Hello I've been through all my statements and as far as I can tell there are no unlawful charges or PPI. If there are (from way back) they would be extremely small amounts. Why do I need to send CCAs - what is the value of sending these? CCCS have negotiated reduced payments for me against all 12 creditors, and I've been on this DMP for about 2 years now - I started off at £400 per month and now pay £490 a month on debt which currently stands at £61.5k. But it's crippling me and I don't have a life! I can cash in an endowment which would enable me to offer between 25% and 33% of the debts as F&Fs. But before I send off the requests, I wanted to ensure I wasn't doing something stupid. In particular, the ownership of the debt is something I've read about on this site. My Sainsbury's loan is still with them but they communicate through Blair, Oliver, and my Amex is managed by Resolve. The others are still with original creditors and I receive statements from them etc varying from monthly to quarterly statements. I don't want to antagonise my creditors - I know I'm just another line in their accounts, and I know they can turn nasty whenever they choose, but for now they are going along with the DMP. Barclaycard and Sainsbury's still charge interest, but the others have all frozen theirs. Any advice, bearing in mind that I'm a wuss! thanks I know I owe the money - creditors know I owe the money, so what does the CCA do?

Hi, just had another thought.... On credit card bills they always state that minimim payments etc etc, but not once do any of them state that if you use cards to supplement your income then you will always have to use them to continue to supplement your income. It's a self perpetuating vicious circle that once you're in it you can't escape easily from it. I think it should be mandatory for all credit card companies to make this clear. For me, and for many of the posters on this site, this is what has happened to them. It's a scandal that it's not made clear to people. Just ranting. CCCS rejected my revised statement because of one or two little things that were over their limits. I told them I couldn't alter them and that enough is enough - I can't cut back anymore. There has to be a limit on how low you can go. I mentioned to them that this problem has affected my career chances because of things like poor clothing, bad hair do's, not being able to afford decent shoes so walking like a 70 year old, etc etc. CCCS seem to have different rules for people depending on how compliant you are. More ranting, sorry.

Hi I've downloaded the letter template for the CCA - do I need to use the exact wordings, eg the time limits and sections of the Act etc or can I soften it? Also, I know this sounds a bit stupid but just want to be sure I've understood correctly, what does it mean to me if they cannot produce the CCA - either within the deadline, or not at all? thanks

I've just done my sums and my total debt is £65.6k. CCCS sent me a statement saying I now owed £61k but they've forgotten that some of the creditors keep adding on interest. Tesco debt has gone up by £2.5k in the last 20 months because of interest being added each month. This is so depressing.

hello again I've just been looking through paperwork. When I said MBNA offered me a F&F settlement at 35%, they didn't. What they've said is a partial settlement, but they would not pursue me for the remaining balance, and would indicate a partial settlement on my credit file. Can anyone explain this to me. Would they be legally entitled to pursue the remaining balance. And are they indicating partial on the credit file to prevent me getting further credit - not that I want any, but I might need a small mortgage in the near future, just NO CARDS!! thanks

Hi patrick/PriorityOne No, I've not heard of HFO Capital. The lender I'm referring to is First Direct. The reason I went along with them was to avoid them taking out a charge on the account. If they had done that, then there was a risk the others would have done the same. Is it the case that creditors will not take a charge out on your home if you're meeting agreed payments? I wouldn't be able to go for F&F if charges were taken out. For the CCAs, I'm going to mull this over. PriorityOne, I now understand what you've been saying. I will request these but I will start slowly, eg those creditors that are mean and won't freeze the interest. thanks

Hi there I've had a good read of some of the other threads on this site and although CCAs are mentioned often, I am still a bit confused. As far as I remember, every single credit card application - whether online or paper - had a section relating to the CC Act and I knew this when I signed them or 'clicked Apply Now'. So I don't understand how a debt can be unenforcable. Can someone explain or point me to where I can read further on this, please. I have to contact CCCS this week to go through my I&E statement again and offer a new payment each month. I also know that Barclaycard and one or two others have written to say the plan is to be reviewed and until they get a new offer they will revert to the original agreement. I can't face paying all that interest again - I can't afford it. That's how I got into this mess, the minimum payments took everything. I've also seen on the threads that when asked for a copy of the CCA some companies just send back a copy of their terms and conditions. So, by asking for CCAs I might just make them angry and I could end up in a worse situation than I'm in now, I think??? I'm very confused. thanks

Thanks PriorityOne I will look round the site and get a feel for the CCA requests. What you say makes a lot of sense. I think I have allowed CCCS to push me into something that's very inflexible, and as I look set to lose my house anyway, there could have been other routes I could have taken. But I'll write again when I've checked out the CCAs. EO

