DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

londonfraggle

Hiya - just wondered if anyone might have some words of wisdom for me...

In March 2010 I made the final payment (through my DMP company) to a creditor who confirmed (verbally on the phone to me - sadly nothing in writing) that the debt was now cleared and no more was owing. Yay! This meant that my DMP payments to my other creditors were all slightly increased.

However - 3 months down the line they have written to me claiming that I still owe them money (just over £200) and making all sorts of threats to claim this back. It turns out that this seems to be interest that the agent who I dealt with back in March (who told me the debt was now fully paid) hadn't taken into account.

I explained that I had heard nothing (not a single call, letter, email to either me or my DMP company!) from them for over 3 months, had been told in March (I have date, time and name of person I spoke to then) that the debt was now cleared, so as far as I was concerned this debt was now done and dusted.

My question is this...when I do the sums it does appear that I do (sadly) in fact still owe them this money (as I mentioned this is the interest added - it was a cash til payday loan). However 1) I'm quite angry at having been told that the debt was cleared to then be, out of the blue 3 months later and quite nastily, contacted and threatened with all sorts of action unless I pay this immediately. 2) When the debt was supposedly cleared we of course dropped them from my DMP and although my DMP company has said that I can of course add them on again it will mean having to change my other creditors' payments - which could of course rock the boat with them.

I'm just a bit miffed that they told me it was all clear and are now trying to claw back money in interest charges etc. Admittedly they never said interest had been frozen or even reduced, but I really think that the fault is theirs if they've only just realised they didn't charge me for it and a big part of me wants to dig my heels in and refuse to pay (especially as since this all came to light I'm the one ringing them all the time and always being told a manager will call me back, which of course they never do - then I get a stropppy email saying I owe them money which prompts me to call again and we go through the same process!! The last person but one I spoke to said a manager would have to listen to the phone call I had with the agent back in March and would then call me back, when no one called me back I called in again and was told that they don't record calls!!).

Am I being niaive at even trying to fight this? I do accept that I do "owe" this interest - but at the same time it is "interest", the actual debt of money borrowed has been repaid, and more to the point, isn't this their error?!?!

I am just so mad with them! I know it won't be a big deal to add it again to my DMP and it's only small so should be cleared soon and won't make a big difference to the payments to my other creditors but I just feel like being a bit tough over this one and standing my ground...

What do you all think!?!

PS - should add that I this morning received notice that they had passed the debt on to a DCA - I haven't heard anything from the DCA yet but my worry here is that the DCA will have "bought" this debt so are very unlikely to want to wipe it or reduce it at all....

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom! I'm so angry about this I can't think straight any more!

Fraggle x

mozzyc

Just a quick thing re JUSTABANK for all PAYPLAN users.

I've just seen a new thing on the site (which i haven't seen before), where they have a Create Letters Section. And here they have all template letters that you can send to your creditors, you just select which letter you want to use, and which creditor you want it sent to, and it automatically creates the letter for you in pdf format. It might not be new, but i've never seen it and think it's a great addition!

Brussel_Sprout

It's been there for years Mozzy! But a good tool all the same and good to mention it as like yourself people may have never noticed it!:D

ex-rayday

Hi I used to be on here quite a bit but for some reason couldn't get my sign in working and I couldn't remember my old email address. So anyway I am back was (rayday) still on a DMP and now out of work and ex hubby not paying any maintenance so had to write to all companies drastically reducing payments so we can eat, goodness knows if they will accept and haven't even looked at what it will do to my DFD.

Has anyone else cut back substantially what they can pay to creditors?

mozzyc

Brussel_Sprout wrote: »

It's been there for years Mozzy! But a good tool all the same and good to mention it as like yourself people may have never noticed it!:D

haha, only took me 5 years to notice it! lol:rotfl:

scouselad1974

Hi Everyone

I have an unusual query for the experts around tonight regarding a Default Notice I have received today.

Basically the Default Notice is dated 6 July and it states being over my credit limit as the reason for issue, if I pay this amount back into my credit card account by 27 July then no further action will be taken. If I do not make the outstanding payment then my agreement will be terminated and my credit card account will be closed.

Now what makes this different to previous Defaults is the following and it really is laughable.

• On 9 July the creditor agreed to refund all interest and charges, bringing my balance well within it's limit.
• My account has already been terminated a couple of months ago and I have written proof

So do the reasons above make this Default Notice invalid or is it legit ?

twoflower169

So we started a DMP in dec 2009, did really good to sticking to budget, saved all the money for bills, insurances etc and then we were hit by a few hard months of car needed in excess of £700 repair bill and the same month DH's motorbike (he uses for commuting) had insurance and tax. Then the next month DH motorbike head gasket went costing us another £500, so we had to use up all the bills pot of savings and all his overtime money over those 3 months, there has also been the added need to travel 150miles regularly since dec as DH nan is dying and every visit is with the thought of just in case its the last time, this has also led to us eating out alot whilst down there etc......... so now the last couple of months we have been in the cycle of spending all our excess on one thing or another, for example I am now pregnant, expanding at a rate of knots and have needed maternity clothes. Last month we used all £85 of tesco clubcard vouchers for food and just made it to the end of the month, this month we are just about to make it to pay day.....................................................................:mad:

I dont know how best to get us back on track of sticking to our budget as next month I have a work related fee to pay, plus water bill, bt bill and now one of the tyres keeps going down on the car and I'm having to pump it up everyday and it has to last til next fri as we have just enough for food and fuel. That means that we will have over £300 to pay out of our normal budget as there was no overtime this month which means no saving for insurance etc and car tax is due the month after. Its so annoying that we are in such a mess now!

