Woken up and smelt the coffee!!!

sandy51

Hello - I am new to all this and have been practising the ostrich routine for far too long.
Spoken to someone over the last week about setting up a DMP and as my partner is unaware of the problem - he has the threat of redundancy at the moment, and I don't want to add to the stress levels - I felt I had to get a grip and on the road to debt free. Have lurked around this site for ages trying to be a credit card tart, but the spinning plates are now out of control. Do DMPs really work, and can I realistically start to reduce the debt is one of my main fears - they are quoting 13 years at the moment which seems a lifetime away, but I will try to budget carefully and increase my income to throw as much at it as I can. Are there any organisations who will not agree at all - my main creditors are Lloyds Bank, Citicard, Halifax, Tesco, Barclaycard, MBNA - haven't added it all up yet but Lloyds are in for a loan, credit card and overdraft totalling £25000 with the other cards not above £3000 in each case, some as low as £1500 - could really do with some reassurance as I take a leap of faith to join you all on the path to freedom!!! Thanks for listening - Sandy51

katsu

I didn't have a dmp so can't advise but wanted to wish you good luck not just read and run.

WASHER

Welcome to MSE and the DFW board.

I hope you contacted a debt charity, e.g. CCCS or Payplan who will do a DMP for free and offer you free advice too. take a look at the CCCS website, a wealth of info.

Some creditors do take a while to accept a DMP and may/may not freeze interest.

You have faced up to your situation, why not post an SOA (incomings and outgoings) and we will see if we can reduce your outgoings a wee bit.

I know you want to protect your partner from the extent of the debts, but do you live with him/her and do you have joint debts at all.

Do bear in mind, once you have contacted the CCCS/Payplan and are awaiting a DMP setup, creditors may call you, and therefore your partner could find out this way, best to tell him beforehand after you have spoken to the CCCS, so you have a solution to your problem at hand.:D, once he realises you have taken the first step, telling him may not be as bad as you thought.

sandy51

Hi and many thanks for showing an interest!! Am currently talking to Payplan who have worked out a payment of £236 per month which is fair - my personal income is about £430 and I am very lucky that my husband pays for all household expenses and the car, so from my income I only have to pay my contact lens incurance, sky broadband and calls for my business line, sky insurance & my daughter's activities which we have curtailed to just tennis now as she is studying for her GCSEs. I can honestly say that the debt has built up over a period of 15 years as we raised our four children, and the bulk of the debt is compounded interest payments which made me feel I was swimming in treacle.
We have two joint accounts, so I have faced up to the fact that I will need to speak to my husband, as I will need to remove myself from these and will require his signature and agreement to do so. I am adament though that the debts are my responsibility and not his, as he was unaware I was amassing plastic, and I would prefer a DMP to an IVA as I would not want to drain our equity and put pressure on him with a larger mortgage as it is already at £140,000 at a tracker of 0.5% which may rise in a year or two.
I do feel so much more liberated now that things will be going down instead of up, but feel guilty that the repercussions may cause my husband some anguish. I am also quite sensitive and am fearful of letters arriving which have a threatening undertone.
Many thanks - Sandy51:)

pure_dead_dopey

just wanted to say welcome and well done, I think the LBM is harder than childbirh and you don't get a baby for it!!!!. Honestly can't say which creditors will agree and which will not as I can't see any pattern across the boards other than Lloyds being very awkward with everyone. But now that you have started it will get better and actually its quite liberating to have no money to spend on frittering!

sandy51

Hi - Have been speaking to Payplan and putting things in order by opening a new bank account with no overdraft facility which I managed through the Co-operative Bank. My main problem with this is finding a way of telling my husband that I need to be removed from our joint account in order to proceed. He was originally cross and very disappointed that I had run up debts to warrant a DMP and doesn't really understand how things work, even though I have tried to reassure him. Payplan have been very helpful in answering my myriad of questions, but he has thrown up some more this evening, as he looks upon debt from an 'old school' point of view. Can anyone clarify a few points for me:

(a) The only joint debt we will have will be the mortgage, which is in our joint names, but is an interest only mortgage, and I do not and have never contributed to (I am very fortunate that I do not have to contribute to anything within the household). Will my DMP therefore impact on my husband's credit rating
(b) Does my DMP attach itself to our address and therefore impact upon him in this way, as he is convinced it will and this is his big concern.

We do not intend to borrow further as it is our intention to sell the house in a few years time to downsize and clear the mortgage completely as our four children are now grown up and our youngest will be going to Uni in a couple of years time.
The debts are mine and he is a good and generous man, and I do not intend to shirk away from clearing it myself, but the DMP will be the only way of me chipping away at it, rather than watch it escalate further.
I appreciate all the lovely encouraging comments and feel incredible relief wishing I had sorted this out ages ago, when it would not have been so huge!!
Thank you to you all for being there. xx:o

Tixy

If you have a joint mortgage then you will be financially associated and so yes your DMP will affect his credit rating.

The address issue is not the problem, credit reports are done on individuals not addressess, you could live together and not be financially associated (in which case it would not have an impact on his credit file) but as you are associated then it will I'm afraid.