Leaving CCCS to manage my own DMP so I can obtain settlement figures

CBI

Has anyone ever done this?

Reason I ask is I've been offered some money from a relative to get F&F settlements for my 7 creditors. I will contact the creditors at the same time, but some F&Fs are going to be sorted before others.

If that happens CCCS will simply redistribute the £700 I'm paying them to the other 6 creditors, but I can't do that as I'll have to reduce the money I send to the CCCS to be able to pay my relative back.

For example
CCCS get £700 for 7 creditors. If I get 1 F&F then I'll have to change that to £600 for 6 creditors so I can give my relative the other £100.

I assume the simplest way to do this is to leave the CCCS and control my own DMP?

Any thoughts / advice.

Thanks in advance

DS4215

Just go direct to the creditors, arrange the F&F and then tell CCCS about it when you have settled each one. They will ask you about how you closed the balanace, but you have been given money by a relative to settle a specific debt.

CBI

Thanks, but I was under the impression I shouldn't speak directly to the creditors while on a DMP through CCCS?

sickasachip13

Nope, as DS4 says, you can do F&Fs while on a DMP - you'll have to explain the source of the money and the rationale for paying some off, but that seems to be ok. I suggest speaking to your creditors to see if, hypothetically, they are open to F&Fs, then let CCCS know that what's you're going to do and follow the usual process (I did this recently and wrote through the process on another thread)

SAAC

Oneday77

The CCCS are open to you doing F&Fs. Al, you need to do is target them in a sensible manner. So say you have 3 debts £500, £950 & £1100. Your then given £900 to get F&Fs, pay off as many debts as you can, then your not showing favouritism and can say you don't have enough to clear the dearer one.
Also state an extra expenditure that can then pay say the £100 to the relative without actually declaring a new debt. This bit is a little iffy so be careful as its not quite in the spirit of all they have done for you.

CBI

Thanks.

I've just phoned CCCS and apparently they have a settlement now, who'll negotiate F&F once I tell them how much I can get from my relative. This seems to be easiest way to do it, might not get as big of a reducation playing hardball with them via letter, but much less stressfull so I might try that.

Oneday77

Start lower than you can pay, no harm in trying just don't be too low. 50% could be seen as an effort then build up. Odds on they will start at 80-85%

CBI

I've changed my mind again :rotfl:

I'm going to go down the route of leaving CCCS, managing my own DMP then making offers.

This means that each accepted offer I can start paying back the relative instantly with the money I'm no longer sending to that particular creditor as soon as an F&F can be sorted.

Otherwise CCCS will still expect the full amount off me every month, unless we do a new review showing the extra outgoing of paying back my relative.

It'll also give me more control over the negotiations.

sickasachip13

Hi CBI,

This is the process I went through, you may find it helpful:

""I forgot to update this with my F&F news from the end of last year. I settled with Cap One and Ikea (Ikano finance) for around 40% of what was owed. These weren't huge debts and I am on a DMP so I was happy to go forward on that amount.

The process I undertook:
I phoned them to see if, hypothetically, they were open to a F&F offer and both said they were.
I mentioned it to CCCS.
I wrote, using the template letter from the National Debtline website, adding in a few lines about being on a DMP and it being years before these debts would be paid on the DMP.
They wrote back, each looking for around 60% of the debt.
We wrote back to them with a counter offer.
They wrote back. I rang National Debtline and read the letters down the phone to them to ensure all the bases were covered in the wording.
I contacted CCCS to inform them that the F&Fs were going ahead, this was fine with them.
Sent a cheque and covering letter back to creditors.
Reduced to £0 the amount owing to these two on the CCCS file.

Job done. Stress free, just a bit of to-ing and fro-ing. ""

CBI

Thanks for the info.

The one thing I can't do is continue paying CCCS £700 a month if all creditors bar one settle and from my brief conversation with CCCS if I don't do that I'll have to do a new SOA, which when that creditor sees I owe money to another person chances are they'll tear up the DMP agreement already in place.

sickasachip13

Hi,

I see what you're saying. We weren't in that position because we had 19 creditors, and only some were amounts small enough to be tackled by us at the moment.

I'm not so sure about the SOA thing - if some creditors accepted then couldn't you 'tweak' your SOA to use up some of the allowable amounts that you might not currently be using. This would free up a little money for you to pay your relative. Also, for every creditor that accepts, the monthly payment to the others would go up, so they'd be happy with that. We've re-done our SOA three times in 16 months and it hasn't caused a problem so far (nor has paying off two of them).
SAAC