DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

the_tooth_fairy

Antoinette1976Totton wrote: »

Not sure if anyone can help me with this but I currently have a DMP where I am charged 20% each month in fees.

Does anyone know if I can change over and if there are any companies that dont charge fees - meaning my debts are paid off quicker?

Thanks

Hi Antoinette, I'm with Payplan and I've had great service as well.

20%!! How on earth would you ever pay it all off? Welcome to the Club.

ttf

Antoinette1976Totton

I am going to ring them monday morning and see if I can change my debts to them!

andytwonames

Triggles wrote: »

We've been getting correspondence from our creditors (re the self DMP) asking for proof of our income, bank statements, info on our expenses and other debts. So I will be putting together a letter this weekend to send out with next months payment for all of them, with a general "incoming/outgoing" sheet, so they can see where it's all going. As our current bank account is in MY name, and all the debts are in DH's name, I will not be sending them my bank statements. We don't have a problem sending them a copy of his paystub, however, I will make sure any info regarding where it is deposited is blacked out so they can't read it. They are also asking for our phone number and for us to call them. THAT isn't going to happen. I will also be putting in the letters that we wish contact ONLY by letter/post in writing, no contact by phone. And I will also be requesting again that they stop any extra charges and interest. I noticed that some of them have stated they will stop interest and charges once we send a reference number from an "approved credit management company" to them. Hmmm.... I will continue to push ahead with this on a self-managed plan and continue to send them a monthly letter with the payment stating there are no current updates, until there are, of course. We should be able to up the monthly payment just a little in March, but I won't say that specifically until then. I plan on telling them we will be reviewing the situation in February, and that we will update them immediately afterwards so they are kept abreast of the situation. I figure if we are up front with them about it all, and keep in touch regularly, then they may be less snarky about it all. (they may still be that way, but at least I can try to make it less dreadful, right?)

DH gets a bit stressed and wants to reply IMMEDIATELY (with practically a 24hour turnaround) every time we get a letter from a creditor. But I've told him that I am putting aside two days a week to work on the DMP stuff, and that's it! I'm not living/breathing correspondence with creditors every single day at the drop of a hat. I know it sounds silly, but it's much easier for me to deal with the stress if I can do the correspondence at one time, then put it aside for a few days. Otherwise you feel like you're on edge ALL the time! Does that make sense?

I am on a self managed DMP and one creditor asked for payslips. I called the National Debt Line
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/
and they told me in no uncertain terms that the creditors are not entitled to this.

call them and check, they will help.

Andy.

ianmak

the_tooth_fairy wrote: »

Well done Northstar and Bailey!!! Very pleased for you both.

Northstar, in reply to your request for an Irish saying, here's one thats apt.

'Don't dread the winter till there's snow on the blankets'. Basically don't complain about the cold while you have a roof over your head, but I think it applies to you two today!! You never know what turns up as you've proved!
ttf x

I hate it when people moan that it's cold. It's winter !!!!!!! And it's good for you. Summer's Summer, Winter's Winter (though for how much longer I don't know).

Gpuk

Thanks everyone for all your advice so nice to know that i'm not doing this all on my own, I will keep you posted about phone calls and things, Barclaycard were pretty persistant at forst but haven't had a call from them in about 3 weeks so we'll see, i'm not too bothered about phone calls, I just turned my mobile to vibrate and we don't tend to have phone plugged in much anyway cos of cold callers etc, we just plug it in when we want to use it! I don't mind letters either but my one fear during all of this has been door-step callers!! So fingers crossed they don't go down this route!

Twitty - sorry to hear your having such a pants year!

Bob - No advice for you unfortunately , but I definately wouldn't feel guilty if they wrote off your debt, i'd be singing from the rooftops!! Remember you have probably paid them that much back in interest over the years!

ianmak

trebor41 wrote: »

Hi all
I'm new to this so forgive me if its in the wrong section. My wife and I have a DMP with CCCS since November 08 and things have been going fairly well so far.

