Please could someone advise me about my issues. I've already spoken to CCCS and was told that my options were either bankruptcy or token payments. Background: Currently working part time and earning just enough to cover a "low" budget according to CCCS's standards. Had health problems, including hospitalised. Now I need to get into a career which will allow me to work for the next few decades. Debt: Approx £28K over 6 credit cards (highest is £6k, lowest is £2.5K) and 1 overdraft. I was advised that I need to be in a position to pay the debt off in under 10 years so CCCS won't sort out a DMP for me.In my case, what I really need to do it pay reduced for around 4.5years. Then I'll be in a position to be making larger payments. In 6 years I need to co-sign for a re-mortgage of the family house. Currently NOT in my name in anyway. All debts are on my file with Equifax and most likely enforceable. Question: At the moment the only attraction for token/DMP is that I can keep two credit-rebuilder cards to boost my credit over the next 6 years. However if I risk getting some random default say 3 years from now if the bank sees my CR file and doesn't like me using it, then my record is tarnished for 9 years, not 6! I also wanted the option of using the credit card due to the inherent protection against fraud, purchases over £100 etc. Eventually I was planning on CCA and SAR'ing all of them as I set aside money each month for postal orders. I should have made a thread on here earlier and forgone the waiting time for CCCS appt. On the plus side, I now now for certain that I'm not eligible for any benefits or support from the State. Questions below and in earlier paragraph with “question” in bold. Do you think the creditors will accept token payments until July 2017, higher reasonable payments thereafter and consider that a DMP and not default me? CCCS said that they aren't able to negotiate that kind of variable DMP at the moment. I'd of course be frank about my health issues, how I'm studying pt time then fulltime, difficulty finding more work at present etc. However CCCS said that the banks probably won't care about my personal circumstances nor accept a DMP on such a low level of repayment (without defaults on my record and/or passing it onto an agency. Agency might accept it though...). so...DMP, bankruptcy, IVA, token payments or what? Thanks

hi all i have debts with around 7 different lenders owing around 10k in total. i am currently earning around 1300 a month my rent is 250 and i pay family debts of 600 a month. I am thinking about going down the dmp route as i am struggling to afford the monthly payments. my question is will they accept me if im paying out family debts? these have to be paid i cant not pay them. are these priority debts compared to my unsecured debts? any help will be helpful thanks

Hello, I'm new to this sight but have been reading several posts and would like to put my situation to you (developed over many years which I am ashamed of). I have a DMP with the CCCS for debts around £67000 unsecured and have been successfully paying off my plan to date. I've had this DMP since 2009. I moved to Australia just over a year ago without telling the CCCS (had a job opportunity and was afraid they wouldn't let me go - in retrospect I should have told them!), and now my review is due - in fact a little late. If I tell them I am now in Australia, which I think I should do, will this affect my DMP and do you think the creditors will not accept the review especially as I haven't told them of my position? Should I let them know my Australian address and telephone numbers? I have a house in the UK with no equity that I know of and the mortgage is with NRAM, if the review is not accepted, is it likely that the creditors will want the house sold? The situation gets worse - the mortgage is for about £199000 with an additional secured loan of around £47000. Last valuation of the house last year was for £250000. I have been renting the house out to my stepson but he's now moving out and now I will be renting the house to new tenants. I have no property here in Australia and just rent a house. Could I possibly ask your thoughts on this please?

Hi there, new to the forum but have read a number of threads where the knowledgeable responses give really good advice and a sense of hope for people in tough situations. The problem is I’m unsure as to what I need to do in my circumstance, I know it’s not unique but I find it difficult gathering all the information and knowing what do next etc, hence this post, where I’m hoping to get some step by step pointers if you like. Some background info; a little over a year ago things came to a head where all our ‘disposable’ income was being swallowed up paying the minimum payments to our creditors. We faced up to our debt, which amounted to £24k, and although it was a tough time, we entered into a DMP with payplan. We have just completed our first annual review, and thanks to a change in our circumstances we were able to up our monthly payments from £100/month to £350/month . Roughly our outstanding debt stands as follows: MBNA (Credit card): £13k – default served, interest and charges frozen, has now been passed to Link Financial ltd. Santander (loan): £8.5k – default served, interest not frozen so now owe £1k more than last year HSBC (Credit card & overdraft): £2k – default served, interest and charges frozen Remaining debt on store cards - defaults served, interest and charges final frozen! Although we haven’t really moved on in reducing our debt (particularly thanks to Santander’s interest charge!!), we are in a much better place financially and can face the future optimistically. We have moved all our banking to Nationwide, and their online banking facility really helps us manage our money. Our aim is to be debt free within the next 5 years, a tough but realistic target we feel, but having completed our first year, I would like some guidance which could possibly reduce this time frame, particularly if Santander are going to keep applying their interest charges! So my questions to the good people of the forum are: 1. Interest and charges have been added at the start of the DMP, is it possible to get these removed? 2. Is there a template letter I can send to Santander to get interest frozen, and possibly remove the interest applied recently? 3. Our credit card with MBNA was taken out pre 2007, does this make it unenforceable? If so what are my options with repaying this debt, and how do I go about proving this? 4. Finally is there any other things I should of done/be doing? I apologise for the length of this post, and hopefully I’ve posted it in the correct forum, Thank you in advance... Trev

