DMP vs Full & Final settlement and advice on SOA

icecube2009

have you checked https://www.entitledto.com in case you can get WTC?

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 732 repayment or interest only?
Secured loan repayments................. 160 - secured on what?
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 44 - for what?
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 122
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 45 - this needs to be reduced and go PAYG with minimal use.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30 - and this needs to go
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 - you can cut this by one third easily
Clothing................................ 40 - wear what you already own. Shoes and knockers only.

Tax credit, we are entitled to £10 a week but still paying back an overpayment & likely to be for a couple more years

Mortgage is interest only, high rate (northern rock) but tied in until this time next year, DH want to remortgage then to get a better deal, but if we do a DMP is worried we wont be able to.

£160 is car loan, 3 more years

£44 is 2 lap tops he bought one for us (when PC packed up) and one for DD when she started secondary school

Mobiles, is 3 x £15 pm contracts, I was on payg, but phone packed up & it was easier to get contract (others are DH's & DD's)

Clothes- I naver buy clothes (and mine are falling apart!) and sometimes dont spend anything on clothes, but with an 11 & 13 year old they always need something, new school shoes & trainers for DS this month sent me back £30, DD has grown out of school uniform, DS starts secondary school in september & will need uniform, totalling about £200

Sky, covers basic TV package, Telephone & internet so I didnt think this too bad

icecube2009

Clothing................................ 40 - stop buying. At £40 a month you must have wardrobes full. Spend nothing for 6 months unless it's underwear and after that use ebay/Tesco./Asda etc

I have hardly any clothes, DH is still wearing the same jeans he bought 4 years ago, I need underwear, but manage with what I have, I do have to buy sensible shoes for work, but currently am struggling with the ones I have which are falling apart. My children however do cost a lot to clothe, I might not spend anything some months, but school uniform & clothing for growing children really does add up. They dont wear fancy clothes, I did pay £20 for new school shoes, but trainers are never more then a tenner & if my Daughter wants more expensive clothing, she buys it herself

icecube2009

RAS wrote: »

You could find another £200 in that budget, and in the circumstance you need to do that.

Can you sell the car and use public transport since you are not making long journeys?

What did you spend the money on? Anything you can sell or put on e-bay, amazon or car-boot?

Can any of you get a second part-time job?

Can then kids get part-time jobs?

Join https://www.freecycle.org and sign up for https://www.quidco.com.

And post those APRs as they will dictate which debts you need to pay off first.

How much equity do you have?

if we didnt have the car and all had to use public transport it would cost more than having the car! DH drops me to work first them the kids to school, he has to pay £50 a month to park in town where he works, otherwise he couldnt use the car.

icecube2009

RAS wrote: »

You could find another £200 in that budget, and in the circumstance you need to do that.

Can you sell the car and use public transport since you are not making long journeys?

What did you spend the money on? Anything you can sell or put on e-bay, amazon or car-boot?

Can any of you get a second part-time job?

Can then kids get part-time jobs?

Join https://www.freecycle.org and sign up for https://www.quidco.com.

And post those APRs as they will dictate which debts you need to pay off first.

How much equity do you have?

dh has been looking for extra work, was turned down for pizza delivery as the hours clashed with his current job. Thing is he has friends who are telling him that this is easy. One is on a DMP, but a diy dmp, he says he just wrote to the creditors & told them what he could pay & they accepted it! (I doubt that!) the other did F+F's a few years ago & has just managed to remortgage & get an additional £40k for a loft conversion, so DH is under the impressiont hat if you do a F+F it wont affect your chances of being able to remortgage

icecube2009

RAS wrote: »

You could find another £200 in that budget, and in the circumstance you need to do that.

yet when we did the SOA on the CCCS web site it said we had to allow X amount for food & clothing, and even said £35 a month for emergencys (which I dont think I have included) I also havent allowed for things like dentist which of course we do visit, or glasses, which DH wears, and have only included enough for the 2 prescriptions I need every month & nothing for additional illness

icecube2009

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

your credit file would be shot to pieces for 6 years as you'd have to be heading towards defaults before F+Fs are accepted. Really not worth it. Have a look at re-working your budget, you have a lot of slack you can pull in.

yes thats what DH has said, 6 years, but if we did a DMP that would last longer than 6 years our credit rating would be bad for a lot longer

icecube2009

I am still trying to find out the fors & againsts for F+F & DMP's. which is the better option in general?

Burlesque_Babe

You can do a DIY DMP, it can take creditors a while but some will accept easily.

F+F will definitely affect a credit file. Any outstanding money that hasn't been paid will sit on the file. The file is marked 'Satisfied (partial)' and it takes 6 years for the remaining amount to drop off. You say your friend did F+F's a 'few years ago' and has just managed to re-mortgage - this is probably because he was at default stage and the debts were with debt collection agencies.

Even with car parking in town and mobile phone contracts, there is still a huge amount you can save. I can see £100 a month in food bills, savings on car insurance, also on gas and electricity used, not putting away the £10 emergency money each month, I think you relly need to think about doing this first and then if you are still struggling, look at help from in laws, but if you accept any money from them now, I really see your situation spiralling down even more because your spending habits need to have the brakes put on and changes to your monthly outgoings changed.

There are lots of ways you can painlessly increase your spare money each month, it's just a bit of work really but I would say by this time next month you'd see real results.

icecube2009

Burlesque_Babe wrote: »

your credit file would be shot to pieces for 6 years as you'd have to be heading towards defaults before F+Fs are accepted. Really not worth it. Have a look at re-working your budget, you have a lot of slack you can pull in.

even if i can save an additional £200 I am still £400 short of my monthly debt payments so have to do something, so its either a F+F or a DMP. surely a DMP would hurt our credit ratings for longer?

Burlesque_Babe

I think your best option is DMP because you are up to date with your payments on your CC's and they are really unlikely to accept F+F's on an account which is not with collections or a debt collection agency.