DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

ianmak

Ooh I'm expecting the same thing. I'll keep an eye on that! Maybe worth checking with the council to check they haven't taken too many payments.

suze72

Hi Ianmak

Yes I think I'll give them a ring tomorrow, hopefully its just an error.

toots1607

Hi just a quick check in today I have sold some more things on ebay about £40.00 so in total £55.00 aiming to make about £1000.00 by the end of year. Cheers all for support.

debtfreewannabe321

Hi all! I've done my budget this month and was shocked to see £300 was missing from hubby's bank....just this morning realised they have reduced our overdraft ON payday (funny that as soon as the money goes in, they must have know what we were up to) so now i am £300 short :mad: which should be OK as my DMP does not start until march but it has just really p1$$ed me off !!! sorry needed to rant!

CommitedToChange

rant away as that is awful and shocking - do they not need to give you notice before they reduce it?

bigmommamuppet

Good Afternoon Peeps :wave:

Just thought I'd drop in. To share my yearly update and hopefully show everyone just starting out on their own DMP journeys that life goes on and gets better....

The background:

Started our DMP with £104k owed. Initially with CCCS but went self managed in Feb 2010, so we could have more control over our finances and to date all is going swimmingly and we’ve paid off £32k bringing our debt to £72,185.

Creditors: (The usual crowd- MBNA, Next, RBS, HBOS, GE Money & Natwest)

All creditors have stopped interest and have been very nice and haven’t contacted us for a long long time.... the only fly in the ointment is GE Money who have sold on two of our accounts to Link Financial. Link being typical DCA’s have been nasty and aggressive and served us court papers in Dec 2010. Stooopid people served us with English court papers which are null in void in Scotland so it was thrown out of court, haven’t heard a peep from them since. We’re presuming they’ll pursue us through the Scottish courts for their 20K. So we’re planning to enter a DAS (Debt Arrangement Scheme) setup by the Scottish government which acts as a formal DMP. Creditors cannot charge interest or enforce legal action if we stick to the agreed payments. Therefore this should protect us a bit from the big bad wolves known as Link.

Family Life:

Going from strength to strength, DH and I still sometimes bicker about money but no where near the amount pre DMP days. Even though I work full time I do people’s ironing in the evening, which paid for a two week holiday in Spain last year and planning to do the same this year. Yep I could pay that to my creditors but we need to enjoy life as well.

We have one family day out a month, bowling, burger etc using vouchers where we can. With two young kiddies we were never party animals but we still spend ‘couple’ time together by cooking a nice meal on Saturday nights and making full use of the 3 4 £10/£12 wine deals.

Summary:

So in summary, yes it’s a struggle some months to balance the books. Yep I’ve trashed my credit file and I’m stuck with a NR standard variable rate mortgage, no CC’s, or cheque book but I can answer the phone without dread, sleep at night and look the postie in the eye as we can go a whole week without mail now. More importantly I can give my kids the life they deserve with occasional treats (they even get pocket money now).

Go back to those dark dim pre DMP days living the high life with other people’s money.... No thank you!!! I’m a pay as you go kinda of girl from now on in.

Wishing you all a happy journey to your DFD.

BMM

powerchimp

Looking for a bit of advise/reassurance, I've been on my DMP for 6 months and most things have been going along fairly well but with the odd little hiccup.

But today I've had a big kick in the teeth, Santander who we banked with and have an O/D with have send a letter giving us 14 days to pay off the O/D So far Santender have been OK with the payments we have been making and we thought everything was OK.

We have spoke to CCCS and they have said to ignore the letter and just carry on. Although I trust CCCS; as they have been really good in the 6 months, I just feel a bit nervous ignoring the letter.

Has anyone else have anything ilke this?

PC

bigmommamuppet

Hi PC,

I would write to Santander, explain that you can only afford the agreed payments and then carry on paying them. We've had a couple of letters like that demanding full payment within 14 days, usually when the account is up for review (6 or 12 monthly) but I've phoned them and explained we're in a DMP and that's all their getting and they've all been fine about it.

BMM

SHELLSHOCK

Hi,

Just starting on our dmp road....

Sent details to CCCS today with new bank account details. Sent letter to creditors last week with token payment.

Feel very low and despressed. I have a constant ache in my shoulders and cannot seem to relax my body feels full of tension. I'm on a very short fuse and the smallest things send me crazy, my poor 14 year old son only asked for a clean shirt this morning and I was stomping off down the garden in the rain muttering to myself (I say muttering, it was more of a rant!) to retreive one from the tumble dryer!

Nik

mikon

Hi everyone

Received a letter from out of the blue today from M & S they have informed me they are happy for me to continue with my DMP payment for another year. They thanked me for my prompt payments I have made.

Do not know why they wrote but its good to see that they have froze interest and charges for another year.

So it just shows that some creditors do have a sympathetic approach to DMPs. Hope this inspires our newbies.

Mikon