Has anyone arranged repayment plans with credit card companies themselves?

sanctuary_seeker

Hi, well I finally took two days off work to specifically go through my finances, see how bad the situation is and try and take control of my debts and find a way through. It was horrific I have 26000 on credit cards outstanding and am struggling with the minimun payments which total about 700-800 per month (and I only really have about 300 available each month to pay them) .

I went to see my bank on wednesday and whilst the advisor was actually very nice and didn't make me feel like a bad failure of a person, they couldn't actually offer me a loan which I'd hoped they might in order to actually pay off the debts over a set period of maybe 10 years as opposed to just paying ever increasing interest and charges to credit card companies each month.

I have already created income and expenditure spreadsheets so have a handle on what i can realistically afford to pay off each month but wondered whether people have contacted credit card companies themselves and told them what they can afford to pay and ask if they'll freeze the interest etc. or do you feel that will only work if done via a debt company such as CCCS ( which i see mentioned on here)?

Thanks for any advice you can give. I don't have any family apart from my children so am in this alone and want to take control and get start dealing with and making my life a little less stress ful each month.

SS

Numpty_Monkey

Hi:hello:
Quite a few people do that have a look at this DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

The problem with doing your own SOA and sending it to creditors, is what you consider reasonable and what they do:o
https://debtremedy.cccs.co.uk/
is a good place to start

as is posting your SOA on here:A

sanctuary_seeker

Thanks for the link.

Sorry tobe stupid but what is and SOA?

Also having had a quick look at the link, am I right in thinking it's better to make a payment (even if less than the minimum) to each company while sorting out a payment plan? Rather than making no monthly payment at all?

Thanks

SS

eyeopener2

Hi

In answer to your last question, yes it is a good idea to send what is called a Token Payment. I was advised by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service to do this and all of the free Debt Advices charities will say to do the same while you agree a Debt Management Plan. In fact when one creditor rang me and I told them of my DMP plan they just said that if I make a token payment, £5 in this case, then they would look favourably on the DMP. It shows willing I assume.

They are all worth a call, or online with CCCS, even if you decide to go it alone.