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Hi Folks, Barclays have just advised me that they will ALWAYS accept a payment figure put to them by CCCS. It will take you a month to get a CCCS appointment (they're currently receiving over 2000 calls a day!) but they will sort out the plan with you and manage it free. If you're on the site to reclaim charges, this won't help you but it might get them off your back if you're being harrassed by phone by Barclaycard or Mercers. www.cccs.co.uk
Good luck!
Unfortunatlely CCCS will only get involved if you can get on some sort of debt management plan with them, otherwise they refuse to get involved.
Their low start dmp was £600 per month when we were in contact with them, and they wouldnt do anything for us when we got speaking to them again (took 2 months and that was in January!) until we were on some sort of a plan with them.
So its seems those that are the most in need, or have little or nothing available each month to offer their creditors, wont get the help from BC/Mercers. We are still trying many months later.
Doesnt make any sense. What is also interesting is that the CCCS is funded by the banks and they are aware that the CCCS wont get involved until you are on a debt plan, regardless they continue to state that they need written confirmation of CCCS involvement. The documents you recieve from CCCS initially just arent enough, nor are the I&E forms which they complete for you.
Hi Meerkat, if this is true (and I have no reason to doubt it) then I think that's really disgusting. I am on a plan - just started - but figure I'd rather have the management fee going towards paying the debt off hence my appointment with CCCS at the end of the month with an eye to them taking the plan over. But my circumstances change in September, so I wonder what will happen then...will keep you posted. CCCS is a charity and it isn't clear that its bank funded. Oh well, another financial institution stitch up then. Note, I've had my plan payment accepted by BC and its not with/through CCCS. Again, I only succeeded with this because I went directly to the top. Will update soon...
I couldnt believe that CCCS are bank funded, but apparently so, hence why they are reluctant to rock the boat when it comes to one of us asking to withhold payments on a disputed account.
I also find it shocking that they wont help those in most need (not that everyone doesnt need help, dont get me wrong) but BC especially are so unhelpful.
I offered £1 as told to by CCCS and sent that together with I&E forms. They accepted the money, but didnt set the agreement up. I phoned them and was told £1 wouldnt cut it, but £5 offered from a third party charity such as the CCCS would be acceptable and they would freeze interest and charges for 3-6 months then review (I explained I was working with CCCS, had my reference number, although they wouldnt get involved as I could not afford a dmp and that the CCCS informed me the back are well aware of these kind of circumstances).
Its all wrong, but all we can do is keep trying. BC have ignored my CPR 31.16 request and are treating it as a complaint and replied as such....talk about no idea.
Perhaps you would share some of your information on how you have been successful in getting them to accept your terms.
Hi Meerkat, I am incensed by this. I thought a dmp was just that even if it only meant £1 a pop - how rediculous to have a minimum! As for me, I read through this forum solidly for 2 days noting names and legal references and worked out that Barclays and BC follow common e-mail address protocols...so I e-mailed a few people (bounced back) and copied in the CEO - John Farley - which didn't bounce back I quoted my rights and outlined my complaint/difficulty in dealing with BC and it got sorted. Nothing magical at all. It just paid me to go the the Directors office. However, at the moment I am able to pay more than £1. I think that when you can't - and my time will come - that all you can do is sit tight, pay the money and let them take you to court which they clearly won't. I am deeply shocked that a charity - which CCCS porportedly is - can't/won't help every one. Note I have 7 debtors in all and so far only 2 have accepted my terms (MBNA and BC).The rest are piling on the late payment and now (because of late payment charges) the 'over the limit' penalties. I don't have the energy to tackle eveyone indpendently and the only ones harrassing me by phone were BC and that was my priority. My priority now is to see my 3 kids through their education and into the big wide world so I anticipate paying off these debts until...well...until I die frankly. I have set up a trust with my Life Insurance policy so the vultures won't get a penny when I die and what isn't paid off by then is tough. What a complete shambles!
LoL BBNB
I am glad you had success with BC, strangely they are one of the few for me who havent worked with us and refuse to comply with CCA, SAR and now CPR...Thankfully there time is up for all 3 and now it begins to get serious back towards them.
