DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Newbie
    edited 3 July 2017 at 10:59AM
    Lastly, and slightly off topic.... I have always felt that it was my responsibility to pay back everything that I borrowed ....... Recently I have started to feel a little bitter that the banks and other financial institutions allowed someone earning about £20k a year to borrow that amount of money. I used the money because I felt I had no choice in order to live but should they not have had some responsibility for responsible lending? Does anyone else feel like that or is it me?

    On the plus side I have paid off nearly £50k now....

    :hello:AllTheHelpICanGet. Welcome to the thread where you'll find all the advice and encouragement you need to see off your remaining debt:T


    You've done so well to pay off as much as you have:T


    What you said about it being your responsibility to pay back everything you borrowed strikes a chord with me too. But, like you, I definitely do feel bitter that the banks and other lenders didn't step in and stop my downward spiral into unsustainable debt. I do take responsibility for my borrowing, no-one held a gun to my head, but my cards became totally maxed-out and I had resorted (through desperation and massive interest charges) to withdrawing cash from my cards several times a month just to live. I hadn't discovered this thread then, in fact I'd never even heard of a DMP:o. This pattern must have been obvious to the lenders but instead of doing anything to prevent it they probably realised they could get even more out of me by upping my credit limit whenever the last one was reached:mad:. Like you, I was earning about £20,000 p.a. at the time yet I ended up with credit limits of £15,000, £14,0000, £12,500 etc etc all at the same time:eek:. Miraculously, by so much juggling, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and by the skin of my teeth I managed to never miss a single payment on any of my cards until that fateful month in early 2013 when everything went pear-shaped and I sought advice which led to starting a DMP with Stepchange. My debt at the time was approaching £57,000:o. Starting a DMP was the best financial decision I ever made:j:j:j


    Good Luck with your debt-busting. Please ask all the questions you want and keep posting to let us know how you are doing:beer::beer:
  • sourcrates
    sourcrates Posts: 28,717
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    Its well known now that banks were lending irresponsibly to all and sundry right up until the crash of 2008, and even more so by the payday lenders up until last year.

    They were out to shake you down for every last penny of high rate interest they could squeeze out of you, then there were all the, what the banks like to term, "mis-selling" problems, what i would call fraud.

    PPI, packaged bank accounts, bank charges of £35 a time, over limit charges, late payment charges, the list goes on.

    No financial institution came out of that period smelling of roses, they were all involved in mass fraud against there customers, mainly for the PPI debacle, where they told you outright lies in most cases, you simply cannot include the word "banker" and "morals" in the same sentence, as the former is devoid of the latter.
    I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free wannabe, Credit file and ratings, and Bankruptcy and living with it boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.For free non-judgemental debt advice, contact either Stepchange, National Debtline, or CitizensAdviceBureaux.Link to SOA Calculator- https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php The "provit letter" is here-https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter
  • :hello:AllTheHelpICanGet. Welcome to the thread where you'll find all the advice and encouragement you need to see off your remaining debt:T


    You've done so well to pay off as much as you have:T


    What you said about it being your responsibility to pay back everything you borrowed strikes a chord with me too. But, like you, I definitely do feel bitter that the banks and other lenders didn't step in and stop my downward spiral into unsustainable debt. I do take responsibility for my borrowing, no-one held a gun to my head, but my cards became totally maxed-out and I had resorted (through desperation and massive interest charges) to withdrawing cash from my cards several times a month just to live. I hadn't discovered this thread then, in fact I'd never even heard of a DMP:o. This pattern must have been obvious to the lenders but instead of doing anything to prevent it they probably realised they could get even more out of me by upping my credit limit whenever the last one was reached:mad:. Like you, I was earning about £20,000 p.a. at the time yet I ended up with credit limits of £15,000, £14,0000, £12,500 etc etc all at the same time:eek:. Miraculously, by so much juggling, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and by the skin of my teeth I managed to never miss a single payment on any of my cards until that fateful month in early 2013 when everything went pear-shaped and I sought advice which led to starting a DMP with Stepchange. My debt at the time was approaching £57,000:o. Starting a DMP was the best financial decision I ever made:j:j:j


    Good Luck with your debt-busting. Please ask all the questions you want and keep posting to let us know how you are doing:beer::beer:

    Thank you! And your situation sounds so very much like mine... I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels bitter about it! At the start of my DMP journey I feel more solely responsible but, particularly lately, I'm starting to feel more annoyed and let down by the financial intitutions who were just so irresponsible. How could someone on the salary I was on at the time be given credit limits of in excess of £10k from multiple card issuers?!

