Debt advise

[Guest]

Re: Debt advise

Hi

It depends really, if you dont mind the pestering of DCAs, then i would suggest you send ccas to them all and see how the land lies.

Most of the free DMPs will only entertain a plan if you include all your unsecured debt, this perhaps is an advantage of doing your own, i believe even the assisted ones should ensure that the client includes all his debts.

If you are being adversly affected and find you have difficulty coping with DCAs i would recomend you set up a DMP with one of the free agencies, CCCS or Payplan, in my experiance they have the advantage in cases like this in that they can usually quickly remove the pressure from collectors.

Peter

[kanodi]

Re: Debt advise

Thanks Peter,

How would I tell if the DCA has bought the debt or are just working on behalf of the OC?

[Guest]

Re: Debt advise

Thanks Peter,

How would I tell if the DCA has bought the debt or are just working on behalf of the OC?

Hi

You could always just ask them. You could also enclose " if you have aquired this alleged debt from the orriginal creditor, please also enclose a copy of the notice of assignment".

As far as the CCA request is concerned, if you send it to the company that is chasing the debt they are required by statute to pass the request along to the creditor

Peter

[kanodi]

Re: Debt advise

Forgive me if I should post my separate questions on different forums?

Why would it be that none of the creditors have taken county court action against me? nothing shows on my credit report(or does it not?)

[Celestine]

Re: Debt advise

Hi Kanodi

Firstly, sorry your thread got hijacked for quite a few posts, the questions raised have now been dealt with on another thread so I have removed them from your thread as it was 'losing you' amongst all the off topic stuff.

Many/most creditors don't take County Court action because it costs them money up front (in court fees/solicitors costs etc).

So instead they send multiple letters threatening court action but usually not advancing to that.
If you own property and show up on creditor searches, they are more likely to pursue you legally because you have a fixed asset that they can go for.

They will however trash your credit report with defaults which have virtually the same impact on your ability to borrow money as a CCJ will do.

[kanodi]

Re: Debt advise

Thanks Celestine, it's just that Lowell portfolio have passed it to Red Debt Collection Services, who are now talking about passing it to Hamptons Legal(Which I am guessing, is yet another part of Lowell) who they say may take legal action.

I am not trying to avoid my debts(Well I am for a little while), I just want to sort out what I actually owe and do not, and then I may consider a management plan.

Also forgive my ignorance, but how can they add defaults to my credit report, when I have not signed any agreements with them? Obviously I signed agreements with the OC's. Sorry just don't understand it all.

Anyway, thank you all for your help and advice.

[labman]

Re: Debt advise

Thanks Celestine, it's just that Lowell portfolio have passed it to Red Debt Collection Services, who are now talking about passing it to Hamptons Legal(Which I am guessing, is yet another part of Lowell) who they say may take legal action. That is why you need to send the Prove It letter as advised by Curlyben - trust him, he's good! Yes, Hampton's Legal is another bit of Lowells.

I am not trying to avoid my debts(Well I am for a little while), I just want to sort out what I actually owe and do not, and then I may consider a management plan. Again, send the Prove It to the ones mentioned by CB. The others you know you owe for sure.

Also forgive my ignorance, but how can they add defaults to my credit report, when I have not signed any agreements with them? Obviously I signed agreements with the OC's. Sorry just don't understand it all. The OC assigns the debt to the Debt Collection Agency who then has the right to report to the CRA's. Very occasionally they sell the entire debt, then the DCA effectively becomes the OC. This is quite normal.

Anyway, thank you all for your help and advice.

Back to a better colour!:tinysmile_grin_t: Send the Prove It letter to those mentioned by Curlyben and see what they send back. Let us know. If what comes back does prove it, then we go from there; if it doesn't then you can be a little more awkward with them. A CCA request would be the next logical step.

Until all debts are sorted as to whether they hold CCA's or not, whether they can prove their right to collect them or not, etc... assuming 6 years have not passed in the meantime, then you can sort out a DMP with anyone left.

Hope this helps. :beagle:

[kanodi]

Re: Debt advise

Thanks again Labman.

Sorry can I just ask one more question .. If I decide to go with a DMP with say CCCS would they look into CCA's and ensure I am not being fleeced, etc? Or will they simply pay the DCA's what they want?

Thanks.

[labman]

Re: Debt advise

Neither. They won't look into CCA's - you'd need to do that, preferably before you enter the DMP if you're not under too much pressure from them. Creditors can be added later, but obviously the other creditors are never very keen to see a payment offer being reduced. They're always happy to see them being increased.

They won't just pay them what they want either. The CCCS form is a bit different from the Common Financial Statement I use, but in many respects is similar. They look at your assets, your income and your expenditure. Initially they will look at the assets and see if there is any way you can free up monies to repay your debts, offer full and final settlements etc... If you are not able to free up money from any assets you may have, then they look at your dispoable income (what is left after you've paid all your monthly bills). If you owed three people £1000, Debt 1 = £500, Debt2 = £300, Debt 3 = £200.

Say you have £100 disposable income, this is split pro rata between the three debts, so Debt 1 would get £50, D2 would get £30 and D3 would get £20.

This is basically how a DMP works.

As well as this there are 'trigger figures' which are the amounts that have been calculated for a people to live on. They are split into areas such as Telephone, Household Expenditure, Travel etc... If you exceed the trigger figures, the DMP adviser will ask you if there is a reason (-eg- a long commute driving up travel costs). If there isn't, they'll try to help you reduce that section of expenditure. The trigger figures are very realistic and are not like benefit payments where you're expected to eat dust.

A final thing to remember is that a DMP is not legally binding. You can go through the initial process, then change your mind. Either party can back out at any stage, and there is no guarantee all offers will be accepted.

The quality of what you are getting shows in various ways - Will they fight to get interest and charges frozen for you? Will they fight to get repayment offers accepted if the creditor initially refuses? Will they try to get your account defaulted as soon as is feasibly possible so your CRF returns to normal asap? Will they keep you entirely informed (or informed to the extent you want) about what is happening, or will they just take a payment each month and that's it?

These are some of the areas where you'll find out just how good a service or adviser you have.

I hope this answers some of your questions - don't hesitte to post up anything else you want to know. :beagle:

[kanodi]

Re: Debt advise

Thanks again labman,

If I go for a DMP now without CCAing any of them, is there anything stopping me doing this once I am in a DMP? Or would it be better left alone then?

I only ask as I have family members urging me to get a DMP set up and do not want to upset them by starting a long drawn out letter war with DCA's

[labman]

Re: Debt advise

Nothing stopping you at all. If you were to find out some were unenforceable, it would free up money which in theory should go to increase payments to other creditors.

You need to do what is right for you - I know that's not always easy.

DMP's are an informal arrangement though, so you can do what you want when you're in them. The golden rule though is once offers are accepted, always pay on time. Never give them an excuse to back out.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to fill out an IE sheet from here first. Sometimes the IE sheet itself needs working on before it is submitted. CCCS should talk you through this.

[kanodi]

Re: Debt advise

Brilliant thanks yet again, I think this is the route I will be taking.

I will let you all know how I get on, no doubt I will have more questions.

Thanks.

[labman]

Re: Debt advise

Good luck - hope it works well for you!:beagle: