newbie deep in debt

poppy52

Just discovered this place. I have a huge debt of about £85,000. I am a single mum, with 20 year old son at uni. Until September I was self employed and I was hopeless at managing the financial side of this. LuckilyI now have a really good job with a good salary. I have gone to Payplan who are in the process of writing to all my creditors - I have a surplus of £1330 a month to pay them. A couple havealready responded positively, although Egg say they will not freeze interest. I am still getting lots of evening and weekend phone calls - Lloyds, for example, keep saying they have heard nothing from Payplan although Payplan say they have written. I have opened a basic bank account with Co-op so Lloyds can't get access to my salary. I have cut up all my credit cards and now have just an electron card. Is anyone else here with Payplan? If so, does the initial process take quite a long time? I'm finding that stressful because I have already paid Payplan one month's standing order but not sure the whole Debt Management Plan is up and running yet? If creditors phone you, do you just give them Payplan's number? Also, what do you do if creditors refuse to freeze interest? Do you write to them and plead? And how do you survive the stress? It's still the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about at night. I know it's going to take me several years, and I'm already in my early 50s. It must be hard to stay positive.

Thefunkygibbons

If you want some further help put a statement of income and expenses on here and we may be able to spot some further opportunities to save money than can be thrown at the debts

Magentasue

I don't know the answer but I would contact Payplan, explain your situation and ask them exactly what you should tell creditors when they ring etc.

I think I've read that if you are with Payplan or similar, they shouldn't be 'phoning you.

Then I would write a letter, copy it sending it to all of your creditors with your contact details making it clear they must write/email but not phone. Then I would ask for my number to be changed and made ex-directory.

Not sure if this is the right way to go about it but it's what I would be doing.

fairylights_2

Welcome to the boards, Poppy52!

Whilst it may seem like you have a massive mountain to climb, you'll find with a lot of careful budgeting that it'll go down - you've got a good sized chunk of cash to throw at it all. Have you tried putting your debts into the snowball calculator to see how soon you'll be clear? We've found having a date to aim towards really helpful in keeping us focussed on paying it all off. I know our debt was quite small compared to others on here, but you're in the right place for support.

I've not had any dealings with Payplan, but I just wanted to say good luck and congrats on making the first step. :T

tru

Hiya Poppy :hello:

Two of our debts are with Lloyd's, they were slow with us too in the beginning, I put it down to them taking ages to process their mail :rolleyes:

When I had phone calls from creditors, I just used to say "we are dealing with Debtcall, please speak to them" then they'd tell us "we don't speak to debt companies" so I'd ring Debtcall, tell them and leave them to sort it out.

Most of the creditors froze the interest, some kept on adding it for a few months but they froze it eventually.

Do you get a monthly statement from Payplan? I worried for the first month, once I had the first statement, I relaxed a bit. Once all the interest had been frozen I cancelled the agreement with Debtcall. That coincided with me finding this site and realising I could've done a DMP with a free service instead of paying for it

exessexmum

Can you change your phone number? I think BT will change it for free if you are getting hassling phone calls (I'm sure you don't have to tell them its debt related) I know it doesn't solve the whole debt problem but at least it gets you some peace at home.