Disillusioned much!

Nickyj63

Hi all, I've been on a DMP with CCCS for what seems like a lifetime but is probably around 4 years. CCCS are extremely helpful and supportive and I would recommend them highly for anyone struggling with debt issues. However, as I work in financial services and due to FSA regulations, I'm unable to move on to an IVA or any other option which would stop the interest and charges still being applied to my overall debt by my creditors. I am in no way trying to escape my responsibilities and genuinely want to repay what I've borrowed but after 4+ years my debt is now more than it was when I started on the DMP. This is disheartening and frustrating to say the least and if it weren't for my job I would be tempted to tell them all they've had their pound of flesh and simply stop paying them. Typically, I managed to choose some of the most notoriously greedy and inflexible creditors in existence which doesn't help so any thoughts, ideas or advice would be very welcome.

Bit of background - I work full time, I have 12 year old twin sons at home, I have zero assets/savings and live in rented accomodation.

DizzyDizzy

Gosh poor you - you must be so frustrated! How much have you left to pay on the DMP and how much longer will it last? Have you spoken to CCCS about the interest - what do they advise?

I saw on here somewhere a template for a letter to ask creditors to stop loading interest onto a DMP- it might be on the DMP support thread - is it worth maybe writing to them and asking them?

Nickyj63

Hi Dizzy, yeh it's very frustrating but more annoying as it seems so unnecessary .. I now have approximately £18k to pay from an original amount of just over £17k, CCCS have told me that creditors can't be forced to stop interest & charges, only that they may choose to do this at some point - Lloyds TSB are my main creditor and it's made doubly annoying that they were able to wriggle out of repaying me unfair/illegal bank charges totalling over £3k which would have reduced my debt to them - I'll see if I can find that template, has to be worth a try Thank you!

Tixy

Hi

Lloyds have a pretty bad rep for stopping interest. But it always worth trying to keep on at them to ask them to reconsider stopping interest (or even reduce it down if you get nowhere with getting it stopped).
Aside from that you might just need to hope they'll sell it on soon and that the DCA will stop interest.

There is a national debtline template here


Dear Sir/Madam

Account No: 4563210025897412

Thank you for your letter of DD-MM-YYYY concerning the above account. We are sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account. The majority of our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase our total
debt.

As you are aware, we have already paid considerable sums in interest to our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments we are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

We would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully
Mr A N Other

I think there is another one slightly more strongly worded mentioning the lending code I'll see if I can find as an alternative...

Edit - post 7 of this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3171204 mentions the lending code section you could quote/add in to the above letter.

topcat9

Hi Nickyj63,

Sounds like you are in a horrible situation at the moment. Firstly, if you've been on the DMP for 4 years and CCCS haven't been back to renegotiate with your creditors for quite a while it's definitely worth doing DizzyDizzy's suggestion of writing to them directly.

Also, can I ask roughly what percentage of your minimum payments are you making each month? I ask because the cases where creditors refused to cease interest on our DMP seemed to be when we were making a relatively high payment so I guess they thought why should they bother.

Nickyj63

Many thanks Tixy, I have tried on several occasions to have the charges stopped by TSB without success but I suspect they will wait until they have recouped what I originally borrowed and then sell the debt on as you said. The template looks ideal though and I'll definitely give that a try.

Hi Topcat, my monthly repayment is very low, £104 which I can manage just, it's the fact that it's not reducing the debt that really winds me up to the point where I think why should I bother?

Thanks again both for your helpful suggestions

The_Hunter

I managed to get lloyds to reduce my interest yesterday to 0.4% for 12 months. I got a call from a very nice lady in "customer relations" after I sent them a very aggressive letter about the number and times of the phone calls I was getting.