Without a paddle... support for anyone starting a DMP in 2010 (part2)

Professor_Pat_Pending

depressedwithdebt wrote: »

Hi everyone

I have tried going through a lot of the posts here, but at 161 pages it could take me forever to read it all!

I have posted on the debt-free wannabe site setting out my horrendous financial position. I have loads of really helpful suggestions, and they primarily seem to suggest entering a DMP. I have been on the CCCS site, done the online calculation, and this suggests I should pay about £750 a month for 5 years and 9 months for me debts to be cleared. This seemed quite good to me, as I am paying more than this each month (which adds to the debt problem) and seemed like a good way to proceed.

However, I have now been looking into DMP's and am properly bricking it. I feel really sick and worried after reading up on DMP's as it seems I will be hounded and pursued by my creditors who may not even agree to a DMP and who might seek a CCJ or charging order against my property (which only has £15k equity in tops).

My creditors are Barclaycard, Barclays OD, Natwest Visa, Natwest OD, Natwest Charge Card, Citicard, egg, Cahoot (Santander), Northern Rock loan, Virgin Credit Card and an AA loan.

I have seen posts suggesting that Natwest (especially the OD) are unlikely to reduce payments and often go for Charging Orders, as do Northern Rock, egg and Virgin. I have also seen posts saying they may sent debt collectors around to my property.

I am now so scared. My wife knows we have some debt, but not the full extent of it, and I don't want her put through the hassle of debt collectors and court cases.

I am kind of being put off a DMP, but cannot consider bankruptcy because of my job (bankruptcy=no job) so wonder what everyone's thoughts are on DMPs with these creditors??

Any suggestions would be great!

Hi DWD, started my DMP on May 1st and it has been the best thing I have ever done, it's had it's ups and downs but in general it's been ok. I am in a similar situation to you, I have a decent amount of equity in the house but my £700 a month DMP is on paper going to last 6 years, I am aiming for 4 though with F and Fs.

All my creditors have now frozen interest, including Egg, Citi and Virgin (from you list), Egg and Virgin were marvellous.

The important thing is to be honest with your creditors and keep them informed, it's a bit scary at first but as long as you are firm with them and quote your CCCS/Payplan ref no. you will be fine.

The token payment stage (usually a couple of months or so before the DMP starts) is the toughest, but as soon as you've got a reference no. from CCCS/Payplan let us know on here and we will post up some templates for you to write to your creditors.

Make sure you save up some cash as an emergency fund whilst at the token stage, as remember, the minute you start your DMP there is no more credit.

There are loads of great people on here who have been through the stage you are at and will support you all the way, finally tell the Mrs, mine is aware and has been great and don't worry too much about door step DCs, CCJs, etc as once you have started the DMP the law is on your side as long as you don't miss a payment. Cheers and good luck. PP

louise*_2

Hi all very nervous about posting here have been reading since May but we finally decided last week after borrowing £300 from a payday loan company that we simply cannot carry on like this anymore and contacted cccs, we owe £22k to 6 creditors and they advised us that we should repay at £255 per month for the next 7 years 1 month. i have a million questions and a hubby to who likes to bury his head in the sand so feel like i am dealing with this alone so far.
e are in the process of setting up a new joint account with santander as we are currently with HBOS.
i am worried as our unsecured loan £14k, overdraft £500 and mortgage are all with them, will the fact we cannot pay the loan and overdraft affect our mortgage? we have 4.5 years to go on our fixed deal with them.
i am gathering our proof of income and balances we owe, can i ask how i actually send token payments especially where to with regards to HBOS as currently our loan is standing order from joint account and how on earth do i make a token payment for the overdraft?
also can anyone tell me timescale wise when i should expect to pay cccs for the first time?
any answers would be totally appreciated
sorry i have rambled on

Ellieseleven

Hi Louise and welcome!

I'm in a similar position to you i.e. have recently contacted CCCS and am in the process of setting up my DMP. My OH doesn't get involved with any of the finances so I feel very much alone which is why this site is my lifeline. It is a place where I can let all my feelings out and ask for advice and support also. I set up a diary (on the diary thread) so that I can vent my feelings etc. and also so that I can look back on it all one day:)

I've just moved away from Santander and also had an overdraft and unsecured loan with them. I haven't sent them token payments but perhaps I've done the wrong thing? Someone with a bit more knowledge may answer that question for both of us?

Regards token payments, I sent a letter to all my creditors with a postal order for £1. I used a letter that I found on here on one of the threads but I think that you can also find them on the CCCS website and also National Debtline. I just re-worded it slightly to fit my situation. I also sent all of mine by recorded delivery which again is advised on here and I printed my name rather than sign it (this is about going down the unenforceability route, but I did it just in case)

I have 3 years to go on a fixed rate and again my mortgage is with my original bank but from the advice that I have had from this forum your mortgage is not affected. I spoke to the CCCS yesterday and they said to contact the mortgage dept to let them know that you are changing banks (you do not have to go into detail) and then set up a direct debit from your new account.

CCCS have told me that my first payment should be 1st Sept so it will have taken almost 6 weeks from the first missed payment to making the first DMP payment.

Hope that answers some of your questions Louise but I am new at this too and this is just my experience so someone may come along with better advice.

Good Luck!

