Another update. My wife had her latest statement through and it has the minimum payment the same as proposed by the CCCS and they have reduced the APR from approx 16% to 3%!
Another great result!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Lloyds TSB Mastercard - accepted and % reduced!
I had a statement from Lloyds yesterday.
My usual monthly minimum payment is around £265 a month and my anual interest is 22.9%. My latest bill shows an expected payment of £179 (which was offered by CCCS) and the interest rate has reduced to 0.482% per month which equates to approximately 5.7% APR!
This is great news as they are my 2nd biggest lender after NorthernRock!
My wife and I are feeling so much better after starting our DMP and for our first month we've managed to stick to our budget. Our budget is very tight but it's not impossible!
My usual monthly minimum payment is around £265 a month and my anual interest is 22.9%. My latest bill shows an expected payment of £179 (which was offered by CCCS) and the interest rate has reduced to 0.482% per month which equates to approximately 5.7% APR!
This is great news as they are my 2nd biggest lender after NorthernRock!
My wife and I are feeling so much better after starting our DMP and for our first month we've managed to stick to our budget. Our budget is very tight but it's not impossible!
Monday, January 18, 2010
CitiBank refused DMP & Managed Loan offer from HSBC
Over the last week I've had 2 letters regarding my DMP.
The first was from HSBC who agreed to accept the reduced payment offer from CCCS providing we signed up for a Managed Loan @ 7%APR for a duration of 80months.
I was happy with this offer as we are currently paying approx 20%APR on our outstanding credit card and overdrafts.
I sent the details to the CCCS who advised me not to accept the offer though! They explained this as saying that in their experience HSBC would pass the debt on to a debt collection agency (DCA) who would more than likely accept the offer and would mre than likely stop any interest or charges. Far from me to question CCCS who have a wealth of experience in these matters so I did not take up the loan.
The other letter was from the CCCS themselves who have advised us that CitiBank have refused to accept the reduced payments. The CCCS advised that they would continue to make the reduced payments anyhow but that CitiBank would also be likely to pass the debt on to a DCA.
The above is a little stressfull as we wanted to avoid DCA's in general as I'm not sure what their powers are in terms of recovering debt - but I guess we'll find out eventually!
That's it for now. This is the first month of our DMP and so far cashflow has been so much easier. I've opened a savings account where I can put asside the money for eveything that was agreed on the DMP such as £20 a month of car tax etc and so far it looks like being the first month in a long time that we will actually have stuck to our budget!
Next update as and when I hear anything.
The first was from HSBC who agreed to accept the reduced payment offer from CCCS providing we signed up for a Managed Loan @ 7%APR for a duration of 80months.
I was happy with this offer as we are currently paying approx 20%APR on our outstanding credit card and overdrafts.
I sent the details to the CCCS who advised me not to accept the offer though! They explained this as saying that in their experience HSBC would pass the debt on to a debt collection agency (DCA) who would more than likely accept the offer and would mre than likely stop any interest or charges. Far from me to question CCCS who have a wealth of experience in these matters so I did not take up the loan.
The other letter was from the CCCS themselves who have advised us that CitiBank have refused to accept the reduced payments. The CCCS advised that they would continue to make the reduced payments anyhow but that CitiBank would also be likely to pass the debt on to a DCA.
The above is a little stressfull as we wanted to avoid DCA's in general as I'm not sure what their powers are in terms of recovering debt - but I guess we'll find out eventually!
That's it for now. This is the first month of our DMP and so far cashflow has been so much easier. I've opened a savings account where I can put asside the money for eveything that was agreed on the DMP such as £20 a month of car tax etc and so far it looks like being the first month in a long time that we will actually have stuck to our budget!
Next update as and when I hear anything.
Monday, January 11, 2010
HSBC response to CCCS
We had a very weighty pack from HSBC over the weekend regarding our debts with them and CCCS.
the CCCS had written to them with a combined monthly payment for 2 overdrafts and 1 credit card of £130.54p.
HSBC wrote to us and basically said that they would accept the payment in the form of us taking out a loan to cover the debts we had. The loan would be over 80months and would be for just over £8k and would cost us just over £10k to repay with an APR of 7%.
I thought this was pretty good!
Our current overdrafts are changed at something like 18% APR and my wife's credit card is 21% APR!
I spoke with the CCCS this morning who suggested that we didn't take out the loan due to the interest being changed. I pointed out that HSBC are entitle to continue charging us at the current rates while also charging us at least £25 a month on one of the overdrafts which is over the agreed limit!
The guy said the best thing to do would be to scan the offer from HSBC and email it to them and then call back in 2 days time when they have had a chance to have a read. He said normally the would hope that thhe bigger lenders wouldlsimply stop interest and charges however this is not set in stone.
The other benefit of taking out the loan would be that for the next 80 months (6 years) we would have a good credit record rather than another creditor logging non/late payments.
I'll let you know what the CCCS say when I speak to them however I am very much of the opinion that HSBC are being as fair as they can while also enabling them to make some kind of profit. I'm not opposed to my creditors making a profit at a fair rate (keep in mind at present the current Bank of England base rate is 0.5%).
the CCCS had written to them with a combined monthly payment for 2 overdrafts and 1 credit card of £130.54p.
HSBC wrote to us and basically said that they would accept the payment in the form of us taking out a loan to cover the debts we had. The loan would be over 80months and would be for just over £8k and would cost us just over £10k to repay with an APR of 7%.
I thought this was pretty good!
Our current overdrafts are changed at something like 18% APR and my wife's credit card is 21% APR!
I spoke with the CCCS this morning who suggested that we didn't take out the loan due to the interest being changed. I pointed out that HSBC are entitle to continue charging us at the current rates while also charging us at least £25 a month on one of the overdrafts which is over the agreed limit!
The guy said the best thing to do would be to scan the offer from HSBC and email it to them and then call back in 2 days time when they have had a chance to have a read. He said normally the would hope that thhe bigger lenders wouldlsimply stop interest and charges however this is not set in stone.
The other benefit of taking out the loan would be that for the next 80 months (6 years) we would have a good credit record rather than another creditor logging non/late payments.
I'll let you know what the CCCS say when I speak to them however I am very much of the opinion that HSBC are being as fair as they can while also enabling them to make some kind of profit. I'm not opposed to my creditors making a profit at a fair rate (keep in mind at present the current Bank of England base rate is 0.5%).
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