DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 5)

Seasiders_2

Cheers marfan - £61,000 in unsecured debt which CCCS reckon I can pay off in 4 years and 3 months if they get the interest and charges frozen!
How will the banks survive without my charges??? They will have to go cap in hand back to the Government for more money!!!! Can we try that???

newlywed

Seasiders wrote: »

I agree about the credit card but if its locked in a drawer and not with me - then it might work??? and if I already had it I am not breaching the terms with CCCS agreeing not to take on any MORE credit??

Possibly - only you know how likely you are to fall to the CC and get into problems. If you do get into problems with it, you may have difficulties adding it into your DMP later as you will have to fess up

As for already having the card - true - but each time you spend on it you are taking on credit aren't you?

It's up to you really. I know others who are on a DMP and have overdrafts and applied for credit cards etc.

Personally, I find it an experience learning to live without any credit at all and having to plan for everything or sacrifice something for the sake of something else (like my clothes budget for the sake of a takeaway). I'd be too tempted to just bung some petrol on it as I'm short of money... and it would snowball

Seasiders_2

Thanks again for the advice - will talk it over with my wife -
Whats everyones experience of the success in CCCS getting interest and charges frozen and is it for a set period or for the life of the DMP. My creditors are RBS, Barclays, MBNA, BOS and A&L?

newlywed

The only one of those I have is RBS - mint card and mint loan. They ignored every single letter, kept charging interest, issued a default notice after 4 months and then quietly interest and charges all stopped.

Nothing else from them since (coming up to 2 years on a DMP), but for the first 4 months, the debt was increasing (just to warn you to stick it out till you see a default ). Since then they have been quiet and just accept payments each month, nothing else.

My others are FD (immediately reduced interest to 1% above base rate with no other charges or default notices), GE Money who refused the DMP, then accepted and after 3 months stopped interest, and a catalogue who lost payments and were a pain in the butt - but didn't charge interest or anything


None of my creditors have changed to start applying interest - so far - not even when I had to reduce my payments slightly last year

msc1977

billybobberyl wrote: »

so would the cccs allow us to wait until april, and just pay token payments for feb and march to build up an emergency fund, with an 18 month old son always needing something and a car about to die its probably necessary!

Hi - i asked CCCS about this and the guy i spoke to actually suggested getting a bit of a buffer behind us and he basically said that i could just send token payments till the DMP started, which for us will be 1st April. It gives us a couple of months to get used to a new budget and means that we can make any changes we need to with CCCS before the plan starts rather than straight after the first payment. Also its taking a bit of time to get all our loan, c/c and overdraft statements together. I'll be sending all my stuff off next week so they receive it with plenty of time for April.

I'm also clearing one small debt in full and this has to be done before the DMP starts so that there is no preference over creditors.

HTH

msc1977

Seasiders wrote: »

Thanks newlywed - just want a card I can use to purchase things over the phone or internet or in shops really so the Visa Electron card should be fine.
I agree about the credit card but if its locked in a drawer and not with me - then it might work??? and if I already had it I am not breaching the terms with CCCS agreeing not to take on any MORE credit??

Hi -we are intending to keep one c/c it will be cleared before the DMP starts and only has a credit limit of £1000 so it really will be for absolute emergencies ie car repairs etc. It would be my intention to clear any spendsing on it as soon as possible and ideally not to use it at all. I have also had to make sure that none of the debt on my DMP is in anyway tied to the company that my c/c is with as they would be likely to stop it anyway. I think dlb kept some debts out of her original DMP so she might have more experience of this.

andreweduk

All was going so well, then we got a £450 vet bill for the cat today

Just don't know what we're going to do, they want payment in full, we took him in this morning he's got a bladder infection! I've got £450 in the bank because I just got paid, but it's for rent/bills etc.

Just as I felt I was getting somewhere, this has just knocked me for six.

ARGH!!

NEWLIFE_WANNABE

msc1977 wrote: »

WOO HOO!!

i just received a call from Egg bank (they have received 2 letters and 2 £1 token payments) ...i bottled it and said i wasnt here.....then i sent copies of my letters requesting no telephone contact to them by email.

Then i sat for a bit and decided that i was strong enough to handle this and i called them, said i had received a message earlier today and was calling them back. The lady asked me to confirm my mobile and home number for security which i refused, she asked why, i told her that i had requested they be removed and i receive written contact only. She put me on hold for a moment, confirmed they had got my letter and would remove my phones numbers...RESULT...hopefully! I guess i might well get a few more calls but i've noted down her name the date and time etc......she also said there was no indication of whether my DMP would be accepted but they will contact me...i confirmed that this would of course be in writing!!!!:-)

Good luck with Egg...After ignoring the phone most evenings for the last week and then 1471ing I received a phone call from them (Egg) last night after sending them a token payment on the 29th January and a letter informing them that I was setting up a DMP with CCCS. They told me that they needed a credit card payment immediately to bring the account up to date. (I already have had two letters off them asking me to set up a new DD). I explained that this would not be happening, that I was setting up a DMP with CCCS and that I had sent a token payment to them for the February payment. They asked me for my reference number, which I gave them, and said that if payment was not received by the 23rd of this month then the account would automatically default and be passed on to a DCA. Don't know if this is a good thing or not?

newlywed

andreweduk wrote: »

All was going so well, then we got a £450 vet bill for the cat today

Just don't know what we're going to do, they want payment in full, we took him in this morning he's got a bladder infection! I've got £450 in the bank because I just got paid, but it's for rent/bills etc.

Just as I felt I was getting somewhere, this has just knocked me for six.

ARGH!!

Are you already on your DMP (sorry lost track of who is starting or already started ). If so, contact them and ask whether you can reduce your next payment as a one off because of this. I did it for car MOT etc after being on the DMP a year and no-one took any adverse action against me because of it.

Your rent etc are priority bills (but I appreciate the cat is often a part of the family (ours always were)). Could you negotiate with the vet and pay half now, half next month? Realistically, what will the vet do if you don't pay it right now???

Althea

Hey all, here's one for you old-timers with CCCS. I've just received a letter saying CCCS want to do a review of my budget etc, which I expected - but not after 3 months? I thought they did this after 6 months? Any idea why they'd be asking for this after just 3 months?

Actually it's going to be a toughie for me to DO this review, since they're saying they'll call me "between 4:30pm and 8:30pm" ... well I work full-time, don't get in until 6pm at which point I'm bathing/putting to bed my toddler and I don't get free from that until gone 8pm (and I'm a single parent, so no-one else to do this for me). I'm hoping they'll agree to do the review via email, otherwise I'm slightly stuck!