DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

icecube2009

bigmommamuppet wrote: »

Daffy

I've also had my 2nd LBM, hope that's the final one. We've been struggling for the last couple of months and have been doing exactly the same as you. Not including everything in our spends. So DH and I sat down on Monday and have worked out next month's budget, and WE ARE GOING TO STICK IT!!! OR ELSE!!!

So from the 20th Sept my budget will be:

DH Pocket Money: £80
My Pocket Money: £80
Kids PM & Clubs: £65
Birthdays & Xmas (thought we better start this soon): £75
Entertainment: £160
Groceries: £350
Petrol: £300
Savings/ Emergency: £200

- no planned extra bills this month (fingers crossed).

We've never split it up before, and it seems a lot on paper but usually by week 3 we have v. little left and I've never managed to save anything. :rolleyes:

So here's to our 2nd LBM and good luck for next month. If you need help/ encouragement give me a shout.

Becks

sounds good to me, see we didnt allow anything for entertainment general 'pocket money' presents, or emergency etc. I managed to sell some bits on ebay to pay for my dd's birthday pressie & school uniform, but nothing left to sell. I did allow £10 a month for pocket money, but dont even have the odd £1 here and there to give the kids for a burger at school or anything, and I got really upset last week cos my son asked to go out to the inema with his friend and I had to say no but didnt want to tell him we couldnt afford it, so in the end he couldnt go, its getting me down

ianmak

Congrats Sandalwood!!! Hope all with going well...

Daffykjs

Congrats Sandalwood!!!

bigmomma, i know what you mean about it looking more when written down. when i worked out what was left after bills it seemed like loads! but still seemed to dissapear. now i've broken it down i can see where it's been going and how it needs to be distributed and it works out now!

icecube, i was the same regards not having money for emergency, presents etc. there was no leeway for these things!

I feel very very lucky at the mo coz my dad recently offered to give me some money towards my debt as he's just retired but is still working and has also recently paid off his mortgage (truly debt free, how lovely must that be! ).

but instead i said what i'd rather (actually i explained the situation and got him to suggest it) is for him to be our 'emergency fund'. Our boiler is playing up at the mo and i was getting very worried about if it were to go as if it did, there's no way i could afford a new one. but knowing my dad is there for back up has really relaxed me (i'm certainly not taking it for granted tho)! i know most people don't have this and right now i am truly grateful.

Still, once xmas is out of the way (for the first time ever i've started saving for xmas, altho i've had to take some back seeing as i messed up! oops! not all of it tho) i'm going to put the money (£50 p/m) I was putting away for xmas plus the money i was paying dad's last loan back with (again £50 p/m) away and start my own emergency fund, so hopefully his cushion should not even be required! and maybe it can eventually go towards the debt after all! Fingers crossed. i really want to do this by myself and not rely on him (i'm 32 for goodness sake!), but it hasn't been as easy to do without his help as i'd hoped!

i definitely advise those starting out to do the token payment, save the rest, thing, as we didn't and it's pretty scary having nothing at all to fall back on.

what do you class as entertainment? is that purely 'fun' money? we certainly don't have that, that's our pocket money.

Argh, I've just realised the blooming MOT is next month and i haven't budgeted for it! argh, must add that in somehow.

scouselad1974

Hi

A quick update on my problems with Monument, basically I owed them around £185.00 at the start of my DMP in July, CCCS offered them £5 per month which would of been increased after 6 months, anyway they refused the offer stating that they would only accept 1% of an outstanding balance or £10 which ever was the greatest. I sent them a please reconsider your decision offer which I received no reply to and ended up having to make a formal complaint to the company as I was getting nowhere with them, each month they have added charges of £24 to my balance so now I owe them much more than when I started. They refuse to reply to any correspondance I send, be it recorded or even special delivery, so now I am stuck and don't know what to do next. Any advice would be appreciated.

Gpuk

Does anyone have an address to send my token payment to Tesco credit card?? Can't see to find one??

geoffmr1

scouselad1974 wrote: »

Hi

A quick update on my problems with Monument, basically I owed them around £185.00 at the start of my DMP in July, CCCS offered them £5 per month which would of been increased after 6 months, anyway they refused the offer stating that they would only accept 1% of an outstanding balance or £10 which ever was the greatest. I sent them a please reconsider your decision offer which I received no reply to and ended up having to make a formal complaint to the company as I was getting nowhere with them, each month they have added charges of £24 to my balance so now I owe them much more than when I started. They refuse to reply to any correspondance I send, be it recorded or even special delivery, so now I am stuck and don't know what to do next. Any advice would be appreciated.

Hi Scouselad,

Unfortunately Monument aren't under any obligation to accept the payments you're offering. You say they are adding £24 per month in charges, do you know how they are making that up??

The other thing you could try doing (which worked for me with one of my creditors) is write to the MD & explain everything you have tried doing to negotiate with them, tell him everyone else has accepted the DMP payments (show proof is possible, without giving too much personal info) & ask him/her to sell the debt on to a DCA. I done this & the debt was immediately sold & I haven't had a problem since, it's completely unreasonable of them to add ridiculous amounts to a small debt.

Just don't give up trying whatever you do.

Daffykjs

That's terrible scouselad!! how unreasonable of them!! geoff's advise is good.

Gpuk, i've just had a look on my justabank thing and it seems our tesco card is on called a mint card, so i'm not sure if that's any good or not. could you maybe phone them for the address? or is there not one on latest your statement/bill?

nymph_2

Please can someone help
I'm in a DMP with Payplan, have been for 3.5 years now. Also have a Charging Order and CCJ with the nasty NRock. I've been worrying recently about the Lloyds TSB HBOS merger.

Our mortgage is with Halifax - I've kept that out of the debt issues and maintained payments continually.
Amoungst other debts we have Loan CC and two overdrafts with HBOS that are on agreed payments. Some of them have been taken over by Blair Oliver Scott who are apparently part of HBOS (debt collection strong arm, but been fairly reasonable with us)
Our current account is with Lloyds, we made it our main account when we entered the DMP as we didn't owe them anything.

My concern is that LLoyds and HBOS becoming part of the same group, they will take money out of our current account and use it towards the debt we have with them.

According to Section 17 of their Personal Banking terms and conditions applicable from 30th Oct, they can do this:

If any money you owe us (for example on a loan, credit card mortgage overdraft or otherwise, under the Lloyds TSB brand or another brand such as Cheltenham &Gloucester) is overdue for payment, we may use any money in any of your accounts with us to reduce or repay (by way of set of or otherwise) what you owe us.
Another sub-section says they can take the money without telling you first if they think you'll move it, and the debts owed or the funding account can be in joint names.:eek:

Should I change our bank? I think I should, but I need one that is NOT: HBOS, Lloyds, Barclays, HSBC or Natwest.
(NOT asking or expecting proffessional financial advice etc, just hoping for some some names of banks to look at that are NOT connected to the above, my head is ready to explode because I can't figure with all these mergers who belongs to who)

Any advice or suggestion very welcome,

moneybuster

Hi i bank with the TSB and owe money to the Halifax who come under there umbrella group, i posed this question and apparently they operate under different licence, so at the mo they cannot dip into another account, but was told to watch out for there licences merging then they would be able to take from accounts.

Regards Moneybuster

moneybuster

Had a call from hellifax this morning 08-15 and my wife picked up the call, and the Hellifax told them the call was for me (i owe the money) and it was a personal banking issue, have they just broke the data protection act in telling my wife who has no connection to the account that i have a personal banking ISSUE, :rolleyes: they are the only creditor still refusing to accept my DMP they are becoming a bit of a pain,