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

Alzy_2

Myself and the wife have been on a DMP for over two years now. To begin with we had £15k of unsecured debts plus a large secured loan to deal with.

Within the first year Gregory Pennington had £5500.00 from me to distribute to my creditors which i was over the moon about. From then we had a little boy and the wife dropped onto SMP. I have now been paying only £150 per month as opposed to £500 +.

I am at the situation now where i could probably afford to up the payments to around £300 per month (it would be more but we are expecting again) but i am unsure as to what to do.

I dont kinow whether to carry on with my payments as they are and take the extra cash and deal with my creditors personally as a "top up" or up my payments to GP and let them do it for me. Obviously my monthly charge will increase.

I have so much to ask but that will do for now :beer:

All the best

GibbsRule_No3

Welcome to our little thread. May I ask if you are paying Gregory Pennington to manage your DMP? It does sound like you are happy with them but one of the first things I found out when looking at a DMP this time last year was that CCCS and Payplan are excellent FREE DMP managers. If GP are charging you could at least use that money if you swap. Congrats on the new additions :beer:

Mephista

Professor_Pat_Pending wrote: »

Hi guys, been a very boring few months DMP wise until now!
Have been fortunate this week to receive a £3k inheritance from an auntie, am of course going straight in with F and Fs at 20% to MBNA, Moorcroft (BoS) and Opus (was CITI), letters going off tomorrow.
Will let you know how I get on, Payplan haven't got a problem with it so should be an interesting time, have heard MBNA like to do a deal, the Opus card has been charged off and Moorcroft is a DCA so am hoping to get 30-40% out of them, hope all well with everyone. PP

Excellent news. Good Luck. Will be keeping fingers and toes crossed for you.

Mephista

Alzy wrote: »

Myself and the wife have been on a DMP for over two years now. To begin with we had £15k of unsecured debts plus a large secured loan to deal with.

Within the first year Gregory Pennington had £5500.00 from me to distribute to my creditors which i was over the moon about. From then we had a little boy and the wife dropped onto SMP. I have now been paying only £150 per month as opposed to £500 +.

I am at the situation now where i could probably afford to up the payments to around £300 per month (it would be more but we are expecting again) but i am unsure as to what to do.

I dont kinow whether to carry on with my payments as they are and take the extra cash and deal with my creditors personally as a "top up" or up my payments to GP and let them do it for me. Obviously my monthly charge will increase.

I have so much to ask but that will do for now :beer:

All the best

Personally, I would have to say, if it were me I would be putting them into an excellent savings plan and placing the extra money towards the F&F payments. Better the money in your pocket as opposed to someone else.

I personally think I could do with reducing my payments if a review comes along from anyone but I'm afraid to mess with my DMP because its all going fine at the minute. However, if a lose this job at the end of my contract and either haven't got another one lined up or have to take one with lesser pay, I wont have any choice but to reduce. Anyone any advice? They seem to be happy with me because the payments are regular, on time and I never miss because I'm paying them directly although all the arrangements were made through CAB.

gabriella90

Hi all,

Welcome Alzy, good luck on your quest for debt freedom!

Hi PPP Good luck with the F&F's it would be a weight lifted if youcould clear some of them.

Hello everyone else hope all is well? I've still no news from BC but the letters do seem to take a decade to arrive:D

Quick question for any MBNA peeps. Do you still have statements arrive? I haven't had anything for months and months the payments are being recieved as i occasionally check up. i am aware they are meant to send you a statement once a year or something.

Toodle loooooooooo G:D

eyeopener2

gabriella90 wrote: »

Hi all,

Welcome Alzy, good luck on your quest for debt freedom!

Hi PPP Good luck with the F&F's it would be a weight lifted if youcould clear some of them.

Hello everyone else hope all is well? I've still no news from BC but the letters do seem to take a decade to arrive:D

Quick question for any MBNA peeps. Do you still have statements arrive? I haven't had anything for months and months the payments are being recieved as i occasionally check up. i am aware they are meant to send you a statement once a year or something.

Toodle loooooooooo G:D

Hi G

I've had nothing from MBNA since August I would guess.

Professor_Pat_Pending

Thanks for all your messages guys, it is interesting that after reading up on F and Fs and DMP payments I have come to the conclusion that I have certainly missed a trick by not realising that you are better off paying less monthly on your DMP and hence saving as much as you can for F and Fs, but then morally I suppose you 'should' pay as much as you can towards your DMP.

I am also with Mephista though in not wanting to reduce my monthly payments and hence upset my non interest applying foes.

Tis all a learning curve but have to admit some enjoyment in phoning 3 creditors today and 'toying' with them a touch re. settlement figures, MBNA in particular pretty much offered 35% on the phone and the other 2 were quite encouraging, will keep you all updated. PP

newbeginning_2

Professor_Pat_Pending wrote: »

Tis all a learning curve but have to admit some enjoyment in phoning 3 creditors today and 'toying' with them a touch re. settlement figures, MBNA in particular pretty much offered 35% on the phone and the other 2 were quite encouraging, will keep you all updated. PP

35%????!!!!!

That would be fantastic!!!!

Alzy_2

I think I have decided to use the extra cash to make payments in addition to my dmp! Can I ask what F&F means?!

I have often thought about saving and paying in chunks? Is this a good way to do it?!

Thank u for all the welcomes! Great thread too :-!

Professor_Pat_Pending

Hello there, a full and final settlement is an amount of money you offer the creditor to clear the debt completely, different creditores accept different amounts and there is no hard and fast rule to what they will accept, there are stories of 10% being accepted and 90% being refused.

There are a no. of factors that come into play though, ie, is the debt with a DCA, has it been charged off, have you been defaulted and how long is your DMP? Cheers. PP