Hiding your debts? Think you can cope on your own?

MyLastFiver

Rochdale_Guy wrote: »

Thanks, but I am now terrified more than ever as I just read on another thread (re: the Yorkshire Bank) that there offer from CCCS to them was refused due to continued spending on the account.

That's me right up the creek big time as I have today HAD to pay this week and next weeks rent on the MBNA card.

I have no other source of money available.

I'm screwed

I can tell CCCS tomorrow that I have just cut up all the cards tonight and they can tell MBNA that, but from their point of view (MBNA), I'm like a car speeding along ignoring the stop lights by STILL using it. Oh hell.... how could I be so daft?

I had no choice. No one else could lend me the 2 weeks rent and I'd get evicted if I was late again.

I can't cope.
.
.
.

Right - let me tell you something about creditors and payment negotiations.

Some of your creditors will accept your payment proposals and some of them won't. Whatever dumb reason they come up with doesn't matter. It is completely arbitrary and depends on the mood of whichever under-educated collections droid is working your account that day. If his girlfriend gave him oral sex in the back of his Saxo the night before, he'll accept your payment, If she didn't, he won't.

But here's the important thing: It doesn't matter whether they "accept" your proposal or not. They get the payment every month anyway. Some of your creditors will stop interest straight away, and some of them won't. You may have to escalate complaints to the ones that don't. You may eventually have to threaten to stop paying them anything at all. But they'll stop in the end. All 13 of mine did. You get the odd creditor that acts like Charles Bronson? That's what the bit of "slack" in your budget is for. Just pay them off first, "under the counter".

What is the absolute worst that can happen? One of your creditors may take you to court to obtain a CCJ. But this is highly unlikely if you keep up with the DMP. Why? Because it costs them money and they'd rather get something from you every month than go through the expense of legal action. Why else? Because the judge will see your statement of affairs, and will award payments at the same level as your DMP. So as long as you keep up payments, your creditors have nothing to gain from court action.

It seems scary now but these things do work out. What surprised me was the randomness of it all. There's not point in predicting how creditors will behave, because there's no consistency. You will write to them. They will ignore it. You will write to them again. They will lose the letter. They will phone you and tell you one thing, then they'll phone you again the next night and tell you something different. None of it matters. Just make the payments through the DMP and let them play their games.

Rochdale_Guy

Thanks for such a detailed honest account of things.
It doesn't surprise me what you said, lot's of things in life seem to be at the mercy of a flip of a coin nowadays. Some people get treated one way, while someone else in the exact same position gets treated another (in a bad way).

I know they can't get blood out of a stone, but if only I could see into the future, I'd be able to sleep much better if I knew they'd all accept the CCCS DMP offer, not constantly phone me up, send demanding letters, or worse still, send someone round to put the creepers on me and try and collect monies owed. If my ex does come back to me, she'll never stay here again if she thinks someone might come a knocking

Loubylou2

Excellent advice from mylastfiver.
There's is absolutely no point in doing the 'what if' thing. Like you I spent ages researching my creditors on different forums and scared myself witless thinking about ccj's, charging orders, etc etc. And you know none of it happened. For instance I could find nothing positive being said about Nat West Triton and yet everything with them has been so straightforward, bordering helpful. Yet for another debtor it could be a different story which is why it is so random.
As has been said things will occur, letters phone calls etc but you will deal with each thing as it happens with all the support you get on here.
Stop panicking and take each stage as it comes.

Rochdale_Guy

Loubylou2 wrote: »

Excellent advice from mylastfiver.
There's is absolutely no point in doing the 'what if' thing. Like you I spent ages researching my creditors on different forums and scared myself witless thinking about ccj's, charging orders, etc etc. And you know none of it happened. For instance I could find nothing positive being said about Nat West Triton and yet everything with them has been so straightforward, bordering helpful. Yet for another debtor it could be a different story which is why it is so random.
As has been said things will occur, letters phone calls etc but you will deal with each thing as it happens with all the support you get on here.
Stop panicking and take each stage as it comes.

Thank you Loubylou2.

It's this whole "fear of the unknown" thing that's causing the poor sleep and panic.

Oh, and I really should pay more attention as I just went to apply for the Co-Op Cashminder account online, and you can only do it over the phone or in person! I remember now that people on here had already told me that. Never mind, will go into my local branch tomorrow.

Do they ask if you have any credit cards? I can't say no as when they they transfer my direct debits, they'll see I am making payments to 5!

wecandothis_2

Ok here's my take on things..

We've been in a DMP for about 18 mths in that time we've paid off about £11k in total from what we owed, would have been more but it took a few month for everyone to agree to freeze interest but they all have now.

Due to various issues we've had to lower our payments twice now, our expected dfd is 10 yrs but it will be less but the time we've made some f&f's.

It is scary initally to have no credit cards but on a DMP you dont need them, you have money for everything you need , I have a bigger bugdet for food,clothing, kids school trips , car expenses than i've had for years. I never had spare money before and most of what we were buying went on the cards anyway.

As for holidays there is nothing to stop you squirrelling money away from your food /clothing budget and using that money for a trip to Wales etc... I dont spend all my food budget everything, this month for example i havent even spent half as we are having a "eat everything in the cupboards/freezer month). You do have to live a little.. if i thought we werent going anywhere for the next 10 yrs then well life would be miserable. And there are always ways to raise extra money, ebay, car boots etc.

