Payday loans and CCCS

JF_Archie

Hello all,

Firstly, I am new to the forum so feel free to point me in another direction if this is posted in the wrong place!

I have, rather embarrassingly gotten myself into quite a bit of bother with payday loan companies (I know, should have know better...:( )

As a result I am now also in arrears in my council tax (to the tune of £1200) as I spent that money to keep the pdl's from defaulting.

I have loans with the following 3 companies:

Wonga £400 due on the 31st Oct
Quickquid £712 due on the 31st
Payday UK £675 due on the 31st

I also (yup there's more) have an overdraft of £2000 which I pay £10 a month interest on, and £500 credit card account that I pay £30 interest on.

So finally, after months of living in total denial and thinking it was all going to magically sort itself out, I have decided that it's out of control and I need to stop the cycle.

I can't pay the loans off as the total amount is more than my income (circa £1500) so it looks like I'll be swallowing the interest and deferring forr yet another month (at a cost of £400 in itself). But I really want (in fact NEED) to have this sorted out properly before next payday comes round and I think that means a debt management plan.

I contacted CCCS today and spoke to an extremely pleasant lady who took all the details of my situation and was both polite and understanding. She has arranged a debt councillor to call me on wednesday.

I am hopeful CCCS can give me the advice and guidance I need to set up a DMP. In the meantime, as its too close to payday to change my bank accounts I will have to pay the charges and hope I can have an arrangement in place by the end of November.

Am I doing the right thing? Is there anything else I could or should be doing? I'm feeling pretty swamped by this all and would really appreciate any advice or even just some reassurance that I've taken the correct steps?

Tixy

Hi JF and welcome - and yes you are in the right place.

Glad to hear that you have contacted CCCS, hopefully they'll be able to help.

You say its too close to payday to change bank accounts - one thing you could try if the loans are due to go out on payday (if you have online banking), is try waiting up payday night and trying to transfer your wages to your new account in the early hours before the payday loans go out. This has worked for a few people.

Have you started arranging setting up a new bank account yet? if not you could be starting this - make sure its with a bank not associated with any you owe money to.