Hi i'm new to this forum so please be gentle and sorry if i ask the same questions that have been asked one hundred times before.

First my circumstances - When i was 18 and credit cards were being thrown on the table i was stupid enough to take them and overdrafts and dug myself into a rather large hole. This was now 6 years ago.

roughly a year and a half ago i found CCCS who have been nothing short of great in my debt management plan to getting this cleared considering at the time of writing i am a student and therefore on a very low income.

My Debt -

HSBC - 1448pounds

Albion Collections Ltd - 1401.33pounds

Royal Bank Of Scotland - 1243 pounds

Collect Direct - 674pounds

Regal Credit Consultants - 174pounds

NCO Europe - 194.94pounds

HSBC Mastercard - 521pounds

Total Debt - 4552.33

As far as my records are concerned the amount above is true of my RBS account. However today i received possibly the brightest debt recovery card slip from allied international stating i owe 888.27 could anyone explain this at all. Also judging from the over the top nature of the postcard/slip/letter i have a feeling these could be troublesome. Has anyone any experience with dealing with these?

As great as the CCCS DMP is its quite a slow process now what i was wondering is, is there anyway to reduce the overall owed amount to each debtor as i have read into full and final payments?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the extremely lengthy post, i am quite young and have been dealing with this since the age of 19 and so far have only had CCCS to turn to its nice to find a forum where people are supporting each other with past experiences and current circumstances, i like probably many of you have lost too much sleep over letters, calls and everything else that comes along with it.

thankyou

You have discovered the negative aspects of a DMP through the CCCS. They ridigidly make the payments irrespective of what is actually happening with the debts. CCCS seemed (at least when I was with them) to not really care too much about how the creditors were behaving, whether they were still chasing, whether the amount claimed was due wasw correct or whether the creditor even had a right to collect at all.

Each to his own of course, but I found I was in FAR greater control basically doing exactly what CCCS were doing. For example, at the moment my income has plummetted so I can only afford to make token payments for a while...so that's what I'm doing, I can guarantee a DMP company would have been mumping and moaning about it.

Don't get me wrong, the free services definitely have their place, but just be aware you CAN do it yourself.

Hi blindside,

I found the CAG forum in June and have had some great advice regarding writing to creditors. I filled in a CCCS budget form online but I'm not using their dmp although have considered it as I thought it would be less stressful.

My thread is here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?263744, hope the advice in the thread helps.

wilchil64

You have discovered the negative aspects of a DMP through the CCCS. They ridigidly make the payments irrespective of what is actually happening with the debts. CCCS seemed (at least when I was with them) to not really care too much about how the creditors were behaving, whether they were still chasing, whether the amount claimed was due wasw correct or whether the creditor even had a right to collect at all.

You've got a good point here. DMP firms are there to make pro-rata payments on behalf of their customers, they are not there to get too involved with individual disputes and queries with creditors.

I can guarantee a DMP company would have been mumping and moaning about it.

I'm not sure that's the case in reality. They should do any they can to advise furthermore. Bear in mind that if your income reduces to below the requisite £100 per month there is a strong chance that the DMP firm would have to stop working on your behalf. They should, however, supply the debtor with their alternative options.

I think there are pros and cons with both options, there is certainly not a one size fits all debt solution

Bear in mind that if your income reduces to below the requisite £100 per month there is a strong chance that the DMP firm would have to stop working on your behalf.

LOL, that's sort of what I meant by "mumping and moaning", but you put it much more eloquently.

Hi.......am with CCCS myself they have +and-,however to try and answer your questions.You say RBS debt £1243 has this debt been transferred to Allied Int for collection????????????????who state £888.27 owed...............???????? Have CCCS managed to get 0% from all creditors????????????You can go for Full+Final but do not do this through CCCS............If you want to tackle the 3 DCAs with F&F as these are 3 lower amounts first (ignore Albion at this stage as they are HSBC in house DCA),you should be able to negotiate a low settlement figure,this will upset CCCS no worry ,you can do your own DMP with the remaining debtors and review how much further you want to proceed with F&F................Depends on your answers regarding RBS/ Allied Int and 0% situation with CCCS.....................FS

LOL, that's sort of what I meant by "mumping and moaning", but you put it much more eloquently.

It's hardly a moan, it's simply their policy. There *has* to be a cut-off point somewhere!