DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 5)

lhc_2

I am in the process of putting in place a DMP with CCCS and am trying to work out whether I need to change my bank account.

My main back is with Alliance & Leicester. I have no debts with Alliance & Leicester, but I do owe money to HSBC, Barclay, Egg, Cahoot, Citi, MBNA, and Marks & Spencer Money. I understand that Cahoot and Alliance & Leicester are both part of the Santander Banking Group, but I can find details in the terms and conditions about whether the right to off-set extends across different companies in a banking group. Obviously I would like to retain this existing account if possible. Does any one know if it is necessary to move banks? If so, any suggestions?

I also have an account with First Direct. Here there does seem to be a right of off-set in the terms and conditions which extend to HSBC where I owe some money. Does anyone know if this is correct?

Many thanks

newlywed

Yes FD and HSBC contains a right to offset.

I am with A&L and owe GE Money (now owned by santander). Apparently before they can take money from another account, they would have to update the T&C's to include all santander groups. So far I'm just keeping a check on the T&C's and I have another bank account ready and waiting, just in case

I only use that account for saving pots but it has an electron card so if needs must, I'll jump ship over to that account. (But it would mean my wages take an extra 3 days to clear )

july73

Hi everyone

I had my appointment with CCCS last Thursday and they have put us on a DMP. We have 10 years to clear £33K We are starting with only £50 a month, but will need to get that up to £300 at some point in the future. I'm glad we are finally dealing with it all. But still worried about a few things.

We are with RBS one account and do not owe any money to them, apart from our mortgage of course, so have moved my wages to that. But will Bank statements be required, it is our mortgage account and we have up to £110,000 facility and are at £107.000 at present. In other words we still owe £107.000 on our mortgage if that makes sense. Can creditors make us use this facility to pay some the debt? Making our mortgage back to £110.000?

I'm doing as much overtime as possible, but not guaranteed. Hence why it was not included in our budget. Can I put this away over a period of time and opt to pay a lump sum to CCCS? so it helps bring down the debt a bit faster, without us struggaling when overtime is unavailable. I can't work full time for at least 2 years due to my youngest being only 7yrs. So hoping to just reach the £100 to £150 a month to CCCS over the next year or two. Will we be able to carry on this amount for this time and bump it up when I can go back to work in year 3?

Sorry to waffle on, but I do worry that these creditors will not see this small payment in the mean time over the next 2 years as reasonable enough.

Many Thanks to anyone in advance who can reassure me and stop me worrying that I could loose my house in 10yrs if the debt is not cleared by then.

marfan_not_martian

Well done July73
Hope your DMP runs smoothly for you - I am just starting out on one too with CCCS.

When I spoke to someone at CCCS I enquired about if I had money left over at the end of the month from my budget should I pay it straight to them to pay to my creditors. CCCS advised me to put the money to one side as I may need it for emergencies if after a few months I was still finding that I had extra money left over then by all means I could pay it to them but it was best to get creditors onside with what I can afford now rather than swapping and changing it as if say one month one of them was paid £50 but the next the same creditor only received £30 then it would be akward. Maybe you should wait - let the DMP run for a few months and then see just how much overtime you do and then if you feel that you have excess income speak to CCCS see what they say. But if the overtime is a lot of money then maybe you should speak to CCCS sooner as otherwise they may see it as not keeping them informed of true picture of your finances.

Hope this helps - CCCS are very friendly dont be afraid to speak to them they are professional at what they do

Hope this makes sense.

MNM
xx

msc1977

Morning all..... well there is no going back now.

I've cancelled all DD's now that this months priority payments have been made, i've changed the DD instructions ready for next month. All c/cards have been cut up and my token payments and notification of DMP forms should have landed on all my creditors door steps by now:-). We've had no phone calls yet, but i expect them to start anytime.

I didnt do too bad with my shopping at the weekend, i spent £14 in the butchers but got loads of stuff for the month and i did quite a big Asda shop and spent £66.96 so just over my £65 budget but i'm not too fussed as we cooked a meal for friends Saturday night (planned well beforen the DMP was) so i was expecting it be a lot more and i should only need to buy fresh stuff and packed lunch stuff now till the end of the month.

We're finding the cash only thing a bit hard, its nice that the money is there and we know exactly what we've got but i put it all in envelopes..food / petrol / other - went to go shopping, forgot the envelope and had nothing im my current acc.....so had to go home...i'll get used to it i'm sure and i think i'm going to try and keep a buffer in my current acc if i can so that i dont get caught like that again:-).