We have been in and out of overdraft with Natwest since 1988 (I know 20yrs till LBM). Our original overdraft was for about £100 back in 1989, that amount slowly crept up. But when we moved house in 2001 we temporarily had a large balance in our account, at that time Natwest sent a letter saying that they had upped our overdraft to £4700. Never thought we would use it but once again started using it and in no time at all was up to the limit. After starting the DMP in Nov 08 Natwest said they would accept reduced payments. and we started making payments,several months later Natwest solicitors then tried to take us to court for the full amount,after showing them the letter accepting the DMP they stopped all court action. We have been making payments ever since and have had no further contact from them until last week. We got a call from Irwin Mitchell asking for full payment of £5161, when we told them we were with CCCS they said that the period of reduced payment had ended and they wanted full payment or final settlement of £3000 if not they would take us to court. when asked about the higher balance they said that we were not paying enough to cover the interest, I thought the interest had been frozen, but cant find any letters stating it. This week we have received court papers but only in my wifes name(it has always been a joint account).

What I would like to know is, I have read a bit about proving the debt to be unenforcable by asking for a CCA. We may have signed one in 1989 but only for about £100. We definately didnt sign one for £4700. Are overdrafts treated the same as loans with respect to CCA. Should we feel guilty about possibly getting the debt wiped out if they cant provide a signed CCA.

Any advice would be welcomed

Bob

Any debt that could be deemed unenforceable, is not a issue to be taken lightly, and a creditor if you were to go down that route will not back down easily.

However, for some reason I feel that the CCAs don't count with Overdraft debts. I'm trying to find documentation to confirm this, so please bear with me!

tlc123_2

Hi all

I'm sure this question's been asked a thousand times on this thread, but I can't read through 152 pages at this hour! But here goes:
How exactly does a DMP work? I gather they take over all your debts and offer payments to your creditors and you just pay the DMP people the combined amount eac month?
Who is eligible for this?
Does it impact on your credit rating?
TLC

ianmak

Hi TLC. The DMP company you choose will manage your debt, try to negotiate offers, and distribute your monthly payment between your creditors. It is effectively a gentleman's agreement with creditors, and they don't have to accept or stop interest. Having said that, it's better than continuing to pay minimum payments every month, and at least there is an end in sight.

I think anyone is eligible, provided you can pay a certain amount each month (That you have the surplus available after you've paid off priority bills (Council tax, mortgage/rent, utility bills, food)).

Best thing to do is to visit the National Debtline website, or visit either of these free DMP companies to find out more. CCCS allow you to do an online 'survey' which will recommend what is best in your situation.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

http://www.payplan.com/
http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Hope some of this helps, and apologise if I'm not good at explaining stuff. Hence the links, that will explain far better than I ever could.

emmahoyles

Northstar68 wrote: »

Hi emmahoyles,

I'm in the same position as you, good to know Im not fighting Barclaycard alone but sorry to hear you are having the same harrassment!
My last statement showed Calder too....a bit of investigating and I also found out it is still Barclaycard. The texts and calls are coming but I'm ignoring them now apart from 1 that my daughter picked up by mistake then I had to take it, same old pay up blah blah to which I replied 'you have the CCCS info, DMP is starting, you have a letter requesting no calls, I have kept logs of times etc. To which the bloke on the phone got shirty and I just said good bye and hung up.
Last Sunday they phoned at 9am, 3 times during the day and then at 7pm and 8.30pm. Unbelievable. I will be so glad to see the back of them!

From what i've read on here they like to make peoples lives miserable for a quite a while with their constant harrassment, i'm sure we'll beat them eventually though! I wouldn't mind but both of my barclaycard accounts are the lowest amounts i owe, talking a few hundred to each, the people I owe thousands to seem to just be getting on with things and accepting the situation - its madness and i really wasn't expecting this amount of hassle from them.

Hope things settle down for you soon.

Sorry i can't help with anyone elses questions, i'm pretty new to all this myself :eek: Good luck to everyone on their DMP journey though x

Ellieseleven

I too am receiving numerous calls from Barclaycard, I sent them the template letter to say that I can no longer pay the full amount and sent a token payment of £30 - they have been ringing us constantly throughout the day and night, sometimes twice an hour, sometimes twice in 10 minutes!!

We have caller ID so we are not answering the phone to them!!:rolleyes: