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scared-sick

Question for cccs advisor please.

I was recently contacted by one of my creditors (coop) and they stated that they have received my letter which says, 'I give authority for you to disclose information and discuss my account with cccs'. (This is the cccs template letter)

However, they said this is not acceptable and is not the appropriate authority letter. They said cccs have a 'letter of authority' which I sign and send to them and this is the one they accept. They claim cccs know about this letter.

I dont remember receiving any such letter in my pack and have just sent the standard template letter to all my creditors.

Do you have any idea what they are talking about and if so does one of these letters get sent to me automatically by cccs?

Many thanks.

marydoherty2602

I am 27 and married. My husband and I have been together 11 years and we have been in debt for most of that time. As a combination of simply spending too much on our wedding among other things, unemployment and the fact that he supported me through university, we are now in approximately £40,000 debt not counting our new car which is costing us £350 a month in payments.

We are living with my parents in order to try and reduce our outgoings as much as possible and we are now completely behaving ourselves financially and if we ever get out of this position we never want to be in this position ever again , we have learned our lesson!

After I graduated we thought that once I found work it would start to sort itself out as we would have more money coming in. However I think that we are in so deep especially with the credit cards we have that a second income is just keeping us level rather than actually being able to pay things off.

We have taken out loans in the past to consolidate debts, however we have never been able to get one big enough to cover it all, therefore we are still paying crazy credit card interest and while the loan for part of our debt is probably helping , it means we have very little to live on and if something goes wrong with a car or one of us loses our job (i recently have done), we have no buffer and have to spend on credit cards starting the problem again!

I have a friend who has an IVA and I have been tempted by them for some time , however my husband is really not keen on the idea as he thinks that it will affect our chances of getting a mortgage once we are back in the black.
Also my parents have stepped in and are talking to their bank about remortgaging their house in order to pay off our debts at the lowest rate possible so that we can get all the debt covered in one go , and pay as manageable monthly payment.

I am in two minds, I don't want to concern my parents with my financial mess or tie their house up with it as they have helped me enough by putting a roof over my head, but also I feel it is right to try and play fair with our creditors and pay off the full amounts (rather than less with an IVA) as then in the future if we need a mortgage from one of our creditors, they will be more forthcoming.

Essentially we want to be debt free, but not be penalised by it in the future when we are looking to get on the property ladder.

StepChange_Pavan

lippylonglegs wrote: »

Hi

I’ve got myself into a pretty tricky situation which is entirely my fault but I’d really appreciate some help/advice from a professional as to what the best way to proceed would be.

I have three big loans
Tesco (Approx £10K) ending July 2015 with payments of £245/month.
Sainsburys (Approx £12K ending August 2016 with payments of £234/month
First Direct (my bank) (£5K) ending April 2015 with payments of £140/month.

I also have about £10K in credit cards (on 2 cards) – some of which are interest free. But most of which I start paying interest on in June 2012.

I have not had any problems in paying these debts since day 1 and have not missed any payments and have a good credit rating which I’ve checked via Experian. So no problems there.
However, I am now pregnant and am not entitled to maternity leave and can not see a way in which to cover all these debts when I am not working.

A bit of background: I had to give up my permanent job as my mother got cancer.
I live in London and she lived in Cornwall. I spent most of my time with her, caring for her and continued my work on a freelance basis coming up to London when needed. Working just enough to pay my bills and the rest of the month, taking what time I could to be with my mum. Over this period, me and my now husband got married and I got pregnant which I did not think was possible due to medical problems. You may think this a silly decision but I am 40 and consider it to be my last chance at motherhood. So typically the first time in my life I am not PAYE and considerably low on cash due to caring for my mother for the last 2 years, i find myself pregnant. I have about £1,000 left in savings. Sadly my mother died in January and I am now back living in London full time.

Anyway I know this isn’t relevant and the creditors are not interested in how this happened but it hasn’t just been through negligence.

My baby is due in May and I will be ceasing work at the end of April.
I know I can claim statutory maternity pay which is about £500/month and childcare benefit (£80 /month I think) but I have no way of paying for the loans, credit cards and household bills all which add up to £1,085/month.

My husband and I own a flat together.
My husband pays the mortgage and I pay the household bills.
He has a good job but does not earn enough to cover my debts & bills as well as the mortgage.
All of these debts in question are in my name only.

My first thought would be to write to my creditors and ask them for a payment break of 9-12 months paying the interest only until I am back on my feet and working again. I have no intention of abandoning these debts and will continue to pay them when I am back at work but maybe there is a better way of dealing with them that I am not aware off?

Does anyone have any ideas/recommendations?

Thanks for taking the time to read this...

Hi lippylonglegs and thanks for your post.

Firstly congratulations on your pregnancy

You’re on the right lines by making them aware of your situation and offering them reduced payments until you’re able to pay more. I’d recommend that you put together a budget to show what you can afford at the moment. It’s important that you don’t offer any more than you can afford, so even if your budget shows that you can only pay them £1 each, then that is acceptable as a token/gesture of goodwill until your situation improves.

If you’d like some more detailed advice on your options, you can get in touch. You can either use our online debt advice service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) or call our free helpline on 0800 138 1111. We’re open Monday to Friday, 8am- 8pm and Saturdays, 9am – 2pm.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

trevor_john wrote: »

Hi Are there any stanadrd letter templates that i can use (with my SOA) to send Natwest to get my loan reapayments/interest reduced please ?

