Anyone organising their own DMP?

boo80

Whoop! Just got my 1st written response from my payment offers and mbna have accepted £16 pm which is less than I thought they'd ask for, and reduced the interest to 0.00% I'm so pleased that at least one of these companies are being helpful and kind!!

Thanks Leixlip, NDL are great aren't they?

boo80

I spoke to Lloyds over the weekend and they only want half of what I have offered them?? I was a bit put out about this at first but then I realised I can save up the extra money and make extra payments. I hope it's that straight forward anyway?? Still feeling positive about things although I did find Lloyds really stressful. Only Cap1 to hear from now.

Lois_and_CK

Well done, Boo! I think you should be able to make overpayments to them, but I'm not overly sure - hopefully someone else will come along and tell you for definite. I've not ploughed my way through that huge PDF yet!

Did you send all you creditors your budget with your requests for reduced payment/reduced interest?

boo80

Thanks Lois, yeah, I send the letters a week ago (except mbna who insist on doing it on the phone) Lloyds didn't mention interest, I really hope they freeze it as my payments won't even cover it, but they are sending me everything in writing this week so hopefully it will all be clearer then!

Miss_Marple_2

Hello - I, too, am thinking of managing my own DMP. I am currently with Payplan and have been for 4 years - but now that creditors have started charging interest again, I thought it would be better to snowball and target the highest interest ones. I am already paying above the minimum amount for each one, so can manoeuvre the 'extra' to the best place.

I have e-mailed Payplan about this, but my case worker keeps saying that it would be better to keep with Payplan, because at the end of the DMP, they will try to claim back the interest & charges. I'm not quite sure what she means by this. Does anyone know what happens at the end of a DMP ? Does this 'claw back' actually happen, and if so - why does it happen and do creditors actually pay back interest ?

I don't think this can be the case, or rather not in my case, because everyone stopped charging interest pretty swiftly & only started charging again when my repayments hit the statutory payment amount.

I just wondered if anyone knew anything about this. I don't want to move to managing my own DMP, if staying with payplan would bring my debt free date forward as the only reason I want to do my own is that I can snowball and get the best DFD that I can.

Lois_and_CK

I've had a very organised debt day today. I read through the self help guide that I downloaded from the National Debtline website and it seems I can try for a DMP (organising my own because I'm self employed).

I adjusted my current budget to National Debtline's template, and worked out how much money I have left to pay my creditors. Then I did the pro rata distribution calculations as instructed in the guide: according to the guide this is how the court would do it and means all my creditors get a fair share of the money I have available. Then I used the template letter (also in the guide) and wrote letters to all my creditors that explained my circumstances had changed (decrease in incomings), offered a monthly minimum payment and asked them to freeze charges and interest.

I'm not sure it's going to work at this point because I read elsewhere on this thread that they tend not to accept these offers unless several payments have been missed. Well, I've missed a couple, but mine are all set up to pay the minimum by direct debit (which always takes me over my overdraft and then I get bank charges on top).

Anyway, I've cancelled the direct debits so that I can at least stop the bank charges for now, and I'll wait and see what the creditors say.

Thanks for the ideas, Boo.

boo80

Yay - go Lois! I don't think thats true about creditors being less likely to go for it if you haven't missed a payment, I did worry about this (I'd been late on 2 payments but had never missed one) but when I spoke to mbna and cap1 they both said there shouldn't be a problem with it as I've always been a good customer (I should think so the amount of ££ they've had out of me over the years lol) Good luck Lois, keep us updated. x

boo80

Hi Miss Marple, I'm sorry I have no idea about this! Maybe you could start a new thread to see if anyone has had any experience with this? Would be interested to know how that works, and if they can claim it back for you, why aren't you entitled to claim it yourself??

Lois_and_CK

boo80 wrote: »

Yay - go Lois! I don't think thats true about creditors being less likely to go for it if you haven't missed a payment, I did worry about this (I'd been late on 2 payments but had never missed one) but when I spoke to mbna and cap1 they both said there shouldn't be a problem with it as I've always been a good customer (I should think so the amount of ££ they've had out of me over the years lol) Good luck Lois, keep us updated. x

Oh that's good to hear! I'll keep you updated.

redkev76

Really interested in this thread as i'm looking at doing a DMP and have been thinking about going with CCCS. I'm not self employed and work full time but I quite like the idea of doing things on my own. Would be interested to hear of anyone else that isn't self employed who has gone on their own and how you got on :beer: