Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

StepChange_Pavan

catey2day wrote: »

Hi,

I am trying to deal with my debts which have become overwhelming since January. Thankfully I am already getting help to make minimum payments offer to ccs from the CAB. I am also wondering if I can get DRO at the same time? or is the fact that i am making some payments against that?

Thanks for your help.

There is also a sum of £2,000 owing to Coop Bank for a Career Development Loan which will not accept reduced payments because my sister has been paying it for me.

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 290
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 324
Available for debt repayments........... -34

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 98
Amount short for making debt repayments. -132 (see above on reductions made)

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 320
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,189
Net Assets.............................. -4,869

Hi catey2day and welcome to the forum.

From the information you’ve given, a DRO could be a solution but we’d need to discuss more details to know this for certain. You would however need to include the catalogue payments and the career development loan as you can’t show preferential treatment to these creditors over others.

Although you’ve already made some cutbacks, your budget still shows that you’re in a deficit so it’s important that you try and balance it to stop yourself from needing further credit.

I’d recommend that you get in touch with us so that we can give you some more detailed advice – it doesn’t matter that you’re already making token payments, you can continue to do this until we look at your options.

You can 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.

Kind regards,
Pavan

catey2day

Hi Pavan,

Thanks for your reply. I have registered and had some communication with the online service. I am looking at ways to reduce outgoings and have had some responses to offers of minimum payments but th Coop says they cannot accept reduced payments. I suppose that is something I can get advice on from the online service.

Thanks again

Cate

StepChange_Pavan

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

I have a debt of roughly £22,000 broken up as follows:
£13,000 Loan
£5,000 credit card (paying interest)
£1,500 credit card (paying interest from April)
£2,500 credit card (o% until October)

I am also owed £7,500 in unpaid commission from my current employer which I am currently fighting for.

I don't know where to start dealing with this and if I need to do a DMP or something similar, I want to do the option that affects me the least ie how long will it be on my record/will it affect me getting a mortgage/will my bank refuse my business if I am on a DMP??

Any advice would be greatly received
Thank you

Hi picklepump and thanks for your post.

We’d need to look at your income and expenditure in a bit more detail to determine whether or not a DMP is your best option. If you do opt for a DMP, this and any other marks on your credit file will remain on there for 6 years. You can read more about how credit files work here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score.

You will find it difficult to get credit in this timeframe but I would imagine that you won’t be applying for anything more until your existing debts are cleared.

If you’d like some more detailed advice 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

StepChange_Pavan

catey2day wrote: »

Hi Pavan,

Thanks for your reply. I have registered and had some communication with the online service. I am looking at ways to reduce outgoings and have had some responses to offers of minimum payments but th Coop says they cannot accept reduced payments. I suppose that is something I can get advice on from the online service.

Thanks again

Cate

Hi Cate,

If you’ve already used Debt Remedy, just quote your reference number and they’ll be able to advise you – they’ll also have access to your information which makes it much easier.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

smileyt76

Hi

I am with CCCS in a DMP for around 16000, 11500 which is an unsecured loan that was taken out alongside my mortgage. This is estimated to run for 11 yrs. I also have a secured loan that I pay 183 a month with 5 yrs left, I am still managing to pay this with no problems. I am wanting to know whether I would actually be able to remortgage? balance is 67000 and value of property is 99000.
I am due my review soon but wanted to ask this question now as that won't be for a few weeks.

Many thanks

StepChange_Pavan

smileyt76 wrote: »

Hi

I am with CCCS in a DMP for around 16000, 11500 which is an unsecured loan that was taken out alongside my mortgage. This is estimated to run for 11 yrs. I also have a secured loan that I pay 183 a month with 5 yrs left, I am still managing to pay this with no problems. I am wanting to know whether I would actually be able to remortgage? balance is 67000 and value of property is 99000.
I am due my review soon but wanted to ask this question now as that won't be for a few weeks.

Many thanks

Hi smileyt76 and welcome to the forum.

Even though your review isn’t due for a few weeks, I’d recommend that you give us a call so that we can discuss your options – you don’t have to wait until the due date comes round.

As our support team can access all your information they’ll be able to advise you in much more detail.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Bumear

Hi, I received a letter from CCCS today saying that I was coming to the end of my agreement and to ask my creditors for my outstanding balance so I dont pay too much. I found this odd as my online balance through the CCCS still showed two creditors with large outstanding amounts. I phoned up all the creditors and found that my balances matched what was showing online. Apart from one creditor. On my DMP it was showing as estimated balance of 0.00 with total payments to date over £900 I phoned the creditor who advised me my o/s balance was actually £717.54 and they had only received £309.09 from CCCS. I am a little worried as to where the money CCCS have said they have paid has actually gone! Could someone please help? Thanks

StepChange_Pavan

Bumear wrote: »

Hi, I received a letter from CCCS today saying that I was coming to the end of my agreement and to ask my creditors for my outstanding balance so I dont pay too much. I found this odd as my online balance through the CCCS still showed two creditors with large outstanding amounts. I phoned up all the creditors and found that my balances matched what was showing online. Apart from one creditor. On my DMP it was showing as estimated balance of 0.00 with total payments to date over £900 I phoned the creditor who advised me my o/s balance was actually £717.54 and they had only received £309.09 from CCCS. I am a little worried as to where the money CCCS have said they have paid has actually gone! Could someone please help? Thanks

Hi Bumear and thanks for your post.

It’s best that you give us a call to clarify this but all the money you have paid to us will have been sent to your creditors. The balances we have were taken from you and we’d only change them if you contacted us with updated figures. This means that if they’ve added interest and charges without telling us the balance could be higher than expected.

If you’d prefer you can send us a private message with your reference number and I can get someone to look into this and contact you.

Kind regards,
Pavan

gael_2

My partner of 3 years has finally allowed me to try and sort out his credit card debt but I have no idea where to start. The most recent letter I can find is dated 8th March 2012 and is from Makenzie hall specialist debt recovery and trace solution provider. They are offering him "Settlement Offers" such as pay 50% by last working day of month and account is clear - is this for real? He owes £2519.73 but he can only afford to pay back £100 per month. What should I do? Do I contact these Debt recovery people and try and negotiate a deal or should we try and borrow the 50% of amount and pay off? We just would not have the money to hand to pay it off either in full or even 50%. I have no idea how long he has owed this for but definately longer than 3 years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I have no idea how to deal with it but want to get it sorted asap. Thanks in advance

sofa_bean

Hi

We've been on a DMP with CCCS for around 3½ years with about another 3 years to go. All going pretty well - creditors have all frozen interest some time ago and we don't get any hassle from them.

I've just received a cheque for a refund of PPI from Lloyds (one of our creditors) which amounts to about 45% of our total remaining debt.

Just wondering if there would be any risk to the DMP if we were to offer F&F's to our creditors (Lloyds loan and credit card, Santander loan and overdraft and HFC loan). We could go up to 45% of each remaining debt.

Whatever happens, we want to use this money towards our DMP, but we're thinking that rather than just pay off a lump sum split between our creditors now, we might be able to negotiate with them to get rid of at least some of the debts completely.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

sofa_bean