DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 4)

trib_man

trib_man wrote: »

Hi All I am in a little bit of a mess at the moment. Between my wife and me we are 37K in debt to 13 creditors including 3 overdrafts. We are in the early stages of setting up a DMP with CCCS through the National Debt Helpline (who are angels in disguise). I have sent the pack off to them and have the gesture of goodwill letter ready to go.

I had a woman turn up at my door unannounced from black horse last week. I didn’t answer because I didn’t know where I stood talking to her because the NDH guys told me not to talk to anyone and ask them to put it in writing. I spoke to them again and they told me she shouldn’t be calling unannounced and this could be classed as harassment. She called again yesterday and I answered the door because I didn’t want my wife to face this if she has a day off in the week. When I told her about calling unannounced and harassment she told me I was wrongly advised. She asked me if I still have the car and I told her I don’t want to talk about it. She told me she will be starting proceedings to recover the car and I was being foolish by not talking to her and they will refuse any offer from CCCS. My wife is now buckling under the pressure about the car and wants to try and pay them (which we haven’t got and will make us worse off) what should we do?

Hi All

Any ideas?

Jvic28

trib_man wrote: »

Hi All

Any ideas?

Hi,

Sorry, I don't have any ideas. Maybe someone else will be along soon who does. I suggest tho that you stick to your guns and continue ploughing on with CCCS. Hopefully they'll listen in the end.

x

Jvic28

TotallyBrassic wrote: »

1) If you have a small debt on your dmp..say £250, and you can save the money up, can you ask cccs to specifically pay that one debt off?

As far as I'm aware the official line from CCCS is that they distribute that money fairly amongst all the creditors. However, some people have been told by CCCS that they can pay off individual creditors. When the time comes, just call or email CCCS and ask.

totallybrassic wrote: »

2) Do cccs negotiate F&F figures with creditors in the future? And are F&F only available once the debt has transferred to a DCA?

I don't think CCCS help with this but there is help on the national debt line webstie. I'm pretty sure you can offer F+F to any creditor but I would suspect it's more likely to be accepted by a DCA. Unfortunately I'm not lucky enough to be in either position right now but maybe someone else has tried.

lauzjp

hi trib_man, I'm sorry to hear you are being harrassed, I'm really not sure on the legalities, but I would think that it probably is classed as harrassment. I'm sure I've read on here of people writing to the companies and telling them not to phone them at work / doorstep them, you would have to do a search on here (top right of the page) to find out.

I'm lucky in that we seem to have one guy locally who does debt collecting for a few companies, and he is a very nice bloke. He didn't even want my DMP no. last time.

And you could always phone cccs for advice and ask them directly.

lauzjp

MurrayMint wrote: »

Hi All,
We now pay this directly from our Lloyds account as we didn't want Abbey grabbing the mortgage payment from that current account.

However, the month before we stopped using this account (I think July time?) we went overdrawn by about £5, as we usually overpaid a little and used the surplus as a top up emergency piggy bank. Unfortunately my OH made a switch payment without checking how much funds were available.

Due to the charges that they made for this and then charges on top of these, they're now demanding £135 immediately, which excludes any pending charges :eek:
They've been charging over £55 per month...

As I'm on a DMP, I do not have £135+ spare to give them. So should I...
1) Beg and borrow the money to pay them
2) Add them to my DMP
3) Contact them to try to come to a payment arrangement
4) Contact them and say "we can't pay, we're a DMP, we'll pay the original charges if you agree to cancel all subsequent charges, but if you won't do this then we'll add you to our DMP and you'll get £5 per month"
5) Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any advise given :T

As hubby is going through the same thing with Lloyds (am trying to convince him to claim back the charges - £75 a month, most months - I understand that he may be able to get this through the courts now, as we would come under the hardship rule)
I would pick option 2) Add them to my DMP

and if this wasn't a possibility then;
3) Contact them to try to come to a payment arrangement. Stating that you are on a dmp, and would like to come to an arrangement.

Nicki_Sue

sarriep wrote: »

Thanks Ossireo,
They did say the account will be defaulted in 2 weeks which I suppose is a good thing? I've been banking with them for over 20 years and did feel some loyalty. I don't know why as they have constantly charged us, we've paid huge amounts of interest every month and they would rarely refund overdraft fees even if we'd only gone over by a few pounds. I am worried they will take the cc payment from the overdraft though. It's up to its limit already so could they keep taking money and incur more and more charges?
Hmm.
Also, where in their literature do they recommend contacting CCCS? I'd just like this to hand when they keep badgering us!
Thanks!
Sx

I hope they default you soon!
I have 4 "debts" with HSBC who are my biggest creditor - 1 loan, two overdrafts and a credit card. They defaulted me recently (credit card only so far) and pass me onto CapQuest who have been brilliant. Nice on the phone (when they do ring which isnt often) and as soon as I explained I as in a DMP they were fine and gave me their acc no. / sort code to give to CCCS re payments and asked when they were getting their 1st payment (I had just paid CCCS my first paymet so wasnt sure if I could divert it quickly enough to capquest from hsbc but got an email from CCCS this morning said it was sorted and switched over) aand they were fine with the payment date. Said "Thank you" then ended the call - a POLITE DCA???

If they stay like this I'll be happy - just ish they'd pass on the other amounts!

Nicki_Sue

Trib_Man

Contac CCCS about this. They take a dim view of harrassment and will tell you what steps you can take to avoid/stop this. It is harrassment and not on - have you tried contacting the creditor and asked for a copy of their complaints procedure as you intend to complain to both them directly and the obudsman re this illegal harrassment. That'll put the wind up.

Nicki_Sue

MummyOnAMission wrote: »

Hi ya all you DMP people. Ive asked on my other thread but no one seems to be sure. Are any of you DMP'ers self employed. I have a phone call appt soon with CCCS to hopefully set up a DMP but was concerned they may not let us as self employed.

And the form they send prior i received today and its asking all his self employed costs ie gas, electric, transport,staffing etc but he doesnt really have them cos hes a sub-contractor to the same company. So just going to get the yearly and monthly income ready and the things he does pay like mobile, account. Is this right as well.

Thanks for your help.

I'm S Employed and it was fine - fill out as much info as you can before your call and see how you get on.
Good luck x

MummyOnAMission_2

Ive been totalling up the last 3 month wages like cccs tell u to do but for the last 8 months my OH as been working away so gets paid more but now he wont be working away. Will they take this into account? because if they worked it out on the wages he earned whilst away we would have to pay more than we can afford. Sept shows the wage he will now be earning and I can give them the previous years earnings as a guide for them.

thanks in advance!!

ianmak

Had my first snotty phonecall yesterday, from HFC Bank (I did owe them £145, prob up to 200 quid now). DMP is currently giving them £1, which he said was next to useless to them, to which I asked for a refund, and he said sure, and he'd speak to his manager! I just found the conversation very negative, and found myself getting wound up. None of the other creditors have been like that.