DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

geoffmr1

Gpuk wrote: »

Ok, I need some help and advice. I have 8 credit cards and an overdraft and I am struggling to pay the minimum payments. Every month I am up to my overdraft limit which is £1770 and when my wages go in they only clear about half this amount which I then have to use to pay my debts again. My minimum payments on my 8 cards total £680 a month and on several of these when I pay the minimum of £100 they put £96 back on in interest. 3 of my cards have been closed 1 by virgin (£6600) and the interest fixed at 16.9% until I have paid it off (which will be never at this rate). 1 by mint (£800) rate fixed at 21.9% until I have paid it and 1 by Alliance and Leicester (£4600) rate fixed at 17.9%. The other cards I have are Egg (£4100 currently over this limit) Barclaycard Visa (£6550 currently over the limit) Barclaycard Mastercard (£5950 currently over the limit) MBNA Platinum (£1500 my worst apr at 34.9%)!!!!! And Tesco (£1250) who have just informed me my apr is going from 16.9% to 18.9% in october!

My question is this - would a dmp help me out of this mess and what are these particular companies like when it comes to harrasment?? My OH and I own our property with no mortgage, he is terrified of balifts but also forbids me to secure any loan/mortgage etc on it. Can the creditors refuse a dmp because of this?? I bring home around £1250 a month this is including working tax credits and child benefit. But after I have paid out for all the bills and my credit cards we have about £25-£30 a week to spend on shopping, clothes, shoes etc on 3 of us - we are just about managing but it can't go on for much longer as i'm not getting anywhere and our heads are just above water - if something happened out of the blue I wouldn't be able to do anything as there is NO spare cash. My OH doesn't work as he is at home looking after our young son, we looked into him getting a p/t job but once we took out bus fare and having to pay a child minder and took into consideration the loss in benefits, it's just not worth it, also if our son is ill , which he is quite often unfortunately, I would have to call in sick and lose a days pay so it's not worth him doing that either.

I'm just a bit worried about everything really, mainly how the card companies will react - and do i need to get a new bank account if i'm going to do all this as i take it once i do this barclays will stop my overdraft?!?

Please help me!

Hi Gpuk,

Firstly you're in the right place for advice & I would say because of your circumstances a DMP would be the best option for you. Bankruptcy or an IVA would end up affecting your house in the end so personally I wouldn't consider either.

Neither CCCS or Payplan would want you to take out a secured loan or mortgage on your property, the fact of the matter is why would anyone want to turn an unsecured debt into a secured one? That simple fact is one that got me into a mess as my mortgage was low but I had a lot of equity in my house so I took out a secured loan to pay off credit cards & loans. If I knew then what I know now I would be pretty well off with no debts instead of still repaying credit card companies & having a massive mortgage which I can't even get away from Northern Rock (who are charging way too much interest).

Your husband is right to not want anything secured on the house. With regards bailifs, the only way they'll come round is if a company takes you to court to get a CCJ & you refuse to make the payments the Judge awards, don't panic about this either as a Judges will only award a creditor the amount you can afford to pay & usually goes along with whatever the CCCS or Payplan have offered. Creditors can go for a charging order, (this is standard practise for some now) however, once again there is absolutely no guarantee that their request would be successful, even if it was its a long way down the line before any creditor gets to that stage & by then you'll understand your rights much, much better, I promise you that. Also a charging order in your circumstances wouldn't be half as bad as it sounds. You have a child so there is virtually no chance of a court agreeing to an order of sale (once again the only way it'd happen is if you laughed at the Judge & told him/her you have no interest in paying your debts, which obviously isn't going to happen). The charge would remain on your property until the debt was repaid, if you happen to move then the debt would need to be repaid out the money you received for your home, but assuming you're not looking to move then thats not an issue. As I say don't let any of this worry you as I'm only trying to let you know what can happen, NOT what will happen.

Most creditors accept DMP's in the end. Banks tend to be the worst for continuing to add interest & charges (although obviously each person is different & it depends a lot on how much of a DMP you can afford).

Hope some of this helps.

