Hamilton and Locke

fermi

binnie wrote: »

So if my friend wants to come on board with you, will all the money she pays each month go to the creditors, and you or them don't take a cut?

Correct. Every penny goes towards paying off your debts.

fermi

binnie wrote: »

I have gathered some of her info together and was going to ring you, but I don't suppose you would speak to me initially would you just for advice for her?

She could try CCCS's Debt Remedy. That can be done online, and CCCS are a charity and don't charge for DMPs either.

binnie

One of the questions on CCC's is "Have you had reminders from a debt management company" or something like that.
She is with a DMP now, but she hasn't had reminders.
Some of the questions on the CCCS form we aren't sure about.
I think she has got past caring about it and doesn't know what to do. She had a pile of letters from credit card companies and just put them in a pile. I have made her open them and I have some here with me.
She rang Barclaycard the other day and because she didn't have the card details at hand and how much her credit limit was, the operator wouldn't go into her account . Maybe she couldn't access it without all this information.
She isn't sure that the DMP people have paid her Barclaycard payment for the last two months as she keeps getting reminders.
She is all confused.
I think next week, I will go armed with my phone, phone numbers, her statements from the cc and ring them myself.
They might speak to me if she authorises them to.

barbiedoll

Even if she is paying a reduced amount to her creditors via a DMP, she will probably still receive "reminders" or balance updates and/or regular default notices from her debtors.

I am paying two credit cards bills on my DMP and I receive a statement every month from both of them. It shows the minimum payment required (which I'm not paying as I can't afford it) and the payment made by CCCS on my behalf. The letters will say things like "defaulted amount" and "payment not received" and so on, these are just computer generated letters, if money is being paid towards the debt, it should be easy to see it in the "this month's transactions" section.

Get her to open all of the letters, sort them into date order and see who has been paid what. If she has been paying a monthly amount to a DMP provider but the creditors have received no payments, she should stop paying them immediately and she/you should contact them for a full statement.

binnie

Thank you for your advice Barbie.
We are both new to this and it's very stressful without much help.
Glad people here are helpful.
I emailed the company for her on Thursday to see how much she still owed as it shows her statement from them with no payments to two companies.
We are still waiting for a reply.
Next week though, I will def go over and we will sit together and get some answers if we can.
Would you cancel the direct debit with Hamilton and Locke now before telling them?
Will she owe them money for their fees for the month if she cancels.
How quick do CCCs or Pay plan take to get sorted with the creditors if she goes with one of them?

I myself might end up having to do this too as I am out of work and only have a small ebay business as self employed with hardly enough to pay my share of the bills.
I'm trying to muddle on though and see if I get a day job.

Payplan_company_representative

Hi Binni

We usually say it takes around 6 to 8 weeks to set up a plan. This is from start to finish, however as a plan have already been set up it may be a little quicker as long as you have all of the information together.

Lizzy.