voucher to get some bits in. I dont see how it can be justified that when they know I am on benefits they just go into my account after 5 months and take this amount of money with no warning, and after I have rigidly stuck to the payments I promised. Is this allowed ? what can i do?
thanks, Sam

evthomson

I (foolishly in hindsight) bought a property from a "friend" and agreed to rent it back to him as I thought it would be a good investment for my children. However, it all went horribly worng and after 12 months of non payment of rent I finally managed to get him evicted. Leaving me with unpaid rent arrears of £6600, legal costs of £2500 and just over £10K worth of damage. I spoke to the lender and they received an agreement in principle to borrow further funds in order to repair the property/pay the legal costs/pay the rent arrears so that the property could be re-let. I went ahead and instructed the repairs and just as the payments were due the bank changed it's loan to value rate and told me I could no longer borrow the funds. I was left with £10k worth of repairs to pay for, along with the legal costs which are now costing my a fortune on interest rates on my credit cards. Anyway my question what effect would me entering a DMP have on the BTL property? The property was always meant as a long term investment and at this particular time would have little equity in it after capital gains tax etc. The deposit for the property was borrowed from a family member so I don't even have that to fall back on.

Grateful for any advice as really not sure which way to turn now. I am in no arrears with payments, maintaining my mortgage etc but credit card bills along with my own borrows are crippling me and I can see no way out.