Your experience of being on a DMP with CCCS/Pay Plan?

mikon

Hi everyone

I have read a number of threads on this forum and what i don't seem to be able to find are peoples experiences of being on a DMP with CCCS and how their creditors have responded to the reduced payment. I have had a number of calls from creditors demanding payment will this continue?

I am about to start a DMP with CCCS they are in the process of sending offers out to my creditors.

My question is

Do the creditors stop hounding you by phone once they get their 1st payment from CCCS or can I expect to continue getting the calls and if so how do i handle them?

I would like to hear your first hand experiences.

Thank You

scouselad1974

mikon wrote: »

Hi everyone

I have read a number of threads on this forum and what i don't seem to be able to find are peoples experiences of being on a DMP with CCCS and how their creditors have responded to the reduced payment. I have had a number of calls from creditors demanding payment will this continue?

I am about to start a DMP with CCCS they are in the process of sending offers out to my creditors.

My question is

Do the creditors stop hounding you by phone once they get their 1st payment from CCCS or can I expect to continue getting the calls and if so how do i handle them?

I would like to hear your first hand experiences.

Thank You

Hi

I have been on a DMP with CCCS for nearly 12 months now and I can honestly say that it is the best decision I have made in years, I have learned to budget for the first time in my life and it makes life a lot less stressfull.

I have a lot of creditors on my DMP and TBH I have only had problems with two of them. After receiving my 1st payment from CCCS I heard nothing form the majority of my creditors apart from the two awkward ones, the rest accepted without a problem and every now and again they contact me for an upto date budget etc, even though they should really contact CCCS.

One of my creditors would not accept my DMP but they collected my payments for 6 months then sold the debt to a DCA who accepted my DMP without a problem, give this creditor their due they did freeze all interest even though they wouldn't accept my DMP, so well done to Citi Cards.

Another of my creditors would not accept the payment CCCS where offering and insisted on an amount of double what CCCS offered. I wrote to this company and explained my situation to them and good enough they accepted my payment and continue to do so.

My worst creditor by far is Halifax, they accepted my DMP instantly and froze interest for around 9 months, then without any warning they started to add interest at a rate of nearly 6 times more than my CCCS payments and also add charges of £25 per month to my account, within a matter of months they have added around £350 to my debt in interest and charges alone. CCCS spoke with them as did I on many occassions but they would not back down. I have been through their complaints procedure and asked over and over again for their help, but they refused full stop, therefore the matter is now with The FOS.

So apart from the odd glitch I would say that CCCS have got me back on track after many years of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

My advice would be to keep an eye on your balances every month and if your creditors contact you, don't ignore them !! be polite and explain your situation to them, if they will not accept your situation, only deal with them in writing. If you feel that a creditor is not helping you and your offer is reasonable, complain to their complaints department, if that doesn't work then take it to The FOS.

worried_jim

I have been with Payplan since Dec 08. I made my first payment 22nd December and by February I never heard from a creditor again. When they did call I just said that I had made my first payment to Payplan and they just said "great, thanks" and then hung up, as easy as that. Well done for getting this far!

Deep_In_Debt

I've been with CCCS since January 08 and generally it's been pretty good.

Had a bit of hassle from a few creditors to start with - Halifax being the worst. I've not had a call from any of my creditors since October 08, but get the odd letter which either gets filed in the shredding pile or I send to CCCS for them to deal with. All my creditors have kept interest frozen for the past 2 years so I've been able to make some headway. One or two are with DCA's who haven't been a problem.

Best thing I did although I wish I'd done it sooner before getting into 27k of debt!

jenevieve

I've been with CCCS now for about a year and like previous posters, have not regretted it at all. I was a big scaredy-cat and never once spoke to any of my creditors and communicated via letter. However, despite this, all my creditors have stopped or significantly reduced interest and my debt is slowly going down.

CCCS have been incredibly supportive and I've only ever had one or two conversations with them to review my budget.

I have had to ask for a reduced payment this month due to car repairs and they have been cool as cucumber about it. They have reduced my payment and have asked me to let my creditors know so I am hoping those calls go okay.

Have a look on the DMP support thread - lots of happier people.......I can't recall seeing one post saying they wish they hadn't done it.

Good luck!

mikon

Hi everyone

Thanks for replying. Like I said in my earlier post I am just at the beginning of my DMP. I have had nightmares over it. I am paranoid and keep thinking the worst, things like the creditors will not accept CCCS offer, they will pass it onto DCA who will come kocking at my door and the file for a CCJ then a charging order. I also worry about the hassle of continuos phone calls I had read about Barclaycard handing debts off to a company called Mercers who ring about 20 times a day I just cannot cope with that.

At the moment the creditors seemed to be understanding except Citi who have charged me £398 interest and charges and upped my monthly minimum payment from £380 to £1412 quite scary I got a bit worried about this. But hopefully they will stop these when they get the offer and a copy of my SOA.

But thank you all for giving me an insight into what it is like further down the line and I am happy to hear that none of you regret it.

Regards