    Anyway, I'm plodding on but I am far more open now to repaying lower F&F's and, potentially, walking away if a debt is proven to be unenforceable. We shall see....

    Nice to know I'm not alone - in fact far from it if these boards are anything to go by...
  • purplepaws
    purplepaws Posts: 76
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    If I cancel my DD then presumably, I will be classed as defaulting on the payments? And additional fees will be applied?
    DMP launched 04/07/17 left to pay = £14,238.79 (£16,982.82 original debt.) Thanks to MSE & all you wonderful Forum Peeps!:T
  • January2015
    January2015 Posts: 2,369
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    purplepaws wrote: »
    Good morning,
    Following the great advice on here and after contacting the CAB, I have decided to go with a self managed DMP.
    I have a few questions though, which you'll probably think are totally stupid but I'm going to ask them anyhow.
    Please help if you can - I could do with putting the last few years behind me ASAP. Thanks in advance.

    I have sent letters off to lenders asking for balances and to suspend interest etc. I am currently NOT in arrears with anyone. However, if I pay them all again this month I will have no money left for food, petrol, a life etc. I have a term-time only job so my wages will stop this month.

    My question is can I just move my money out of my account so the DD's don't get paid or should I tell the CC people that I'm not able to pay them first, whist the letters (mentioned above) are still in the system?
    I'm not sure how the DMP will be received if I go from one month paying as normal to next asking to pay a smaller amount?
    Thanks once again.
    purplepaws wrote: »
    If I cancel my DD then presumably, I will be classed as defaulting on the payments? And additional fees will be applied?

    Hi purplepaws :wave:

    You need to let your creditors know you are in financial difficulty. It's not clear from your first post quoted above whether you have done this or whether you have just written asking for balances and to suspend interest.

    NEDCAB do a wonderful self managed DMP set up. It generates the letters, the income and expenditure sheet and all you need to start a self managed DMP. It's what I used when moving from Stepchange to Self Managed.

    Providing you write to all your creditors with the information generated from NEDCAB and include the I&E then you should not get additional charges from your creditors. If any do add late fees or charges you can argue and get them credited back.

    When you work out your I&E - make it realistic to live on. Do not make it so tight you struggle to live and have a reasonable quality of life.

    Any more questions - just shout loud :T
    DFW Nerd No. 1484 LBM 07/01/15 Debt was £95k :eek: Now debt free and happy :j
  • Suseka97
    Suseka97 Posts: 1,562
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    purplepaws wrote: »
    If I cancel my DD then presumably, I will be classed as defaulting on the payments? And additional fees will be applied?

    Hi and welcome.
    Yep, you will be defaulting, but you are going to have to do that now. You may end up getting additional interest and/or charges applied, but don't let that worry you. As you've said, you can't afford to pay them anyway.
    I started off with 14 creditors and a lot of debt - most of them put the account on hold (no interest or charges) for the first 30days, as soon as I told them I was in financial difficulty and in the process of sorting out a DMP. It actually took longer than 30 days to do that and most were fine about that. Some (Barclaycard and Halifax) carried on charging interest for several months - but eventually it stopped, pretty much when those accounts were sold on to a debt collection agency (DCA). I even managed to get them to refund some of the charges at one point.
    All of this I'm saying just for info really - you are at the start of things. So first things first. stop paying, cancel DDs and tell them that you are doing it because you are in financial difficulty and you will be back in touch when you have sorted out your DMP. Seriously - they won't bat an eyelid.
    Do expect to get letters through the post, its standard practice, and these letters will use words such as 'default' and threaten further recovery action blah. blah. blah. But don't worry. Just come back to this thread and folks will help you along the way.
    Good luck with it :)
  • Suseka97
    Suseka97 Posts: 1,562
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    ..........Lastly, and slightly off topic.... I have always felt that it was my responsibility to pay back everything that I borrowed and I have been slowly doing so over the last 8 years or so. My debts were built up after the failure of my marriage when, with little child support, I used credit to live on to keep a roof over my daughters head and food on the table. Over a number of years I got myself into £120k debt. Recently I have started to feel a little bitter that the banks and other financial institutions allowed someone earning about £20k a year to borrow that amount of money. I used the money because I felt I had no choice in order to live but should they not have had some responsibility for responsible lending? Does anyone else feel like that or is it me

