cccs dmp

[bristolred]

Hi all

 

I have been viewing this website for a while with regards to my own debt problems

.If anybody has had a similar experiance to me your comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

I am on a dmp with the cccs and have been for 6 years,

 

I am now getting to the stage where I feel more confident about possibly going it alone.

 

By and large cccs have been great,

 

I started off witha around 26k worth of debt and am now sitting at around 18k.

 

When I 1st started they were extremely helpful and my monthly payment was a very manageable £86 a month.

As time has progressed and I have done well for myself at work I am now paying £287 a month.

I still have around 6 years or so worth of payments to make at the current rate but I am sure this will go up at my yearly review.

 

I am thinking of stopping payments of my dmp but I am concerned about all the aggro this could cause with creditors.

 

How long would it take for creditors to contact me?

 

Would all creditors contact me?

 

My thinking is, is that if I stopped paying I could possibly save enough money for full and final payments.

 

This has been troubling me for months,at present things are sweet and I am getting no letters/phone calls etc.

But on the other hand it feels like my £287 is just disappearing to a black hole.

I get a statement from cccs each month but nothing more.

 

A while ago I received a phone call from a creditor saying they would accept £2k as f&f payment, cccs never followed this up.

It just seems that cccs wanted to drain every penny away from us even to the point of child allowance,

which is the only money my wife gets,

which takes care of bits for the kids.

I made this clear to cccs but they still included it.

 

They kicked off when I said I was paying £12.50 in to a pension.

 

Like I said they are not all bad and will be eternally grateful to them for getting me back on my feet.

 

I am in two minds of what to do for the best, carrying on paying cccs for 6/7 years or try and go it alone

 

I look forward to your responses

[Wintry]

Hi all

 

I have been viewing this website for a while with regards to my own debt problems.If anybody has had a similar experiance to me your comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

I am on a dmp with the cccs and have been for 6 years, I am now getting to the stage where I feel more confident about possibly going it alone.

By and large cccs have been great, I started off witha around 26k worth of debt and am now sitting at around 18k. When I 1st started they were extremely helpful and my monthly payment was a very manageable £86 a month. As time has progressed and I have done well for myself at work I am now paying £287 a month.

I still have around 6 years or so worth of payments to make at the current rate but I am sure this will go up at my yearly review.

 

I am thinking of stopping payments of my dmp but I am concerned about all the aggro this could cause with creditors.

 

How long would it take for creditors to contact me?

 

Would all creditors contact me?

 

My thinking is, is that if I stopped paying I could possibly save enough money for full and final payments.

 

This has been troubling me for months,at present things are sweet and I am getting no letters/phone calls etc. But on the other hand it feels like my £287 is just disappearing to a black hole. I get a statement from cccs each month but nothing more.

 

A while ago I received a phone call from a creditor saying they would accept £2k as f&f payment, cccs never followed this up.It just seems that cccs wanted to drain every penny away from us even to the point of child allowance, which is the only money my wife gets, which takes care of bits for the kids. I made this clear to cccs but they still included it.

 

They kicked off when I said I was paying £12.50 in to a pension.

 

Like I said they are not all bad and will be eternally grateful to them for getting me back on my feet.

 

I am in two minds of what to do for the best, carrying on paying cccs for 6/7 years or try and go it alone

 

I look forward to your responses

 

Hi

 

Why do you feel that your money is disapearing down a black hole as the level of your debts must be reducing?

 

If you just stop paying then your creditors would almost certainly start contacting or perhaps worse.

 

Going alone can definitely have its advantages depending on circumstances and if you are confident enough I suppose, however this type of procedure is not for everybody and it would have to be your choice at the end of the day

 

Have CCCS explained and advised you on all your options and solutions (including the pros & cons of full & final settlement offers)?

 

PS - looking at your figures I was wondering overall, how much have you paid into the Debt Management Plan since it first started and are you struggling with the level of payments.

 

Could you put up more detail of your overall circumstances, total debts, income expenditure, assets etc?

 

Best wishes

Edited March 1, 2012 by Wintry

[citizenB]

If you want to have a go at going it alone.. then have a read of the following first

The following has recently been brought to my attention and could prove very useful. Especially now the OFT guidance specifically states it's an Unfair practice to ignore a cashflow budget!

If you are experiencing difficulty in repaying your debts, CASHflow is a way for you to negotiate affordable repayments with your creditors. Before you can use CASHflow, you must have spoken to one of the free advice agencies licensed to offer CASHflow to their clients. The advice agency will start by talking to you about all of the options available, and can help you to decide if CASHflow is the right one for you.

 

If you decide to use CASHflow, you will be provided with all of the tools you need to be able to complete your own financial statement and negotiate offers of repayment with creditors yourself. This will enable you to stay in control of your situation, but still have support from an adviser at any stage if you need it.

 

You can contact a local advice agency to check if they offer CASHflow. You can find a list of free advice agencies that are near to you by searching for a money adviser in England or Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland.

Alternatively, you can call National Debtline on 0808 808 4000

CASHflow: http://www.cashflow.uk.net/

National Debtline: http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

https://www.mymoneysteps.org/

xx

[citizenB]

Also, as long as you continue to maintain the payments to the creditors at the agreed rate then there should be no problems. But if you do find they get a bit stroppy.. then have a read of the following.

 

You will see from the previous post that the CASHflow budget is approved by the OFT therefore your creditors should continue to honour it.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?840-Stop-your-bank-or-lender-breaching-their-instalment-agreement

[Wintry]

Hi again bristol

 

Just to add from the previous poster, along with Cashflow there is the new CAB system that might also be worth a look, this system saves all your details, has guidence allowance figures to work with if you wish and you do not need to be invited / signed off etc with this system, just log in and away you go (see below)

 

(Also, there are a number of other self help tools and systems around so might be worth a little exploration if this is what you eventually decide on.)

 

http://mymoney.nedcab.org.uk/moneyadvice/

 

http://mymoney.nedcab.org.uk/moneyadvice/ (example of completed DMP)

 

Make sure you obtain full independent impartial advice if you have any doubts on anything.

 

Your decisions at the end of the day.

 

Best wishes

[citizenB]

Wintry, thank.. I keep forgetting that one.. which is a bit naughty because we highlighted it in the CAG newsletter !

[Wintry]

Hi citizen

 

Thanks for the info, I was not aware of the newsletter, I wiil take a look.

 

Nothing wrong with giving people a choice.

 

Genuine thanks

[citizenB]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?848-January-Newsletter

 

January Newsletter.. right at the bottom

[Wintry]

Hi citizen

 

Cheers for that.

[bristolred]

hi everyone

 

Thank you for your very useful comments/links

 

.I have decided to continue as I am for the time being,

I get very few letters from creditors these days and this is all thanks to cccs

.I quote their number and that's the last I hear of it.

 

It was great to get some feedback from other people and help me see things a little clearer.

 

Perhaps I underestimate what cccs do

,it's great to come home from work and not have a stack of threatining letters,

which was the norm a few years ago.

 

When I think about it properly......I keep thinking 6 years and then I am debt free.

 

Totally debt free before 40.

 

I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger as credit was so easily available.

 

I had some great times but boy have I paid for it, 12-15 years paying it back.

 

I have learned an extremely hard lesson.

 

A lesson I can pass on to my wonderful sons when they are old enough to understand.

 

I will feel a huge sense of achievement when it is finally all paid back and will have come out of this a wiser and better man.

 

 

Thanks again people

[citizenB]

You need to do what is best for you, bristolred.

 

Some people prefer to DIY it, others like yourself prefer the stress free version. The good thing is that you arent paying for a DMP which is how a lot of people end up DIYing.

 

Plus of course if there are any questionable charges/ppi the CCCS will not involve themselves with those so you could be paying for something that you dont need to.

 

As long as you are comfortable with the way you are doing things... we wish you well

[DuffNCustard]

As your DMP is well bedded in and you clearly appreciate the fact that you're not getting too much aggro from your creditors, stick with it. If the real issue is to do with the fact that you've got another 6 years to slog and by playing ducks and drakes with your payments to do F &F's you think you can reduce that 6 years, well you'll introduce some risk. Penalty charges? Interest being started up again? so by knocking one debt on the head you could extend the others. Going it alone will not necessarily mean being debt free sooner.

