DMP-1 Year On

sam89

Hi everyone,

Today is the first anniversary of starting our DMP with Payplan . I thought I'd just post our experiences over the last year to hopefully help those who are thinking about a DMP or are just starting one.

Because the Debt-Free Wannabe forum gives such good advice to people in trouble those of us who aren't having problems tend not to post so much :cool: . This gives a slightly negative view because sometimes reading the forum it seems that everyone is having problems with unhelpful and threatening creditors :eek: . While really lots of us are just plodding along, paying every month and quietly reducing our debt .

So a quick review of our DMP:

The first 2 months were the most stressful, we have 9 creditors and for the first few weeks we had phonecalls from all of them, although everyone was polite and understanding when I explained about Payplan and provided our DMP number. Once our first payment went through M&S, HFC, Alliance & Leicester, and Capital One all accepted immediately and stopped calling :T , they all stopped interest and charges :T . In month 2 Egg and TSB accepted and stopped interest and charges, First Direct accepted, stopped charges and reduced interest to 6% p.a. :T

This left just Citibank and GE Money, both of whom piled on masses of charges and interest for 3 months :mad: then accepted the DMP and stopped :j .

Since then GE Money have passed our debt to CL Finance who have said "just keep paying as arranged" and TSB have started interest again but only at 6% p.a.

I've shopped about for power, insurance, mobile phones and managed to reduce our outgoings quite significantly , I'm really ashamed at the amount of money we wasted before crisis point. Sky is reduced to basic, I know a lot off people on here say stop it but at 70p a day I think it's the best value "luxury" we can find :rolleyes: .

Month by month the stress has reduced as we've realised we can live on the budget agreed with Payplan. A recent reduction in my husbands wages has meant that we have had to reduce our payment but so far no-one has questioned this and I think even the creditors realise that living costs have risen much higher than anyone could have predicted . In a lot of ways the credit crunch and "recession" happening this year has actually helped us, even our friends with no debts are finding money tight so there is no shame in not being able to afford things :cool: .

So, I hope someone finds my ramblings helpful and I've shown that DMPs can go reasonably smoothly .

The DMP Mutual Support Thread is fabulous for anyone looking for information and support. The guys and girls on there really know their stuff :T .

Good luck to everyone on their journey to debt freedom,
Sam,
x.

rubydoiwannabee

Hi Sam
Thanks for your post and well done for getting through your 1st year. Your debts are going down well, I would love to see mine go down that much in a year.

Keep it up.

sam89

Thanks Ruby, yes we're lucky to be able to effectively pay all my wages against our debts. If only we'd lived so sensibly 5 years ago :rolleyes: .

Good luck to you, you're going in the right direction :beer: .

Sam,
x.

Weemac

Hi sam - we are in the same position as yourself as we started our DMP last September and like you the first couple of months were a bit stressful but we are now just plodding along paying our one amount to CCCS every month and watching our debt slowly reduce. All our interest has been stopped by our 9 creditors - hopefully it will stay this way. At least our debt is going down even though it is slowly and it will take a very long time (March 2023 is our payoff date!!!) but its going the right way!

I hope everyone who is thinking of doing a DMP either with CCCS (who have been really helpful) or Payplan read this thread and realise it can be the best option, it was definately the best thing we did.

Parsley_2

Thanks Sam,

I'm just starting my DMP with CCCS and it's nice to know that it has gone pretty well for someone out there.

Thanks for posting.

mbaz

Wow look how much you have paid off in a year!!! Well done!! I've been with CCCs for about 18 months now and my life has completely changed. I look forward to opening my bills each month and seeing the reduced figures and I no longer dread the phone ringing.

Here's to another good year :beer:

Donedoingdebt

sam89 wrote: »

While really lots of us are just plodding along, paying every month and quietly reducing our debt .

quote]

I too, am one of the silent majority who pays every month without too many problems

I started my self managed DMP in January 2000 & my last payments towards it will be in February 2009.

That's 104 payments made & 6 more to go.

Can't wait:beer:

Deep_In_Debt

I've been on my DMP with CCCS since the beginning of the year and it's a great feeling to see my debts slowing reducing. Most of my creditors were great and froze interest pretty much immediately. Barclaycard/Mercers got nasty and sent doorstep collectors but seem to have finally accepted my DMP as I've not heard from them since May. However, Halifax refuse to accept my DMP unless I pay them more money. I've told them I can't and they constantly hassle (despite sending them various harrassment letters - but still they go on!) but I don't answer the phone to them any more. Apart from that, it's all gone great and I'm so pleased I took the plunge and contacted CCCS. I've already managed to reduce my debt free date from 9 years away to just over 5 years.

It's great to hear everybody else's stories/experiences on a DMP.

Good luck to all.

sam89

Thanks for the replies everyone :beer: .

Weemac- Well done on your progress. I agree a DMP was the best thing we ever did, it's really given us back our lives.

Parsley- Good luck and you're welcome.

mbaz- Thanks. Yes, I can't quite believe how much I look forward to opening the statements and updating my spreadsheet :rotfl: .

Donedoingdebt- Wow! You've done so well, great to hear fom someone who's almost out the other side.

Deep In Debt- Shame about Barclaycard not playing nice. You've done so well in bringing down your debt free date though. I think ours is sometime in 2014 but I hope it will be sooner .

Love,
Sam,
x.

Gemmzie

:T Love hearing the success stories, congrats on a good year sam89 and good luck for year two :beer:

JES_F1

It was great to read about your first year of being on a DMP with the CCCS :T

I've been on DMP with the CCCS for seven months now, and it's been brilliant. Like others, I found the first two or three months a bit yucky, fending off phone calls but they did eventually stop. Having the CCCS DMP gave me huge confidence to just say NO to creditors - I'd say, "You know about my DMP with the CCCS so no, you can't have any more money". And in response to all those automated letters, I'd send back my very own 'standard letter' about my DMP!

All is now going well and quiet - payment goes to the CCCS, the CCCS pays the creditors, and the debt's coming down!

Nationwide Credit Card accepted my DMP for just three months and then rejected it when the CCCS sent them my details again. This has meant I've had a few calls (and automated letters) from them but I refused to go through the security questions, which always resulted in a going-round-in-circles-getting-nowhere conversation. A polite-but-firm letter has got my numbers removed from their database!

Thanks to the CCCS and all the great advice on here, I don't let creditors scare me any more.