DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

JillyOJolly

newbeginning wrote: »

Hi, another question....

Someone just mentioned if you pay one creditor off, the others know. How do they know? I understand they can check credit records and find out but are they constantly checking this?

If you have entered a DMP agreement with a company like Payplan (rather than a personal DMP) your full debt is on the table so to speak, it shows you make no preferential treatment to pay one creditor more than the other. This is why extra out of DMP payments are also discouraged as it is preference to give more to one. You are telling them you are in financial difficulty and need expert help to meet agreed repayments (or thats the idea of DMPs). You submit I&E and offer to each an amount of what is left. If you have extra money for one, albeit the smaller ones to pay off, the larger balance creditors could rightly argue the extra money should go to them as you owe them more. Each creditor, regardless of balance, will get the same information from you via the DMP company and the same offer to pay off towards the debt. Even though a balance on one might be £10K and another only £5K they both get the same percentage from your available money. A lot of offers are based on what one does and other creditors may follow.

JOJ

JillyOJolly

geoffmr1 wrote: »

I don't really agree that the creditor isn't under an obligation to mark your file as fully satisfied unless you don't include that in the full & final offer to them. Whenever I have offered f&f settlements I have always made sure that one of the conditions of the offer is that my credit file is marked as fully satisfied, if they don't want to do that then it's their choice but the offer is withdrawn. All the companies that have accepted my offers (& thats certainly not all of them) have marked my file as per the offer. On the other hand I had an overdraft debt with Nationwide which has been completely repaid including all charges etc & yet they refuse to withdraw the default on my file.

I also don't understand the payplan stuff. I'm with CCCS who obviously work in a different manner, however how can a creditor know how another creditor has been paid off?? How do they know you haven't received a refund of charges/PPI or that the creditor hadn't made a mistake with the total remaining?? Each account is a private matter & you're under no obligation to tell another creditor whats happening with other accounts.

Its all about legal terms, but this "partially satisfied" is something I have checked. Your credit file starts to repair once you keep paying on time and have no defaults put on, like any normal payee. If you have paid on a DMP for x amount of years and there are no defaults or or bad credity things going on, do you really want partially satisfied to start to affect your credit again for 6 years?

I did check this thoroughly at the time as I initially worded my letters to creditors just like the example earlier, but then sought very detailed advice. It does seem that this may be on a creditor/personal status basis, but I had to make people aware that in legal terms you cannot ask for what you are not providing, ie, a full balance. There is always the risk that you win the lottery 2 months after you finish your full and final partially satisfied with an offer on the table that they have accepted and they can pursue you for the remaining balance as the reason you give for full and finals is generally cos you cant afford to pay the full balance in one go! This could be regardless of the "matter is closed now and you cant come after me for the balance" statement that needs to accompany a partially satisfied account.

I almost wish I hadnt brought it up now really , but I had six weeks of nightmares and I thought this thread was about sharing experiences - in fact the worst part of my whole DMP - sorting out full and finals and I obviously chose the best option for myself at that time as I did not want to start another 6 years of poor credit after taking so long to build up something a little more credible for me.

JillyOJolly

MurrayMint wrote: »

From a future credit rating point of view, what's worse...?
a) a part settlement recorded now and the account closed, i.e. 6 year clock ticking to the record being removed from the report
b) recorded as being on a payment arrangement, with the potential for (or already) defaults at any time, until the balance is cleared

I can see why a part settlement is bad, but at least that's the end of the line for that record. On a payment arrangement, they could default you just as you're about to clear the debt, therefore leaving the black mark for another 6 years

Or, is the black mark of a part settlement much worse than a default? :huh:

Towards the end of DMPs when you get ready for full and finals you would generally be paying very regularly within the terms of your DMP agreement and at that stage less likely to have any defaults put on towards the end, although this depends on when you do the F&Fs.

I can only speak from a personal point of view, like eveyrone on here, and I personally spent 4 years with no defaults put on, positive charges reclaiming, balances slowly coming down, no payments missed or late and this helped start the ball rolling for repairing my credit. I didnt want to jeopardise that as I felt I only had 3 more years to keep my nose clean so to speak and didnt want to start 6 years of not being able to buy a new car or even go for a mortgage.

JOJ

JillyOJolly

I also don't understand the payplan stuff. I'm with CCCS who obviously work in a different manner, however how can a creditor know how another creditor has been paid off?? How do they know you haven't received a refund of charges/PPI or that the creditor hadn't made a mistake with the total remaining?? Each account is a private matter & you're under no obligation to tell another creditor whats happening with other accounts.[/QUOTE]


I have replied to something similar on another post about payplan, but yes each creditor makes sure they all get the same, this is part of the process for dispersing your money correctly. CCCS may be different in how they pay out your money, but this actually worked in my favour as each one tended to follow suit once they knew what the others were doing.

elfen

Is running your own DMP included, as I run my own. Admittedly it's with the DCAs now, but I'm still running it, and since most are around the same amount they get the same amount each (£5 per month) except the 3 debt, which was the first one to come (and first to go) Have asked about full and finals but they are VERY reluctant to offer too little IYSWIM.

Hopefully I'll be able to settle the 3 debt in February (bursary will go to that - and to a couple of others) and I know there's ones floating for about £15, so when they send me a letter, I'll give them the £15 and know two are paid off.

I've also started rebuilding the other side; getting good credit. Have got a phone contract that's been running for four months, a Nationwide Flex I don't use but is open (no debit/credit cards) and my student account with Barclays, which are all getting me the green 0's. And I've been accepted for a Vanquis card, but am only going to spend on it what I would normally, and pay it off before the statement date. Think you can say I've learnt my lesson now (and on a low income it's VERY hard to see anything happening - just going tp update the signature)

MurrayMint

JillyOJolly wrote: »

I almost wish I hadnt brought it up now really , but I had six weeks of nightmares and I thought this thread was about sharing experiences - in fact the worst part of my whole DMP - sorting out full and finals and I obviously chose the best option for myself at that time as I did not want to start another 6 years of poor credit after taking so long to build up something a little more credible for me.

No, no, I'm glad you did! It's something I am interested in anyway - my personal agenda

I just looked through my credit report and out of the 5 accounts in my name (it's a joint DMP), 2 have defaulted us, but 3 are still logging us as in arrears. We've been on the plan for 15 months now. So I think, as the creditor that is offering us a the chance of a part settlement is also the one that is recording us as having arrears, then even more reason to go for it. It would take us over 13 years to clear at our current level, and so it could be 13 years plus 6 to clear the final arrear or potential default (which I've read creditors can do to people just at the end).

geoffmr1

JillyOJolly wrote: »

I also don't understand the payplan stuff. I'm with CCCS who obviously work in a different manner, however how can a creditor know how another creditor has been paid off?? How do they know you haven't received a refund of charges/PPI or that the creditor hadn't made a mistake with the total remaining?? Each account is a private matter & you're under no obligation to tell another creditor whats happening with other accounts.


I have replied to something similar on another post about payplan, but yes each creditor makes sure they all get the same, this is part of the process for dispersing your money correctly. CCCS may be different in how they pay out your money, but this actually worked in my favour as each one tended to follow suit once they knew what the others were doing.

It seems you have misunderstood my point. Of course each creditor wants to know they are being treated fairly, but you could have a creditor with a balance of £100 who has been told to refund you £100 in charges or PPI etc. A different creditor wouldn't have a clue why that balance had suddenly been cleared or reduced & its a private matter which you do not have to disclose to them or to payplan/cccs if you don't want to.

geoffmr1

JillyOJolly wrote: »

I almost wish I hadnt brought it up now really , but I had six weeks of nightmares and I thought this thread was about sharing experiences - in fact the worst part of my whole DMP - sorting out full and finals and I obviously chose the best option for myself at that time as I did not want to start another 6 years of poor credit after taking so long to build up something a little more credible for me.

Of course this thread is about sharing experiences & everyone should always bring up valid points.

It's just you made a statement that if a company accepts a f&f settlement then it 'DOES AFFECT YOUR CREDIT FILE FROM THE DATE IT GOES ON'. Obviously your experience of that is clearly different from mine because after making f&f offers which were accepted it didn't have an adverse effect on my credit file at all. Also if a company has accepted a f&f offer & have put it in writing, then regardless of winning the lottery they have absolutely no chance of getting the remainder. I'm sure they could try but it would be a complete waste of time unless they had proof you lied to them at the time or witheld information that you were about to come into money, such as from a will or something.

We can all learn from each other & your posts are invaluable to this site having been there & done it so to speak. Your one of those on here that we can all actually look up to & use as an inspiration having settled all your debts, but we can still disagree about stuff. At the end of the day I could be wrong so people need to look at important aspects like f&f settlements themselves & get their own advice as nobody but the debtor can say whats definately right or wrong for them.

Twit_Head

What an interesting and lively debate between two of our most respected and knowledgeable members! Could only wish I was in a position to offer to close some of my debts. Thank you both for your input - your experiences and opinions are invaluble to all of us and I (like many I'm sure) have gained so much from your posts.
Am mulling all this info over at the moment but it seems to be a bit like the rest of a DMP-every one is different and you must stay pro-active and keep on your toes! Thankyou to you both ( and yes you know who you are )

Hi GirlyPink
No expert but you can only send the statements you have but do tell CCCS what you estimate your final totals to be. I'm with CCCS and get along fine. Do keep with one of the free DMP companies then you're not paying fees on top of everything else. Keep reading and coming back to this thread when you need advice and support.
They're all barmy but very a very friendly bunch :beer:
'Twitty'

LittleMissSkint

Hi all,

Well I thought the DMP was ticking along OK but today have just received an Initital Writ (Scottish Court Summons) for Northern Rock. I'm devastated.

Going to fill out the application for time to pay (for the same amount per month as CCCS give them - it's all I have after all). It's only £34 a month of a 14K loan, so I bet they will say no. After they do I really don't know what our options will be. If they go ahead and arrest wages or whatever we'll have no choice but to go BR, which would be a disaster because we own our house (neg equity). I'm officially freaking out.

Anyone know what the chances are that they will accept the payment through court? I guess slim as they clearly aren't accepting it now. But will the court accept it even if NR say no? I will include a copy of our budget and the list of creditors, total debt and monthly payment. That way they should see they are getting the same as everyone else.

Right before Xmas too. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse.