DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

mrs:optimist_2

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, I spent about 5 hours yesterday and another 2 hours today reading through hundreds of posts, my poor house has been neglected

My DH and I are considering a DMP, although we have never missed a payment to any of our creditors we have about £33000 in unsecured borrowing and about £220,000 on our mortgage (on a house worth about £175,000 so are in serious negative equity) part of that is from re-mortgaging and the rest is due to a secured consolidation loan we took out a couple of years ago.

So far we have managed to keep on top of everything but in a couple of months one of our credit card's 0% period runs out and the minimum payments will go up by about £200. Also, some regular mony I had coming in stops in Feb (£400 per month).

On top of this I earn £520 per month as I have a weekend job but have been strongly advised by my Dr to give it up. I look after our 2 year old all week and then get up at 5.30am on Sat and Sun to work, I never get a day off...ever. I have health issues and depression/exhaustion/high BP so my DH wants me to stop working too.

Currently we pay about £600 per month to our non secure creditors (credit cards/catalogues and overdraft) which will go up to £800 per month once that card comes off 0%, and if we could reduce this to £170 per month then I could stop working at weekends and we would have enough to live on (being frugal of course).

Even if I carry on working then we will probably have to go on to a DMP once the card goes up as we simply won't have enough. I feel wracked with guilt about the thought of not working, but it really is getting too much for me. And now that my Dr has reiterated what my DH has been saying for months, I am feeling stronger about quitting.

Also, even though money will be tight, the fact that we will be able to spend time together as a family at weekends will be great for us. Our marriage is great but we hardly ever see each other (just evenings when we are frazzled and tired and trying to get a million things done).

I have 1000 questions but reading through posts has helped a lot! CCCS are phoning us on Monday evening to go through everything and I expect they won't be happy about me giving up work so still not sure what to do.

The only thing that I am PETRIFIED about is bailiffs, can they get sent round if you are on a DMP? I have nightmares about them knocking the door down and scaring my DD and taking stuff at random, with all the neighbours watching. Can it get to that stage?

I will keep up to date with all the posts that I can and will let you know how it goes on Monday. Do you think £170 per month is enough? We may be able to increase it in the future as DH is doing really well at work and keeps getting promotions.

Also, how do you make sure you have enough for things like birthdays, xmas, DD needing a toddler bed soon etc if you are not allowed to have savings?

Thanks everyone :blowkiss:

geoffmr1

Triggles wrote: »

Well, thus far, Santander is being incredibly annoying. They asked for income and expenditure, which I did this month for ALL our creditors, along with breakdown of what we could pay this month, which is at least more than the token £1 payment they received in the last couple months. And Santander returned our income and expenditure form along with the letter that we sent them. Attached to it is a letter from Santander basically saying that we can't assist you until you send in PROOF of your situation including: up to date bank statement, details of income, utility bills, and details of all other creditors. We wrote the amount of income in the I&E, utility bills (although obviously they fluctuate) were averaged in the I&E, and basic info on the other creditors was in the letter, including the balances and percentage of total debt and how much we were paying to each of them to reflect that. Then Santander says for us to contact CAB or CCCS for advice. Well, if they had read the letter, I DID get advice from CCCS, which is what resulted in that I&E and letter with the breakdown of payment that I sent them. And I stated it plainly in the letter that I had done it on the advice of CCCS. :mad: I am NOT sending them in my bank statements, as the bills are in DH's name, and the bank account is in MY name only. This is soooo aggravating.

AND our overdraft is charging us over £60 per month..... we were back within the limits of the overdraft... and then their charges took us over it again... and now they're charging us again!!! charges because of the charges!!! I could just scream!!

I know its really annoying when this sort of thing happens, but don't forget that for every person like yourself that does genuinely want to pay off what they owe there are others out there that will just lie & cheat the system, so they end up paying nothing. As I say I know its frustrating but if someone owed me money & only wanted to pay small amounts back I would want proof of their circumstances also. I take it the CCCS couldn't or wouldn't help you with a DMP or did you just want to self manage it??

Triggles

geoffmr1 - we're self managing it. I understand they are just protecting themselves, but we're NOT just paying nothing - we are paying a reduced amount, which I would think is better than nothing. We're trying to work with them, to the point where we specifically stated in the letter that we had the payments set up on standing order so they would get them every month, and that we were hoping to be able to bump up the payments again by end of July, as we were anticipating some changes to take place then. One would think that if I was trying to lie and cheat the system, I wouldn't communicate with them regularly to advise them of our situation and then bump up the payments as and when we can. *sigh* I guess them just returning the letter and info we sent them is a bit of a slap in the face, circumstances considering. But we'll just continue sending them the money and communicating with them, reiterating that we are sending all we can afford and leave it at that for now. I was advised NOT to send them copies of pay cheques, and as I said previously, they have no rights to see my personal bank account when the bill is in DH's name only.

Twit_Head

mrs:optimist wrote: »

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, I spent about 5 hours yesterday and another 2 hours today reading through hundreds of posts, my poor house has been neglected

My DH and I are considering a DMP, although we have never missed a payment to any of our creditors we have about £33000 in unsecured borrowing and about £220,000 on our mortgage (on a house worth about £175,000 so are in serious negative equity) part of that is from re-mortgaging and the rest is due to a secured consolidation loan we took out a couple of years ago.

So far we have managed to keep on top of everything but in a couple of months one of our credit card's 0% period runs out and the minimum payments will go up by about £200. Also, some regular mony I had coming in stops in Feb (£400 per month).

On top of this I earn £520 per month as I have a weekend job but have been strongly advised by my Dr to give it up. I look after our 2 year old all week and then get up at 5.30am on Sat and Sun to work, I never get a day off...ever. I have health issues and depression/exhaustion/high BP so my DH wants me to stop working too.

Currently we pay about £600 per month to our non secure creditors (credit cards/catalogues and overdraft) which will go up to £800 per month once that card comes off 0%, and if we could reduce this to £170 per month then I could stop working at weekends and we would have enough to live on (being frugal of course).

Even if I carry on working then we will probably have to go on to a DMP once the card goes up as we simply won't have enough. I feel wracked with guilt about the thought of not working, but it really is getting too much for me. And now that my Dr has reiterated what my DH has been saying for months, I am feeling stronger about quitting.

Also, even though money will be tight, the fact that we will be able to spend time together as a family at weekends will be great for us. Our marriage is great but we hardly ever see each other (just evenings when we are frazzled and tired and trying to get a million things done).

I have 1000 questions but reading through posts has helped a lot! CCCS are phoning us on Monday evening to go through everything and I expect they won't be happy about me giving up work so still not sure what to do.

The only thing that I am PETRIFIED about is bailiffs, can they get sent round if you are on a DMP? I have nightmares about them knocking the door down and scaring my DD and taking stuff at random, with all the neighbours watching. Can it get to that stage?

I will keep up to date with all the posts that I can and will let you know how it goes on Monday. Do you think £170 per month is enough? We may be able to increase it in the future as DH is doing really well at work and keeps getting promotions.

Also, how do you make sure you have enough for things like birthdays, xmas, DD needing a toddler bed soon etc if you are not allowed to have savings?

Thanks everyone :blowkiss:

Welcome mrs:)ptimist!
So many questions and fears. You are in a frightening and confusing place at the moment but you will get it all sorted.
Most important thing is your health. If work is causing you problems then difficult though it seems at the moment best to quit. I speak from experience as I have had a heart attack and still work 30 hours but won't contemplate full time because I know it will be too much for me.
Talk your finances through with CCCS. You can only offer what you are able to give - no more. I am on a low-start DMP and creditors have helpful on the whole.
As to the bailiffs - they can't just turn up and ransack your home! you would have to have a county court judgement first and then default on this.
As to birthdays, Christmas etc it's very difficult at first. Best with family to explain you can't be extravagant. You become ace at buying 'bits' throughout the year in the sales to squirrel away in your present box.
Best wishes to you - you have taken the first step on the road to recovery:T

'Twitty'

mrs:optimist_2

Twit_Head wrote: »

Welcome mrs:)ptimist!
So many questions and fears. You are in a frightening and confusing place at the moment but you will get it all sorted.
Most important thing is your health. If work is causing you problems then difficult though it seems at the moment best to quit. I speak from experience as I have had a heart attack and still work 30 hours but won't contemplate full time because I know it will be too much for me.
Talk your finances through with CCCS. You can only offer what you are able to give - no more. I am on a low-start DMP and creditors have helpful on the whole.
As to the bailiffs - they can't just turn up and ransack your home! you would have to have a county court judgement first and then default on this.
As to birthdays, Christmas etc it's very difficult at first. Best with family to explain you can't be extravagant. You become ace at buying 'bits' throughout the year in the sales to squirrel away in your present box.
Best wishes to you - you have taken the first step on the road to recovery:T

'Twitty'

Thank you so much for replying! I really appreciate it

You have put my mind at rest regarding the bailiffs, I realise that ending up with a CCJ may be inevitable if my creditors don't go for the DMP, but if it does come to that then I would never default on a CCJ (have never defaulted on anything my entire life...yet!) even if it means me having to go out to work again. So I feel a bit better.

Once my DD is in school then I plan to go back to work during the week like I used to beore she was born, so at that point our finances will vastly improve. However that won't be for 3 years yet as she has only just turned 2.

Thanks again x

rcpbiggles

mrs:optimist wrote: »

Hi everyone, this is my first post here, I spent about 5 hours yesterday and another 2 hours today reading through hundreds of posts, my poor house has been neglected

My DH and I are considering a DMP, although we have never missed a payment to any of our creditors we have about £33000 in unsecured borrowing and about £220,000 on our mortgage (on a house worth about £175,000 so are in serious negative equity) part of that is from re-mortgaging and the rest is due to a secured consolidation loan we took out a couple of years ago.

So far we have managed to keep on top of everything but in a couple of months one of our credit card's 0% period runs out and the minimum payments will go up by about £200. Also, some regular mony I had coming in stops in Feb (£400 per month).

On top of this I earn £520 per month as I have a weekend job but have been strongly advised by my Dr to give it up. I look after our 2 year old all week and then get up at 5.30am on Sat and Sun to work, I never get a day off...ever. I have health issues and depression/exhaustion/high BP so my DH wants me to stop working too.

Currently we pay about £600 per month to our non secure creditors (credit cards/catalogues and overdraft) which will go up to £800 per month once that card comes off 0%, and if we could reduce this to £170 per month then I could stop working at weekends and we would have enough to live on (being frugal of course).

Even if I carry on working then we will probably have to go on to a DMP once the card goes up as we simply won't have enough. I feel wracked with guilt about the thought of not working, but it really is getting too much for me. And now that my Dr has reiterated what my DH has been saying for months, I am feeling stronger about quitting.

Also, even though money will be tight, the fact that we will be able to spend time together as a family at weekends will be great for us. Our marriage is great but we hardly ever see each other (just evenings when we are frazzled and tired and trying to get a million things done).

I have 1000 questions but reading through posts has helped a lot! CCCS are phoning us on Monday evening to go through everything and I expect they won't be happy about me giving up work so still not sure what to do.

The only thing that I am PETRIFIED about is bailiffs, can they get sent round if you are on a DMP? I have nightmares about them knocking the door down and scaring my DD and taking stuff at random, with all the neighbours watching. Can it get to that stage?

I will keep up to date with all the posts that I can and will let you know how it goes on Monday. Do you think £170 per month is enough? We may be able to increase it in the future as DH is doing really well at work and keeps getting promotions.

Also, how do you make sure you have enough for things like birthdays, xmas, DD needing a toddler bed soon etc if you are not allowed to have savings?

Thanks everyone :blowkiss:

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I was in pretty much the same boat as you this time last year (not the needing to give up work bit, but level of debt). I had the same fears of bailiffs etc etc but I can honestly say, none of this happens and once the ball starts rolling things are so much easier! Even if it's just being able to pick up the phone and say "I'm on a DMP". Christmas was tricky, but it's the first we've ever done without credit! We've got 3 children and none of them went without!

Your health is the most important thing and the CCCS will not judge you or comment on you giving up. You are doing the right thing - try not to worry! Give it 6 months and you'll be in a much happier place! I actually really enjoy having a budget and sticking to it... you just need to be organised and frorward thinking.

Good luck x

mrs:optimist_2

rcpbiggles wrote: »

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I was in pretty much the same boat as you this time last year (not the needing to give up work bit, but level of debt). I had the same fears of bailiffs etc etc but I can honestly say, none of this happens and once the ball starts rolling things are so much easier! Even if it's just being able to pick up the phone and say "I'm on a DMP". Christmas was tricky, but it's the first we've ever done without credit! We've got 3 children and none of them went without!

Your health is the most important thing and the CCCS will not judge you or comment on you giving up. You are doing the right thing - try not to worry! Give it 6 months and you'll be in a much happier place! I actually really enjoy having a budget and sticking to it... you just need to be organised and frorward thinking.

Good luck x

Thanks for your reply, I have had a good chat with my hubby and he said 'as long as we can make peace with the fact that we may well get CCJs etc then we have nothing to stress about'. He's right, there's not much worse that can happen, there is no equity in our house by a long shot!

Also, now that I have been reassured a bit about bailiffs (my only big fear really) then I know we will be fine. We are going to pay back every penny that we have borrowed, and have already paid thousands of £ of interest so don't feel too bad.

I just want to get going with it now to be honest! Get the hardest first few months out of the way! I am sure that it won't be an easy ride but after our chat I am feeling a lot more positive:)

ianmak

Mrs:O - Just wanted to say that I started out with 38k of debt, and £158 to pay off per month (20 year DFD) and the creditors were ok(ish) with that. Admittedly I managed to double that amount within 6 months.

In addition I'm pretty merry tonight and just wanted to say that although my budget is tight, I can still allow for a couple of nights out a month (payday being one of them...), and still just about survive. And I am NOT A GOOD BUDGETER!!!

Anyhoo, Welcome MRS:O to the gang!!!

mrs:optimist_2

ianmak wrote: »

Mrs:O - Just wanted to say that I started out with 38k of debt, and £158 to pay off per month (20 year DFD) and the creditors were ok(ish) with that. Admittedly I managed to double that amount within 6 months.

In addition I'm pretty merry tonight and just wanted to say that although my budget is tight, I can still allow for a couple of nights out a month (payday being one of them...), and still just about survive. And I am NOT A GOOD BUDGETER!!!

Anyhoo, Welcome MRS:O to the gang!!!

Thanks! It's good to know that we are not the only ones in this situation, such a cliche but true! I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone

ianmak

Oh, and I recommend going to bed, late nights are never good....