DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

the_tooth_fairy

drayton11 wrote: »

Hello all,

Wonder if someonce can help as this is the first time I have posted on this thread...

Situation changed and i'm leaving the country for good end of this year. As a result of that, i need to set aside some cash for my relocation expenses and won't be able to pay all my creditors like i used to......

I've decided to set up my own DMP plan on 12/08/2011 and sent out proposal for reduced payment to all of my creditors (Loan with Natwest and CC debt with MBNA and Barclays). I have never defaulted on my loans and have only been able to make minimum monthly payment for my CCs.

Due date for my monthly repayment to all 3 will be end of this month, so what should i do? Should i send them a token payment and how much?

Do i need to follow up with them re: my initial letter? or should i just wait until they get back to me?

Anything else that I need to consider before end of this year re: this DMP?

Appreciate any advice!!

Def. send a token payment, even £1, so they know you haven't skipped off early!

ttf

the_tooth_fairy

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Things go wrong in life. Call CCCS they will probably agree to stop for a month or two. Write to you creditors with a quote for replacement so they can see its genuine and youre not just trying to pull a fast one. It may kick off some madness, you can never tell, if it does appeal, seemples!

I had to make token payments last month to have unexpected car work done, applying above worked for me.

Good luck.

HHx

Me too, HH, in June I was having kittens about reducing my payment, and did get some odd letters! The people who add on interest anyway still did it, and the ones who don't were great after a phone call. Cars, eh?
I just did my annual review online with Payplan, they just emailed me and asked me to update my budget online! Only able to go up £17 ish, because our petrol costs nearly outweighed my pitiful pay rise! Hey Ho, at least it's a bit more, and I still have my sights set on Sainsbury's Visa!

ttf

DevonGirl

moneyangel22 wrote: »

Hi All,

Quick question, just about to start making token payments to my creditors, was wondering about some of my credit cards as they are still in a promotional period of 0% interest and if i stop making minimum payments they will start charging me, but I have to include all of them in a DMP dont I? the periods are not due to end yet either as some are fairly new cards....should I take the hit and include them?

Thanks

Hello MoneyAngel

In theory I suppose you could get away with not including them, but the question would be, how are you going to find the money to pay them, as all your incomings/expenditure should be declared on a DMP. I really wouldn't advise it as it would only take a look at your credit report for a creditor to see that these are not included and they may kick up a fuss.

Also, what if you got in a pickle with these cards, particularly once the 0% period ends. Remember on a DMP your creditors will register a default so it's very unlikely you could 'rate tart' onto another cheap deal.

Also, it isn't really within the spirit of the DMP whereby you give up access to credit, (hopefully) get your interest frozen or lowered and can concentrate on slowing repaying your debt. Yes, it's scary giving up access to credit but you will learn to live without it. Currently being discussed on this thread is what to happen if you have a crisis such as broken boiler, expensive car repairs etc - as has been said, in this case you would ask the DMP provider to stop/decrease your payment to deal with it, and then you carry on with your plan.

I think you've just got to bit the bullet and put everything into the DMP. Good luck!

ianmak

moneyangel22 wrote: »

Hi All,

Quick question, just about to start making token payments to my creditors, was wondering about some of my credit cards as they are still in a promotional period of 0% interest and if i stop making minimum payments they will start charging me, but I have to include all of them in a DMP dont I? the periods are not due to end yet either as some are fairly new cards....should I take the hit and include them?

Thanks

ALL debt has to be included on a DMP. I owed £45 on a DFS sofa, and I still had to include it on my DMP as it counts as debt!

moments_of_sanity

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Morning

Make a token payment each time a payment is due until you have your DMP set up. It can be a rocky start but you will get there. You could try for F&F at any time, it will not look good at this stage though, hang in there. There are no rules for when and if they pass on, some say to stop people playing the system.

Hope you have a smooth set up.

HHx

Thanks for your reply, I certainly won't be in a position any time soon to make F&S's but would like to try and squirrel a little away by taking a £1 from here or a £1 from there to put into an account.

After reading this thread, looks like Nationwide will defo try and take us to court - looking forward to getting that letter!! NOT

Loubylou2

Hi everyone.
I've not been on here for a while. The DMP has been ticking along quietly (hope i'm not tempting fate) Its been pretty hard as at our review we are worse off because of utilities, food etc going up but we kept our payments the same as don't want to risk rocking the boat.

I haven't checked out all the thread but i've seen that Twitty has had some sad news. All the very best for the future and sorting out your f&fs.

On my last visit here I said my OH was being made redundant. He's not left yet but it could be anytime in the next year so he is actively looking for work. Its been a roller coaster which i'm sure many of you can empathise with. We are lucky as we have more notice than others. He's had a couple of interviews which is good but no positive outcomes as yet which brings you back down to earth with a bang.

Which leads to our current dilemma which i'm hoping somebody can help with. He's been lucky enough to get a second interview for a job which he would love to get. There are several others also getting other interviews so it is a long shot but still cause for hope. The job is nothing to do with finance or dealing with cas although on a much wider scale this company does have a finance sector now.
BUT with the forms the employer sent out is one asking lots of credit info and asking for a signature giving permission to check credit history.
Most of the questions relate to bankruptcy, IVAs CCJ's etc which don't apply to us but the last question says:
'Have you ever entered into a deed of arrangement or IVA or other agreement in favour of your creditors or are you planning to do so?'
This was scary and when I scoured the internet and looked at this

http://www.creditexpert.co.uk/
which seems to say to employers that if an employee has a poor credit rating you are more likely to defraud he almost cancelled the interview there and then. Outrageous!

As I understand it a DMP is an informal arrangement so does he have to declare it?

Furthermore I bit the bullet and we got his credit file up which is the first time we've done this. (head in the sand ) I wanted to see what the potential employer would see and therefore whether he should declare anything. However i'm not sure exactly what they would get if they did a credit check on us. Does anyone know??

Obviously his credit score is bad (68% of people have a better credit score) The numbers next to our current creditors creep up to 6 since we started. My problem is that although we had default notices by two of our three creditors last year, none of the numbers are 8 on his credit report. Is that just luck or do the defaults take a year or so to appear?
If there are no defaults showing (or am I looking in the wrong place?) do we just tick no on the form. Its very confusing. Sorry to show up here after all this time with a load of questions but he's got to get these forms back before the interview.

Does anyone know about defaults on a credit file please?
Any advice about this would be so appreciated. This job would mean that we could negotiate f&fs on our debts and be left with our large mortgage. Nothing lucrative but hey a simple life sounds very appealing to us right now.
Thanks to all
LLxx

ianmak

Loubylou2 wrote: »

Hi everyone.
I've not been on here for a while. The DMP has been ticking along quietly (hope i'm not tempting fate) Its been pretty hard as at our review we are worse off because of utilities, food etc going up but we kept our payments the same as don't want to risk rocking the boat.

I haven't checked out all the thread but i've seen that Twitty has had some sad news. All the very best for the future and sorting out your f&fs.

On my last visit here I said my OH was being made redundant. He's not left yet but it could be anytime in the next year so he is actively looking for work. Its been a roller coaster which i'm sure many of you can empathise with. We are lucky as we have more notice than others. He's had a couple of interviews which is good but no positive outcomes as yet which brings you back down to earth with a bang.

Which leads to our current dilemma which i'm hoping somebody can help with. He's been lucky enough to get a second interview for a job which he would love to get. There are several others also getting other interviews so it is a long shot but still cause for hope. The job is nothing to do with finance or dealing with cas although on a much wider scale this company does have a finance sector now.
BUT with the forms the employer sent out is one asking lots of credit info and asking for a signature giving permission to check credit history.
Most of the questions relate to bankruptcy, IVAs CCJ's etc which don't apply to us but the last question says:
'Have you ever entered into a deed of arrangement or IVA or other agreement in favour of your creditors or are you planning to do so?'
This was scary and when I scoured the internet and looked at this

http://www.creditexpert.co.uk/
which seems to say to employers that if an employee has a poor credit rating you are more likely to defraud he almost cancelled the interview there and then. Outrageous!

As I understand it a DMP is an informal arrangement so does he have to declare it?

Furthermore I bit the bullet and we got his credit file up which is the first time we've done this. (head in the sand ) I wanted to see what the potential employer would see and therefore whether he should declare anything. However i'm not sure exactly what they would get if they did a credit check on us. Does anyone know??

Obviously his credit score is bad (68% of people have a better credit score) The numbers next to our current creditors creep up to 6 since we started. My problem is that although we had default notices by two of our three creditors last year, none of the numbers are 8 on his credit report. Is that just luck or do the defaults take a year or so to appear?
If there are no defaults showing (or am I looking in the wrong place?) do we just tick no on the form. Its very confusing. Sorry to show up here after all this time with a load of questions but he's got to get these forms back before the interview.

Does anyone know about defaults on a credit file please?
Any advice about this would be so appreciated. This job would mean that we could negotiate f&fs on our debts and be left with our large mortgage. Nothing lucrative but hey a simple life sounds very appealing to us right now.
Thanks to all
LLxx

Difficult to say re credit checks and jobs. I work for a company where I have to have security checks as part of my job, part of that includes a financial questionnaire/credit check, and according to the security agency, they just need to see that my overall debt is going down each year.

Don't know how it would work in a job application, but I guess if you were a potential employee, owning up to being on an IVA or other arrangement (ie DMP), would be better than them finding that you're in shed loads of debt and paying minimum payments each month.

Just my opinion lol.

Loubylou2

Thanks Ian
We've been over and over it. Don't want to confess to too much if its not necessary (if you see what I mean) But we're also worried that if it's between him and another candidate it would look bad if they look at this form. Definately don't want to hide anything that'll come out in the end.
(In a way thats partly how we got in this mess in the first place!)

Ironically we will be able to negociate to pay it all off if he gets the job!

hopeful1983happy

the_tooth_fairy wrote: »

Me too, HH, in June I was having kittens about reducing my payment, and did get some odd letters! The people who add on interest anyway still did it, and the ones who don't were great after a phone call. Cars, eh?
I just did my annual review online with Payplan, they just emailed me and asked me to update my budget online! Only able to go up £17 ish, because our petrol costs nearly outweighed my pitiful pay rise! Hey Ho, at least it's a bit more, and I still have my sights set on Sainsbury's Visa!

ttf

Thanks Both, I will give CCCS a call in the morning. Its so frustrating as we were managing fine, but I have the three year old to think of and dont want her freezing. Hmpf.

Thank you H1983H x

moneyangel22

Hi,

I have started my own debt free diary so you can track my progress with my self-managed DMP. I just have another couple of questions I was hoping someone could help me with...

1. With the joint overdrafts we have just transferred into my name.....will it be obvious to creditors what my intentions were if I suddenly write to them saying I cant pay it back immediately after taking OH's name off the accounts? Should I wait a couple of months and keep paying the interest then check OH's credit file to see if the accounts have been removed first??

2. We have moved our banking to First Direct which is a joint account, and moved over OH's salary and dd's etc.....but I have a debt with HSBC, who own them! Have there been any problems with HSBC dipping into other accounts with them to take what they are owed?? I cannot take my name off the First Direct account, they told me OH would need to open a new account and transfer everything again which would be a right pain so we're not going to do that. I do not owe First Direct anything so we felt it best to use that account as it was already open!

Thanks!!!