DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

Twit_Head

Toffee_Penny wrote: »

Other than that I am back on track here determined to get a medal! :rotfl:

Ooooh, you sad person
Lovely to have you back Toffee Penny:j
(BTW - I want one of those medals too! )

'Twitty'

Twit_Head

MoneysTooTightToMention wrote: »

Been away for a while sorting marriage breakdown etc

my first payment went out of my account to Payplan on 1st May:j

However despite saying to the contrary MBNA have continued charging late payment fees and interest, as have LLoyds TSB who are still threatening debt collection action against me.

Time to send yet more letters as otherwise my debt mountain will grow not decrease.

LLoyds TSB are still charging me £100 a month in unauthorised overdraft fees:(

Hi to you!
Sorry they're giving you grief but please look back at my last couple of posts re: a DMP start up (adding interest etc but basically just trying to rattle your cage and get you to pay up more money - as if! - stick to your guns, keep paying what you can afford and not a penny more!)
I know it's difficult not to worry but 'still threatening debt collection action against me' is usually all bluster. You can't legally have debt collectors without 1st going to court. And if in the very worst circumstances you should be taken to court, they would invariably rule in your favour, as you would be found to be repaying an affordable amount for your budget.
I know Lloyds can be difficult for some, but read between the lines of the threatening letters for the 'mights and maybes'
You're doing so well. A marriage break down is a sad, difficult and stressful thing (been there also ) so to cope with a DMP at the same time is superhuman :beer:

'Twitty'

pumpkinsoup

ianmak wrote: »

Hi ya and welcome...

So many questions!

I can advise on a few.

I have a mortgage with Nationwide who I also have a small od with. They've always been kept completely seperate, and neither really know about the other!

When you get a new 'Basic' bank account you will be given a debit card that you can use online. However have you thought about prepay cards if you're concerned about web security?

Not sure about the chest freezer. I cook in bulk but live on my own. I don't do the deals found in supermarkets as I find they're a waste of money (except for toilet roll - I buy those if they're on offer lol).

I believe you can cancel car insurance, but you'll need to check with the insurer, and if you do get a refund, make sure it doesn't end up on the Credit Card you purchased it with!

There is a section for mobile phones, not sure what the limits are though. If you're trying to reduce costs, have you rung your provider to see if you can change tariff? I've done this several times with Orange and had no probs or penalties.

Not sure on the last part? Is that all bills, or CC bills?

Hi thanks for ur help definately gonna look into the mobile phone one!!, i basically pay water, gas, leccy, council tax, virgin media on secure homes, to be honest im worried about coming off this because i have always had a bill and sent it to them i feel like i will have so much juggling to do if i leave them.

pumpkinsoup

ianmak wrote: »

Keep meaning to mention, has anyone been watching Super Scrimpers on channel 4? Quite an eye opener and a bit extreme, but very interesting.

oh i love that show lol!!not the woman who had a bath then all her kids then the dog, then cleaned the loo, then washed the windows and car aswell with the same water that was too much rofl!!!:j:rotfl:

greenstripe

To be on a DMP with Payplan do I have to have £100 a month or more in free income? I'm sure I've read that somewhere before but worked out that I've only got about £60 a month free at the moment, and I have an appointment with them over the phone tomorrow.

Also does anyone know if Payplan will need any details from me like wage slips or bank statements (for my current account I mean) as proof of income and expenditure?

Really need answers - I'm terrified.

Toffee_Penny

To Jamesdf5 and all the newbies who are worried about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan please read on

Excuse me shouting! I don't mean to be so common but I want to reassure you all that there is absolutely nothing to worry about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan charities.

• Creditors will accept your DMP and regular payments from CCCS/Payplan because they will have every minute detail about your income/expenditure. They know CCCS/Payplan have been realistic with setting up a monthly budget and will accept payments from them.
• Every penny you pay each month is going towards your debt and not in the pockets of someone who works for GREGORY bloody Penfold :mad: Creditors will be MORE willing to hold off interest and charges when with CCCS/Payplan than any fee charging company.
• If creditors know you are with a fee paying company they are more likely to kick up stink and not play ball. Why can't Halifax or Lloyds or whoever you owe to have that £30 monthly fee you are paying Gregory? If someone owed you money would you be pleased they were giving £30 a month away for nothing when it could go in your pocket and pay you?

I cannot stress enough the importance of setting up a realistic budget when starting out. You cannot be expected to live on beans on toast every day until you are debt free, whilst there is nowt wrong with beans on toast (I like mine with a sprinkling of cheese!)it would be one miserable long road to being debt free let me tell ya!. You are allowed a bit of a life honest! The creditors can be like Great Whites sometimes but even sharks have a heart!

DMP Budget advice



The CCCS website is completely confidential and you can tweak budget figures up or down to suit what I mean by this is......

• do you wear glasses? No? well you do now, put whatever the maximum they will allow you for eye tests, glasses per month
• don't eat much? well now you do, try and put a little extra in the groceries box
• take a packed lunch to work? well now you have meals at work
• have teenage kids? well they all catch the bus to school
• don't smoke? well now you do put something in this box

See where I am coming from? It may not be entirely honest I know but retune your budget to allow a few extras and this could add a few tenners in your pocket here and there. It does not get checked on but it's the difference between having a little something over at the end of the month to make life a bit more bearable than miserably wishing for every payday because you are skint to the bone month after month.

After your DMP is all set up and running and you are budgetting well or have a little bit more to pay towards your debt then you can always ring CCCS up and say you would like a budget review and arrange to pay more. Your debt free date will be nearer and the creditors will be happier. It's a win win.

Hope this helps! Stay strong x


Note to everyone - I surprised myself with all that good advice and I think it's worth a bar of Cadbury's from y'all

Twins

Spongbong wrote: »

Hi!

My husband and I are right at the beginning of our DMP; we owe £23,000 in loans, credit cards and overdrafts and have only recently accepted that we really can't carry on as we are.

We have no CCJs, no defaults or late payments so it's frightening because we are basically going to have start defaulting on everything! We are doing our DMP through CCCS and haven't even sent the letters out yet because we're waiting for our paperwork to come through about our new bank accounts first.

I am so nervous about it all but we're living off credit all the time and it just can't go on.

I have a question:

What do we do if a creditor refuses our DMP but doesn't take us to court? Will we just go on for eternity incurring massive interest and fees?

Thanks all.

Hi Spongbong,

I am at the same stage as you. Just started down the DMP route and up until now have not really been defaulting (1 or 2 here and there) but have started to live off credit and using credit to pay off overdraft so it was all getting too silly.

Today I received 5 calls from Egg! I couldn't take them as I was at work and was dreading what they were going to say. Then they text me to say I had an important message on my online account and it told me my direct debit had been cancelled - I know I cancelled it!

Eventually I plucked up the courage to call them this evening and you know what - it wasn't as half as bad as I imagined. The man on the other end of the phone was polite and said the calls would stop unless they hadn't received any offer of payment from CCCS. I feel better for speaking to them now.

Looks like if we keep communicating with the creditors then they will be more receptive to no communication at all?

Good luck! I feel your pain in debt!! We can get through it :T

copperboom_2

Toffee_Penny wrote: »

To Jamesdf5 and all the newbies who are worried about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan please read on

Excuse me shouting! I don't mean to be so common but I want to reassure you all that there is absolutely nothing to worry about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan charities.

• Creditors will accept your DMP and regular payments from CCCS/Payplan because they will have every minute detail about your income/expenditure. They know CCCS/Payplan have been realistic with setting up a monthly budget and will accept payments from them.
• Every penny you pay each month is going towards your debt and not in the pockets of someone who works for GREGORY bloody Penfold :mad: Creditors will be MORE willing to hold off interest and charges when with CCCS/Payplan than any fee charging company.
• If creditors know you are with a fee paying company they are more likely to kick up stink and not play ball. Why can't Halifax or Lloyds or whoever you owe to have that £30 monthly fee you are paying Gregory? If someone owed you money would you be pleased they were giving £30 a month away for nothing when it could go in your pocket and pay you?

I cannot stress enough the importance of setting up a realistic budget when starting out. You cannot be expected to live on beans on toast every day until you are debt free, whilst there is nowt wrong with beans on toast (I like mine with a sprinkling of cheese!)it would be one miserable long road to being debt free let me tell ya!. You are allowed a bit of a life honest! The creditors can be like Great Whites sometimes but even sharks have a heart!

DMP Budget advice



The CCCS website is completely confidential and you can tweak budget figures up or down to suit what I mean by this is......

• do you wear glasses? No? well you do now, put whatever the maximum they will allow you for eye tests, glasses per month
• don't eat much? well now you do, try and put a little extra in the groceries box
• take a packed lunch to work? well now you have meals at work
• have teenage kids? well they all catch the bus to school
• don't smoke? well now you do put something in this box

See where I am coming from? It may not be entirely honest I know but retune your budget to allow a few extras and this could add a few tenners in your pocket here and there. It does not get checked on but it's the difference between having a little something over at the end of the month to make life a bit more bearable than miserably wishing for every payday because you are skint to the bone month after month.

