How much anger can I expect entering a DMP

Maximillion

Morning all,

I'm thinking of applying for a DMP. It's the recommended course of action on the CCCS site.:o
I'm apprehensive of the subsequent phone calls & letters. Especially as I work away and my wife will bear the brunt.
There must be a few DMP veterans on here - just how bad is it?

fermi

firstcrowcounter wrote: »

There must be a few DMP veterans on here

If you haven't seen the thread, then plenty here: -> DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

huskypup

Hi

We started ours on the 01/05, and have had no phone calls at all from any of our seven creditors, we have sent them token payments for the last 2 months - we sent them all £50 each which was about a 1/4 of what the payments were with a letter each month stating our CCS number at that they would receive payment from them on around 25/05, we also asked in both months letters for interest to be stopped or reduced.

All creditors accepted staright away though they don't always write a tell you, we worked it out from statments, the two loans have not stopped interest but added it on to the total figure never mind, but the 5 credit cards either stopped or reduced. Egg x 2 cards defaulted as soon as we missed x 2 payments but then stopped interest, Barclaycard have said they will will reduce interest to 0.35 when three payments are received from CCCS. 1 x Tesco has stopped interest and one is still thinking about it.

We did change all phone number's online to imaginary ones or removed them if we could.

So far so good no hassle - though to be honest if the phone does ring - we let it, then dial 1471 and if they don't leave a message then its there problem.

Good luck and don't worry.

complimentschemistry

From my experience, before you've made any payments your creditors may give you a bit of a headache, but once the first payment has gone through it should be fine. If they ring you, I personally recommend not answering, and only dealing with them in writing/perhaps email. This is what I'm doing/have done and all is reasonably well.

Hope this helps.

babyplum

Hello!

I'm now 5 years into my DMP :embarasse and i'm gonna be totally honest with you and tell you it has been really hard. We are with the CCCS and we had a lot of calls and letters to begin with which were quite scary as they were threatening court action etc. The people at CCCS were really helpful though and every time i phoned with concerns they put my mind at ease and told me to just ignore the letters and calls as it is all part of the process.

After a while we decided to get rid of our landline and just use our mobile phones and we made sure that none of our creditors had our mobile numbers. Then it was just a case of filing away the letters without paying too much attention to the threats.

Some of our creditors stopped adding interest straight away and have always been fine, others (Natwest!!! :mad:) have been a nightmare and carried on adding more interest than the amount we were paying off each month for years! No matter how many times i called and got angry with them and was assured that "it was all under control and the interest will stop asap" it carried on and i carried on getting stressed. It took over 3 years to get to a point where my total with Natwest was going down each month instead of up.

So yes, it is hard but beginning our DMP was the best thing we ever did. Its been a long road but we really are getting somewhere now and its such a good feeling. We have more than halved our debts and it should have been finished by now but we had a surprise baby 2 years ago and had to significantly reduce our payments to CCCS. Doh!

I can't really tell you what is best for you as i don't know your circumstances but if the CCCS reccommend a DMP then its probably the right way to go.

Good luck!

Nargleblast

Hello Firstcrow - just remember that when calls do come in, the person on the other end is just an employee doing their job so doesn't mean anything personally against you. The first time they ring, be polite and civil and state you are now in a DMP with CCCS and they will be getting regular payments on the 25th of each month. End of story. Do not get into discussions about changing the payment dates, or paying more or anything like that. CCCS will be contacting your creditors so they can't say they know nothing about the DMP. If calls continue, chances are the creditor has an automated system that keeps automatically ringing your number, and can only be stopped if a satisfactory payment solution has been agreed (so they say, anyway!). That will be never, because the only really satisfactory payment solution they will accept is payment in full, which is impossible! If you do get bombarded with calls, do not keep repeating yourself - just tell them to contact you in writing only, and use one of the template letters on this site to write to them. It will eventually ease off when they realise you are not going to roll over and let yourself be walked on. Any worries, come on this forum and people on here will help.

cheesedoffwithdebt

firstcrowcounter wrote: »

Morning all,

I'm thinking of applying for a DMP. It's the recommended course of action on the CCCS site.:o
I'm apprehensive of the subsequent phone calls & letters. Especially as I work away and my wife will bear the brunt.
There must be a few DMP veterans on here - just how bad is it?

HI- what you need to remember as well is that a DMP is only an informal arrangement with your creditors- neither side is legally bound so creditors can play up every now and again. I don't mean here don't do it but just be aware it's not an easy road. I am one year into mine, have paid off £7K of debt, and have a small amount of savings also - I am not always good with my money but as I have no credit options any more I am considerably more careful.
All the DMP companies will ask you to forward letters you receive, and as for the phone calls yes they do come, you can ignore them or just change your telephone provider! I wish you well.

Girlyshopper

Hi
I started mine on 1/5, after realising in March that I couldn't keep going on struggling. My creditors are as follows:

Next - no calls and have accepted
Oli - no calls and have accepted
Halifax X2 CC - lots of calls, (refused to answer, finally had courage to answer for them to accept :-)) )
Abbey Loan - no calls and have accepted
Abbey CC - lots of calls, I wrote complaint letters. They have accepted and sent an apology!
Cap One - no calls and have accepted

Halifax Bank Account O/D (still awaiting to hear)
Littlewoods (still awiaitng, although they sold it on in Feb)
Additions (still awaiting to hear, although am chasing signed credit agrement 7 months and counting)

So in my opinion, the only calls I had were from Abbey/Santander and I made a formal complaint, and Halifax, which I must admit I was terrified of answering, but plucked up the courage to answer and the guy was actually really nice.

Hope this helps, if it is really bothering you that your wife will bear the brunt of the calls, see if you can have your number changed. If not, write to the company and ask for them to deal in writing. Starting the DMP was the best thing I did in relation to my debt, I only wish I had done it when I first started to struggle last year.

Got to add, that I changed my number with halifax online, as per one of the posts above, yet halifax still called me on the real number, then had the cheek to call me on my work number (which I know I never gave them), although I had left that company 18 months earlier. All I can say is when they call answer the phone (if you wish), and if they start getting nasty, hang up.

I wish you and your wife all the best