Geoff.

geoffmr1

scouselad1974 wrote: »

Good morning everyone

After months of trying to contacting Dell to inform them of my DMP and update my address details I have finally had a response via email, thanks to the guys on here finding it for me over the weekend.
Low and behold a Default notice arrived yesterday at the correct address, strange as I never emailed them until late Saturday afternoon, so obviousley they had my correct detials all along and have been playing silly !!!!!!s :rolleyes:

Anyway I am just after a bit of advice as I don't fully understand exactley how much they say that I owe.

Would you have a look at it for me and let me knowwhat you think ?

Thanks in advance

Hi,

They are saying you need to pay them £35.48 before 2nd Sept 2009. Otherwise you'll owe the full amount of £74.21 to become due immediately.

scouselad1974

Thanks, that's what I thought, what threw me was the amount outstanding as I thought that I owed at least twice that amount

Gpuk

Thanks Geoff, it's really helpful to know some of the in's and out's as i'm a complete novis! It's been indicated by CCCS that I have £349 a month available to pay to the creditors which doesn't sound like much split 8 ways - but thinking about it now I would probably have to put my overdraft and mobile phones onto the DMP as well so then £349 would be split 10 ways eeek! Does that sound enough or will they just laugh at me?? Total credit card debt plus phones plus overdraft would be £33500 ish!!??!!

Spoke to Halifax this morning , my account is still open even though I haven't used it in a year, they are sending new debit card and cheque book (so I can send the token payments off) but there is no overdraft on this account.

I have had a call from Payplan , which I missed but I will call them back later.

Do most people use CCCS or Payplan? Is one better than the other??

Also i'm thinking about putting this all in motion in Feb as I can keep treading water til then and it will give me more time to change over Direct Debits for Council Tax, Water rates etc as these all come out on the 1st of the month and I don't want to get in trouble for missing council tax payments.............or should I risk it and start now?????

Still a little confused and a big scared!!

Daffykjs

Well done Gp for getting it started. don't really have much to add to the advice you've had! personally i'd say there's no harm in starting it now tbh! and why would your phone be included? As to the sky, you don't HAVE to cancel it, but it won't be taken into account as a payment you NEED to pay before the creditors. However there are other things you can have allowed for or you can have more allowed for that you can try and slip it in under. at the end of the day they want you to be ok for money, not still struggling, but sky isn't a necessity!

There's probably about 50/50 on here pp and cccs and both seem very good. the only difference seem to be the way they decide the amounts paid each month to your creditors. ie pp do it on how much total you owe to each, whereas cccs do it on how much the min payments are each month.

Also i think cccs ask for wageslips whereas pp don't! but i think those are the only difference so go with what suits you best! you can't go wrong with either!

and to the person who was asking about aaddresses, have you thought about ringing them to get the correct address? i guess if you want to go down the only in writing line that may not help tho!

Today is payday!! Woohoo!! Another month and this month WILL be better!

scouselad1974

Hi

Regarding telephone contact, I have sent the standard harrasment letter to one of my creditors aswell as a formal complaint. Fair enough they have stopped calling and said they will do until my complaint is resolved. My complaint is now resolved, well in their eyes it is but not in mine:rolleyes: anyway the complaint will remain open for a further 8 weeks.
I have been told that they do not agree that they have broken any rules etc regarding telephoning me, even though I have requested all contact be in writing.

Once I have informed this company that I would prefer all contact to be in writing, do they still have the legal right to telephone me? if not where can I find this information on Trading Standards website, as I can't find the paragraph I need to point out to my creditors anywhere.

cloudy-day

Long timer lurker first time poster.

Have been in debt since my first CC aged 18, 30 years later now up to my eyeballs and drowning.

Have 7 CCs and one loan, total is....gulp.....£75,570!! DFD 2022 - here for a while then! Can I please have a number?

Finally (after months of indecision) sent off my letters today. Why do I feel so sick and worried then? Would have thought I would feel better but no, just feel 100 times worse. So so worried and frightened.

I have CCs with:
Egg*2
Abbey
MBNA (A&L)
Citi
Debenhams (GE money)
M&S

and a loan with NR - the thought of a charging order terrifies me as the mortgage is joint and DH doesn't know. All the debt is in my name.