After your DMP is all set up and running and you are budgetting well or have a little bit more to pay towards your debt then you can always ring CCCS up and say you would like a budget review and arrange to pay more. Your debt free date will be nearer and the creditors will be happier. It's a win win.

Hope this helps! Stay strong x


Note to everyone - I surprised myself with all that good advice and I think it's worth a bar of Cadbury's from y'all

Thank you so much for this advice! I have a telephone appointment with Payplan this evening and I was worried they'd be shouting at me for spending too much but everything in my budget is within the CCCS guidelines on their page (and I have tweaked the figures a little bit - I'm now a smoker who wears glasses and has a couple of monthly prescriptions).

Once my plan is up and running the chocolate is most definitely on me

pumpkinsoup

Toffee_Penny wrote: »

To Jamesdf5 and all the newbies who are worried about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan please read on

Excuse me shouting! I don't mean to be so common but I want to reassure you all that there is absolutely nothing to worry about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan charities.

• Creditors will accept your DMP and regular payments from CCCS/Payplan because they will have every minute detail about your income/expenditure. They know CCCS/Payplan have been realistic with setting up a monthly budget and will accept payments from them.
• Every penny you pay each month is going towards your debt and not in the pockets of someone who works for GREGORY bloody Penfold :mad: Creditors will be MORE willing to hold off interest and charges when with CCCS/Payplan than any fee charging company.
• If creditors know you are with a fee paying company they are more likely to kick up stink and not play ball. Why can't Halifax or Lloyds or whoever you owe to have that £30 monthly fee you are paying Gregory? If someone owed you money would you be pleased they were giving £30 a month away for nothing when it could go in your pocket and pay you?

I cannot stress enough the importance of setting up a realistic budget when starting out. You cannot be expected to live on beans on toast every day until you are debt free, whilst there is nowt wrong with beans on toast (I like mine with a sprinkling of cheese!)it would be one miserable long road to being debt free let me tell ya!. You are allowed a bit of a life honest! The creditors can be like Great Whites sometimes but even sharks have a heart!

DMP Budget advice




The CCCS website is completely confidential and you can tweak budget figures up or down to suit what I mean by this is......

• do you wear glasses? No? well you do now, put whatever the maximum they will allow you for eye tests, glasses per month
• don't eat much? well now you do, try and put a little extra in the groceries box
• take a packed lunch to work? well now you have meals at work
• have teenage kids? well they all catch the bus to school
• don't smoke? well now you do put something in this box

See where I am coming from? It may not be entirely honest I know but retune your budget to allow a few extras and this could add a few tenners in your pocket here and there. It does not get checked on but it's the difference between having a little something over at the end of the month to make life a bit more bearable than miserably wishing for every payday because you are skint to the bone month after month.

After your DMP is all set up and running and you are budgetting well or have a little bit more to pay towards your debt then you can always ring CCCS up and say you would like a budget review and arrange to pay more. Your debt free date will be nearer and the creditors will be happier. It's a win win.

Hope this helps! Stay strong x


Note to everyone - I surprised myself with all that good advice and I think it's worth a bar of Cadbury's from y'all

omg what fantasic advice!! i have just sat here crying for the last half hour trying to tell hubby we are doing the right thing!!. He still is not convinced and is worried about our credit rating! !!!!!! thats what got us into the crap in the first place!i was worried sick about being on such a strict budget but this has reaasured me the one thing i couldnt bear is my children missing out as this is our mess, but to be honest one stressed out mommy without a pot to piddle in(unless its plastic lol)i know what alternative id take thanks again :beer: now im off to hit the merlot and at 2 bottles for a fiver i think i deserve it!!!

Toffee_Penny

Spongbong wrote: »

Hi!

What do we do if a creditor refuses our DMP but doesn't take us to court? Will we just go on for eternity incurring massive interest and fees?

Thanks all.

Hi Spongbong

Think about this.....

You owe £23k to various creditors, how many minimum payments months will you have to make to be debt free? OR how many DMP payments will you have to make to be debt free? One has an end sight, a finish line, a light at the end of a very dark tunnel, the other is a bloody nightmare way to live every month.

I used to feel so sick and angry with frustration over some of the creditors charging interest and late payment fees etc whilst paying a small DMP payment to them. I thought 'what is the point? why do I not just throw my purse down the bloody drain each month for the good I am doing' I couldn't understand why they didn't want to help, why they couldn't sympathise, after all I had been a great customer and they had made £1000s out of me already.

However for the few creditors that do charge a small amount of interest some of them don't. The figures on the statement are reducing, might be a little amount but it's all going in the right direction. DOWN!

Keep with it, most creditors will pass debts onto DCA's eventually after they realise they will not get a bigger payment from you and this will help with added fees. Debts will reduce and one day you will be debt free :j