Hi, Just wanting a little point in the right direction if anyone can help please! Last month I lost my job and now myself and my 5 year old daughter are back living with my mum as could not afford the rent on our flat. I currently have the following debts: £6138 Halifax -have told them my situation and CCA'd them, got a signed agreement back (unlucky me) and I have missed one payment which they have sent me a collection letter for, it has also sent me over the my credit limit with the late payment charge and interest. Grrr Cooperative Bank Loan - £8232.18 is the balance showing on my online account although I'm sure the settlement figure would be more, they don't yet know of my situation due to me having my only current account with them - (I've been accepted by HSBC for a current account, just trying up the loose ends on that one.) but I'm up to date on payments due to my mum bailing me out this month. (Loan was originally taken out in 2010) £597 Cooperative credit card also currently up to date with payments at the moment (card was taken out 2009) Around £1000 to another bank , can't remember who without checking my paperwork, for an iMac I got 3 months ago, when i first got wind I might be made redundant (whilst my credit rating was still ok) with the hope of setting up my own photography business if I did. (I did) So I'm not quite sure what to do. I've gone on the CCCS's website and filled in their questionnaire which pointed me to a DMP, but without the iMac debt I would be (just) under the £15000 DRO limit. Can I even get a DRO or do a DMP if I am self employed (although not earning much as just starting out!)? Should I send the iMac back? Or can it be disregarded as a personal debt as it's for business use? Also I don't think I've been mis-sold PPI in the past (I had a loan with the Halifax back in 2004 which was paid off but can't find any details on it) and I think my only late charges have been in this last month with the Halifax Thank you for any advice in advance. Thriftyloz

Hi, I wonder if someone could possibly help me with a couple of queries I have. Hi, My husband and I currently have a DMP with CCCS which we have had since May 2010. When we first started the DMP, I also had a Littlewoods account but I didn't include it with the rest of my creditors as it didn't have much on it and I thought I would pay if off before the DMP started. Unfortunately we needed to use it for some household appliances which broke and we hoped to pay if off with my husband's commission, however, he hasn't received as much as we expected. The account has now increased to the point now where I can no longer afford the monthly payments. I have been burying my head in the sand a bit about it but I now need to do something about it. I have emailed CCCS to see if they are going to cancel my DMP or if they are willing to help me but in the meantime, I wanted to find out how I can go about managing my own DMP if they cancel. - All my creditors have accepted my DMP so I don't think it would be difficult now to manage it on my own. I'm not sure, however, how I would add the Littlewoods debt to it? Do I send them a letter saying I can't afford the monthly payment and offer them a reduced amount? Do I have to tell Littlewoods that I have been in a DMP for the last few years? Do I have to tell the other creditors about it? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi all, Just a quick question as I want to finally sort my finances. I'm looking to go with eithers cccs or payplan (possibly do it myself but I'll ask that in another subforum) and as such I had a look at my experian credit report today. I'm sure there are a few things missing from there (guess I'll have to do statutory with equifax and callcredit soon) but one thing I noticed with all my payday lenders but Early Payday in particular was that the initialloan was for under £200 I defaulted at £460 and now the balance reads £1250ish. I know I should have contacted them sooner but this does seem pretty high! So should I accept that? or is it worth challenging? Also, quick question last year I did an experian statutory report and saw Wonga on there for about 1900 (I kept a copy so I'm sure of this) I've done a report today and there's no sign of Wonga or even a similar amount? Are they reporting to a different agency or something now? Should I contact them to get my account details or how can I find the information? Many thanks

hi, i'm new on here so apologies if someone else has already asked or answered these qquestions i'm looking into getting a dmp set up with payplan and i'm after real opinions of them & their service - also, do they have a minimum amount to pay each month? does anyone know of any payday companies that refuse or are really awkward about setting up DMP plans with them - i have collected quite a few and hope that a dmp will be the end of my worries! thanks for any help x

Hi Guys, I hope you can help me. I have several issues that i want to raise regarding think banking and gregory pennington and hope that someone can help. Firstly i took out a DMP with Gregory Pennington nearly 3 years ago. i provided my income / outgoings and explained that i was struggling to live and pay rent due to my high levels of debt. I looked over everything and even though i knew there would be a fee attached, decided it was worth the money as long as my debts got cleared....this is where things started to go horribly wrong! Firstly i was informed by Gregory Pennington that i would 'NEED' to set up a bank account with Think Banking. Since i was paying large overdraft fees each month the £12.50 monthly admin fee seemed a drop in the ocean in comparison, and so i agreed. I realise now that there is no need for me to ever 'pay' for a bank account and i feel like i was forced into taking this account and want to know if i can do anything about it in the same way people claim for mis sold PPI? These two companies claim to be seperate and yet with the mounting issues i am having with both of them they seem to be almost intertwined and i wanted to know if you had any further information about them? Also when i signed up for this account think proudly announce that they are part of the RBS group. I have found out today following the massive RBS banking issue on moneysavingexpert that this company is not part of RBS at all and merly uses there banking system and i am wondering if this is then fraud? I have several complaints that i wish to lay out to you but if i can start here any advice would / info would be greatly appreciated as looking over these forums you guys seem to have quite a bit of experience of dealing with people tied in with these con artists

Hi, I have a few other threads for LTSB, but this new one is specific to my Loan and interest etc. I hope that I haven't duplicated over two threads but I wanted to keep this one separate. This is long, and I will try to be as concise as possible. I would like to ask for advice as what to do first, and wether the interest payments added are legal and correct. I am missing some information, and I have sent 2 SAR’s to LTSB, the 1st accidentally went to HBOS (address incorrect on ICO register and recorded signature failed so reclaiming from RM for ‘lost’) and I await the documents from the 2nd SAR. I have been reviewing all documentation from my creditors, as I have been on a DMP since June 2006, in 6 years I have reviewed frequently (with Pay Plan) and lowered repayments twice, due to rent increases etc. I still contribute quick a hefty chunk of money to my DMP, not just token payments - approx. £750 a month. This thread is for a Lloyds TSB loan, and I have adjusted the figures slightly so as not to highlight my identity to the trolls. 2004 : Loan taken - value £22,000 & PPI £5000, over 60 months (consolidated 2 previous loans) - irresponsible lending by LTSB (but thats another whole different story!) 2006 : 21 payments made and then financial difficulty 2006 : June started DMP (DMP to last 6 years but extended by 2 years as payments lowered) 2006 : LTSB refused to acknowledge DMP, harassed by many ‘arrears’ letters and threats etc, but interest appeared to have stopped. 2009 : Default notice sent over 3.5 years after ‘contractual payments’ broken 2009 : July, letter from LTSB states ‘interest frozen’ (clearly it wasn’t) 2009/2010 : Interest RE-started, no link to re-structure of DMP etc. Just re-started out of the blue. 2009 : Interest added as below, for a period of at least 6 months (I cant locate all ‘arrears statements’ at the moment) 2010 : Account defaulted, 1 year after DN sent, and 4 years after DMP started, and co-incidentally after interest added in thousands. In summary, I have paid approx. £16,000 whilst on DMP, so if interest stopped I would have a balance of a couple of thousand pounds. Instead the balance remains at over £11,000! When viewing an arrears letter I noticed a very strange calculation on the balance, I list one month example below (figures for demonstration purposes): Due Credit Debit Balance 12 Dec 09 Opening Balance 10,000 16 Dec 09 Repayment 250.00 09,750 17 Dec 09 Repayment Due 600 10,350 19 Dec 09 Interest 150 10,500 So charges of £750, my payment of £250 is not touching the balance and EACH MONTH the figure is increasing by approx. £500! Q1 : Is this correct, is this the correct accounting procedure to add the £600 contractual payment to the outstanding balance of the Loan. This certainly is not on any T&C for any LTSB previous loans (these were consolidated by I cant yet find the CCA for this loan). Q2 :If the interest was frozen initially, and then re-started can I challenge this under hardship rules? Q3: I believe I can challenge default date, as this is well over 3 years after first contractual payment missed. Is this true? At this rate the loan will never be paid, and my credit file will have this loan on there permanently. At this moment in time I don’t know if I am more p’d off at the credits administered onto the loan, or that my credit file will be permanently ruined. I do have PPI to reclaim, as it was mis-sold (cover provided elsewhere) but I am not sure at what point to reclaim, I was thinking of doind PPI reclaim after questioning the interest charges etc and thus getting the loan to a reasonable value before claiming PPI which would in effect reduce balance to 0. Sorry its a long one, but I wonder if anybody else had the same ‘service’ from lloyds on their loans under DMP? Thanks

