Concerned that CCCS have done NOTHING!

melt71

I convinced my partner to contact CCCS at the beginning of August as he had recently had a change of circumstances which meant a lot less income and he couldn't keep up with even the minimum payments on his debts.

He had to wait about 10 days for his initial appointment which was in mid-august and then we sent all the required information to CCCS by 30/8.

However, he is now being harrassed by his creditors. They are calling him at least 4 times a day and 2 of them have issued default notices. They keep asking him to pay but he has already informed them that he is unable to pay a lot and has officially informed them that he is now doing a DMP with CCCS (he's written to them all with the reference number as instructed by CCCS). He has been making 'token gesture' payments whenever he can, as he was told to do this by CCCS. However, they told him not to pay the amount requested to stop a Default Notice - I didn't agree so he paid it just before the deadline. Now he has another one from another creditor! All the time they have been putting further charges onto his account; late payment, over limit (he's over his limit because they keep adding charges!) and interest.

I am getting seriously worried about how all of this is affecting my partner. He's extremely depressed and is starting to say things like 'you'd be better off without me'. I think he is starting to think that life isn't worth all the hassle

I went through all the documents this weekend and it appears that CCCS have done NOTHING since the initial appointment. They haven't even contacted his creditors yet! The DMP is due to start on 1/10!!

In their latest letter they claim that we have given the wrong info for his bank details - even though we have sent them a copy of his bank statement which has all the correct information on it. (They have the correct information on their list, but they seem to think it's wrong for some strange reason).

He's ringing them today to clarify things but I am very concerned that they've had the information for weeks and haven't even contacted his creditors yet.

What should we do? I'm at my wits end about this. I thought we'd got it sorted and could start to look to the future, but all the while his debt has just been getting worse and I don't know what to do.

Sorry this was a long one.

dancingfairy

Hang on in there. Contacting the CCS seems to be a good start to try and sort out the confusion. Has your partner been to the doctors - perhaps he's depressed. Maybe he can get something to help him in the short term or maybe a friendly non-judgemental ear from someone who's not involved would help? All the best

melt71

Hi dancingfairy, thanks for taking the time to read and reply

He wouldn't go to the doctors, he would have to be on deaths door before he would even consider that He's only depressed when it comes to money. Apart from this problem with his debts our lives are pretty much perfect. Once he'd contacted them he seemed like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, but now it seems like we are back to square one. I am really disappointed in CCCS as I had read so many things about them on here when they've helped people.

Anyway, thanks for replying.

Emmzi

melt,

one thing common in all the DMP stories on here is that it takes a good few weeks or months for creditors to stop calling. This is normal, whether or not they have correspondence from CCCS/ other agency.

However please note that by making minumum payments, you are not encouraging creditors to accept lower payments via a DMP. Why should they do that and freeze interest, if everything is up to date? (Just looking at it from their side).

Remember he can contact CCCS by phone for an update and explain his concerns. They'll be able to go through what has been done so far. Also remember it is not unheard of for lenders to 'lose' or delay receipt of letters about DMPs.

Finally, have a look at this website.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=03_harassment

Might be worth asking them to put all correspondence in writing and not telephone. Some people have thought it is worth paying the fee to get their number changed, too.

The next few weeks will be the hardest; then it will get better. Honest. A hundred stories on this board testify to it.

CLAPTON

i sure it is very stressful but your have to be realistic. your creditors will not be happy that you are not going to keep to your agreement and will act according.
some may accept what you/CCCS say, some will shout and scream because they have found that this stresses people out and so they often pay more (so do not pay them anything more than what you agreed with CCCS it will only encourage them to demand yet more)
Again some will immediately freeze interest and charges and some will not...but most will eventually.

all will issue default notices..surely CCCS have told you that, after all you are defaulting on your debts. many will threaten CCJs, bailiffs, charge on your house etc unless you pay more..they have found this is effective in scaring people and so they pay more.

i'm sorry this is probably not what you want to hear but its what happens...you must just stick to the script .. you are doing a DMP with CCCS , my CCCS number is xxxx, please deal directly with CCCS etc and do NOT pay them any money other than that agreed with CCCS.

eventually it will all calm down, but better to prepare yourself for the situation and understand that what is happening is fairly 'normal'.

you may well have an additional problem with CCCS but keep in contact with them and i'm sure it will be sorted out.

melt71

Emmzi wrote:

However please note that by making minumum payments, you are not encouraging creditors to accept lower payments via a DMP. Why should they do that and freeze interest, if everything is up to date? (Just looking at it from their side).

He hasn't made the minimum payments that appear on his statements, there's no way he could afford them even if he wanted to! He had been making 'good will' payments which are sums like £25 or £65 to stop the default notice. He was told to continue to make small good will payments until the DMP started.

Emmzi wrote:

Remember he can contact CCCS by phone for an update and explain his concerns. They'll be able to go through what has been done so far. Also remember it is not unheard of for lenders to 'lose' or delay receipt of letters about DMPs.

They all admit that they have received his letters about the CCCS DMP (he wrote to them in August with his case reference). However, CCCS have themselves said that they haven't yet contacted his creditors because we've given the wrong current account number (for the payment to be set up). This isn't true, they have the correct information and he is ringing them today to confirm this.

Emmzi wrote:

Finally, have a look at this website.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=03_harassment
Might be worth asking them to put all correspondence in writing and not telephone. Some people have thought it is worth paying the fee to get their number changed, too.
The next few weeks will be the hardest; then it will get better. Honest. A hundred stories on this board testify to it.

Thank you so much for all the advice and taking the time to reply. I will have a look at the website and get him to ask the C/C companies to put all correspondence in writing. Luckily they don't have his mobile number!

Mel

melt71

CLAPTON wrote:

i sure it is very stressful but your have to be realistic. your creditors will not be happy that you are not going to keep to your agreement and will act according.
some may accept what you/CCCS say, some will shout and scream because they have found that this stresses people out and so they often pay more (so do not pay them anything more than what you agreed with CCCS it will only encourage them to demand yet more)
Again some will immediately freeze interest and charges and some will not...but most will eventually.

all will issue default notices..surely CCCS have told you that, after all you are defaulting on your debts. many will threaten CCJs, bailiffs, charge on your house etc unless you pay more..they have found this is effective in scaring people and so they pay more.

i'm sorry this is probably not what you want to hear but its what happens...you must just stick to the script .. you are doing a DMP with CCCS , my CCCS number is xxxx, please deal directly with CCCS etc and do NOT pay them any money other than that agreed with CCCS.

eventually it will all calm down, but better to prepare yourself for the situation and understand that what is happening is fairly 'normal'.

you may well have an additional problem with CCCS but keep in contact with them and i'm sure it will be sorted out.

Thanks Clapton, I appreciate your reply.

It's interesting that the people on here are saying don't pay, and yet CCCS clearly told him to make small payments until the DMP starts in October. I will make sure that he doesn't make any future payments to any of them.

In his initial appointment, they did not tell him that things would get nasty (default notices, CCJs etc) in fact, it was quite the opposite. He came off the phone feeling happier than he had done in ages because they had told him that once they had all his info they would deal with things. The only thing they warned him about was that the interest may not be stopped, it was at the discretion of the C/C company. However, they never mentioned that the late charges/over limit charges would continue and if they do, his DMP payment will not even cover all the charges and interest each month!

Anyway, I'll speak to him later and make sure he knows what you guys have said and we'll just have to see how it goes for the next few weeks.

Thanks again

CLAPTON

Just to be clear, default notices are a (virtual) certainty because you have defaulted.
CCJs are normally threats but sometimes happen.
The purpose of making small 'goodwill' payments is to show that you wish to pay but simply can't. There is no point however in paying more to avoid a default because at best it will only delay it a month so whats the point and at worst they are lying.
Emmzi's point about asking them to correspond only in writing is a good one but they often simply ignore it. You and OH need to prepare to get lots of calls but simply repeat the same mantra and do not get into any discussion.

Jolinar

I can't add much more to what had already been said. Some creditors are worse than others for the phone calls. In the beginning it does feel horrible but trust me in a few months time you will feel much better off, I know we did

Hang in there it will get better and do keep in contact with CCCS they are very good but occasionally things can go awry.

kathfisch

You've been given very good advice which I can't add to really! I wanted to say, though, that I'm sorry to hear about the situation and I really hope it improves soon. There are certainly many stories about the problems that creditors create when you're initially trying to sort out a dmp but the huge majority are sorted eventually and a dmp is the best step they ever took.

Your husband does sound depressed, or certainly very stressed. If he doesn't want to see the doctor then you can't make him! You can, though, make sure he knows how much you love him and that he is so much more important to you than the debt problem... that the main thing is his health and happiness. People can often feel that they have let their partner down and that they are not worth loving any more because of their debt, the brain is not always logical!

I hope that his call to the CCCS today resolves the problem about the bank details and that things gradually begin to sort themselves out.

Kath x

keith_lard

Hi,
If you have funds and your CCCS Reference number?

What I did was to ask them can I pay via Bank Transfer (online banking)
and the answer was yes!

After a call I had the Account number and sort code for CCCS to pay direct to them, any calls from creditors requesting money I told them the cash is with CCCS and gave them my CCCS ref number (again!) and it got things of to a quicker start!

When you have 3 months payments through CCCS things became very Quite!


Hope this helps!

K.