DMP - Payplan or CCCS? (& my debt situation) HELP

rags2riches_2

Ok, so I finally did it, I added up all my debts!

And heres the story:

FraserCard (GE Capital) £234.39
Debenhams (GE Capital) £2,286.67
Barclaycard £1,109.30
MBNA £3,033.14
Orange Marbles (HFC) £6,230.00
&more (HSBC) £1,440.82
Natwest £1,668.89
Argos Card £120.00
Egg Card £610.00
Egg Loan £3,498.48

TOTAL = £20,231.69

Plus both my bank accounts are used to their max overdraft facility

Natwest Current -£1,350
Natwest Student - £1,000

TOTAL DEBT £22,581.69

I have an income of £1,200 per month but every month I can just afford to make the minimum re-payments on my accounts and I can never get out of my overdraft.

I collected all my information to call PayPlan or CCCS tomorrow.

Is one better than the other? Does anyone on here have any other suggestions/advice?

Payments to creditors last month = £611.93
Other Expenditure = £375.55
Arrears on current debt = £236.03

LittleL_4

Hi, I have roughly the same debt as you and i'm now with CCCS. I've so far found them really helpful. I think they're both similar in that they don't charge you any fees, but I think with payplan they might get things moving a bit quicker. I had to wait 3 weeks for my appointment with CCCS.

Hope this helps
Little L
x

ps I'm paying £357 p/m towards my debt at the mo and that will take about 5 years. But you can up this amount if your circumstances change :T

laccal

i am with payplan and have never had any probs. if you look through this site people are split between the two (ie both are good)
i believe that payplan have a quicker interview system (again personal opinion)

the only thing i notice re your finances would be although you only just make the mininum payments you still make them !!!! and correct me if wrong probably not missed any payments or defaulted.

therefore you need to do a detailed expenditure to show you no longer can (ie change of circumstances) pay full amount
you are in for a bumpy start as the credit card companies will call asking for payment but just be firm and polite (yes easily said when dealing with mbna) and tell them problem and that you have contacted payplan or cccs.

good luck and i know you will get loads of support from this site

pruney

I have been with payplan for the last 3 years and they have been great however they are currently having a lot of problems with their computer and phone system. They sent my payment out late for this month and I've had creditors calling and writing to me threatening to put all my interest back on because I've missed a payment. I've been holding for 20 minutes each time to get through to them and I also sent a cheque this month to settle my debts which they didn't cashed but just kept for 2 weeks without requesting the settlement amounts from my creditors. Finally last Friday after apologising profusely and promising faithfully that someone would ring me early this week, they have actioned the settlement team to get our amounts. No-one has rang me back, I left 2 messages on Monday (one with answer machine, one with an operator who answered the phone when the computers were down AGAIN) and also one complaint about their customer service and still no-one has rang me back. Finally today after holding for another 20 minutes, I got through to someone who informed me it was going to take another 2-3 weeks to get our settlement amounts so I've requested a refund of the money and my creditors are all sending me their settlement amounts as I've had enough. They have really helped us out of a nightmare this last few years but their customer service has gone downhill shockingly since the new system has been put in (and I'm not the only one, saw a couple of other posts earlier on this board about OPs having problems with them too, one who has been landed with a default because they sent his payment late too...).

System

I'm with Payplan and am experiencing similar problems as Pruney above. ALthough they have been very helpful up until now. It would seem that people choose the first one they can speak with and sort something out because they are keen to get on and sort their debt out - well thats the way it worked for me.

in-debt

I have been with Payplan for about two years or so and right at the very beginning had no problems whatsoever but lately I am finding it hard to get through to them via telephone. I have found it easy to contact them through the contact system on justabank.co.uk, I leave a message and they ring me back as soon as they can much better.

rags2riches_2

Many thanks for all your input guys!

And yes athough I can just about afford to make my minimum payments it leaves me with very little to live on, and I'm always scrambling around for money at the end of the month!

I am also missing payments or making them late - but they are being paid.

If birthdays, car tax, insurance, and any other unplanned or non-regular payment has to happen - I'm always up the creek!

I am also currently struggling with a couple of my cards to get it below the credit limit as the interest keeps taking it over and I dont have enough funds to make a higher payment to bring it under the limit.

The communication issues with PayPlan are worrying me a little! I have yet to hear anything from anyone using CCCS? Any comments?

I'm so comitted to getting out of debt, I want to settle down with the Mrs and look to buy our first house together - there is no way I can do that in my current situation.

Does anyone else have any other advice or suggestions? Thanks

chevalier

Can you post a Statement of Affairs (see sticky at the top of the forum)? We might be able to spot some area for you to cut back. In the meantime, can you sell anything on ebay, amazon etc to get more cash. You could sign up to quidco, to get some click through money.
Best of luck
chev

rags2riches_2

Thanks for the input Chev

I can assure you I have made all cutbacks possible, sold a lot of things on eBay and all my old Uni books on Amazon! I'm always looking for ways to earn more money!

Last month I lived on an average of £4 a day!

rags2riches_2

The difficulty in contacting PayPlan that some people have had has lead me to think CCCS may be a better option?

Had anyone filled out the CCCS DEBT REMEDY?

Does this speed up the process?

rags2riches_2

Filled out CCCS DEBT REMEDY

It's been on the please wait screen for over an hour?

Anyone had any success with this?