    Totally agree with this. Most of our debt was in fact my husband's - at the time we had separate bank accounts (second marriage and he still had a financial connection with his ex for several years after they had split). Anyway he hid is debt problem very well at first, but by the time it all came out I was gobsmacked to find that he'd been able to get 3 Barclays loans and 3 Barclaycards all running consecutively. So the debt to Barclays alone was significant! it just beggars belief!
    sourcrates wrote: »
    Its well known now that banks were lending irresponsibly to all and sundry right up until the crash of 2008, and even more so by the payday lenders up until last year. They were out to shake you down for every last penny of high rate interest they could squeeze out of you, then there were all the, what the banks like to term, "mis-selling" problems, what i would call fraud.....

    Absolutely with you on this one Sourcrates. It was the crash of 2008 that brought all the downright fraudulent behaviour to light - and we are all still paying the price of it!
  • sourcrates
    sourcrates Posts: 28,717
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    purplepaws wrote: »
    If I cancel my DD then presumably, I will be classed as defaulting on the payments? And additional fees will be applied?

    Hi again,

    You said in your previous post it was a choice between paying your creditors or eating, well that is no choice at all, the creditors lose every time, defaults are par for the course, the sooner the better, charges can be argued against, and who says you have to pay them anyway ?

    You sound to me as though you are still in the "cant not pay" mindset, even though you will be left with no money, you must snap out of it, and learn to look at this whole thing from a different angle.

    If you tell your creditors what you are doing, prioritizing there payments over food, they will refuse payment from you, and refer you back to stepchange, they are simply not allowed to recover money where it would leave a person vulnerable, creditors must now take affordability into account when chasing bad debt.

    Martin, and this site in particular, has been fighting to get at least 6 months to a years grace for people in similar circumstances to yours, in order for them to save up a contingency fund, so they dont continue making bad financial decisions, at the moment there is a 30 day grace period, but in reality you can continue this indefinitely if you cannot afford to pay.

    All you have to do is tell them your circumstances, and the system will roll into action, there are contingencies in place, there is no reason for you to go without essentials.
    I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free wannabe, Credit file and ratings, and Bankruptcy and living with it boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.For free non-judgemental debt advice, contact either Stepchange, National Debtline, or CitizensAdviceBureaux.Link to SOA Calculator- https://www.stoozing.com/soa.php The "provit letter" is here-https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter
  • Hi everyone

    Just a wee update regarding one off my creditors who I cca,d,

    I cca,d all my creditors on the 14/5/2017 , most on hold until they gather the relevant paper work, got a reply from one yesterday ( robinson way ) that they are still waiting on the original debtor getting in contact with them,

    1, is this a good sign , I am thinking they don't have it or will ever find it or am I counting my chickens before they hatch,
    2, do I have to write a follow up letter or just wait it out until they get back in touch with me, if I am honest not knowing if they will find it is killing me lol its my biggest debt
    3, I am currently not paying them any money as the account is on hold , I have seen previously people asking if they should be paying the DCA, s when they have requested cca,s so I hope that helps them


    Thanks

    Max
  • purplepaws
    purplepaws Posts: 76
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    I am so terrified of this whole process but I can't go on like I have been.
    I have a personal loan and CC with Halifax who are also my current account providers. I'm in the process of having my wages paid into a basic account from Coop before I tell Halifax about the DMP. I have posted letters to Capital One and Barclaycard and secure messaged both of them too but had no responses yet. I have cancelled the DD from Halifax to Barclaycard and CapitalOne only.
    I was hoping that I could keep repaying the loan and apply the DMP to the credit cards only, but I don't know if that's possible? (I could just about afford that if CC repayments were no more than £5 per month.) Is that something I would be able to suggest or is it 'all or nothing'?
    Thank you all for your advice. It's making me feel sick to my stomach with worry.
    DMP launched 04/07/17 left to pay = £14,238.79 (£16,982.82 original debt.) Thanks to MSE & all you wonderful Forum Peeps!:T
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