Hi Trevor_john,

Hope you found what you were looking for – think SAAC directed you to where you might find some.

Thanks,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

scared-sick wrote: »

Question for cccs advisor please.

I was recently contacted by one of my creditors (coop) and they stated that they have received my letter which says, 'I give authority for you to disclose information and discuss my account with cccs'. (This is the cccs template letter)

However, they said this is not acceptable and is not the appropriate authority letter. They said cccs have a 'letter of authority' which I sign and send to them and this is the one they accept. They claim cccs know about this letter.

I dont remember receiving any such letter in my pack and have just sent the standard template letter to all my creditors.

Do you have any idea what they are talking about and if so does one of these letters get sent to me automatically by cccs?

Many thanks.

Hi scared-sick and thanks for your question.

You’d normally send your creditors a ‘notification of DMP’ letter and you’d need to sign the letter of authority and send back to us.

As long as you’ve used the template letters that we sent you there shouldn’t be a problem – it could just be that the Co op are being awkward.

If you’re unsure, you can give us a call so we can talk you through each of the letters.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

nicrobx4

Just quick question to those in the no please
Our DMP is set up the first payment goes out on the tenth :0)
Both my children are adults that live at home, they are not aware of our DMP.
My question is, will it affect them in any way, for example, apply for back account, mortgages, credit cards etc ...
We obviously don't advocate debt especially because of the mess we are in, but if they do need anything does our debt history affect them.
Cheers
Nik

scared-sick

CCCS_Pavan wrote: »

Hi scared-sick and thanks for your question.

You’d normally send your creditors a ‘notification of DMP’ letter and you’d need to sign the letter of authority and send back to us.

As long as you’ve used the template letters that we sent you there shouldn’t be a problem – it could just be that the Co op are being awkward.

If you’re unsure, you can give us a call so we can talk you through each of the letters.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Thank you Pavan.

I got my dmp confirmation pack through today and in it was a photocopy of a form I signed in the original pack which seems to be the letter of authority form they are talking about.

In my panic I just didnt realise this was the form they were referring to.

Thanks again.

secretshopper75

Just wanted to ask if we change our direct debit to the 10th of the month rather than the first does the payment still go to creditors on the 25th? Many thanks in anticipation

Sheldor

I'm sure this has been asked umpteen times before but nothing came up in my search.

I'm trying to help my niece who at 31 years old is about 20k in debt - just through constant overspending.
She earns a reasonable salary and presently doesn't pay rent (although this will change soon).
Having spoken to her about how she's managed to get in this deep, I think that what she really needs is someone to help her address the emotional reasons why she constantly overspends and to help her regain control and start living within her means, in addition to advising her about the quickest/cheapest way to pay the debt off.
Is there anyone or an organistion that provides this sort of service? (based in London)
Any helpful advice here would be much appreciated.

StepChange_Pavan

marydoherty2602 wrote: »

I am 27 and married. My husband and I have been together 11 years and we have been in debt for most of that time. As a combination of simply spending too much on our wedding among other things, unemployment and the fact that he supported me through university, we are now in approximately £40,000 debt not counting our new car which is costing us £350 a month in payments.

We are living with my parents in order to try and reduce our outgoings as much as possible and we are now completely behaving ourselves financially and if we ever get out of this position we never want to be in this position ever again , we have learned our lesson!

After I graduated we thought that once I found work it would start to sort itself out as we would have more money coming in. However I think that we are in so deep especially with the credit cards we have that a second income is just keeping us level rather than actually being able to pay things off.

We have taken out loans in the past to consolidate debts, however we have never been able to get one big enough to cover it all, therefore we are still paying crazy credit card interest and while the loan for part of our debt is probably helping , it means we have very little to live on and if something goes wrong with a car or one of us loses our job (i recently have done), we have no buffer and have to spend on credit cards starting the problem again!

I have a friend who has an IVA and I have been tempted by them for some time , however my husband is really not keen on the idea as he thinks that it will affect our chances of getting a mortgage once we are back in the black.
Also my parents have stepped in and are talking to their bank about remortgaging their house in order to pay off our debts at the lowest rate possible so that we can get all the debt covered in one go , and pay as manageable monthly payment.

I am in two minds, I don't want to concern my parents with my financial mess or tie their house up with it as they have helped me enough by putting a roof over my head, but also I feel it is right to try and play fair with our creditors and pay off the full amounts (rather than less with an IVA) as then in the future if we need a mortgage from one of our creditors, they will be more forthcoming.

Essentially we want to be debt free, but not be penalised by it in the future when we are looking to get on the property ladder.

Hi marydoherty2602 and welcome to the forum.

There’s no easy way to answer your question as you’ve already outlined some of the pros and cons. If you were to consider a debt solution such as an IVA, you’re right that this will affect your credit rating for the foreseeable future. However, anything that goes on your credit file will only remain on there for 6 years. If you were looking to get a mortgage further down the line, this is likely to be once your debts are repaid and you have saved enough of a deposit – which could take longer than 6 years anyway.

If you were to take up your parents offer, you would still need to commit to paying them back and there still may be little leeway if something unexpected happened like you mentioned.

I’d recommend that you explore all of the options that are available to you as it could be that there are other debt solutions available to you and you might not be eligible for an IVA. If you’d like some free and impartial advice you can get in touch and we can look at your situation in more detail. You can visit our online debt advice service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) or call our free helpline on 0800 138 1111. We’re open Monday to Friday 8am – 8pm and Saturdays 9am – 2pm.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan