DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

bradfordlad

geoffmr1 wrote: »

Hi bradfordlad,

It's always scary at first facing up to your debt problems & seeing them written down in front of you. I promise you though once you have a DMP up & running things do get easier & even if you do have hassle off a certain creditor you become much more confident dealing with them.

Some threats from creditors can get heavy, but in reality they have little power. You will most likely get defaults registered against your credit file by some firms & it is possible a creditor could go for a CCJ (especially if you own your own property) as charging orders seem to be their preferred route nowdays. However, thats a long way off & certainly isn't something all creditors attempt. Most are quite happy you are facing up to your debts & generally accept the DMP's. With regards debt collectors knocking at the door, it won't happen & if it did just call the police and tell them somebody is trespassing, they have no power of entry & no right to be on your property. Bailifs are allowed to come on your property but cannot force entry unless you open the door to them or leave a window open etc, once again though for a bailiff to come round would mean a creditor has gone to court, got a ccj against you & you haven't kept to the terms the Judge has set out (bearing in mind a Judge will only make you pay what you can afford & generally go along with whatever the CCCS or Payplan etc have been paying monthly).

With regards maxing out one of your cards, I wouldn't recommend it. It would look very bad on you & would probably make that creditor take enforcement action such as a CCJ, it's also doubtful a Judge would look too kindly on someone who withdrew a large amount of cash & then immediately went on a DMP, it would probably look like debt avoidance. It's entirely your choice though & nobody on here will judge you either way.

Thanks geoff, that all makes sense, and is quite reassuring.

We do own our property, but due to a couple of secured loans last year, I think we are probably now in negative equity. If not, I'm sure we will be once the maternity payment break finishes! Would they still go for a charging order in such circumstances?

As far as the card is concerned, there is one other thing we could do, which is to pay off an HP agreement we have of £7500 that has only 2 1/2 years to go, but is costing £190 a month. This would give us the £190 to put into the payment plan. This is for a caravan we bought when times were good for nice weekends away - now it'll be the only holidays the family gets!! Definitely don't want to get rid of it, and we can't hand it back as we owe more than its worth....

I'm hoping that work will pick up early next year anyway (aren't we always???!) in which case I should earn more the throw at the plan, and give us a slightly more comfortable (!) life.
Anyway, I'm calling CCCS now to arrange an appointment - thanks again to everyone for your help and advice! :beer:

EDIT: Just noticed on the Debt Remedy section of their website that it asks if you are or have recently been self employed. I was up until mid March - been employed since then. Will this be a problem? GULP....

MRSG2B_2

bradfordlad wrote: »

Out of these creditors, who is best/worst to deal with:

NatWest o/d
Barclays o/d
Barclaycard
Next Directory
Northern Rock loan x 2
MINTCredit Card
Post Office / Bank of Ireland Credit card
Egg Credit Card
Citi Credit Card
Virgin Credit Card -
MBNA Credit Card - same as above I know

Hi Bradfordlad

Don't worry, we're all in the same boat here, and I think the majority of us have got a list of creditors as long as our arms, so don't feel bad....we're not bad people, just made a few bad decisions thats all! We're sorting it out now, and that's all that matters! I only have a couple of creditors the same as you, here are my experiences:

Barclaycard -No problems so far at all, seem to have frozen my interest so it's coming down slowly but surely!
Next Directory- accepted straight away, no phone calls, just a nice letter telling me they'd accepted my plan and proposed payment and interest has been frozen.
Egg Credit Card - been the sh1ts so far!! Had a letter the other day saying they'd terminated my card (bothered!) and sent the account on the a debt collection agency who would contact me in 10 days....so far they've been all threats and no action on a piddly account owing £400, so I think again this is just all talk and no action!

Good luck with you plan, we're all here if you have any questions x

geoffmr1

bradfordlad wrote: »

Thanks geoff, that all makes sense, and is quite reassuring.

We do own our property, but due to a couple of secured loans last year, I think we are probably now in negative equity. If not, I'm sure we will be once the maternity payment break finishes! Would they still go for a charging order in such circumstances?

As far as the card is concerned, there is one other thing we could do, which is to pay off an HP agreement we have of £7500 that has only 2 1/2 years to go, but is costing £190 a month. This would give us the £190 to put into the payment plan. This is for a caravan we bought when times were good for nice weekends away - now it'll be the only holidays the family gets!! Definitely don't want to get rid of it, and we can't hand it back as we owe more than its worth....

I'm hoping that work will pick up early next year anyway (aren't we always???!) in which case I should earn more the throw at the plan, and give us a slightly more comfortable (!) life.
Anyway, I'm calling CCCS now to arrange an appointment - thanks again to everyone for your help and advice! :beer:

EDIT: Just noticed on the Debt Remedy section of their website that it asks if you are or have recently been self employed. I was up until mid March - been employed since then. Will this be a problem? GULP....

I wouldn't think the fact you were self employed a few months ago but are now working should make much if any difference. I'm sure others on here have been in the same position & can probably answer that better than myself, but I really don't see a reason why it should be a problem.

Some creditors (& I must stress it's certainly not the majority) will go after a charging order no matter what your position. I had a year & a halfs fight against HFC over a charging order but luckily they didn't have an enforceable CCA & had to drop the case two days before court. They accepted the CCCS repayment plan, so in the end they spent all that time, effort & money hoping I would cave in.

If you do withdraw cash from a card try & keep proof that you've done it to pay other bills which will show your financial hardship & that you didn't just withdraw it to blow on a new tv etc. It's very boring I know but you don't want anyone having ammunition to use against you.

Also don't forget once you're on a DMP if you get the opportunity to do so you want to make full & final settlement offers starting around 30-40% of what you owe. It doesn't always work but some accept & the debts come down a lot quicker than you think.

I can completely understand your predicament with regards the caravan & the HP. However, if you do decide it's too much for you read your HP agreement. You only have to pay a certain amount on HP agreements before you can actually just stop paying them completely & the only action the creditor can take is to take over the caravan. They cannot come after you for any loss of money etc. It was actually a car salesman who told me that!!

geoffmr1

Daffykjs wrote: »

That's brilliant!! I really must get on the case with this!!

Hiya,

Yeah you certainly should get your claim/claims in asap. There is already a big queue but if you can do it under financial hardship all the better. So far I've had Abbey refund £280 which is well below what I claimed but it cleared the outstanding debt I had with them, thats now with the Ombudsman & obviously now the Nationwide have refunded a massive chunk.

I've also had my complaint upheld against MBNA for mis-sold PPI to the tune of a £1000 & although there is a battle going on between the Ombudsman & MBNA at the moment I should hopefully have that resolved soon, which will clear that debt as well.

Daffykjs

geoffmr1 wrote: »

Hiya,

Yeah you certainly should get your claim/claims in asap. There is already a big queue but if you can do it under financial hardship all the better. So far I've had Abbey refund £280 which is well below what I claimed but it cleared the outstanding debt I had with them, thats now with the Ombudsman & obviously now the Nationwide have refunded a massive chunk.

I've also had my complaint upheld against MBNA for mis-sold PPI to the tune of a £1000 & although there is a battle going on between the Ombudsman & MBNA at the moment I should hopefully have that resolved soon, which will clear that debt as well.

I don't really know why i am putting it off!! think i'm quite daunted by the whole thing!!

Could you please tell me where do i start?

is it to apply for 6 years worth of statements to show the payments?

Think I'm going to give myself a deadline to start! or i never will!

bradfordlad

geoffmr1 wrote: »

I can completely understand your predicament with regards the caravan & the HP. However, if you do decide it's too much for you read your HP agreement. You only have to pay a certain amount on HP agreements before you can actually just stop paying them completely & the only action the creditor can take is to take over the caravan. They cannot come after you for any loss of money etc. It was actually a car salesman who told me that!!

funnily enough I was looking at the HP agreement earlier today. I can "hand it back" once the agreement has passed the half way point. I also noticed that it hasn't been going as long as I thought (typical!). So I'd have to keep paying till March 2010. THEN they could have it back....