 

I paid my debts off with a DMP run by the CCCS - took 5 years but as I'm now debt free apart from the mortgage, totally worth it. One of the tricks I used to keep myself motivated, was a spreadsheet where I tracked each of my debts and showed a month on month comparison to the previous year, including interest (2 of my creditors continued to apply interest). I reckon I knew every detail by heart I checked that workbook so often. In the 3rd year I had 2 debts paid off and that seemed to be the turning point for me as I felt I was over the top of the hill.

 

This forum also helped me to keep things in perspective, sure I was dealing with £92k worth of stupidity but there were others a whole lot worse off than me, some of the stories here certainly stopped me feeling sorry for myself. Keep slogging on you'll get there!

[The Ghost]

Go CASHflow - it's good. The CAB system is not particularly good, though obviously their staff will fight for it.

 

If CCCS had maintained just your original payment, you'd owe just under 20K now, so they have not been very successful in getting interest and charges frozen.

[Wintry]

Go CASHflow - it's good. The CAB system is not particularly good, though obviously their staff will fight for it.

 

If CCCS had maintained just your original payment, you'd owe just under 20K now, so they have not been very successful in getting interest and charges frozen.

 

Hi Ghost

 

Yes interesting figures.

 

People have the choice with CASHflow or the CAB system, both have their positives and negatives in my opinion, along with other self help material that is around.

 

Interesting statement though on your preference which of course is your perogative.

 

If you dont mind, would you care to elaborate , perhaps on the pros and cons of both systems?

 

I have used both so can genuinely comment and am interested in any feedback.

 

The CAB one is in its infancy but is expanding and it is also under going further development.

 

Also the CAB resource is not funded by the banks or creditors

 

Ghost, If I am honest I prefer the CAB system hands down for a number of reasons and think out of the two systems as they currently stand it will be the CAB one that will eventually become used the most, but that could be seen as bias which is fair enough.

 

The revised OFT guidelines on debt collection are significant and should apply if you use any free DMP agency, company, self help system or geniunely go it alone and we should all be shouting these guidelines off the rooftops at creditors and their collection agency friends if they do not adhere, report them all.

 

As always only time will tell

 

And just to add - Assisted Debt Management & DIY is certainly not for everybody.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Wintry

[fightingback99]

We started with CCCS , but cancelled when we discovered they'd allowed a DCA who'd taken over an account to add over £100 or so to an account balance without our knowledge. When we asked how this had happened CCCS said it was for court case fees. But there hadn't been a court case, and CCCS said the creditor's figures were usually correct. Actually turned out we'd overpaid the DCA by £40 never mind owing court fees. !!

 

Around that time a pretty nasty DCA who'd bought an account refused to accept CCCS's repayment offer, asking for a lot more and was threatening to issue court papers and then try for a charging order etc etc. All CCCS could advise was to see what happened and if we received court papers to fill in the bit saying we admitted the debt and return to the court with an I & E form. Which didn't seem like much of an idea at the time.

 

When we left CCCS provided us with sort codes, account numbers and reference numbers and addresses for all of our accounts. One hour later I'd set up monthly repayment standing orders online to all our creditors. 5 years on have had no real problems. Initially we used to send annual; I&E forms + offers out every year, but stopped after a couple of years. Creditors contact us every so often and ask for this, but we tend to ignore them, as they have no legal right to I&E info anyway, but continue to make monthly payments. Over the years we've increased and decreased monthly payment figures. So far so good.

 

CCCS and other free debt advice orgs are very helpful when first setting up, helping to get creditors to stop charges and interest etc, being able to make a single payment for distribution and getting to grips with all the stress etc. But being with CCCS or similiar doesn't stop a creditor from selling your account to a DCA along the road , or protect you from much else for that matter. CAB might give better support in that area I don't know how .

 

It's possible to run your own plan, and be in charge of who gets paid what and when and control your own destiny. As long as you're organised enough to ensure you don't spend your allocated debt repayment money on anything else , and can fill out a few template forms if you decide to reurn I&E requests to creditors etc. There's no guarantees whichever route you take, so as has been said whatever you feel comfortable with is probably best for you.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

I think the theme emerging on this and other threads is that entering a DMP with the help of a 3rd party doesn't mean sitting back and assuming everything will be solved. You still have to manage the DMP and 3rd party running it. You have to check interest is being frozen, check your CRA to ensure the totals are going down and challenge on both counts. If you do this you will be successful.