www.iva.co.uk

steps so far:

1. changed from barlcays bank to yorkshire bank with no trouble

2. Next Directory agree to the dmp, reducing payments from £60 to £12 - wow!

3. Co-op Bank agree to the dmp, reducung payments from £130 to £80 - better than nowt!

4. Amex pass on the matter to a collection agency who so far seem happy to work with CCCS

5. no joy from Barclays Bank/Barclaycard as of yet, apart from a letter from customer relation syaing they have sent my dmp notification letter to the relevant department

6. Not heard from Citi cards yet

good thing so far is that no hassling phone calls

so far CCCS have been ok, answer emails relatively quickly, though I could do with them chasing Barclays/Barclaycard as I am still paying overdraft charges and bank loans, when I asked them about this they advised me to contact Barlcays direct and that "they (Barclays) would help me". So that is what I'll do!

updates to follow, good luck to you and yours

Interesting - keep the news coming

I thought CCCS did all the chasing with the creditors?

That's what you've engaged them for.

Not sure that they do and is another reason why sometimes a commercial sector firm is better!

Nope they don't.[:(]

When i first asked about a DMP with them, they sent a letter and I was to photocopy it along with a copy of my I&E and send it to all my creditors. To be honest, it was slightly off putting as I was not up to dealing with it all at that point.

There is a lot of misinformation about what CCCS do and don't do which should be publicised and comparisons with the commercial sector.

We went with a commercial firm, and they did everything for us.

Mind you, we were paying them for it!

I agree that from your contribution they take a fee and then remit over the balance BUT CCCS don't take a fee from the contribution you make but get their fees from the banks after distributing what they pay.

Hence with CCCS the banks never get paid in full but end up with 87%, whilst with the commercialmsector they get paid in full provided the DMP lasts for that long period!

further update from Barclays - said the payment offered would take too long to payback - 5 years didn't sound too long to me, compared with "never" if I hadn't have done anything! Barclays have said they passed it to another agency for recovery - we'll see what CCCS are made of now! If they are not up to the job then I might go commercial. Only went with CCCS as I heard they had a good relationship with creditors (well they would if they get paid by them!). oh well onwards and hopefully upwards!

with CCCS you do a bot of leg work yourself, came as a surprise to me but I'm willing to give it a go, if it doesn't work they'll be ditched and I'll post as many negative reviews on them as I can on as many websites as I can find.

Barclays will now have handed it on to Mercers Skint - stand by for a barrage of phone calls and letters from them.

I don't see how Barclays can say 5 years is too long when an IVA lasts that long, and with the DMP they will be getting more back!

Kallis - I didn't think there was any logic to it either, never did like Barclays!

If only we all had an Arab Sheik to run too like Barclays' CEO or tax payers money like Northern Rock and RBS.

If Mercers try it on then we'll soon see what CCCS are made of (repeating myself there!), if the phone calls come I'll either screen them or change my number, they won't beat me,

That's the spirit skint of leek [:D]

Probably a good idea Skint - they are usually merciless in their bullying!

Now Barclays are demanding full payment of the overdraft - though I'm not sure if this is just a standard letter that they have to send out to comply with the legalities of debt! Seems to be spiralling out of control, might ring CCCS and politely ask them what's going on