DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 5)

cheesedoffwithdebt

Hi all

I'd like to join the DMP mutual support thread- I've been reading the posts here and posting for a week now-have found this site a lifeline in terms of restoring a sense of purpose to get through all this! I am not sure on all aspects of navigating round the site though so help would be appreciated!

Thanks:j

VanillaDelia

Doesn't look like Payday UK are acknowledging our DMP, they have sent a payment reminder through email as usual. Luckily they wont get anything as the payment is set to come out of bank account which I don't have money going into, it does not have an overdraft and is just a basic cashpoint visa card with Lloyd's, it wont allow transactions when money isn't there, and they don't take DD from the account they put it through as a card transaction.

cheesedoffwithdebt

boot13t wrote: »

Good morning,

Payplan have instructed us to make the first payment to them on 1st of April, however, there is no indication that the DMP has been accepted by anybody yet. Is this normal?

I have read that folk have put aside money as a "safety net" until the DMP is up and running. I am concerned that if the DMP takes a couple of months to be active, we're sending Payplan money which we could be saving.

Our representative is on holiday next week so any comments on this query would be appreciated.

Hi- I am with Payplan also- and have just made my first payment to the DMP. You are not sending money over you could be saving- let me explain;
The DMP iwill be active once you make your first payment- the payment is your offer to creditors based on how much you can afford.

So it doesn't take any time to be active-the plan is in force once payplan get the money, and they then start making offers to your creditors.
As far as creditors accepting the offer, thats another issue. I was thrown off balance when HSBC sent me, not payplan, a letter saying they would not accept the offer- then found on these boards that seems to be a normal response from HSBC-each company has their own way of dealing with things.
So what happens is that you keep making your payments, and Payplan will fight your corner, explaining that this is all you can afford. The fact that you make regular payments means that if a creditor decides they want to proceed with ccj- any court would see that you have been making your best offer, and all that happens is that they see how payplan have worked out your finances, and then endorse how much you are paying.
Frankly- its not worth the money for these companies to take it to court- they will threaten, but anyone who gets to the DMP stage is demonstrating that they are facing their problem and being upfront in dealing with it. Failure to make payments is much less of a defence although I can see your logic.
As far as saving is concerned yes you must, absolutely, save for anything that is an irregular expense such as car tax, mot etc, but Payplan should have included the monthly equivalent of those amounts in your budget, but as credit will no longer be available to you, then yes- set up accounts to deal with those expenses.
There are some really good tools on this site- good luck though and keep posting!

cheesedoffwithdebt

trying_to_stay_positive wrote: »

Hi, my OH deals with wages and finance at work and is really worried that they could find out we are having finacial problems, if they did this would be the end of his career. Can anyone tell me if there is any way they can find out if we go down the DMP route. What happens if the creditors dont agree to our payments and take us to court, would they find out then? I am looking at the worst case senario here I know, but it really would be the end of his career if they find out. Thanks for any help.

Your OH's employers would not discover a DMP unless they did a credit check on him- I don't know whether, in his role, that is something they do? However to take disciplinary action against an employee just because they are in financial difficulty would be hard for them to defend, unless there is something in his employment contract that says his credit rating must be unblemished. You could get advice from an employment specialist through the CAB to rule this out?


I am learning about the issue re creditors and payments so if anyone has anything to add here please do! My first DMP payment has gone off, MBNA and HSBC are not accepting the offer, however Payplan advised that what happens is they will most likely sell the debt to a debt collection agency (DCA on here). DCA's buy the debts for much lower than their value, and apparently are more malleable in terms of accepting offers- my own view is that if you have faced your financial problems and are making regular and consistent DMP payments, creditors are wasting money by taking out CCJ's. The known debt management companies (CAP, Payplan, CCCS) use tried and tested budgeting guidelines so the courts would review behaviour ( regularity of payments etc) and how you have handled the situation, and normally rule that the payments already being made are correct- so most creditors will and do make threats, but threats don't cost money like court proceedings do- so think commercially.
Also- once you have made a few payments and the creditor sees you are acting responsibly, they may back down-however the debt management company fight all this for you- and they are used to this.
good luck

boot13t

cheesedoffwithdebt wrote: »

Hi- I am with Payplan also- and have just made my first payment to the DMP. You are not sending money over you could be saving- let me explain;
The DMP iwill be active once you make your first payment- the payment is your offer to creditors based on how much you can afford.