Ellie xx:)

eyeopener2

louise* wrote: »

Hi all very nervous about posting here have been reading since May but we finally decided last week after borrowing £300 from a payday loan company that we simply cannot carry on like this anymore and contacted cccs, we owe £22k to 6 creditors and they advised us that we should repay at £255 per month for the next 7 years 1 month. i have a million questions and a hubby to who likes to bury his head in the sand so feel like i am dealing with this alone so far.
e are in the process of setting up a new joint account with santander as we are currently with HBOS.
i am worried as our unsecured loan £14k, overdraft £500 and mortgage are all with them, will the fact we cannot pay the loan and overdraft affect our mortgage? we have 4.5 years to go on our fixed deal with them.
i am gathering our proof of income and balances we owe, can i ask how i actually send token payments especially where to with regards to HBOS as currently our loan is standing order from joint account and how on earth do i make a token payment for the overdraft?
also can anyone tell me timescale wise when i should expect to pay cccs for the first time?
any answers would be totally appreciated
sorry i have rambled on

Morning

You've done the right thing.

Ok, with regards your token payments, CCCS will send you a letter that you will send to all your creditors saying that your on a dmp, you can enclose a token payment with that or just go into your bank and pay something into your account. Thats all I did.

The CCCS payments will start about 6 weeks or so after you've confirmed all the balances. I did my first one through the post office as cash then the DD takes over.

The DMP won't affect your mortgage yet but you won't get the best deals when you come to the end of your fix but thats 4 and 1/2 years away so its not something to even worry yourself about for now.

I'm in a similar position in that I have a loan, overdraft and credit card all with one bank but you should find things are fine after the initial deluge of calls and letters.

If you have any questions just post them on here because, believe me, we will all have come across the problems you will face at sometime.

Oh and reaching for Payday loans did for me as well, that was the realisiation that things could not go on.

You'll be fine and wonder why you didn't do it ages ago.

E2

louise*_2

thank you guys reading here has already been a massive help it helped me to bite the bullet and start proceedings however i have never not paid something in my life, even now all our bills are 1st of the month or there abouts so i have not missed any this month!

we have clean credit files as so far we have begged and borrowed to pay everyone so sept will be the first time i actually don't pay something and its freaking me out a bit. i paid late to my mbna card once and they were awful put up my interest gave me late fees etc etc

i owe my dad £1000 and he needs it back by xmas for a holiday to oz and i am going to have to let him down as i will not have the full amount back by then

so possibly oct for the first payment to cccs? so just the one month for token payments? i found a template letter on here that also said could they please make contact in writing only so was going to give that one a try with postal orders enclosed.

as for the bank it's a standing order for loan so when i cancel that i shpould just put token amount in the account and they will take that for it? my overdraft is in my own current account the problem will come when they take the £1 a day fees for me using it and there is not enough in to cover it so do i just put token amont in there too?

sorry for all the questions so far my dealings with cccs have been online so i have not actually spoken to anyone yet.

hubby again buries his head just asked me "why am i talking about this its saturday!!!" wish i could just not worry about it all......

GibbsRule_No3

louise* wrote: »

i owe my dad £1000 and he needs it back by xmas for a holiday to oz and i am going to have to let him down as i will not have the full amount back by then

Louise other may have opinion about this but have you thought about making token payments for a bit longer so you can use the money you would normally pay the bills with, to pay your Dad?

Like you I had not missed any payments to anyone when I started looking down the DMP road in January. Decided then was the time to look, since I'd have money from Council Tax and Water Rates for two months. In the end the first payment from Pay Plan did not go from my new account until May. I did one month token payment, but by the looks of it if the ball is in motion you will get the same repsonse from the creditors, so you can pay token payments for a little while and it won't make much difference except to your emergency fund.

RE Pay Day loans looks like the Government are looking into them according to the news items this morning.

BTW we were all scared when we started but the this thread is great for boosting moral and useful info.

pure_dead_dopey

soorrry been really busy at work strangling my secretary (if only I thought I'd get away with it!)

Louise, I agree with everything everybody has said, do a couple of months tokens and get your Dad paid off and a wee emergency fund together, it will make NO DIFFERENCE to the way you are treated so you might as well look after your family first.

Hi everybody else, and I am not thinking about Christmas yet!!!!
Sorry mama about the accommodation, our tent was a bit wet but I just and com plained to Mr Dopey, who just ignored me! Seriously, trip advisor trip advisor, I don't even stay for work without checking on there first.

For those of you who know, so far the score is Dopeys 2 Creditors 20 but its early days and our 2 were great big fat ones!!!

eyeopener2

Hi all

Santander have acually refunded me one of the charges they have levied over the past three months. Its only £25-00 but its £25-00 less than I owed them yesterday!

Roll on the other £225......

E2

Ellieseleven

louise* wrote: »

I have never not paid something in my life, even now all our bills are 1st of the month or there abouts so i have not missed any this month!

we have clean credit files as so far we have begged and borrowed to pay everyone so sept will be the first time i actually don't pay something and its freaking me out a bit.

QUOTE]

Hi Louise, I was exactly the same, I never missed any of the payments and some of the CC's I have had for 26 years! but what I was starting to do was take cash from CC's to pay others and this just spiralled out of control so that every waking hour concentrated on how to pay the next bill and the next and so on. Then the CC companies started dropping my credit limits and upping the interest so it came to a point where I couldn't carry on that way anymore. Yes, it was scary and my OH couldn't understand why I was so upset by it all.

I have had 1 month paying token payments and will start my DMP on 1st Sept but as others have said you might want to pay your dad back first.

The feelings of doom and despair are beginning to ebb away and I am not worrying constantly how I can pay the next bill. I am starting to budget properly and to be honest for the last couple of years we haven't been living any sort of life so it's not making that much difference to us, in fact we seem to have more money than we did before.

Anyway keep posting, I'm sure it will help to keep you motivated and on track.

Good Luck
Ellie xx

louise*_2

thanks again everyone i had not even considered that but it would really help us to pay my dad back what we owe him as i really don't want to let him down!

its so nice just to talk about this to others who understand, i am really looking forward to the black cloud above my head going away and starting to enjoy life again the way i did before i got in this mess.
thank you all xx