DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

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  • It really is encouraging to read the positive experiences of so many on here.
    My cc, loan and overdraft are all with lloyds so i assume i will have to open a new account elsewhere and contact every direct debit ie energy, council tax, insurance etc to make sure it comes out of the new account?

    Hi and welcome

    Yes thats correct

    HHx
  • Hi anxious2, thankyou for your detailed respone.
    The 'suggested' budget was £230. i assumed that if i put down more than i actually spend it would be questioned!
    Also i put down my basic salary even though i earn extra as regularly do minimum of 8 hours overtime a month.
    I wish i had read this thread before submitting now but maybe its not the be all and end all if i can adjust


    Hi


    I agree with Anxious, go for the maximum and save any excess for emergency fund. Call them Monday and explain you made a mistake. Some advisors will want you to live on fresh air and they never tell you what maximum is but go for it.

    Good Luck

    HHx
  • anxious2 wrote: »
    Hi inbetweener, I think it very much depends on your overall budget, and how much room you have to play around with it. IMO, £200 per month is a little tight - we are also a family of four, and our strategy was to put down £400 per month (less than stepchange's suggested amount), although our shopping budget is also £50 per week. This way, the money is there if we have an expensive week, otherwise it goes straight in the emergency fund. The temptation is to throw every spare penny at our debt, but in reality, we were doing that up to now by trying to meet all the minimum payments - and the fact that we are now in this position shows how well we were managing with that! I would suggest increasing that figure by as much as you feel comfortable with, by saving the excess, you will still have the money to throw at the debt down the line, but you have access to it should you need it in the meantime. I believe you can contact Stepchange at any time to revise your budget. HTH!

    Well, it's been a week since we informed our creditors, and we have received the grand total of..... ONE reply! A really quite nice letter from MBNA, thanking us for letting them know about our situation, they accept our payment plan, and have scrapped all interest and charges :T One thing concerns me a little, we aren't starting our DMP until 1st of April, and informed them that we'd make token payments until then. I assume SC would've told them the same, yet the letter says that the first payment is due on 24th feb. Should I respond to this?

    In complete contrast, I checked my online account for our biggest Barclaycard (£12000) to find that we've been charged a late fee, which has taken us over the limit, so incurred another fee, full interest charged, and the minimum payment is now £550! :eek: Yeah, good luck with that, lol. I hope the message gets through to them soon, coz that is scary to see!

    Hi

    Dont let 31 day go without payment so send on the £1 if you need to. You will find lots of computer automated madness. Write to BC explain you notified them but havent heard from them and their additional charges are adding to your debt and not supporting you in financial difficulties. Keep up the comms and if no satisfaction after 8 weeks report them to FOS.

    Good Luck

    HHx
  • Hiya all,
    Just updated the balances on stepchange, has pushed my dfd back to october 2015... Need to work on this, not sure where else I can cut back, and doing as much overtime I can manage at the moment, but want this money to go in an emergency fund..

    Where do you all keep your emergency fund?

    Hope everyone is having a nice weekend? I am feeling positive, but really want this to be over already so I can start living my life again!

    x

    Glad you are feeling positive. Two and a half years is very good short timeline for a DMP.

    HHx
  • Growurown wrote: »
    I keep mine in a Credit Union account. I pay everything monthly by direct debit where I can but for things like the car tax and other bills that come annually like the boiler service I put by that money so I am not tempted to spend it. Credit Unions are safe and subject to all the same controls a bank is so your money is protected. When I need the money I just phone them up and they transfer the funds immediately so they are in my bank account on the same day.


    That's interesting to hear about the Credit Union GUO. Am going to check it out, will give me an excuse for another page in my spreadsheet book too! Planning on watching 'Bank of Dave' on Thursday evening, I missed it first time around.

    HHx
  • Hi, been reading the forum since we want on our DMP in August, and have found it really useful to know we are not alone.

    The DMP has been going well with all creditors agreeing to payments and a good number stopping interest.

    We have had a couple of letters from Lloyds this week saying we can move our overdrafts to their consumer debt recovery department which will permenantly stop the interest. This seems like a good idea, as Lloyds have been the only creditor to be difficult and not stop interest.

    Are there any downsides with taking this option?

    My other question is regarding mortgages. We are currently on a great rate, having switched to a tracker just before interest rates fell, and currently on a rate of 1.7%. Only trouble is the deal will run out in October and our monthly payment will go thought the roof. Can anyone suggest a good place to look at remortgaging whilst on a DMP? We are currently with C&G and as most of our debt is with Lloyds, I can't see them wanting to give us a good deal! I'm thinking about going interest only for a few years, to keep monthly payments lower and clear our unsecured debt ASAP.

    Any advice welcome!

    Hi and welcome

    Very good outcome from Lloyds, I can't see any disadvantage to it but I don't have experience with them myself.


    Sorry cant offer advice on mortgage. Only people I know to have sorted have done with existing lender and as you say that seems unlikely. You will be able to reajust the DMP budget when your mortgage goes up.

    HHx
  • Mossop01 wrote: »
    Hi all, only 6 more days til my first payment to SC, very exciting, plus a new month of budgeting to look forward to! Weirdly excited!
    Currently looking for ways to stretch my food shopping budget, been lookinh on the old style boards they have some good tips and ideas, food shopping is probably the only thing we can possibly cut down on, do u think for a family of 4 that £60 a week is a bit optimistic, allocated £80 with SC but want to try to cut down to add extra into emergency fund if i can.

    Hi

    Good to see you sounding so positive.

    Menu planning is everything. I swear by slow cooker, freezer and microwave. Bulk cooking and pulses and beans really help to stretch things. With planning you dont need to miss out on good nutrition and flavour

    HHx
  • Julie67
    Julie67 Posts: 2,362
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    Morning all,

    With regards to the food budget, we've been sticking to £80 per week for a family of four and I would say its just doable as long as your careful and meal plan. For us any less would be really hard.
    I'm another one with a mortgage question. We are on an interest only mortgage. Once we have got ourselves a good year into the DMP and have a really good handle on the budget, I was hoping to switch to repayment with our existing lender. Does anyone have any experience of this. What are the chances?
    hh what is Bank of Dave, I must have missed that one.
    mossop 6 more days for us as well. I can't wait to go on to SC and see the figures reducing, even though it won't be by very much at all.
    Started Self Managed DMP 10th May 2017.
    Working hard to get rid of our debt.
  • Hi

    Good to see you sounding so positive.

    Menu planning is everything. I swear by slow cooker, freezer and microwave. Bulk cooking and pulses and beans really help to stretch things. With planning you dont need to miss out on good nutrition and flavour

    HHx

    I am another disciple of bulking everything out with beans, pulses etc. I now use half the quantity of mince and add some green or brown lentils. My chilli has more beans and sweetcorn than mince and everyone loves it.
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
  • Hi anxious2, thankyou for your detailed respone.
    The 'suggested' budget was £230. i assumed that if i put down more than i actually spend it would be questioned!
    Also i put down my basic salary even though i earn extra as regularly do minimum of 8 hours overtime a month.
    I wish i had read this thread before submitting now but maybe its not the be all and end all if i can adjust

    I think you must have entered something incorrectly. The suggested budget for food for 2 adults and 2 children is £412 and the maximum allowed is £505.
    LBM 10/1/12 ~ DFW Start 6/2/12: £82,344 ~ Now Zero
    :staradmin:starmod::staradmin Debt free 17th April 2015 :staradmin:starmod::staradmin
    Eternal thanks to the DMP & Mutual Support (no.439) and Payment a Day Threads
    Mortgage free 3rd July 2014 - Grateful thanks to the 2013/14 MFW threads
    "Debt is normal. Be weird!" Dave Ramsey
    Proud to have dealt with our debt :)
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