So it doesn't take any time to be active-the plan is in force once payplan get the money, and they then start making offers to your creditors.
As far as creditors accepting the offer, thats another issue. I was thrown off balance when HSBC sent me, not payplan, a letter saying they would not accept the offer- then found on these boards that seems to be a normal response from HSBC-each company has their own way of dealing with things.
So what happens is that you keep making your payments, and Payplan will fight your corner, explaining that this is all you can afford. The fact that you make regular payments means that if a creditor decides they want to proceed with ccj- any court would see that you have been making your best offer, and all that happens is that they see how payplan have worked out your finances, and then endorse how much you are paying.
Frankly- its not worth the money for these companies to take it to court- they will threaten, but anyone who gets to the DMP stage is demonstrating that they are facing their problem and being upfront in dealing with it. Failure to make payments is much less of a defence although I can see your logic.
As far as saving is concerned yes you must, absolutely, save for anything that is an irregular expense such as car tax, mot etc, but Payplan should have included the monthly equivalent of those amounts in your budget, but as credit will no longer be available to you, then yes- set up accounts to deal with those expenses.
There are some really good tools on this site- good luck though and keep posting!

Thanks for the response and useful advice. :beer:

Bring it on......

Quillion

Quillion wrote: »

This is my first letter is this ok or do i need to add anything more?

I am currently experiencing financial difficulty due to being on short time hours at work, and am finding it increasingly difficult to meet my contractual payments.
I enclose a copy of my current financial statement. I have also enclosed a schedule of all of my non-priority debts and the proportionately calculated pro rata offer.
I hope you can accept this offer of £1.00 per month and stop any further interest or charges accruing.

Can someone please advise on body of above letter please.

Parsley_2

Quillion wrote: »

Can someone please advise on body of above letter please.

Hmm, managed to miss the letter bit but I thought it sounded good. It's similar to a lot of the other templates on here and gets straight to the point with no waffling. I'm not an expert in writing letters but I'd use it myself. I expect one of the others with more experience will be along to help you out later though.

Parsley_2

Well things were going along swimmingly. All creditors had stopped interest even though most of them haven't accepted the DMP until yesterday.

Had a phone call from Halifax earlier in the year agreeing to continue our arrangement for another three months which was good and then got the statement yesterday and they've added two months worth of interest (at a reduced rate) so now instead of taking 165 months to pay off it'll take 1125 months.

The interesting part is that they only defaulted the account last month which was after they agreed the arrangement so it appears that they start charging interest after a default. Has anyone else had this problem?

Will be e-mailing CCCS to see what they can do as they said to let them know if anyone started up the interest so they could write to them and request they stop it.

Wish Halifax would transfer the debt to Blair, Oliver & Scott. That's what my Bank of Scotland Preference account did and they accepted the DMP straight away, said all interest would stop and I haven't heard a peep from them since. They also said they were open to F&F offers but I don't have enough savings for that.

Just when it was all going so well!!! :mad:

msc1977

Quillion wrote: »

Can someone please advise on body of above letter please.

Hi - ok unless you are self administering your DMP (not sure if you are) then i wouldnt send a budget of any sort, CCCS or Payplan will do this for you.

The letter itself seems fine - TBH i would doubt they actually read that many letters in full, my guess is they see the letters DMP and it just gets chucked in with thousands of other letters sent by people in the same situation as us:rotfl: . I sent a brief letter and my CCCS notification form, nothing else.

msc xxx

Sorry just re read your letter and i'm figuring you are self administering - sorry - i havent caught up on the last few days posts yet

cheesypuff

Hi

Can anyone tell me please if I get letters from RMA and Aegis does this actually that MBNA have sold the debt on? Are these folk sctaul DCA like Blair Oliver Scott etc..? If so do I have to send the letters I have received to CCCS?

Also anyone who is with CCCS do you pay by DD or S/O they have asked for DD but I thought I read that SO was better?