Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

System

kelvinguy85 wrote: »

how much does the law say i need for food per week

Hi and welcome to the forum.

We’re not really sure of a definitive answer to this.

We have guidelines for various items but these are only guidelines and certainly not written in law.

If you can give us a little more information about your query we’ll see if we can help.

Kind regards,

Mat

System

win123 wrote: »

Dear CCCS

Thanks for the advice that cccs would not force my mum to pay the 216 if it left her short - I did as you suggested and rang the lovely lady at cccs this morning and wow she was fantastic she adjusted the budget sheet and it now works out that mum will be paying 100 per month - thank god what a relief - Just wanted to say that you are all fantastic her on this site and the phone at CCCS and help put peoples mind at rest - will I now get the adjusted paperwork through with this 100 pound a month to pay instad of the 216? Thanks again now its just the bank acount problem getting it changed to add er overfdraft into the plan we are just worried that while she is doing this she wont have enough to pay her bills we are not sure how to do this

Hi and thanks for getting back to us.

Thank you for your kind words.

I can see you’ve had some good advice from mum2one already. The important thing is to make sure food, rent/mortgage, council tax, heating and other priority bills are paid. You can use your mums CCCS budget to help you with this. Unsecured creditors are not a priority debt.

The adjusted paperwork should be on its way now. If you want detailed advice on how to swap accounts and make sure your mum has enough to live I’d recommend that you give us a call.

Thanks again for your kind words and well done for getting this far.

Kind regards,

Mat

System

mum2one wrote: »

My debt free journey is definatly under way, just had my 1st statement from CCCS, at least now the creditors have had a payment, see how their statements work against the ones from CCCS. My est debt free date April 2021, - 9 yrs away, hopefully things change and get more money paid off!!

Hi mum2one.

Well done for getting your debt free journey underway. :T

We’re here on the forum or on the phones anytime you need us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need anything.

Kind regards,

Mat

win123

Dear CCCS

You have all been great but I am a born worrier in Aug next year my son leaves college and family credit child tax credit and mainenence stops this is when mum and I are going to struggle as we lose over 500 per month which is going to be quite scary - what happens to the dmp plan then will the payments be able to go down and what is the least people pay on plan on a 20k debt I am so worried that we wont be able to afford our mortgage bills etc and worried if we do an IVA that we will end up homeless as mum is disabled such a worry - just now sure how much more I can take of this I havent eaten for days and I am having terrible panic attacks have seen the gp though but nothing they can do really - my fault I got into this debt - I gant believe the Halifax would allow me a single parent on 1049 wage a month and mum 4 at the time a joint mortgage for 25 yrs its got us in a right mess as we have to pay 718 per month just scary really I am willing to pay back all my debts of course I am even if it takes me years and years - my plan at the moment is going to last about 25yrs - I do blame the credit card companies also for borrowing me so much money - I know they didnt force me to send the money but whe you simply cant afford to live day to day its so easy to spend on them but 20K on a small wage I wish I ould take them to court so it does not happen to anyone else rant over - but thanks again CCCS you are a fab bunch of people and you handle everyones questions great and ut peoples minds at rest I dot kow what I would do without you

StepChange_James

win123 wrote: »

Dear CCCS

You have all been great but I am a born worrier in Aug next year my son leaves college and family credit child tax credit and mainenence stops this is when mum and I are going to struggle as we lose over 500 per month which is going to be quite scary - what happens to the dmp plan then will the payments be able to go down and what is the least people pay on plan on a 20k debt I am so worried that we wont be able to afford our mortgage bills etc and worried if we do an IVA that we will end up homeless as mum is disabled such a worry - just now sure how much more I can take of this I havent eaten for days and I am having terrible panic attacks have seen the gp though but nothing they can do really - my fault I got into this debt - I gant believe the Halifax would allow me a single parent on 1049 wage a month and mum 4 at the time a joint mortgage for 25 yrs its got us in a right mess as we have to pay 718 per month just scary really I am willing to pay back all my debts of course I am even if it takes me years and years - my plan at the moment is going to last about 25yrs - I do blame the credit card companies also for borrowing me so much money - I know they didnt force me to send the money but whe you simply cant afford to live day to day its so easy to spend on them but 20K on a small wage I wish I ould take them to court so it does not happen to anyone else rant over - but thanks again CCCS you are a fab bunch of people and you handle everyones questions great and ut peoples minds at rest I dot kow what I would do without you

Hi Win123

It sounds like things are really tough for you at the moment. Like any change in circumstances, if you call us up when your son leaves college we’ll be able to review your budget and talk you through your options. We can reduce payments on DMPs when your situation changes and if a DMP isn’t the best option we’ll be able to advise you on other ways to deal with the debts.

Thanks for the lovely things you said about us in your post, I’m glad that you have found us useful during a hard time.

All the best.

James

angelin

Hi, after reading this I have managed to bite the bullet and make the phone call. I'm really worried about opening another bank account for my wages. I have a £500 OD from Lloyds TSB, I've been with them for years. Is that the first thing everyone does?

xcarl86x

CCCS_Mat wrote: »

Hi and thanks for your post.

