Writing letters to companies...Help PLEASE

in-trouble_3

Hi all

I was wondering if someone could give me some advice, we recieved the agreement with CCCS yesterday, hubby came home last night which wasnt expected so i should him the letter from CCCS and he read through, he was quite concerned when it said that.....

CCCS will negotiate on my behalf but cannot prevent creditors charging interest and collection charges and / or taking further recovery action including legal action.


I think it was the legal action and the interest that he was concerned about.

Every month we pay Lloyds Tsb bank.....

overdraft £1500
Credit card £365
Loan £351.56

This is our biggest payment

To get to the point has anyone ever wrote to the companies themselves and asked them to reduce payments for a while? Explaining about your finiancial situtation and have they reduced the payments?

Is there a template that i could use to help write the letter?

Many thanks

in-trouble_3

Forgot to say are lloyds a good bank to do this? I noticed when you need the money they just give it out basically offer you this and that, getting another loan with lloyds or another company would get us more into debt so that is not a option to us which i want to say that in the letter to lloyds

in-trouble_3

can anyone help

Honeybee_2

I had an OD with Lloyds about 6 years ago, they were ok when they realised that I knew my rights and that I wasn't going to fall for scare tactics.

bloomin_freezing

Hi in-trouble,

You still there before I start typing loads?

bloomin_freezing

I'll give it a go anyway, incase you check back on this later on.

I had just over £26,000.00 debt several years ago when I was in my early twenties. My wages nowhere near covered my bills, I was paying the minimum on credit cards each month then spending the available credit which the payment freed up (which was a measly £30). Anyway, enough doom and gloom....I too contacted CCCS, thank god! They went through details with me of income and monthly outgoings (which i'm sure they have with you), I wrote off to everyone I owed money to and offered them a monthly payment of £1.00, yes A QUID!! I had to include my sheet of income and expenditure so they could see how skint I was. If i remember rightly everyone (Capital one, Oasis store card, MBNA, Freemans, Littlewoods, HSBC loan) agreed to accept my payment for 6 months and then review the situation, apart from Barclaycard who I think agreed on £10 a month. After the 6 months were up I upped my payment to £5 a month. I stuck to the deal and they seamed happy. They all froze interest on my accounts too.

It's definately worth the cost in stamps!:o

in-trouble_3

yes i am here bloomin freezing

JGWT8M

I think they say that to protect themselves more than anything, some people think it's a get out of jail free card going on a DMP and will be the answer to all their problems but it just means they will negotiate on your behalf and try their best.

Sometimes writing to the company in person is not a good idea, as they will instantly issue a default notice (if they can) and get nasty, if CCCS have offered you help take it because if you don't there's nothing to stop the bank still taking you to court and piling on interest, but having CCCS working on your behalf can really help matters, it'll also mean your phone is pretty unused as they (lloyds) probably won't be constantly phoning you up asking for payments.

in-trouble_3

Many thanks for your reply JGWT8M very much appreciated, I think we will go with cccs, just get all the info together they requested and get the ball rolling, i think we will be wasting our time going to lloyds and explaining the situation that we are in

we are keeping up with all our payments every month but its getting a struggle

i dont think going on a dmp will be a answer to our problems, for a start it will effect our credit and we will certainly have to budget has we wont be able to rely on over drafts or credit cards, but then again that probably is the best way.

again thank you for your reply

JGWT8M

whichever way you go, if you or cccs negotiate reduced payments, it's pretty likely that lloyds will at some stage issue a default against you so that'll screw your credit rating good and proper so to speak.

I wasn't refering to you when I said about people thinking a DMP was the answer, some of my friends know of my debt and if you could call it a DMP and they think I've been handed a get out of jail free card, if only they knew

madduck

I've been on a DMP for over 2 years and probably will be for a good few years to come. It has led to a complete change in my financial viewpoint. I'd lived for years in an ever increasing cycle of credit cards, consolidation loans, more credit cards - everyone recognise the symptoms?

The DMP hasn't been a get out of jail free card. I've had the grief from creditors, my credit rating is screwed. However on the bright side, I'm now reducing my overall debt for the first time in my adult life and I'm learning budgeting!

I've also worked out that when my DMP is finished I'll be in a position where I'll have over £1000 (in todays money) free every month to do what I want with. Credit - who wants it!