Hi The CCCS are very hard about this; I've no money each month to go out and socialise, and whenever they review the repayments, they always expect me to increase the amount. I will get a pay rise this year, which will equate to about £20 per month in my pocket, but the cost of living will go up even more. Then I won't get a pay rise for at least two years because of a pay freeze. I am interested in the CCAs. I have one secured loan and one unsecured. For both these I had to physically sign papers and send them off. But as far as I'm concerned, the secured one was under duress. For the credit cards, I completed written applications - some online, and some offline - and signed them/ticked the relevant box. Do these sound like proper CCAs? Some of them are later than April 2007 - probably about 4 of them. Most are prior to that. I'm sure they all sent the same sort of paperwork back to me with the new card, which may have mentioned something about 1974 Consumer Credit Act. I've only ever max'd out one of the cards; some of them had ridiculous credit limits, eg £20k. If I had max'd out all of them I would probably owe in the region of £100k. Big question - if I challenge any of these, won't that annoy them to the point where they will no longer co-operate with me? thanks

Hi, thanks for your response. My debts are for: One that was a credit card is now a secured loan (iro £6k) One is a loan with Saisbury's bank (iro £6.5k) One is with &More (iro £10k) One is with Barclaycard for £8.4k - that is a mix of transfers from other cards - reasonably low interest- ish Two are with MBNA and total £10K or just over Others are credit cards with transferred amounts in them and vary from £2K to around £4k Total is around £62k (reduced from £67k when I first went belly up) - I do need to work out the exact figures but that's the jist of it. I think they probably all include transfers - the 0% offers etc which I was tempted by. Debts were racked up by not being able to make ends meet each month: - force to remortgage to pay off ex - helped him when he needed it, bills, groceries etc (before I was forced to pay him off) - buying furniture for my son and his family when they moved to an empty house with no cash/credit - 2 x week long holidays - last one in 2005 - to Europe - general cost of living - huge gas bill a couple of years back, cost of home maintenance So nothing particulary fancy there; it just mounted up and up! None of my credit pre-dates 2000. It only took 8 years to go from debt free (other than mortgage) to being totally broke. My daughter's debt is just one credit card (£3k) and car HP and mobile etc things she has contracts for. She will get work soon I hope but I didn't want her to get in the same position as me - she hates debt now so something good has come of it all. Even if I didn't sell my house now, I would probably have to eventually - I don't think I'll be able to clear off the mortgage by the time I'm 65. That would cost me around £1700 per month on the current interest rate. thanks

Hi - forgot to mention... MBNA are collecting £18 a month over and above the CCCS amount 'just to keep the account with them'. I don't mind this too much. They have previously provided me with F&F settlement amounts but I didn't have any money anyway so couldn't take up the offer. They said they would be willing to offer a reduced amount whenever I requested. I'm currently paying creditors via CCCS £465 a month and can increase to about £500. But I haven't been paying any capital off my mortgage for a while because my daughter's unemployed and has commitments of around £600 a month that I've been paying for. She was made redundant and has been messed around by DWP so hasn't had any JSA for more than 3 months. It's all such a mess. So I want to clear my debts and hers too. thanks

Hi I have debts of around £62k (they were £67 but i've been on DMP for 20 months). I have eleven creditors plus my mortgage, and my DMP is managed by CCCS. I cannot carry on like this as I will be paying debts for another 17 years. And now I've started getting letters from creditors saying the current arrangement is due to expire, etc, so I will have to go through all the negotiation again via CCCS. All my creditors froze interest except Barclaycard. One of my creditors holds my mortgage also, and they 'convinced' me to convert my credit card debt of around £6k with them into a secured loan. CCCS advised against this but as they held my mortgage I felt quite threatened by them - although they didn't verbally threaten me or anything, just the implications of them having my mortgage and the risk of them going to court to secure it anyway. My mortgage is £140k. So now I've decided to sell my house and pay off my debts. If I pay everything in full (£202k) I will have virtually nothing left to my name. If I try and offer a F&F settlement, of around 40% of the debt, should I say I'm selling the house - I don't think I should. But when I get the cash, I won't live at that address any longer and they will need to write to me I guess. I've been reading other threads on this and 'Andie' has recommended using a third party. Would CCCS be suitable and would they be able to negotiate a good deal? Any advice would be really appreciated. I'm 54 now and the threat of redundancy hangs over me within the next 18 months. I don't have much of a pension, but I have an endowment that matures in 3.5 years worth around £35k I reckon. I can't go on living like this for the next 17+ years. thanks