DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

Twit_Head

scouselad1974 wrote: »

Hi

Halifax were fine with me for 6 months and accepted my DMP without a problem, but then they became my worst creditor to date. They totally ignored every letter that I sent them via recorded delivery and they ignored all correspondance from CCCS. They added interest at nearly 10 times more than my monthly payment to them and they added late charges and over limit charges.

In the end I had to ask The FOS for advice and to cut this story short, Halifax refunded all of the interest and charges that they had added for the previous 6 months and they agreed to remove my contact numbers from their systems and to accept my DMP.

It was a long struggle but worth it in the end, my advice would be to carry on paying them via your DMP and get The FOS involved otherwise you will get nowhere with them.

Hiya Scouse :wave:
Would you believe it was your name that instantly came to mind when Halifax was mentioned?
Know you've had such a struggle with them.
I just have to see those awful adverts on TV to have a vision of all their former 'valued' customers howling in disbelief!
Glad you got it sorted, and just hope the new starters will fare better.

'Twitty'

jasperconran

Twit_Head wrote: »

OMG - if jasperconran can't cope with a recession, what hope is there for the rest of us???
I have no doings with Halifax myself but as ian so rightly says all creditors treat everyone differently. (But I just HATE those crass adverts!)
It all sounds a bit ' let's put the frighteners on' to me - could be you would be better off with a DCA.
I know it is extra tough coping when you have health problems - just take a deep breath and take it one step at a time.
And I so empathise - isn't a pain when it's costing you precious money to try and get an answer?
Sure it will all come right in the end.

'Twitty'

thanks for the replies guys. I have checked online with the post office tracker and the letter was delivered yesterday so it will be interesting to see if we get a reply or not. I might ring them on Monday and see if I get the "we havent received it" line again. I dont usually chase but I am very angry as the default letter stated you have until the 23rd September to give us £1800 or else. I dont think so!!!!!! We just dont need the worry and stress.

Thinking about following the advice given and complaining to the FOS about scalifax, and see what happens.

Will keep you all posted! thanks again

scouselad1974

Twit_Head wrote: »

Hiya Scouse :wave:
Would you believe it was your name that instantly came to mind when Halifax was mentioned?
Know you've had such a struggle with them.
I just have to see those awful adverts on TV to have a vision of all their former 'valued' customers howling in disbelief!
Glad you got it sorted, and just hope the new starters will fare better.

'Twitty'

Hi Twitty

I have my own words for those Halifax adverts Hope you are well.

the_tooth_fairy

jasperconran wrote: »

thanks for the replies guys. I have checked online with the post office tracker and the letter was delivered yesterday so it will be interesting to see if we get a reply or not. I might ring them on Monday and see if I get the "we havent received it" line again. I dont usually chase but I am very angry as the default letter stated you have until the 23rd September to give us £1800 or else. I dont think so!!!!!! We just dont need the worry and stress.

Thinking about following the advice given and complaining to the FOS about scalifax, and see what happens.

Will keep you all posted! thanks again

Yes, as everyone on here knows (!) we have had our fair share of the Halifax! FYI, our original payment to them, pre-DMP was £401, once PP did their calculations, it went up to £448. Despite missing only one payment, and sending a £10 postal order, we got a letter from them last month to say they were 'seriously' reviewing our repayments to them. When I called, they said it was a computer generated letter, and we were actually ahead of our repayments. It just goes to show that one end of that company has no idea what is happening at the other!
By the way,friends, bad news re: BOS Visa and Sainsburys Bank Visa, we got the most massive bill from them each this morning, we had hoped that they had seen the light and stopped charging interest, but it seems they had a computer fault, and all the interest from June onwards has been added on. At least it's only 2 creditors from 10, so it's not so bad, but frustrating all the same.
By the way, Jasper, I loved your Mums cook book (Life is too short to stuff a mushroom) I read it in the nineties, and it could well be a metaphor for our little forum!! Let us know how you get on, good luck,

ttfx

smcshane

Hi All,

I have been started reading a few diarys and one that has stuck out is Memorygirls and it has been a bit of an inspiration.

After having a good night last night. It was my OH mum's birthday and we couldn't afford to go out so i cooked a 3 course meal for 6 at a total cost of £36 :T The meal seemed to go down well, everyone ate it:rotfl:and no one left our house until 11.45pm. It was so nice to do something different and think we also chatted a lot more as everyone seemed so relaxed.

So, got up this morning and carried on reading and came across Memory Girls visual ways of looking at her debt. I know I do this with my school kids all the time, with incentive charts ect not for debt obviously! So thought i would devise my own visual aid in the form of my Debt Free Tree. Don't know how to insert a picture, otherwise I would show you all. At the moment it is only a stump but green leaves will sprout . It is now proudly place on my study wall underneath my wallpaper samples which are there to remind me when I've saved up the £11 for the roll or gained from ebay or cashback I will buy.

I don't consider myself a visual person but think this will be fun and hoping the OH will notice too and think a little bit more about what he spends!

Sx

newbeginning_2

SMCSHANE - Sounds like a great idea!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Money tree is a great ideaI half inched it too. I just typed 'bare tree images' into google. Found one I liked. Coloured in 42 (DMP payments) leaves in yellow and then coloured 4 of them in green (debt paid). I liked the colour code of yellow and green. I know we are still in the red but am seeing the yellow as a dmp positive step forward. Looking forward to colouring in another green each month!

HHx

smcshane

My tree will grow by a cm with each 1% paid off:j

I currently have total arrows on it too which are currently red and will be turning amber when I get to a third off and green in my final third.

I can't belive I been quite so creative, I'm usually much more logical. So thankyou MemoryGirl.

Sx

TightbudgetJO

Help, I am having a mini panic. My Dmp is all set up to pay £343 starting 1st october but i have just found out that my statutory maternity pay will be £450 and not the £550 that i estimated and gave to CCCS for the budget. Also tax credits paid us a one off payment when i changed my bank account and now we are getting £228 which is £32 less than what i put in the original budget. Also i forgot to include our mobile phones in the debt remedy and they total £70 per month so altogether we are actually getting £132 less income and paying out £70 extra expenditure. I am going to ring CCCS and tell them but i am afraid that now we only have £141 excess income for the DMP that they may not let us stay on the plan. This amount would only be short term because i go back to work in January. What does anyone think?

tallulah20

hiya-

I am in a similar position - I wasd advised that i could not be taken on because we did not have enough to pay towards our dmp and would be over a really long term - but only because of my maternity pay which is smp for 3 months then nothing until i go back. When I spoke to them they were really helpful - I advised I would go on the plan a month later than planned and save that payment which I would hold back and have as excess to add to the payment - sounds really muddled I know but the guy was happy with it and put a note on my file explaining the mat pay situation.

hope that makes sense!