cccs debt Remedy

P_W_2

Hi i will keep posting on here letting you no how it is going.
newlywed I felt or feel the same as you did have you found that you have a bit more money now.

newlywed

spendthrift66 wrote: »

Were you hugely in debt? No matter how much we cut down - it is impossible to service it all.

Erm yes. 3 credit cards and a loan totaling over £35k and just married and renting with OH self employed with not much work so getting deeper and deeper in the doo doos! Then they refused loan to consolidate one of my credit cards with a loan. All credit cards were maxed out. Then they refused me a £100 extension on my overdraft! I reduced outgoings as much as I thought I could, but never seemed to even dent the debt.

spendthrift66 wrote: »

How long from first visit to website to first payment into DMP approx? Thanks again!

I think it was all within the month. I did the online DMP request (end of March I think) and think it took a week for them to send the initial pack. Then I was a little slow sending all my statements back to them as I was setting up a new bank account for wages - they actually emailed asking for it as I hadn't sent it. Think it took about another week for the payment slips and pack to come through from them. Then I thought I'd missed May deadline as they say payment on 1st but they said I could pay it up to the 9th of the month so started then. So if you are speedy (I wasn't) then you can probably set it up in a month.

I have no regrets at all about having done this. Not even for a second (except maybe for a second when the car needed new tyres and I had no credit card - but then it would have been maxed out in any case so couldn't have used it).

newlywed

P_W wrote: »

Hi i will keep posting on here letting you no how it is going.
newlywed I felt or feel the same as you did have you found that you have a bit more money now.

To be brutally honest - yes and no. I find that because I have to budget, I have money set aside for the gas and electric prepay meters. Never had that before, was always scraping around for a spare £5 So money is allocated every month and lasts the month usually.

But I have had to get work done on my car (new exhaust, cam belt change, tyres changed) to keep it legal and on the road - Although an amount a month is set for this - savings hadn't built up to that extent so have been "borrowing" from other areas of the budget - so no new clothes, no haircut, no "hobbies and entertainment". Hopefully now that is all done things will get better and the car savings will increase.

Also felt very jealous of other peoples holidays this year - every other year it's gone on credit cards. Friends paid for self catering holiday in Wales and so we went with them but it still wiped out all the petrol budget, and food budget from eating out a few times, icecream etc. Kids enjoyed it though and there was a free indoor pool to use.

So swings and roundabouts really. But no worries about credit card interest going up, no worries about "extra forgotten things" on the card that need to be paid.

But you do need to learn to budget and plan for the future).

spendthrift66

Thanks so much for this reply. I am definately going to do it. As PW said, have you noticed you have a bit more money now? Can you save for a rainy day? (Tyres for eg?)

newlywed

You do have a set amount to save for car tax, and also for repairs - think CCCS suggested £20 a month (but I may ask them to increase this next year).

Also an emergency fund (mine is £15 a month - but all gone on the car too).

The DMP is just in my name (my debt), not sure if it is different allowances for a couple or not.

newlywed

Also petrol cost was put down as worst case level so I usually have a little bit over there, and food was put down at max allowance (although I am still struggling with budgeting properly for this).

SortingIt_2

Hello,

I hope you don't mind me adding to this thread. I am about to/looking at taking on a DMP at the minute and have been sending a few posts to the DMP mutual support thread to which Rayday has kindly replied (thankyou!) so thought I would post here too.

I have completed an online assessment with CCCS as they could not contact me by phone for two weeks and I have Payplan calling me tomorrow evening to go through everything. Once I have talked to them I will decide what do to, I think they are much the same but I just wanted to speak to someone over the phone to ensure I have included the right things on my budget etc as have no idea of what average costs etc to put down are - I have been living on nothing of late and been going without. Luckily I work with my sister and she kindly brings in my lunches to work and little parcels etc - very sweet but it kind of says it all really. I must deal with it now and stop burying my head in the sand.

It is really scary though and I am not looking forward to the first few month. To date I have been able to keep up payments with creditors through borrowing off family etc but I just can't keep doing that. Now I have decided to take out a DMP should I just send token payments, full payment or write? I am sure all will become clearer once I have spoken to Payplan tomorrow evening.

Anyway, will stop waffling now going back onto internet to research some more re DMP. Take care.

newlywed

Hi SortingIt - I wrote saying I was contacting CCCS with regard to a DMP and sent a £5 token payment. I hadn't signed everything at the time but was 100% certain I would go through with it all. Hope that helps.

spendthrift66

Hello Newlywed -
Our papers have arrived - but we can't send them back yet because of postal strike! They've emailed to ask for them.

I've got a question - when or how often do CCCS review the case? Because I am hoping to get a better paid job soon ... if I did, would I then tell CCCS to up the payments - or is it reviewed at certain intervals. Thanks in advance
S