help please

[Duckinorange]

Re: help please

Thanks for your inputs. I'm not sure whether I am bothered by the thought of defaults or not. The way I feel at the moment I never want credit again.

I'm sure CCCS will want a full income and outgoings doing, so I really need to get that together. Husbands income is difficult to work out with him being self employed as we have b&b, food, business calls, petrol and all sorts to deduct before we can see what he actually earns. So it will take some time to do, a bit like doing a proper tax return, but I think it will be important to be accurate?

MBNA have made it clear that they won't freeze anything unless it is all formal via a debt advice service. Without them freezing stuff any money I give them will just get swallowed in charges. It is very frustrating.

[CleverClogs]

Re: help please

I'm sure CCCS will want a full income and outgoings doing, so I really need to get that together. Husbands income is difficult to work out with him being self employed as we have b&b, food, business calls, petrol and all sorts to deduct before we can see what he actually earns. So it will take some time to do, a bit like doing a proper tax return, but I think it will be important to be accurate?

Call or contact CCCS without delay, as it makes no sense working out income and expenditure to a level of detail that is not really necessary.

MBNA have made it clear that they won't freeze anything unless it is all formal via a debt advice service. Without them freezing stuff any money I give them will just get swallowed in charges. It is very frustrating.

But, alas, quite typical of the Mafia Bank of North America.

[Amethyst]

Re: help please

With self employed income an average monthly income is used, calculated from the average of a number of months income immediately prior to completion of the IE.

Speak to CCCS and they will talk you through it all. When I first contacted CCCS to go through my debts and IE it was such a relief I burst into tears. They took the main weight off my shoulders and allowed me to concentrate on major issues as they arose without constant hassle from DCA's/lenders.

[The Debt Star]

Re: help please

With self employed income an average monthly income is used, calculated from the average of a number of months income immediately prior to completion of the IE.

Speak to CCCS and they will talk you through it all. When I first contacted CCCS to go through my debts and IE it was such a relief I burst into tears. They took the main weight off my shoulders and allowed me to concentrate on major issues as they arose without constant hassle from DCA's/lenders.

That's certainly how I felt initially as well.

But, when you recover and want to start leading a normal life again in 4 or 5 years' time and want to do something like get a mortgage and move home, you won't be able to because your credit files will have been screwed by going onto the CCCS DMP.

For me, the CCCS was short term gain, long term pain.

That's just my personal experience. I do think you can come to arrangements with your creditors without CCCS involvement and find out what minimum payments they are prepared to accept without cremating your credit worthiness in the future.

That's up to you and you have indicated you don't care about your credit files. Its just that you might later on down the road and for a wide variety of reasons. I'm not criticising or undermining Amethyst's advice, I'm just pointing out the cons of a CCCS DMP where the likes of creditors like Egg are concerned.

I've been there and got the T'shirt from going on a CCCS DMP and how banks like Egg respond to formal DMPs. They will then farm your account out to a DCA and sell it on to bottom feeders like Arrow Global, so imo if you can do anything in your power to avoid that I would. If not, and life is so unbearable, then the CCCS is the way to go.

[Amethyst]

Re: help please

Agree with Debtstar - if you want credit in the next six years then a DMP is not the right way to go - however, if you carry on struggling and then succumb to a DMP in two/three years after a shedload more stress, it is a further two/three years onto your credit file. I threw in the towel credit wise in 2006...got everything defaulted, started the DMP, I got a CCJ and a Charging Order - I have not taken out any credit since starting on the DMP, until last year I took a credit builder credit card out - everything has now dropped off my file or is dropping off over the next year and having sold my house my Charging Order is clear, the CCJ drops off next year and I'll be free. It hasn't been easy and has been a complete change of lifestyle and tbh I much prefer living on cash rather than credit and feel much more in control now. It really is a personal decision how you want to handle the debts and move forwards. I just wanted the calls to stop and not have to borrow from friends and family to get food and pay the electric, I wasn't fussed about more credit or getting a new mortgage, so it worked brilliantly for me.

Okay earlier this year I did have a go at getting a mortgage but couldn't, but at least I know that in the next year my file will be clear, so it's not a case of now being completely scuppered and having to battle away for the next six years, just the next year.

[Caspar]

Re: help please

Sorry, been away for a couple of days, but I agree that CCCS is a good way to go as long as you are happy for your CRF to be hit.

You need to get the interest stopped as soon as possible, and to be honest I think they're being a little naughty not doing so now. You've done exactly the right thing communicating clearly with them at an early stage. They are supposed to help you. Keep an eye on the overall sum of debt, as if it increases because of the interest they are charging, I think we need to put a letter together for them pointing out the error of their ways.

[CleverClogs]

Re: help please

I think we need to put a letter together for them pointing out the error of their ways.

And reminding those bastar... "gentlemen" of the Lenders' Code?