I understand your children being your priority, mine is as well for us. The trust is a good idea, we have done a similar thing, I mean, this was all unsecured debt - had we wanted to have anything secured on our home the interest rates would have been a fraction of what we were being charged and so think it is a joke that laws are in place to allow the creditors to get a charge on your home or force a sale.
We have abandoned the CCCS, payplan was much better in terms of moral support, although equally they couldnt do much more. However, they did provide a personal letter for us to send out to our creditors, something the CCCS wouldnt do. CCCS also told us right away to go bankrupt, no other options (none that they were prepared to assist us with anyway), yet a wonderful lady from payplan phoned me back late one Friday night when we were both very low and told me bankruptcy should be the last thing we think about. She put our minds at ease which we were so grateful for, because we had no hope up to that point.
Have since found out that the CAB do a low start dmp from less than £100 pm, as I said CCCS said I needed £600 pm or I would be better off going bankrupt.
Good luck with your quest, most banks are realistic enough to know that they have to work with you eventually. I mean - bankruptcy gets them nothing usually, so what options have they got?
Hi Meerkat,
well, I asked CCCS about their minimum (no minimum) and their funding. They are a charity but the banks 'recognise' their budgets so give them a % back of what they get paid. So, onto their budgets - what a joke. They'd have me paying £200 more than my current plan (with which I'm struggling) and £200 less than my minimum payments would have been anyway. They don't live in the real world at all. So, I shall have to continue paying towards a budget plan as their 'free plan' I simply can't afford! As they said to me 'perhaps you're one of the few people we can't help'...their agenda is definately set by the banks I believe, but its only conjecture on my part.....
No I would guess you are right, they are assisted by the banks. If truth by told, you are not one of the few they cant help, but one of the many, they said the same to me.
Im not rubbishing them by any means, when we finally plucked up the courage to speak with someone about our problems, they were the first call and the guy who spoke with us did put our minds at rest initially and was extremely good hearted. However, move that to the next step and our 'counselling' session and our 'counsellor' advised us just to go bankrupt, no other options, we hadnt enough money to get onto a dmp (£600 was what they stated to me as what the minimum would be, although I have heard also that others are on £300 pm dmp's with them). She also said CCJ means nothing, she had 3 and it was no problems at all,. except we are trying to avoid charging orders on our home, so it was for us.
When we phoned back in response to BC's request for them to get involved with making our token gesture offer, they said they wouldnt be able to because we were not on a dmp with them, and therefore they are more like the smaritans than any real financial help.
In desperation we e-mailed payplan and late one Friday evening we had a call from a wonderful woman who put our minds at rest and stated that bankruptcy should be our last option, not our first one. She also put our minds at rest about baliffs and other things regarding charging orders, which were never explained by CCCS.
I dont know whats different in terms of their funding, but payplan were clearly out to help, while it seems CCCS are only interested in those that are payers (or who can pay a substantial amount). For that reason they seem to shadow the banks just a little too closely. If they were purely a charity, their aim would be to help those most in need, and work your way back (maybe my logic is messed up here) instead of helping those who are in a position to come to an arrangement and discarding those who are 'helpless'.
But this is only my opinion based on my own experiences and others have found them to be lifesavers.
Meerkat, I think you're right; I got the distinct impression that they work to the banks agenda. My 'councelor' was not terribly pleasant and once she realsied I couldn't aford the plan and was most anxious to cut the call short rather than explore the options - quite rude in fact. But she made sure to give me the fightening facts about CCJs etc first (scare tactics) but fortunately I'd found this forum first! Oh well, onwards and upwards! Things can only get better! Mustn't be bitter!
Barclay Card - CCCS - Payment Plan
have just advised me that they will ALWAYS accept a payment figure put to them by CCCS. It will take you a month to get a CCCS appointment (they're currently receiving over 2000 calls a day!) but they will sort out the plan with you and manage it free. If you're on the site to reclaim charges, this won't help you but it might get them off your back if you're being harrassed by phone by Barclaycard or Mercers.
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