DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 5)

phoebe04

I am a fool and have got myself into an unbelievable amount of debt, without my husbands knowledge. Fortunately, in some ways, I am not part owner of our house. It is in his name only.
My debt has spiralled out of control and I asked the Halifax for help, they referred me to Thinkmoney.com who have now passed me onto Gregory Pennington. They have put together a DMP which I am to put into place in the next month or so.
My question is, will the Halifax close my current account and will all of my creditors close my cards? I hope they will.
I am really scared about going into this and have been desperately doing extra shifts to cover my monthly payments and so far am not in arrears but I cannot keep this up any longer. The interest is enormous.
I feel so foolish and stupid for having done this.
I do intend to tell my husband I am in debt but not until everything is set up so I can tell him I am in control of it. I am worried about the potential phone calls though.
Am I doing the right thing?

sandalwood_2

phoebe04 wrote: »

I am a fool and have got myself into an unbelievable amount of debt, without my husbands knowledge. Fortunately, in some ways, I am not part owner of our house. It is in his name only.
My debt has spiralled out of control and I asked the Halifax for help, they referred me to Thinkmoney.com who have now passed me onto Gregory Pennington. They have put together a DMP which I am to put into place in the next month or so.
My question is, will the Halifax close my current account and will all of my creditors close my cards? I hope they will.
I am really scared about going into this and have been desperately doing extra shifts to cover my monthly payments and so far am not in arrears but I cannot keep this up any longer. The interest is enormous.
I feel so foolish and stupid for having done this.
I do intend to tell my husband I am in debt but not until everything is set up so I can tell him I am in control of it. I am worried about the potential phone calls though.
Am I doing the right thing?

Hi phoebe04
Yes you have done the right thing 100%,(and you are not alone),approaching a DMP company,but I would strongly advise you against going to a fee charging one (not to sure if Gregory Pennington is though)
I nearly went to Eurodebt before I found this site and it has given me so much help and advice,I am currently with Pay plan,first payment went out 1st June

With regards to your bank account,if your going to include your halifax in your DMP then I would suggest opening up a new bog standard account with a bank that you do not owe money too,transfer all your house hold bills to your new account,cancel D debits from your old one and get your wages paid into the new one.

I have only had one phone call from a creditor (we have 11) on my work phone and told them to take my works number off there records,I also changed my home number before hand(bit sneaky I know-my partner is pregnant and didnt want her getting stressed out) and also wiped contact details,apart from my address,from online accounts-this may seem harsh,but as I said I didnt want calls upsetting my partner,so the only way they can get in touch is by writing,which is fine by me.

And yes,once the companys know your in a DMP they will cancel your cards
It is not easy as the companys will send nasty letters,charge interest and try and scare you into paying what you havent got,but from what I have read on this site,it will get better,much better in fact and then you will start to be in control and hopefully the charges will stop

I am sure there will be more replys to you from people that have been in a DMP for a while,I am a newbie in terms of some of the people on here,and they have been a massive help for me,and they will be for you I am sure
Chin up,it will get better

and please,please,do not go with a fee charging DMP company.
Jaybag

leese2504

jaybag wrote: »

The account I have is a Advantage Gold,I was going to down grade last year when finances were ok (ish) but I had(and still do) a large overdraft on it and I was worried that that they may take it away so I didnt change it.Really need to change it though as they charges per month for this are only around £12 less than the DMP payment!! Gggrrrrrrrrrr:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Will write a letter to ask them to downgrade account and also ask them to stop interest again!!

