DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

eyeopener2

I will be forever grateful for CCCS for being somwhere to turn to and making the whole process easier. However, after the initial contact, I don't think they actually 'do' anything.

I believe, from annecdotal evidence, that Christians Against Poverty (CAP) do take a more hands on approach and they survive, i'm led to believe, on Donations (I maybe wrong on that though). CAB I understand also take a hands on approach.

CCCS do what they do, and I think their funding stream highlights that they are more "pro" creditor than "pro" debtor and are great for those of us who maybe are a bit more organised and can fight our corner and gain concessions for knowing our rights, even though we may not entirley win! I'm not sure how someone who lived a more chaotic lifestyle would go on without any real support.

Oh and Good Morning!

ben80

Time to face the music - LloydsTSB are still charging me an overdraft & other fees on my current account (now disused as its part of my DMP) could I argue that they are unfair because of financial difficulty and take it to the FOS? Or did you do it because the charges kept being increased? I'm not a fan of Lliyds & it would be nice to 'get one over' on them as it were!

speshfesh

ben80 wrote: »

Time to face the music - LloydsTSB are still charging me an overdraft & other fees on my current account (now disused as its part of my DMP) could I argue that they are unfair because of financial difficulty and take it to the FOS? Or did you do it because the charges kept being increased? I'm not a fan of Lliyds & it would be nice to 'get one over' on them as it were!

Hi ben,

I would think that if your OD is part of your DMP, any charges on that should be seen as those on CCs, loans, etc, and be stopped where possible. I'm not sure about any current account charges (monthly subscription fees in exchange for 'wonderful' offers I'm guessing?) these may fall under a different category.
Someone else will have more experience on that then me:D

I think you have a good case for the OD charges:mad: though.
Go get 'em!

Time_to_face_the_music

ben80 wrote: »

Time to face the music - LloydsTSB are still charging me an overdraft & other fees on my current account (now disused as its part of my DMP) could I argue that they are unfair because of financial difficulty and take it to the FOS? Or did you do it because the charges kept being increased? I'm not a fan of Lliyds & it would be nice to 'get one over' on them as it were!

Hi ben80

We did it as unfair because we are in financial difficulty and charging interest and fees prolongs your debt plus negates or reduces your payment to them. Lloyds TSB both stopped the interest and refunded that already charged. They say they will review it again in March 2013 but if our circumstances haven't changed, we will fight them again if they try to reintroduce it.

We found the FOS incredibly helpful and friendly, it costs nothing to make a phonecall and you may have a lot to gain. Please give it a go and let us know how you get on :T

Time_to_face_the_music

speshfesh wrote: »

I'm not sure about any current account charges (monthly subscription fees in exchange for 'wonderful' offers I'm guessing?) these may fall under a different category.

The charges for premium accounts will not be considered because we can stop them ourselves at any time. The very first thing I did before we started our DMP was to cancel my Lloyds TSB Platinum account. This had been of benefit in the past as it included full AA membership, top notch family travel insurance etc. A year's AA membership cost us much less than the account fees and we got £50 cashback and we won't be needing travel insurance for a few years

endora

wanna-be-mortgage-free wrote: »

Also read on another thread the reason why some suggest token payments of even £1 is so the debt won't become SB.

In theory token payments reflect the debtor's willingness to pay, etc. but they also stop the debt from going SBd.

Thing is, tokens are not really intended as a long-term solution, just to get you over a bad patch of unemployment, illness, etc. However, once you've been defaulted and your account closed there's very little incentive to go back to contractual payments even if it the debtor was in a position to do so.

eyeopener2 wrote: »

CCCS are funded by the Credit Industry, that is correct, but to say that they take a 'cut' is wrong. This implies that not all the money you pay goes to the creditor.

It does. Every single penny you pay goes to the creditor (I should know I check my statements religiously).

It's not a cut as such, if it was you'd effectively be paying CCCS a fee as you do with fee-paying DMP managers. What happens is that creditors do give some of the money they receive from debtors back to CCCS to fund the service so the 'cut' is on the side of the creditor not the debtor.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

It's not a cut as such, if it was you'd effectively be paying CCCS a fee as you do with fee-paying DMP managers. What happens is that creditors do give some of the money they receive from debtors back to CCCS to fund the service so the 'cut' is on the side of the creditor not the debtor.[/QUOTE]

A commission is, in effect, - a 'cut'. It's the 'some' of the money and the 'cut' that is in question. The lack of transparency about how the funding is worked out and shown is below a standard one would expect in a democracy. As we keep trying to say it alo leads people to question how impartial this makes CCCS.

HHx

endora

phartypantz wrote: »

Hello, my husband and I are in approximately 20000 pounds in debt with credit cards and loans which are costing us £800 permonth. We have a bad credit rating, and initially contacted cccs who advised us to change bank accounts, which we have. I decided to take the bull byhorns today and have emailed them and filled in form etc. So what will happen now? Do i have to arrange DMP myself, or will they do it for me? Thanks

You're probably better off starting a new thread with this where you will get more responses and help.

endora

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

A commission is, in effect, - a 'cut'. It's the 'some' of the money and the 'cut' that is in question. The lack of transparency about how the funding is worked out and shown is below a standard one would expect in a democracy. As we keep trying to say it alo leads people to question how impartial this makes CCCS.

HHx

I'm not a big fan of CCCS myself which is why I posted about their funding but we need to get the facts straight, i.e. no money is taken out directly of debtors payments so all the money paid into the DMP does go to the creditors. Whether all the money goes towards reducing the debt is a different story, if interest is not frozen then the debt doesn't reduce at the rate it should and bankers are still lining their pockets with your payments.

I know cases where only 10% of payments went towards reducing the debt! :mad: In cases like this CCCS are most definitely failing to do their job properly. This is also a reason to question how impartial they are...:(

Hopelessly_Hopeful

endora wrote: »

I'm not a big fan of CCCS myself which is why I posted about their funding but we need to get the facts straight, i.e. no money is taken out directly of debtors payments so all the money paid into the DMP does go to the creditors. Whether all the money goes towards reducing the debt is a different story, if interest is not frozen then the debt doesn't reduce at the rate it should and bankers are still lining their pockets with your payments.

I know cases where only 10% of payments went towards reducing the debt! :mad: In cases like this CCCS are most definitely failing to do their job properly. This is also a reason to question how impartial they are...:(

Pardon me but I haven't suggested the debtors money doesn't go to the creditor?

HHx