DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

pinkiepie68

trying_to_stay_positive wrote: »

has anyone had any experience of American Express on a DMP, just setting up my husbands DMP, having been on one for myself for just under a year, most of my creditors have been great and frozen interest so just wondering how American Express might react as I have no experience of them Thanks

Hi There

We have been on our DMP since 1st October last year (we informed our creditors of our intention in August) and have 19 :eek: creditors. Have to say that most (with the exception of Lloyds CC)have been helpful and most have stopped charges and stopped or reduced interest. American Express were helpful in the early stages of our DMP and cancelled the account immediately after they were notified about our DMP. The debt was immediately defaulted, then passed to RMA resolve, their in-house collections department who accepted the DMP proposals (but did not inform us about this - we had to e-mail them and ask!!!). The main difficulty we have had is that they have continued to apply interest and charges from day 1. We were within our limit and our payments were up to date (just!) when the DMP started, but this debt has now risen from around £4,000 at 1st October to £ 4395 just now. We have contacted RMA regarding this and we were told that they were not responsible for this and we were to contact American Express directly. We have done this (2 weeks ago) and are still waiting on a response.

I have mixed feelings about this as I am grateful they have accepted the DMP (not like the nasty Lloyds TSB CC who have been absolute b's from day 1), but I am very disappointed as I now see this debt increasing month on month. The othr issue I have is that you cannot access the online account thing as they have frozen the account - you can now only see the amount outstanding - not the individual transactions, and we are not now receiving statements from them.

So in summing up, I would say they have been good from an accepting and not hassling viewpoint, but bad from an interest and charges viewpoint.

Hope that this (somewhat longwinded) info has helped!!

PinkieX

ianmak

Twit_Head wrote: »

Hi ianmak
Was intrigued by your post and 'offering F & Fs.' Is this normal? I'm not in a position to use F&Fs but hope one day I might-I was always under the impression it was something you had to haggle and fight over. Or is it just you have nice creditors?
'Twitty'

The creditors that offer the F&Fs are all DCAs, which is probably about half. Guess it's easy money for them?

BeenieCat

What does F&F stand for?

mrs:optimist_2

Sorry I've been quiet for a couple of days again...I have been very busy de-cluttering in the evenings and digging out items to sell on ebay we've decided that we can only buy new clothes/shoes/small luxuries if we sell something that covers the cost.

That means that the money set aside in our budget for clothes etc can be put into a savings account for a rainy day.

Our DMP is now all set up, I have been overwhelmed by the niceness of some of the creditors! We have received one phonecall from each one (some haven't called at all yet) and it's mostly supportive.

Our bank (First Direct) were especially nice on the phone and told me not to worry, that they work well with CCCS as they are a charity and although the amount we are offering them is lower than they would normally accept they will accept it and freeze interest and charges. I said sorry for it coming to this on the phone (as we have been with them for over a decade and they have been a really great bank) and he said 'please don't apologise, things happen, just keep paying CCCS and we will do our best to make it run smoothly'.

Simply Be have passed the debt on to 'Reliable Collections Ltd' who have written to us informing us that they have frozen interest and charges and accepted the reduced payments. Not sure if RC are part of Simply Be or a collection agency?

MBNA (Virgin Card) have frozen interest and charges and accepted reduced payments. I have got this in writing from them but CCCS wrote to us on the same date MBNA did saying they haven't accepted! Will phone CCCS on Monday to see what's going on. Hopefully it will be ok.

Capital One have accepted the 'long term payment plan' as they call it but have not mentioned interest, so will have to wait and see.

Santander (Asda Credit Card) have not accepted the DMP because they are the smallest credit card debt we have so can't be getting much out of the pot. Also, we only took the card out a few months ago and put £1000 on it in one go (paid for accomodation when we had to go abroad for 2 weeks at short notice). This was before I knew I was going to give up work so did it in good faith. However I can see why they are annoyed! They hadn't even billed us for the first payment before they got the letter from CCCS Not good and I don't blame them! But CCCS will just carry on sending them payments.

Next haven't contacted us yet apart from to send us reminders...so watch this space!

And finally Barclaycard (largest debt) phoned and said they received the token payment, and asked if we were with a debt management company. We told them about CCCS and gave them the account number. They just said thank you and that was it. I expect that they will contact us again once they have the info from CCCS.

And that's it! Nothing scary yet and everyone has been nice! Will feel a lot better once we know whether Barclaycard are going to stop interest as they are the big one!

Fingers crossed!

freewilly_2

Moany_Money wrote: »

MBNA were very sorry to hear of my financial situation and if I send them all sorts of information maybe they can come to some sort of "arrangement" :rolleyes:. Oh and don't forget that my credit file will be shot to pieces if I do enter into a reduced payment plan.


MBNA were very difficult at first and used a 3rd part called "AEGIS" who would contact me about 10 times a day. They have quietened down after a few months of DMP payments. Just giving you a heads up just in case. Hope everything else goes well with the DMP.

MBNA, after receiving six months payment to them via a dmp offered me the chance to clear llk worth of debt with a payment of 3.5k. if i had it i would have jumped at it.

freewilly

ianmak

BeenieCat wrote: »

What does F&F stand for?

A full and final offer or payment, to settle the debt so that the creditor won't chase you for more money.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=24_full_and_final_settlement_offers

mamajojo

mrs:optimist wrote: »

Sorry I've been quiet for a couple of days again...I have been very busy de-cluttering in the evenings and digging out items to sell on ebay we've decided that we can only buy new clothes/shoes/small luxuries if we sell something that covers the cost.

That means that the money set aside in our budget for clothes etc can be put into a savings account for a rainy day.

Our DMP is now all set up, I have been overwhelmed by the niceness of some of the creditors! We have received one phonecall from each one (some haven't called at all yet) and it's mostly supportive.

Our bank (First Direct) were especially nice on the phone and told me not to worry, that they work well with CCCS as they are a charity and although the amount we are offering them is lower than they would normally accept they will accept it and freeze interest and charges. I said sorry for it coming to this on the phone (as we have been with them for over a decade and they have been a really great bank) and he said 'please don't apologise, things happen, just keep paying CCCS and we will do our best to make it run smoothly'.

Simply Be have passed the debt on to 'Reliable Collections Ltd' who have written to us informing us that they have frozen interest and charges and accepted the reduced payments. Not sure if RC are part of Simply Be or a collection agency?

MBNA (Virgin Card) have frozen interest and charges and accepted reduced payments. I have got this in writing from them but CCCS wrote to us on the same date MBNA did saying they haven't accepted! Will phone CCCS on Monday to see what's going on. Hopefully it will be ok.

Capital One have accepted the 'long term payment plan' as they call it but have not mentioned interest, so will have to wait and see.

Santander (Asda Credit Card) have not accepted the DMP because they are the smallest credit card debt we have so can't be getting much out of the pot. Also, we only took the card out a few months ago and put £1000 on it in one go (paid for accomodation when we had to go abroad for 2 weeks at short notice). This was before I knew I was going to give up work so did it in good faith. However I can see why they are annoyed! They hadn't even billed us for the first payment before they got the letter from CCCS Not good and I don't blame them! But CCCS will just carry on sending them payments.

Next haven't contacted us yet apart from to send us reminders...so watch this space!

And finally Barclaycard (largest debt) phoned and said they received the token payment, and asked if we were with a debt management company. We told them about CCCS and gave them the account number. They just said thank you and that was it. I expect that they will contact us again once they have the info from CCCS.

And that's it! Nothing scary yet and everyone has been nice! Will feel a lot better once we know whether Barclaycard are going to stop interest as they are the big one!

Fingers crossed!

Hi Mrs:Optimist - good to hear everthing is going well for you!
We are exactly the same with mbna, both dh and self have mbna cc and received letters from cccs saying they had not accepted but we received letters saying they had. our letter and mbna's contact with cccs were on the same date!? he person I spoke to at cccs said it was good, but I'm nervously optimistic as they are our biggest creditors. Same thing happened on Friday with m&s this time the cccs said oh that's unusual with them its usually mbna who do that!!!
So I guess its wait and see! We are not offical dmp until tomorrow!

Twit_Head

ianmak wrote: »

The creditors that offer the F&Fs are all DCAs, which is probably about half. Guess it's easy money for them?

Ah right - now I see the logic. Thanks for this. (I have one default and none passed to a DCA) Back to the treadmill then?

'Twitty'

mrs:optimist_2

mamajojo wrote: »

Hi Mrs:Optimist - good to hear everthing is going well for you!
We are exactly the same with mbna, both dh and self have mbna cc and received letters from cccs saying they had not accepted but we received letters saying they had. our letter and mbna's contact with cccs were on the same date!? he person I spoke to at cccs said it was good, but I'm nervously optimistic as they are our biggest creditors. Same thing happened on Friday with m&s this time the cccs said oh that's unusual with them its usually mbna who do that!!!
So I guess its wait and see! We are not offical dmp until tomorrow!

Sounds like it's par for the course then! We officially start our DMP tomorrow too!

thestealer

First post in this quite brilliant thread so...hello

I am planning to start a DMP with CCCS shortly, they have sent me the initial pack following a telephone appointment but I have since realised I have woefully underbudgeted (as a bloke I was blissfully unaware how much women's haircuts cost...blimey) so much tweaking of the budget is required. I also have since realised I have debt which I forgot about, student loans. I hadn't even considered it bcause it's been deferred so no payments are made but I presume it's all debt so should be included right?

First plan is to open a open a basic joint bank account, I'm assuming basic accounts can be joint ones anyway and start moving essential direct debits over, stage 2 is negotiate a more realistic budget with CCCS, stage 3 is send the token payments and covering letter.

Stage 4.......sigh of relief.

I hope to post regularly, speak to you all soon