Sorry for such a ramble, I suppose one thing to do is to get back on here regularly (haven't been up to looking at pc due to morning sickness(all day sickness more like)

Any suggestions etc much appreciated, I wondered if we should take out the cash for the food and fuel each month and put it in a pot in house and take it from there as we would have a better idea of what we have used and what is left and not be as tempted to just spend. Many of our dd's are on different dates so I sometimes think especially for dh and being bored/hungry sometimes at work he looks at balance and thinks oh that £10 for coffee etc wont hurt. I too have been guilty of getting takeaway for dinner as I have been too ill to cook, starting feel almost human again now though so it has stopped.

I have another question about dmp and lump sum but will put in another post as this is probably way too long!

ianmak

twoflower169 wrote: »

So we started a DMP in dec 2009, did really good to sticking to budget, saved all the money for bills, insurances etc and then we were hit by a few hard months of car needed in excess of £700 repair bill and the same month DH's motorbike (he uses for commuting) had insurance and tax. Then the next month DH motorbike head gasket went costing us another £500, so we had to use up all the bills pot of savings and all his overtime money over those 3 months, there has also been the added need to travel 150miles regularly since dec as DH nan is dying and every visit is with the thought of just in case its the last time, this has also led to us eating out alot whilst down there etc......... so now the last couple of months we have been in the cycle of spending all our excess on one thing or another, for example I am now pregnant, expanding at a rate of knots and have needed maternity clothes. Last month we used all £85 of tesco clubcard vouchers for food and just made it to the end of the month, this month we are just about to make it to pay day.....................................................................:mad:

I dont know how best to get us back on track of sticking to our budget as next month I have a work related fee to pay, plus water bill, bt bill and now one of the tyres keeps going down on the car and I'm having to pump it up everyday and it has to last til next fri as we have just enough for food and fuel. That means that we will have over £300 to pay out of our normal budget as there was no overtime this month which means no saving for insurance etc and car tax is due the month after. Its so annoying that we are in such a mess now!

Sorry for such a ramble, I suppose one thing to do is to get back on here regularly (haven't been up to looking at pc due to morning sickness(all day sickness more like)

Any suggestions etc much appreciated, I wondered if we should take out the cash for the food and fuel each month and put it in a pot in house and take it from there as we would have a better idea of what we have used and what is left and not be as tempted to just spend. Many of our dd's are on different dates so I sometimes think especially for dh and being bored/hungry sometimes at work he looks at balance and thinks oh that £10 for coffee etc wont hurt. I too have been guilty of getting takeaway for dinner as I have been too ill to cook, starting feel almost human again now though so it has stopped.

I have another question about dmp and lump sum but will put in another post as this is probably way too long!

I think the 'odd £10' definitely makes a difference, you'd be surprised how quickly it adds up. Failing cooking on a budget, not sure what to suggest. Can you make further cutbacks on any 'luxuries'?

ianmak

ex-rayday wrote: »

Hi I used to be on here quite a bit but for some reason couldn't get my sign in working and I couldn't remember my old email address. So anyway I am back was (rayday) still on a DMP and now out of work and ex hubby not paying any maintenance so had to write to all companies drastically reducing payments so we can eat, goodness knows if they will accept and haven't even looked at what it will do to my DFD.

Has anyone else cut back substantially what they can pay to creditors?

Hiya Rayday! Hope you are well! Not sure on reducing payments, I guess honesty is the best policy with them, but not sure how they'd react? Is it quite a big drop then?

twoflower169

Even though I have just posted the above ramble we do at some point have light at the end of the tunnel, but feel guilty for feeling like this as it will be a lump sum when DH's nan dies.:sad:

I have a question about this and our dmp and F& F offers, I spoke to cccs about it and they have sent out a template letter, which having looked on the national debt line website, I would like to stick and paste bits from each when the time comes. Basically we owe 61K for 3 loans, cc's, catalogue and OD's. One of the loans is for 30K and is still being charged interest (good old northern rock) we will have e lump of about 15k we have been advised to start F & F offers at about 25%, what we want to do, as we have a together mortgage with northern rock we want to go back to paying capital and interest as we only pay interest at the moment and then put the loan back to them as well and pay 1 payment as we did before and then use the 15k to for offers to other companies, I have briefly discussed this option with NR and they are happy to do this if we clear our arrears.

What chance do we have of getting f & f offers 7 months into dmp and bearing in mind we were advised to start at 25% do you think worse case we could get them all to agree even if it uses up all 15K?

Anyone have eny experience of this or read posts of others who in similar situation.

Worse case what chance do we have of getting other creditors to agree to still being on a DMP and receiving lump sum divided between all but NR, as we want to go back to previous arrangement, we cant keep just paying interest only and they have only agreed for a year also with the interest still going on loan part we will never get out of this very black hole, next year my income will reduce again and then when I return to work I will have more child costs so creditors will get alot less over the next few years anyway.

Sorry for the 2nd ramble! Any help please!