I think in the last 18 mths i've needed a cheque once (eldest school wont take cash/online payments) so my mum wrote the cheque out and i paid her back in cash. We have a coop cashminder account and have never had any issues with the debit card.

Biggest mistake i made... not doing the DMP two years earlier but my partner didnt want to and in that time we probably paid £30k and about £25k of that was interest and because of that we were just putting more and more on the plastic.. viscious circle and all that.

You will be fine, takes a few months to get ur head around everything but its not as scary as it sounds. We (touch wood) rarely hear a thing from our creditors unless they sell a debt on .

happycrafter_2

Ive been with CCCS for a few years now and thought my debt free date was way too far in the future, but its surprising how quick you settle down on your budget. its also great to see your monthly statement showing your debts coming down. one of my debts only had £3 being paid off it at first and i thought its going to take ages but its nearly cleared as my payments increased slowly.

The people at CCCS are the most amazing people I have ever known, equal to the very helpful people on this forum. once you make the phone call and its a scary call to make you sit back and this wave of stress lifts. if you get phone calls you say "I am with CCCS and this is my reference number you will be hearing from them shortly".

Thanks to CCCS and this forum, I am no longer scared of the telephone and the postman. I have learnt so many things from this site and we actually eat and live better now than we ever did.

you can do it!!!

Rochdale_Guy

wecandothis wrote: »

Ok here's my take on things..

We've been in a DMP for about 18 mths in that time we've paid off about £11k in total from what we owed, would have been more but it took a few month for everyone to agree to freeze interest but they all have now.

Due to various issues we've had to lower our payments twice now, our expected dfd is 10 yrs but it will be less but the time we've made some f&f's.

It is scary initally to have no credit cards but on a DMP you dont need them, you have money for everything you need , I have a bigger bugdet for food,clothing, kids school trips , car expenses than i've had for years. I never had spare money before and most of what we were buying went on the cards anyway.

As for holidays there is nothing to stop you squirrelling money away from your food /clothing budget and using that money for a trip to Wales etc... I dont spend all my food budget everything, this month for example i havent even spent half as we are having a "eat everything in the cupboards/freezer month). You do have to live a little.. if i thought we werent going anywhere for the next 10 yrs then well life would be miserable. And there are always ways to raise extra money, ebay, car boots etc.

I think in the last 18 mths i've needed a cheque once (eldest school wont take cash/online payments) so my mum wrote the cheque out and i paid her back in cash. We have a coop cashminder account and have never had any issues with the debit card.

Biggest mistake i made... not doing the DMP two years earlier but my partner didnt want to and in that time we probably paid £30k and about £25k of that was interest and because of that we were just putting more and more on the plastic.. viscious circle and all that.

You will be fine, takes a few months to get ur head around everything but its not as scary as it sounds. We (touch wood) rarely hear a thing from our creditors unless they sell a debt on .

Great positive post, thank you. :wave:

Loubylou2

Rochdale_Guy wrote: »

Thank you Loubylou2.

It's this whole "fear of the unknown" thing that's causing the poor sleep and panic.

Oh, and I really should pay more attention as I just went to apply for the Co-Op Cashminder account online, and you can only do it over the phone or in person! I remember now that people on here had already told me that. Never mind, will go into my local branch tomorrow.

Do they ask if you have any credit cards? I can't say no as when they they transfer my direct debits, they'll see I am making payments to 5!

But you will have stopped your direct debits. In fact do it tomorrow.
It would be great to look into the future, I know you are feeling out of control right now but in fact you are finally taking control.
Its honestly the best thing I did and I only wish we'd found this forum and done it years earlier.

Rochdale_Guy

happycrafter wrote: »

Ive been with CCCS for a few years now and thought my debt free date was way too far in the future, but its surprising how quick you settle down on your budget. its also great to see your monthly statement showing your debts coming down. one of my debts only had £3 being paid off it at first and i thought its going to take ages but its nearly cleared as my payments increased slowly.

The people at CCCS are the most amazing people I have ever known, equal to the very helpful people on this forum. once you make the phone call and its a scary call to make you sit back and this wave of stress lifts. if you get phone calls you say "I am with CCCS and this is my reference number you will be hearing from them shortly".

Thanks to CCCS and this forum, I am no longer scared of the telephone and the postman. I have learnt so many things from this site and we actually eat and live better now than we ever did.

you can do it!!!

Great positive post too, thank you also :beer:

A quick calculation tells me if things stayed as they are with no more spending on the MBNA card, I would be paying £7,776 a year in minimum monthly repayments with £5,554 of that in interest alone :eek:

And without wanting to go full circle, just hope they will freeze interest charges when CCCS do their thing.

Wellyboots6

Rochdale_Guy wrote: »

I know they can't get blood out of a stone, but if only I could see into the future, I'd be able to sleep much better if I knew they'd all accept the CCCS DMP offer, not constantly phone me up, send demanding letters, or worse still, send someone round to put the creepers on me and try and collect monies owed. If my ex does come back to me, she'll never stay here again if she thinks someone might come a knocking

If you start working with CCCS and get on a DMP then it won't matter if they ring you, send you letters etc because YOU WON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THEM!

Like other people have said, you just give them your reference number and hang up.

If you keep putting off contacting CCCS however then you DO have to deal with them, and they WILL keep ringing, writing etc. With a DMP they will eventually give up hounding you, but the more you bury your head in the sand the more they will come after you.

That 'C word' is looking very tempting....