It sounds like you would benefit from some free and impartial advice.


Creditors are unable to legally pursue you for the debt if, after six years;



■The creditor has not already obtained a county court judgment (CCJ)
■You or anyone else owing the money (on a debt in joint names) have not made a payment
■You have not written to the creditor admitting you owe the debt

However, the debt doesn’t disappear it can still be chased just not enforced through the court.

The default will show on your credit file for 6 years.

I’d recommend that you speak to Lloyds and Lowell again about this. We can’t really comment on their internal policies or what has happened to the debt.

The below blogpost should give you some details on the Limitations act.



If you need help putting a repayment plan in place should you need to please get in touch.

I hope this helps

Kind regards,

Mat

Thanks for the quick reply,
I have looked at my credit report again today and there is a new account under 'Lowell group plc' showing a default since August this year, does this mean this will stay on my file for another 6 years even though it was on there for 5 years previously but with 'Lloyds tsb'?
Also i have made no payments or admitted owing the debt.

Are 'Lowell' now technically the creditors since 'Lloyds' sold the debt to them? as 'Lloyds' didn't get a CCJ can 'Lowell' still go down that route?

stupid-fool

After years of just about keeping our heads above water, my wife and I finally have to admit that we've got in beyond our depth and need to fix the problem.

We started 2 years ago by negotiating with our bank (LloydsTSB) to get our mortgage switched to interest only which meant we could *just* hold our own each month, but any unexpected expenses (eg car repairs) end up on credit cards as we have no spare cash each month. At the same time our bank (probably wrongly) gave us an additional personal loan to consolidate some debts and also issued my wife with another credit card with a high limit.

Our mortgage interest free has now ended and C&G won't extend this facility although their collections dept just agreed to allow a lower payment for 6 months but this will put us in arrears for the first time. There is no way we can manage this month with a full mortgage payment so we are on the slippery slope.

We have always managed to make every monthly payment to date and are not yet in arrears with any creditor. In November I expect to pay the agreed reduced mortgage amount but make all other payments as required.

I contacted CCCS and went through their on-line assessment which suggested a DMP. We owe around £70k unsecured, have no secured debts except our mortgage, and with a good family income around £85k gross CCCS calculated that we can manage to repay £928 per months to be debt free in around 6 years.

Most of our debt is with LLoydsTSB (overdraft, loans and CCs) with around £3k with Tesco loans, £5 Sygma CC and £5k Santander CC.

I understand that entering a DMP will mean we go into arrears, but I really don't know what to expect, or how the creditors will react. I currently have this rosy expectation that they will all agree to the CCCS proposal and accept reduced payments whilst suspending interest payments.

Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect:
1. Will I be bombarded with debt collection attempts and threats?
2. Is it really likely that interest charges will be suspended or will be end up with huge additional charges?
3. How do our specific creditors tend to behave in a DMP situation?
4. I know this will hit our credit scores for some years to come, but how bad will this get. Will I be able to get mobile phone contracts, gas and electricity accounts etc or will it get bad enough to be facing pre-payment meters and absolutely no credit options. I think this would totally destroy us.

I still haven't plucked up the courage to drop the DMP forms back in the post although I have just opened a new bank account and started to transfer the direct debits as I need to avoid LloydsTSB getting a whiff of the situation and snatching our working cash overdraft for the month leaving all bills unpaid.

I need to understand if DMP is really the right way to go.

Thanks for reading

StepChange_James

angelin wrote: »

Hi, after reading this I have managed to bite the bullet and make the phone call. I'm really worried about opening another bank account for my wages. I have a £500 OD from Lloyds TSB, I've been with them for years. Is that the first thing everyone does?

Hi,

Thanks for posting. If you owe money to your bank then we usually recommend changing to an account with a bank you don’t have any debts with. This is to make sure there’s no risk of your bank taking your income from you to repay the debt.

If you are uncertain about anything then feel free to give us a call and we can talk you through the process.

Kind regards


James

StepChange_James

xcarl86x wrote: »

Thanks for the quick reply,
I have looked at my credit report again today and there is a new account under 'Lowell group plc' showing a default since August this year, does this mean this will stay on my file for another 6 years even though it was on there for 5 years previously but with 'Lloyds tsb'?
Also i have made no payments or admitted owing the debt.

Are 'Lowell' now technically the creditors since 'Lloyds' sold the debt to them? as 'Lloyds' didn't get a CCJ can 'Lowell' still go down that route?

Hello,

If a new default has been entered then it will stay on your file for 6 years. If Lowell have bought the debt from Lloyds then they are now your creditor and therefore they are allowed to enforce the debt through the court with a CCJ if they want to.

It’s usually possible to set up arrangements with debts that avoid the need for CCJs though. I would recommend giving us a call and we can give you personalised debt advice. Our number is 0800 138 1111.

Hope this helps.

James