I have to say that my whole mind set has changed. I am now thinking what do we have left to pay debts with as opposed to what do we have left to buy food with! Its nice having the cash and knowing that i dont have to juggle money to go food shopping and even though we havent made our first DMP payment yet i do feel much more in control, we have a bit of an emergency fund set aside, i have an account with money in for car tax etc and a seperate account for our holiday spends (no c/c this time!!). The next couple of months will be tough i've no doubt and i'm fully prepared to change our phone number if i have to. Another token payment will be sent at the end of Feb and then end of March we will start the DMP and hope to be debt free in about 6/7 years depending on how co-operative the creditors are...............................!

msc

massivedebts

Hi Guys,
I've just spoken to Payplan , as I couldn't wait for my CCCS appointment on the 17th, and now feeling a bit dispondent!! I explained that I really didn't want to go down the IVA route and ideally want a DMP, the guy was very nice and said he would call me back this evening, once he'd had a chance to assess, but told me about how on a DMP my unsecured debts could just become a secured debt if my creditors took me to court!! Feel really low now as my debt remedy on CCCS offered both choices, and after reading all the threads on this forum, I don't ever remember seeing anything about unsecured becoming secured debts on a DMP, did I miss understand him?
I'd appreciate any response and feeling really low now!
Thanks for your time

2spicy

Massivedebts, we are all in the same boat. If our creditors donot accept the DMP payments, they have the option of defaulting the account and handing it to debt collection.
Debt collectors are usually easier to deal with than some creditors and will usually accept the DMP payments without much hassle.

If a creditor does want to take you to court to obtain a CCJ then the court will look and see that you have a DMP setup and, from what I have read so far, 9 times out of 10, will just make the debt legally binding.
Your only in trouble if you fail to pay a court instructed payment plan, and, given the current climate, no one wants to take away your home.. there are options.

IVA's are Good for a minority. If you are renting, have no assets and therefore really nothing to loose, an IVA is perfect, otherwise it may not be the best option. If you have done the calculations and being realistic you can pay yoru debts off and have enough to live on, then why not tell PayPlan you would like to persue the DMP route and see what happens.

the only way a debt could be secured would be if it went to court and the court ruled that you had say £30k of equity in yoru property, they could secure the equity in your property against a debt (ie the creditor would get paid upon sale of your property). I havent seen any cases of this happening and Ive been researching the possible outcomes of us going on a DMP for a while as this is unchartered terratory for us, having always paid our bill son time even at the sacrifice of quality of life sometimes

Do you have equity in your property then could secure the debt against ?

Daffykjs

I have a question about my gas and electric bills. This is probably the wrong place to ask so sorry about that!

But i recently received our latest bills and was a bit confused by them (I've probably never properly looked at them before). We are in debit on both by quite a lot. Gas is over £200 but we are paying £94 a month so my friend who i asked says that's probably ok!

But the electric we are £660 in debit!! So i phoned them today and they want to put it up £80 to £100 a month! I appreciate that the £20 (I have no idea where this number came from but it surely must have been the electric company, not us, aren't they the experts?!) is ovciously not enough but this is a much bigger increase than o was expecting!

So anyway as we are in the first couple of weeks of our DMP what do I do? Obviously i hve to pay more or the debit will never get paid of? And my thinking is when i'm in the DMP is probably the best time to change it, as all it will do is reduce the amount i pay to Payplan.

Is this right? Can I change it this early on? What will be the effect on my DMP? It won't upset the debtors and make them less likely to take off the interest and accept our payments will it?

Ta!

2spicy

Daffykjs wrote: »

I have a question about my gas and electric bills. This is probably the wrong place to ask so sorry about that!

But i recently received our latest bills and was a bit confused by them (I've probably never properly looked at them before). We are in debit on both by quite a lot. Gas is over £200 but we are paying £94 a month so my friend who i asked says that's probably ok!

But the electric we are £660 in debit!! So i phoned them today and they want to put it up £80 to £100 a month! I appreciate that the £20 (I have no idea where this number came from but it surely must have been the electric company, not us, aren't they the experts?!) is ovciously not enough but this is a much bigger increase than o was expecting!

So anyway as we are in the first couple of weeks of our DMP what do I do? Obviously i hve to pay more or the debit will never get paid of? And my thinking is when i'm in the DMP is probably the best time to change it, as all it will do is reduce the amount i pay to Payplan.

Is this right? Can I change it this early on? What will be the effect on my DMP? It won't upset the debtors and make them less likely to take off the interest and accept our payments will it?

Ta!

Contact Payplan asap. explain the problem. they will beable to advise you on the best course of action to take. Can you not just write off the £20 or so under "Petfood" or "Haircuts" ?

Daffykjs

the £20 is already down for electric. its the extra £80 extra i'm worried about finding!

i tried to phone payplan as soon as i spoke to british gas. i've left a message so hopefully will get it sorted tomorrow!!

i reckon i've been paying £20 for ages and it's probably never been enough! i'm a bit peed off no one has ever spotted it and asked me to up it! i guess i should be as annoyed at myself as well for not paying attention to the bills! but i've only fairly recently taken over all the finances for the house and just assumed it had all be sorted logically and correctly in the first place!!

guess i'll be using candles more in future!!!