Frugal Fox's CCCS Journey

Frugal_Fox

Morning all...

Well this really is the morning after the night before. For those who can remember that far back - our budget has always been tight. However we were meeting commitments (not always on time!). However in July we hit a sticky problem. I miscalculated which day my husband got paid - by seven days - the cheques I wrote (expecting salary to be in the bank) bounced and within 5 weeks we were hit for £1400 bank charges (Yes I know all about claiming them back and are already going down this route). Not surprisingly we were unable to budget for this penalty. For the first time in 10 year we missed a mortgage payment - helpfully I managed to quickly secure a 2 month payment holiday and we should be okay from this month on. However I have not been able to pay other creditors - and it would be fair to say that they are not best pleased! :rolleyes:

With all the arrears that have now built up - we are in the brown stuff. We thought about selling our house - but we wouldn't sell quickly enough to release the equity. We thought about using these 'generous' companies who purchase your home for cash quickly - but I'm not accepting 75% of the house's value to build their profits. Parents are unable to help - though would at a cost to them, so I'm not even going to ask. So...

We rang CCCS yesterday (well, I'd already phoned them last week to see how viable it might be , before I mentioned it to my husband). We are going down the DMP route with them - and I just thought I'd like to start a thread about our journey. I can see from other threads that there were a few DMP newbies in August, but I'd feel a bit late jumping on that thread now. We have to pay what we can in October, but the DMP will kick in from November.

In a way - I'm really gutted to be going down this route - especially as it seems we 'owe' so little (£6990 in un-secured credit). We've done masses to reduce it down - however we just don't have the money spare to keep throwing at it. We are selling all we can to raise funds for the childrens birthdays and Christmas (and we don't go mad on spending for any of these anyway!). We've already told everyone that we are only buying for our family and god children in the future. I'm gutted because our DFD was just around the corner (November 2007) and now with CCCS it'll be 5 years away. However - the budget is manageable, and once the arrears are cleared we may be in a better position to pay more and clear it more quickly.

Now we just have to wait for all the documentation to come through and to find out how our creditors react.

FatJock

Hi Frugal Fox,

Just want to say good luck with this. Keep your spirits up.

Cheers,
FatJock

Mirtos

Oh Frugal. Try not to get down - you'll get through, and as you say, once the arrers are cleared, you'll be able to get back in the swing. Thinking of you.xxx

LittleL_4

Hi Frugal, don't be too hard on yourself. You're doing your best by the sounds of it and this is the route you have taken in order to get by.

Remember though if your situation changes and you find you have a bit more coming in you can change your DMP and reduce your debt free date. This is my plan - I've also started on a DMP but I hope to clear it sooner than the 5 years.

I wish you all the best. Creditors will be bothersome for a while but it soon dies down. It's quite messy for a while but you'll get there.

Hop onto the DMP newbie thread too. There's quite a few of us going through it at the mo

Little L
x

southernscouser

Good luck FF! And don't forget to offer reduced final settlement figures if the oppurtunity arises!

Frugal_Fox

Thank you all for your kind replies... I've been a sporadic poster on the DFW board, but I've always had very sage advice and lovely warm posts - so thanks. You certainly are all a fab bunch.

I'm hopeful that as and when our finances improve we will be able to increase the DMP payments and reduce the DFD timescale. We are currently pursuing a claim about banking charges with the Halifax - this should give us a fair amount to clear a creditor or two!

SS - reduced final settlement figures - would I be correct in thinking that this is where you are in a position to pay a lump sum off a debt to clear it (ie owe £2000 and offer £1500 as a full and final payment). What happens to our credit rating then? I appreciate its already shot to pieces - but I want to do all I can to improve it for the future - not that I'm intending to clear everything and then return, but I'm thinking mortgages etc!

southernscouser

Frugal_Fox wrote:

SS - reduced final settlement figures - would I be correct in thinking that this is where you are in a position to pay a lump sum off a debt to clear it (ie owe £2000 and offer £1500 as a full and final payment). What happens to our credit rating then? I appreciate its already shot to pieces - but I want to do all I can to improve it for the future - not that I'm intending to clear everything and then return, but I'm thinking mortgages etc!

Exactly. The creditors realise you are a risk and it's possible they may not get anything back from you so would be willing to take a reduced settlement figure. Just make sure they confirm that it's a 'full and final' figure via a letter aswell. It won't do anything to your credit rating as far as I'm aware but like you say your rating will be affected due to your DMP anyway.

Donedoingdebt

Usually it will be recorded on your credit file as "partially settled" rather than "settled". This will remain on for 6 years & may alert any company that you wish to borrow from in the future that all was not well in your financial past. Of course, if you've no wish to borrow again then this won't be a problem.

saubryn

It sounds like you've been doing the best you can, and things do happen - its better to be on the DMP and clearing things than struggle along and end up worse off if anything else unexpected comes up.

Hopefully once you're back on your feet you can look at clearing things faster.

Good luck!