Hi All Here is my predicament. We are expecting another baby in Sept and my wife will go on mat leave for approx 6 months. She is the main earner in the household so we are going to lose approx £1200 per month. Est income will be £2000 Est outgoings will be £2600 Outgoings include £900 of loans, credits cards and other finance. If I could 1/2 the payments I am making to these lenders in the short-term (6-12 months) and make a few cutbacks elsewhere, I think I could make the books balance. Finance includes the following: Private loan £20k @ £280 p/m Personal loan of £8k @ £230 p/m (halifax) 3x credit cards of £6k @ £140 p/m (halifax, barclaycard, vanquis) DFS @ £70 p/m Solicitor @ £100 p/m What I plan to do is write to all these creditors with an offer: Are they likely to listen and help? Is there any chance they might freeze interest? Would DFS try to reposes the sofa? Any other advice? I know this is going to affect my credit rating and quite frankly I would be glad of it. Finance people throw credit at me and I am not responsible enough (see above). The alternative is IVA or BR but I think as it's a short-term problem and we are homeowners, I should avoid that. I would be extremely grateful for any advice. Thanks Ryan

Hi, I have quite a large amount of money on cards (around £10,000) and whilst it is not impossible for me to pay the monthly payments, it is a struggle and I am certainly not making any headway in paying off the debts. What I really need is a loan over 3-5 years and an opportunity to cancel my cards, have mangeable monthly payments and see an end to the debt in 3-5 years time. I do not want to go down the DMP route as I feel that this is unnecessary. I have banked with natwest for most of my life (30 years) and I went to them to apply for a loan. Everything looked good to begin with and I passed all of their affordability checks and everything, but when it came down to it, the loan application was rejected. Pressumably due to bad credit rating as i have at times gone over credit or made late payments to my cards. It is very frustrating for me because I know that i can afford the monthly payments on a loan as they would be comfortably less than what I am paying now, i am trying to get my life back on track, and it is proving impossible. Is there anything I can do, or anybody I can contact to help get the loan approved? I don't mind shoeing that it is being used to consolidate debts, or showing that i will cancel my cards after paying off the credit. I just desperately need to move these credit card debts so I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Please help? Thanks.

Hello, I am in the process of setting up DMP for my payday loans. I have had a reply from Text Loan advising I would owe £554 instead of the £350. What should I do? The email as follows: Dear Richard, Thank you for contacting us. If you require a repayment plan for a period of time exceeding the 60 days of our credit cycle, the full overdue balance to be repaid will be £554, which is fixed as after 60 days the interest and charges are frozen. We are prepared to accept £15.95 monthly payments. Please be so kind as to provide the exact dates we can debit your card, or set up a standing order. -- Kind regards, Adrian Young Client Account Manager Any ideas of what I should do? Should I just pay the £550? Or shall I contest the amount? thanks

Dear All, First, thanks you for sharing; there is a feeling of belonging here! I have read some threads but i have such a long way to go. Background: -I have >£11K debt (inclusive of about £2.5K Personal O/D, £2.5K Biz CC, £0.5K Personal CC, £3K+ uni 'debt', rent, Council Tax). -Not had much going on work-wise and self employed biz lately, so fallen behind on payments. -Making smaller payment to Council, and rent plan in place with landlord. -I am behind on 2 biz CC payments and O/D withdrawn after going over the limit a couple of times (now full payment demanded). -Uni 'debt' has an internal settlement arrangement but account passed on to DCA last year; guess they were done with my ' i am in financial difficulties' mantra! -About £12K in Assets. - Personal A/C is an Advantage Gold (which i have never benefited from but somehow thought it helped my O/D), and biz Current A/C is ok except for limited inflows. After a DIY Income and Expenditure Assessment, i 'see' there is no surplus to keep up CC minimum payments and pay off O/D until i can raise income; which i am hopeful will happen next year but have no proof i can offer creditors yet. Having read the CAG forums and elsewhere thus far, i thought a DIY DMP would do me good ; giving some control of how my debt affairs develop. I am just quite confused and overwhelmed where to start, especially with the bank CC and O/D monies. Queries: -Any chance the bank can consider freezing interests, charges and/or holding off repayments for a couple of months (with very small payments) when i have no surplus to even make the minimum payments? -Can i additionally explore possible PPI and other charge claims that could somewhat lower amounts (although i am not sure any were applied to the accounts and O/D)? -Is it possible to cancel the Advantage Gold service with ease in my circumstance, and anything i could claim back? - I have to ask DCA to return debt handling to the Uni (had made a tiny payment to get some peace from DCA but can't afford more for now). Is this possible? -If i made a SAR on the accounts and CC for details held, would they think i am starting to act 'funny'? -Bankruptcy possibilities, i am i worrying too early about that? Should i consider selling of my assets sooner than later? Am i actually going the right way with this? Quite confused to be honest. Thank you for reading, your comments are much appreciated. In2Debt