Would it be unreasonable to pay off the HP with a credit card? I know I'm only shifting the debt effectively, but at least then there is £190 a month more that could go to the plan?

catwoman150

I need a bit of advice. I pop along here every so often to read up and to post sometimes. I have a citicard with a large balance on it. I had set up a regular payment with them, that they have accepted last november and now they have passed the debt onto Moorcroft debt recovery. I have heard this company can be bad :eek: :eek:. I pay everyone at the begining of the month, so I have already paid citicard this month. Moorcroft would like me to pay them this month as well. :mad: Well I just don't have the money to pay them as well this month. Then they want me to pay about a half of what I would be paying citicard, again which I don't have. I said that I would have to get back to them, to see if I was able to pay anything. They then said that I would have to go through the conversation again and it depends on the person that I speak too, to make a decision on how much they want me to pay them as they have threatened legal action.:eek::eek:
I have just phoned them up and offered them the same as I was paying citi, they have declined that and they would like me to clear the debt within 5 years. So that means that they would like me to pay double what I was paying citicards.
Can anyone give me a little bit of advice on what I can do now. I haven't got a lot of money now as it is the middle of the month.

dlb

Evening everyone!
Long time no posting for me.....this isnt because i dont think about you guys alot its just im so busy and because..................... once you are as far into a dmp as i am, it isnt on my mind 24 hours a day like it used to be and probably is for many of you guys.

Just wanted as a dmp long timer to add my thoughts to any of you starting out, please dont panic or feel ashamed, embarassed, or upset, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
My dmp was the best thing i ever did, im now 3 and half years into a dmp, my debts at the start came to 24k !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I now am down to the last 9k and the light is getting brighter and brighter.

Since the day i started on my debt free journey things have been 100% better, we have money to cover all day to day costs, money to keep 4 kids in clothes, hoildays and spending money, xmas and birthdays are looked forward to again instead of panic where the presents are coming from.

We took quite a few months to get our head around our budget, this has now become a obssestion...i love spending time looking for ways to cut back even more, spend hours looking around for the best deals on everything and make list after list of what dates debts will be cleared and what im going to spent the money on once they have gone!!! lol

I claimed back over 1k of bank charges whilst in the dmp, have swapped from a fee paying company to payplan to make the debt go quicker, we have been on hoilday in the uk for 2 weeks every year, have sent the kids on trips with the school which pre dmp we would even have dared to read the letters that came home from school.

If you are reading this you are in the best place for help and advise, it does seem very overwelming at first when you have your lightbulb moment, but from someone who is living proof that things improve...go for it find out as much as you can and see if the dmp is the right route for you.
My dmp has empowered me to answer the phone and fight my corner..no longer do i panic as iv learnt what the creditors can and cant do!! I even phone them myself now just to check things or ask questions because im no longer ashamed to say i can pay what you want.

Hang in there everyone
Donna
xxxx

supersleuth

Toffee_Penny wrote: »

Hi SS

2017 you say.... hmmm I'm here til December that year so at least you won't be alone! :rotfl:

I have tried to keep cool about my debt free date as sometimes it can take over your life thinking about debt every day. It does get easier and your debt free date will change I'm sure, the children won't always be young and things won't always be so tight.

Whenever I get the dreaded feeling about being in debt I always try and think how much I have changed since being on a DMP. I have changed my views about money and don't seem to waste so much buying things I don't really need. I can see the debt balances coming down even by a tenner or so every month which is a boost.

OH used to pay £300 minimum payment every month to MBNA and only a £1 was coming off the debt :eek: So whenever I have a down day I always feel better knowing I will never again get into a situation like that with money and the balance for MBNA is coming down each month much more than a quid being on our DMP.

Onwards and upwards and lots of positive thinking about why you are on a DMP

Thanks for that Toffee Penny, glad I won't be all alone till then.

Sure we'll have it cracked by the though.

Your reply really cheered me up :A

Thanks
SS

ianmak

Evening all, a new member:

Twit Head 330