The problem with both CCCS and Payplan is that they have tied their flags firmly to the banks' mast and, in doing so, cast doubt as to in whose interest they give their advice.
Personally, I think that you will get the right advice from them both eventually, but initially it's likely to be slanted in favour of the banks and I can give an example.
http://www.cccs.co.uk/about/cases.aspx
This is a link to CCCS's web site which gives examples of the advice they give. If you look at the example of Mark why recommend making token payments of £1 until the divorce. The two issues are completely separate and poor old Mark is going to get it in the ear from both the wife and the creditors with their incessant calls, The divorce could take absolutely months. Mark would be far better advised to make himself bankrupy now.
So what has CCCS acheived by giving this advice. Not much on the face of it but they have delayed the need for the bank to write off the debt for several months and if you added up the financial effect to the banks of that on all the clients that CCCS advise it probably is a tidy some in the banks eyes.
Sure they'll see you for free. The banks are paying them to do it. You'll probably end up with the right debt solution but it's likely to be slanted in the banks direction, not yours. They'll work on out of date I&E provisions and will claim that they can't revise them because the bank's won't accept anything else, yet a charity of this size and influence should be championing a fair solution and they don't do it, so in a CCCS DMP you'll get stuck with a really tight expenditure budget.
And why? Yes, you're right Optimist, it was me who said that they effectively earn commission from all the money that they collect on behalf of the banks. So,they are not free really. It's just that the banks would rather see the cost of this exercise measured as a % of recoveries and not the professional cost of giving the debtor independent advice.
And what bugs me even more is that all this masquerades as a charity when the actual amount of charitable donations that CCCS receive is tiny compared to the revenue they earn from their debt collection activities. Sorry, I meant DMP's.
And yes they do set up charitable foundations and commission interesting reports on debt education and societies attitude to debt, but I bet they'll never commission one on the poor lending standards of British banks or why banks appear to consider themselves outside of the BBA's agreed standards when it comes to their debt colection activities.
So the rant is nearly over. The saying that comes to mind is "if you sup with the devil take care to have a long spoon" but actually CCCS and Payplan are better than that. It's just that they have so badly tainted what could have been two truly needed organisations by forgetting who they represent.
And just in case you think that I'm some nutter who has it in for them, and assuming that I haven;t bored you stiff about this subject, just see what Steve Rhodes says about them, particularly in the context of the current problems in our profession.
http://myvesta.org.uk/articles/articles ... Page1.html
Rant over!!
