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CCCS_Sarah

michael50 wrote: »

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.

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your message.

This is something that we can look into for her. A DMP is not always the best option for everyone, so she would need to have an appointment with a debt counsellor first.

If she would like an appointment your wife would need to call our helpline free on 0800 138 1111.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

VICTIMOFTHEBANKS wrote: »

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

Hello,

Have you asked Amex what account they are going to apply the money to? As they are not accepting liability then I think it is unlikely that they will give you the cheque and they would offset your account. Once you have spoken to them, you could seek advice from Consumer Direct http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

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

Hello,

Have you spoken to payplan to ask them if they will negotiate the full and finals on your behalf as not all companies do this?

On what grounds are you querying the default notice? A creditor will only remove this if it is their fault.

If you have a lump sum to make offers, I would recommend that do this because otherwise you will end up paying more.

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

sam_star86 wrote: »

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

Hello,

I would recommend that you open a basic bank account where you have no debts and arrange for your benefits to get paid into this accounts. This will then mean the money that you have coming in is safe and you can use this for your priority living costs.

I have never come across it where they can take payments from a cancelled bank card; I would recommend that you seek advice as soon as possible from the Financial Ombudsman as this does not seem right.

It’s difficult to give you detailed advice on your options without knowing a bit more about your financial situation. So we can help you, I think you would benefit from using our online debt advice facility called Debt Remedy. Debt Remedy will assist you in completing a full financial statement and you will be provided with tailored advice on the best way to deal with your debts. It should take you about 20 minutes to complete and it’s completely free and impartial. To get advice straight away, click here to be taken directly to Debt Remedy.

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. It would be helpful that when you call you have details ready regarding your income, expenditure and creditors, as this can help speed up the referral process. If you have this information ready it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor if one is available, otherwise we will arrange a time that is convenient for you to be called back for an

Sarah

CCCS_Sarah

evthomson wrote: »

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.

Hello,

A dmp is not always the best option for everyone. I would recommend that you have an appointment with the CCCS to look at your options. If you would like an appointment, please call 0800 138 1111.

If a DMP was an option, it is possible that a creditor could apply for a charging order. I have attached a link to the CCCS website so that you can read through information on these https://www.cccs.co.uk/InfoCentre/EnglandandWales/Creditoraction/Courtaction/Chargingorder.aspx

Sarah

Julie67

I am back for more advice and hoping you lovely people can help

Our self administered DMP is due to start on 26th June. I sent off the letters, SOA's and token payments on 2nd May. I have only had one letter back from HSBC CC saying the offer is not enough and they want double plus are not prepared to stop or reduce the interest. I also have a OD and Loan with them. We have five creditors, HSBC being the biggest, we owe them around 18,500.

Today I rang them, don't know if this was wise or not but it was not much use. They can't offer any kind of management plan as we have only missed one payment on the loan:mad: I said we will be missing another one this month. He couldn't help at all other than to ask how much I was willing to pay today:mad: I stuck to my guns and exlained that we would be paying the amount budgeted for which is £98.80 in total for the three debts. The plan was to pay allocated amounts to these three debts using the advice from CCCS. However the guy on the phone said just pay the whole amount into the bank account. This would put us back into the overdraft limit.

Phew after all that my question is would you continue with the DMP as planned?

CCCS_Sue

Julie67 wrote: »

I am back for more advice and hoping you lovely people can help

Our self administered DMP is due to start on 26th June. I sent off the letters, SOA's and token payments on 2nd May. I have only had one letter back from HSBC CC saying the offer is not enough and they want double plus are not prepared to stop or reduce the interest. I also have a OD and Loan with them. We have five creditors, HSBC being the biggest, we owe them around 18,500.

Today I rang them, don't know if this was wise or not but it was not much use. They can't offer any kind of management plan as we have only missed one payment on the loan:mad: I said we will be missing another one this month. He couldn't help at all other than to ask how much I was willing to pay today:mad: I stuck to my guns and exlained that we would be paying the amount budgeted for which is £98.80 in total for the three debts. The plan was to pay allocated amounts to these three debts using the advice from CCCS. However the guy on the phone said just pay the whole amount into the bank account. This would put us back into the overdraft limit.

Phew after all that my question is would you continue with the DMP as planned?

Hi julie67 and thank you for your message

Yes, you need to continue with your plan.

First of all, I would recommend that you get a basic bank bank account elsewhere, where you have no debts and no overdraft.

This will put you back in charge of your finances and stops the bank taking money from your account to pay off the debts you have with them, without your permission.

This is called the banks ‘right of offset’.

Then, you need to make a realistic offer of payment to them, based on the pro rata amount of the surplus you have left, and stick to it.
Do not be pressured into paying more than you can afford. Even if they refuse your offer, send it anyway. You cannot pay them money you do not have!
The creditors do not have to agree to stop interest and charges. It is entirely at their discretion.
The key thing is to stick to your offer and not to try and give them more than you can afford as this could cause you to fall into arrears with your main priority bills.

Regards
Sue

Julie67

Hi Sue,

I have already opened a basic account but thanks for tha advice. I had worked out the HSBC payments re previous advice and I will go ahead and pay them as planned on 26th June.

Thanks for your help

bottleofred

Hi,

I have debts from many years ago which are now being pursued by Mckenzie hall. I've sent them the prove it letter and am awaiting a reply. However, I've just seen a copy of my credit report and have found they have carried out 3 credit searches on me. Can they do this and what can I do about it, as my wife and I are hoping to move house soon and get a new mortgage? I don't dispute that I did owe the debt, but think it may be outsite the 6 years and be statute barred. The only reason I was aware this happened was because I noticed the credit limit on the store card I had was reduced dramatically. Yet on Sunday, I applied for and was successful in an application for a Credit card with 12 months at 0% and a good interest rate. Am I also likely to get this happening with my other credit cards as happened to the store card?

Thanks

Bottle of Red

CCCS_Sarah

bottleofred wrote: »

Hi,

I have debts from many years ago which are now being pursued by Mckenzie hall. I've sent them the prove it letter and am awaiting a reply. However, I've just seen a copy of my credit report and have found they have carried out 3 credit searches on me. Can they do this and what can I do about it, as my wife and I are hoping to move house soon and get a new mortgage? I don't dispute that I did owe the debt, but think it may be outsite the 6 years and be statute barred. The only reason I was aware this happened was because I noticed the credit limit on the store card I had was reduced dramatically. Yet on Sunday, I applied for and was successful in an application for a Credit card with 12 months at 0% and a good interest rate. Am I also likely to get this happening with my other credit cards as happened to the store card?

Thanks

Bottle of Red

Hello,

Thank you for your email.

They would be able to view your file but this will not be logged as a search in the same way as if you were applying for credit.

If you believe the debt is statute barred then you could use the following letter…

Example letter – limitations act

From:
Name:
Address:
Postcode:
Date:
To:
Creditor’s Name:
Account/Agreement No:

Without Prejudice

Dear Sirs
Ref
I do not admit any liability for your claim and will not be making any payment towards it, as it is now more than six-years since any cause of action may have accrued. Any claim would, therefore, appear to be statute barred under section 5 of The Limitations Act 1980 and any court claim will be defended on that basis.
In addition section 2.14 of The Office of Fair Trading Collection guidance states that it is unfair to pursue such claims where, as here, the creditor has made no contact during the relevant limitation period.
If, however, you have substantive evidence that your claim is not statute barred then please supply it to me within 21 days. If you are unable to provide such evidence please confirm that no further action will be taken against me.
Yours faithfully
(Signature)
(Print name)