Thank you

No probs, doesn't make sense to carry on paying that monthly amount anymore every penny counts now :rotfl::rotfl:

sandalwood_2

leese2504 wrote: »

No probs, doesn't make sense to carry on paying that monthly amount anymore every penny counts now :rotfl::rotfl:

Indeed it doesnt,have sent the letter today...

leese2504

phoebe04 wrote: »

I am a fool and have got myself into an unbelievable amount of debt, without my husbands knowledge. Fortunately, in some ways, I am not part owner of our house. It is in his name only.
My debt has spiralled out of control and I asked the Halifax for help, they referred me to Thinkmoney.com who have now passed me onto Gregory Pennington. They have put together a DMP which I am to put into place in the next month or so.
My question is, will the Halifax close my current account and will all of my creditors close my cards? I hope they will.
I am really scared about going into this and have been desperately doing extra shifts to cover my monthly payments and so far am not in arrears but I cannot keep this up any longer. The interest is enormous.
I feel so foolish and stupid for having done this.
I do intend to tell my husband I am in debt but not until everything is set up so I can tell him I am in control of it. I am worried about the potential phone calls though.
Am I doing the right thing?

Hi Phoebeo4, well done for dealing with your debts :rotfl:First of all please dont use gregory pennington they will charge you for arranging a DMP which is the last thing you should be paying for. Either look up Nationaldebt helpline, Payplan or CCCS they are all free services and will arrange a DMP if they think thats what is best for you, creditors tend to prefer you to use a free service that way any spare money you have ( after essential living and expenses ) goes to them. I did all my calculations through CCCS online so I didn't need to speak to anybody did it all through the internet. As soon as you miss a payment you will probably find the phonecalls start, so might be best to sit him down ASAP and explain ( it will be one less thing to deal with ) and his support will also help you through this. Yes you're doing the right thing, once your DMP is up and running you will feel more in control and all your cards will be cancelled etc so there will be no temptation as your credit rating will suffer. Good luck x

jk8_2

hi all
really nervous,tearing hair out with worry about all this,but see this is the place to be for support and advice.Been reading the threads for 2 weeks now,just got the courage to join here.Like many others had our heads in the sand too long about our debts.Have signed up with CCCS,got our letter today,just need to get the wage slips etc to send.Have applied for a coop cashminder account and should have the details by the end of the week.We have 12 creditors,so have 12 postal order token payments in envelopes ready and waiting to be posted tomorrow,i feel sick with it all.A question-on the DMP form,is over comitted on credit a good enough reason??-tbh we have a few different reasons,but this is what we quoted to the cccs as it seemed to cover the situation.We have cancelled some of our non essential direct debits (ie loans/cards etc) as they would be coming out today-only problem is haven't sent the letters to explain why yet as waiting for the cccs number.
Does anyone have the address for tsb loans?-we have lost the original agreement,so no idea where to send the token payment to!-is this right
Lloyds Tsb Plc
25 Gresham Street
London
EC2V 7HN
.Also mbna cards (sadly we have 2!!),we have this address from searching these forums-is that right??
M B N A EUROPE BANK LTD
STANSFIELD HOUSE
CHESTER BUSINESS PARK
CHESTER
CHESHIRE
CH4 9QQ
Sorry for all the questions,but one last one-we have put our dmp start date as august-is that ok?,we need tax credit details and wage slips which we wont get till the 25th june(so too late for july set up) plus i thought that an emergency fund is a good idea?
thanks for any replies-you have all been lifesavers on this thread
ETA we have changed the home phone number too,so no calls as yet,dreading all the letters though!
jk8

bigmommamuppet

JK8

I sent my MBNA token payment to the following address:

MBNA Europe Bank Ltd (Customer Services)
PO Box 1004
Chester Business Park
Chester
CH4 9WW

I have 3 MBNA accounts and they have been really good, have stopped interest on all 3 accounts for the next 12mths and have restructured my account so it now doesn't appear in arrears (mind you don't know what difference it makes). They have also said once I have finished my DMP i can stilll use my accounts. Hmmm I don't think so... don't ever want to get in this mess again.

No account with TSB so can't help there.

Becks

sandalwood_2

jk8 wrote: »

hi all

Does anyone have the address for tsb loans?-we have lost the original agreement,so no idea where to send the token payment to!-is this right
Lloyds Tsb Plc
25 Gresham Street
London
EC2V 7HN
.Also mbna cards (sadly we have 2!!),we have this address from searching these forums-is that right??
M B N A EUROPE BANK LTD
STANSFIELD HOUSE
CHESTER BUSINESS PARK
CHESTER
CHESHIRE
CH4 9QQ
Sorry for all the questions,but one last one-we have put our dmp start date as august-is that ok?,we need tax credit details and wage slips which we wont get till the 25th june(so too late for july set up) plus i thought that an emergency fund is a good idea?
thanks for any replies-you have all been lifesavers on this thread
ETA we have changed the home phone number too,so no calls as yet,dreading all the letters though!
jk8

Hi,
Not to sure on the Llyods TSB address as we have no debts with them(about the only one I think?!?!) the MBNA address's I had were all different but based in the in Chesire,
Token payments for the first month until your DMP starts officialy is a good idea until you get everything sorted and yes,an emergency fund is also a good idea,just in case....and good call with the phone number change.....think that it has saved me a whole lot of grief(for now anyway)
Good luck with it all

jk8_2

thanks to you both for the replies-can finally finish the letters!,its been stressing me out and yet i know theres worse to come.Ah well,onwards and upwards!

Eupho

jk8 wrote: »

hi all
really nervous,tearing hair out with worry about all this,but see this is the place to be for support and advice.Been reading the threads for 2 weeks now,just got the courage to join here.Like many others had our heads in the sand too long about our debts.Have signed up with CCCS,got our letter today,just need to get the wage slips etc to send.Have applied for a coop cashminder account and should have the details by the end of the week.We have 12 creditors,so have 12 postal order token payments in envelopes ready and waiting to be posted tomorrow,i feel sick with it all.A question-on the DMP form,is over comitted on credit a good enough reason??-tbh we have a few different reasons,but this is what we quoted to the cccs as it seemed to cover the situation.We have cancelled some of our non essential direct debits (ie loans/cards etc) as they would be coming out today-only problem is haven't sent the letters to explain why yet as waiting for the cccs number.
Does anyone have the address for tsb loans?-we have lost the original agreement,so no idea where to send the token payment to!-is this right
Lloyds Tsb Plc
25 Gresham Street
London
EC2V 7HN
.Also mbna cards (sadly we have 2!!),we have this address from searching these forums-is that right??
M B N A EUROPE BANK LTD
STANSFIELD HOUSE
CHESTER BUSINESS PARK
CHESTER
CHESHIRE
CH4 9QQ
Sorry for all the questions,but one last one-we have put our dmp start date as august-is that ok?,we need tax credit details and wage slips which we wont get till the 25th june(so too late for july set up) plus i thought that an emergency fund is a good idea?
thanks for any replies-you have all been lifesavers on this thread
ETA we have changed the home phone number too,so no calls as yet,dreading all the letters though!
jk8

Jk Hello Helloo Hellooo & Welcome!! :beer:

Well done for finding your light bulb moment! Really really well done! :T It takes so much courage to finally face your demons doesnt it.. :T

Firstly.. try not to panic!.. I know thats easier said than done.. but! Keep in mind.. a bajllion people have been down this road.. and a bajillion people will come down it lonnnggg after YOU too.

The stage you are are now.. was the one I was at a few weeks ago.. I was absolutely BRICKING it!.. But now!.. even only a short time later I feel SOO much better!.. So much better than I have in years actually! I have spent soooo much time freaking out about my debt... and sticking my head back in the sand hoping it would go away. You know it wont.. I know it wont. Soooo.. the only thing to do.. is take the bull by the horns.. and get ready to ride the bumpy bit.

And thats all it will be.. *bumpy* .. and not for too long either. The stronger you get with this.. the more and more it sinks it.. the BETTER you will find your life becoming. You'll be SOOO glad you jumped on the bull and got it over with.

Again.. keep in mind.. there are MILLIONS of people in the same situation as you and me. Some of them are here.. some of them are already getting help elsewhere.. and MANY of them are still freaking out at home.. and wondering what to do. (just like you were).. (and me! and everyone else!)

Now.. with all that blabbing.. I forgot what you asked.. :rotfl:

So I'll post this a mo.. (in case you are waiting for a reply).. and re read your questions.. I'm a bit of a numpty.. But I'll have a look till the REAL 'Brainies' arrive.

Welcome!! :T:beer: