DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 5)

dlb

That is so true msc...if you nip to the shop for a pint of milk ect you can come out £10 lighter in your purse..hence wjy i now pay for a milkman..yes slightly more expensive then the shops..but in the long run its not as i dont end up buying other things such as sweets and offers.

You lot must have cursed me!!! lol no phone calls for over a yr then last night 2!!! From the halifax credit card, really nice guy who agreed to the lower repayments for another 6 months after i explained i had been on a dmp for 3 yrs (they should read my file and would have know this before ringing!) and hes said that he will do his best to try and stop interest on the account again for a while..this is the c/c that did stop it originally then started to apply it saying my account was in good order!!!!

Oh well thats another one onside for 6 months !!lol giving me more room to breath and sort out the swap between dmp comapnys!

Have a good day all
Donna
xx

Fullhouse

Sorry msc, I must not have seen your previous post.
I completley get where you're all coming from with the shopping thing. That's my major downfall, going in for milk and coming out with 3 bags full of unecessary stuff. I like the milkman idea, going to look into that one. My new budget starts tomorrow (on payday) and this month I will only be sending minimum payments to all my creditors so hoping to buy myself some breathing space ready for my dmp from 01/03.
Glad Halifax have agreed to continue for the time being dlb. Have a good day everyoneXX

marfan_not_martian

Morning all

Well done Fullhouse on your consultation with CCCS and starting out on a DMP

DLB - glad you enjoyed the concert - bet you were dancing all night werent you. Didnt realise you were paying for your DMP - hope your change over to one of the free ones goes smoothly. I cannot recommend CCCS enough they are friendly and make you feel like you are doing the right thing.

Quick question dlb - in one of your previous messages you have put:-
that you "buy potatoes in large bags (eg tescos £2.99 for a huge bag) this does us all week for mash,chips,roast,jackets,wedges, and when you peel the spuds slow cook the peelings and then throw in salt and vinager for yummy snack"

How do you actually cook the peelings is it in a pan of water or a slow cooker or oven - do you make crisp like snacks with them. My mum used to do something with the potatoe peelings and they turned out yummy like crisps - but I never asked her what she actually did with them. Sadly she is no longer with us to ask.

I am trying so hard to stick to my shopping budget and most of the value items that I have now tried from sainsburys, tesco and asda have all been lovely. Sainsburys sweet n sour stir in sauce 28p a jar is particulary nice.


Speak soon
xxoxoxoxoxoxo

mnm

Daffykjs

Ooh those are good shopping tips! My first trip to the shops on my budget didn't go too well! oops!

I went through my finances with a friend who is very good at this stuff and we worked it out weekly (regardless of how many weeks in a month! ie do it monthly times by 12 divide by 52) and this is what i will be trying to stick to! But we put down £160 for shopping a month, which is about £40 a week. So I thought this would be fine and if £40 was the max I spend all ok! this shouldn't have been a problem this week as my husband works away and is away at the moment and this shop was just for me! sometimes my shop just for me comes under £20. Not this time, it ended up over £60 and then i had to get more that i'd forgotten yesterday! (I do my shopping for the week on a sunday!) yeah i had to buy washing powder, and some other stuff that i won't have to buy weekly but not that much so i was shocked!! I think it was the meat and fish i bought! I'm normally better at the shopping than that! Must improve!!

So anyway in answer to when to start my budget i've been thinking about this! and plan to start it on a sunday when i do my shopping. when shopping i will get cash back for my spending money for the week! that's the plan altho like i said it didn't work that well this week!

As for the bank accounts of partners etc. Even if they are in dmp with you as long as the accounts don't both have their name on it should be fine! Our bills account is barclays (and had both our names on) and hubby's barclays account od is now on the plan! I don't have any other debt with barclays linked companies! So we simply took his name off the bills account and I'm told that should be fine and they can't take from mine to put into his! hth!

I am a bit concerned about the HSBC/Llyods thing tho! only found out about that yesterday and lloyds was the bank i chose for my new account. but i have an HSBC card on the plan!

Will I have to change bank account again if and when it happens?? Ta

Fullhouse

I get paid monthly, so have worked out a budget for each month starting on payday and ending the day before the next payday. I usually shop on a Saturday so I count how many Saturdays between the 2 dates etc. It works out in the end as on a 4 week month I have money left over, on a 5 not so much. I have taken everyone's advice here tho and bumped up my variable figures for CCCS so I am not skinting myself just to be able to pay a few extra quid on my dmp every month. Thanks for that everyone!!
Just done my budget for Feb and if all goes according to plan am looking forward to actually for once having some "spare" money left at end of the month!!

jadia

Can I join as a DMP wannabe?

We were planning to start a DMP with CCCS this month (have managed to pay everything up until now but we're living off nothing & they've upped the interest rates so that even the minimums are unmanageable) but my husband's contract hasn't been renewed :mad: which has completely screwed everything up.

He's looking for work now - we've had an offer & lots of interviews so I'm confident (hopeful) he'll be working again within a month but the salary reduction is MASSIVE. Our surplus has gone from about 1700/month to 600-700 and we can't even start until he gets a payslip. I'm terrified the creditors are going to get heavy in the meantime (seems that years of being a good customer means nothing once you have a month of difficulty - their response was to put the rates up).

Because of the unemploymenet there'll be a couple of months when the unsec debts are only getting token payments. I've had some phone calls already (not answering the phone now) and I've just had our first letter (Natwest loan I'm not opening it until OH is home).

I'm really scared - until the unemployment I felt positive about getting some resolution through the DMP but now I'm expecting the worst. I know a few people who've had great success with DMPs - creditors stopping interest really quickly etc but I'm woried that with the present banking situation they will only be interested in getting every last penny from us/going after the house (we have a small amount of equity - doesn't cover all the unsec debts).

Anyway hello! From a scared newbie.

louietudor

afternoon all anyone had any dealing with link financial - my debt with ge capital has been passed to them and they called today threatening allsorts - ccj's charging orders etc - told em to do their worst and id pay through cccs as normal - eventually they put the phone down on me as i was being so stroppy back (asking her name etc and telling her as it was threaning me i would want her in court etc ) - anyway ill expect a few nasty letter i suppose

jadia

Well we've just had a minor (very) success - managed to get a new bank account. We tried Halifax & HSBC & tehy were both utterly useless but Lloyds arranged it in 5 minutes, we've deposited a bit of money & can now sort out the child benefit etc.

Ossireo

A couple of questions if I may

Just some background, been on my DMP with CCCS since August 2008. Initial responses were MBNA accepted repayments and froze interest. HSBC were awkward unhelpful *insert horrid word here* and only following a lengthy complaint process did they agree to accepting the repayments for 3 months (they refused to deal with CCCS etc etc). Following my dual fuel increasing to £108 per month my DMP payments had to change which obviously my creditors are unhappy with and have no cancelled my arrangements and have added on interest and are not taking default proceedings.

HSBC have sent me an I&E form .. do I need to complete this? or am I still ok to just follow my normal mindset of "they have had the info from CCCS so ignore the letter"? I also wondered if it was worth asking for CCA for all the debts now they are defaulting to see where I stand on them being enforceable (not to avoid paying, but to really try to get them to be more accepting of my repayments if they happen to not be enforcable .. if that makes sense)

My personal position atm is that I was made redundant in August 2007 and made full payments till things finally hit the fan in July 2008, so I have never run from my debts or let them build up with no offers of repayments. I am currently receiving Income Support as a Lone Parent while looking for work and currently about to start some retraining (have working in clerical roles for nearly 20 years) struggling to find work at the moment in all honesty. I am also looking to move house as this one I am renting is terrible, no insulation, damp etc etc so will be able to escape my Virgin Media contract etc. Below is my SOA just for info

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 980 (including my housing benefit which doesnt cover my full rent)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 980

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 480
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0 (full council tax benefit)
Electricity............................. 58
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 38
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50 (this is phone/broadband and TV)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 140
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 9
Car Insurance........................... 26
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 910


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
CO-Operative Visa..............359.2.....5.........0
HSBC Overdraft.................1474.25...6.9.......0
HSBC Loan......................4030.82...13.1......0
MBNA Credit Card...............4910.65...34.37.....0
HSBC Credit Card...............1952.23...10.63.....0
Total unsecured debts..........12727.15..70........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 980
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 910
Available for debt repayments........... 70
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 70
Amount left after debt repayments....... 0

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 3,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -12,727.15
Net Assets.............................. -9,727.15

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

newlywed

Ossireo wrote: »

HSBC have sent me an I&E form .. do I need to complete this? or am I still ok to just follow my normal mindset of "they have had the info from CCCS so ignore the letter"?

I just wrote back to them saying that CCCS have the up to date figures and told them to go ask them for the figures if they need them (CCCS would have already sent them out to them anyway). The I&E they send you often leaves out various sections in the hope (I think) that you will forget some of your outgoings and then it look like you have more to pay them with.