Please reassure me - think I'll just agree to go back to the minimums after one scary call or letter, not that I can afford now...

katkins2

cloudy-day wrote: »

Long timer lurker first time poster.

Have been in debt since my first CC aged 18, 30 years later now up to my eyeballs and drowning.

Have 7 CCs and one loan, total is....gulp.....£75,570!! DFD 2022 - here for a while then! Can I please have a number?

Finally (after months of indecision) sent off my letters today. Why do I feel so sick and worried then? Would have thought I would feel better but no, just feel 100 times worse. So so worried and frightened.

I have CCs with:
Egg*2
Abbey
MBNA (A&L)
Citi
Debenhams (GE money)
M&S

and a loan with NR - the thought of a charging order terrifies me as the mortgage is joint and DH doesn't know. All the debt is in my name.

Please reassure me - think I'll just agree to go back to the minimums after one scary call or letter, not that I can afford now...

Hi cloudy-day,

Not sure I can offer much advice as I am only in the early stages of a DMP myself but just wanted to try and offer a bit of reassurance. Its just over a month now since I dragged my head out of the sand, completed the online debt remedy with cccs and I already am feeling tons better. Don't get me wrong, I know there are difficult times ahead but I feel so much better about everything since I took those first steps. The hardest thing (I think anyway) is actually recognising you are in trouble and seeking help. I understand how you are feeling now, probably pretty similar to how I was a month ago but you HAVE done the right thing and I'm sure that in time, you too will feel better for dealing with your debts.

There are tons of people on here who are so lovely and will offer advice where they can. Good Luck.

2spicy

snowymalone wrote: »

I've got a question. Having surrendered a life assurance policy to which we've been paying over the odds for twelve years and switched to a cheaper provider (god bless your advice, Mr Lewis :cool: ), we're due a couple of thousand quid. Now, as we've got no access to credit any more, and we have some major, unavoidable expenditure on the horizon, is it OK within the terms of a DMP to hang on to it?

After the major expense we'd have about £500 left, which we want to keep for a rainy day - again, is there a ceiling on savings you can legit have under a DMP, or is it best just to keep a bit shtum?

Yes, We did the same ... In the end, we paid £10,000 off the outstanding debt, and used the remaining £5000 to keep as a reserve to cover some building work and modifications that needed to be done to the house ( also used £600 to go towards the last family holiday we will be having for a few years ) !!

2spicy

Gpuk wrote: »

Thanks Geoff, it's really helpful to know some of the in's and out's as i'm a complete novis! It's been indicated by CCCS that I have £349 a month available to pay to the creditors which doesn't sound like much split 8 ways - but thinking about it now I would probably have to put my overdraft and mobile phones onto the DMP as well so then £349 would be split 10 ways eeek! Does that sound enough or will they just laugh at me?? Total credit card debt plus phones plus overdraft would be £33500 ish!!??!!

Spoke to Halifax this morning , my account is still open even though I haven't used it in a year, they are sending new debit card and cheque book (so I can send the token payments off) but there is no overdraft on this account.

I have had a call from Payplan , which I missed but I will call them back later.

Do most people use CCCS or Payplan? Is one better than the other??

Also i'm thinking about putting this all in motion in Feb as I can keep treading water til then and it will give me more time to change over Direct Debits for Council Tax, Water rates etc as these all come out on the 1st of the month and I don't want to get in trouble for missing council tax payments.............or should I risk it and start now?????

Still a little confused and a big scared!!

Dont worry, im not goign to repeat our story, but its in the previous DMP thread... we have 650 a month spare which is divided up between 8 creditors. the smallest amount is £3000 oweing, and these people get £32 a month ... the largest debt £12,000 they get £95 a month.

our pwn experience has taught us that we should have done a dmp years ago... that way we would be almost finished by now. however, 6 months into it, we can account for our income and outgoings, our creditors are being paid off and we have money to life.

Were not scared of letters / the phone ringing so overall, our quality of live has improved also.

Our advice ... DMP ... DMP ... DMP .. you know it makes sence.

at the end of the day, they can only have what you can afford. if you aint got it .. they cannot have it!!..