DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

meme86

i have finally got a response from sainsbury bank for my loan, and its not the kind of letter i was hoping for. i am actually shaking

i sent them a token payment and the letter provided by cccs to let them know i was setting up a dmp in the middle of november, and this is the first time they have wrote.

it's a default notice, saying i have breached the payment clause of the agreement and must pay £201.32 by 23rd december.

if i don't, then the following may happen:

• terminate the loan agreement

• deduct the money owed from another account i hold with them
• demand immediate payment of the total amount owing under the agreement less any applicable rebate
• instruct a debt collection agency and/or take legal proceedings against you for the outstanding balance

if having difficulty in paying, apply to the courts for more time


if unsure of what to do, seek advice from a solicitor asap



is this standard practice?


i have contacted cccs, and they told me not to do anything, and not to even write another letter to them. they think it may get passed onto a debt collection agency, which they think are easier to deal with. they also say that it is very unlikly they will take legal proceedings

anyone else experienced this.
i have been really upbeat recently and the happiest i have been in a while, and this letter has really knocked me back, because of the mention of courts and solicitors

antonic

Yes it is normal and it will take a long time before they take you to court.

When the DMP starts, they will most probably accept the offer made to them by CCCS.

If you make the payments to your DMP as proposed, then if they take you to court you can argue that your making the payments as promised.

I went through this when my DMP started (see my sig), never missed a payment since it started and therefore havent had any problems with my creditors.

Finally DONT PANIC !, its just an automated letter.

meme86 wrote: »

i have finally got a response from sainsbury bank for my loan, and its not the kind of letter i was hoping for. i am actually shaking

i sent them a token payment and the letter provided by cccs to let them know i was setting up a dmp in the middle of november, and this is the first time they have wrote.

it's a default notice, saying i have breached the payment clause of the agreement and must pay £201.32 by 23rd december.

if i don't, then the following may happen:

• terminate the loan agreement

• deduct the money owed from another account i hold with them
• demand immediate payment of the total amount owing under the agreement less any applicable rebate
• instruct a debt collection agency and/or take legal proceedings against you for the outstanding balance

if having difficulty in paying, apply to the courts for more time


if unsure of what to do, seek advice from a solicitor asap



is this standard practice?


i have contacted cccs, and they told me not to do anything, and not to even write another letter to them. they think it may get passed onto a debt collection agency, which they think are easier to deal with. they also say that it is very unlikly they will take legal proceedings

anyone else experienced this.
i have been really upbeat recently and the happiest i have been in a while, and this letter has really knocked me back, because of the mention of courts and solicitors

sickasachip13

Ooh, there's lots of new shipmates around at the moment - welcome everyone!

I've been around here for over a year now, on a DMP with my partner, we've 19 creditors, all of whom accepted the plan in one way or another. There's so much support and info in this thread and I hope some of the other DMPer's experiences help / reassure etc.

Ian - I don't think I ever asked for a number. Do you think you've got one for me under your hat?!

Blushing Rose, I saw your other thread and I hope you're feeling better today. It's a bumpy ride for a wee while and I'd say all of us on this thread have felt really down and weepy at times. I have to say though, once our DMP was in place we felt so much better :T

To all you others - Pickled72, Joyanne, meme86, jenjen, pinot grigio41, simmousm (and any other newbies I've missed) - welcome and I hope you all get sorted soon. The first few steps are tough, but you're starting to deal with the debt instead of hoping it'll just disappear one day :j

Hopefully, we can all stick around on this thread and support one another and share info - knowledge is power :-)

PinotGrigio41 - in answer to your question, there's a bit of both we found - some letters were sent to CCCS and some to us. But, CCCS let you know if they've had a letter and send you one summarising it.

I'd also say not to expect to hear from all the creditors - we waited weeks and weeks and didn't hear from some of ours, which left us in limbo a bit. I then did a ring around those and discovered that most said they were accpting the DMP just hadn't bothered writing. We were also told straight off by MBNA, by letter, that they wouldn'#t accept the DMP for either of us, CCCS just kept sending the payment - we're 13 months on now and they're still accepting the payment. So, some of it won't be cut and dried.

I'd recommend to newbies - getting a concertine file thing or a load of envelopes, have one space per creditor and start keepign all the paperwork in order - things can get a bit complicated if the debt starts moving around. Make sure you have your CCCS/payplan ref number and phone number near the phone - if creditors ring, and you don't want to talk to them, simpyl tell them you're on a DMP and to speak to your provider.

Don't be intimidated by the creditors, there's only so much they can hassle you. You're doing the right thing by trying to work through your debt problem - it's irrelevant now how you got into debt, the time for guilt is over and the time for action has begun :rotfl:

BTW, after my experiences going onto a DMP, CCCS asked me to do a short blog for their MoneyAware site - the articles can be found be following the info in my sig. It might be useful or encouraging to some.


JasperConran, I'm sorry to hear about the hassles. I don't know what to say really except my thought was that the creditors could just be trying it on because they think you might have more to offer. I'd be tempted to hold steady on the offers. Have you phoned CCCS to make the request to restart?

Best of luck

SAAC13

wannabee_in_credit

Hi everyone

I'd really love to join this thread and get a number if I can. I'm currently in a dmp with cccs and have been for 20 months now. I've just found it a bit hard the past couple of months and my budgeting and willpower is slipping a bit so I thought I'd come online and find support from people who know what I'm going through.

PinotGrigio41

sickasachip13 wrote: »

Ooh, there's lots of new shipmates around at the moment - welcome everyone!

I've been around here for over a year now, on a DMP with my partner, we've 19 creditors, all of whom accepted the plan in one way or another. There's so much support and info in this thread and I hope some of the other DMPer's experiences help / reassure etc.

Ian - I don't think I ever asked for a number. Do you think you've got one for me under your hat?!

Blushing Rose, I saw your other thread and I hope you're feeling better today. It's a bumpy ride for a wee while and I'd say all of us on this thread have felt really down and weepy at times. I have to say though, once our DMP was in place we felt so much better :T

To all you others - Pickled72, Joyanne, meme86, jenjen, pinot grigio41, simmousm (and any other newbies I've missed) - welcome and I hope you all get sorted soon. The first few steps are tough, but you're starting to deal with the debt instead of hoping it'll just disappear one day :j

Hopefully, we can all stick around on this thread and support one another and share info - knowledge is power :-)

PinotGrigio41 - in answer to your question, there's a bit of both we found - some letters were sent to CCCS and some to us. But, CCCS let you know if they've had a letter and send you one summarising it.

I'd also say not to expect to hear from all the creditors - we waited weeks and weeks and didn't hear from some of ours, which left us in limbo a bit. I then did a ring around those and discovered that most said they were accpting the DMP just hadn't bothered writing. We were also told straight off by MBNA, by letter, that they wouldn'#t accept the DMP for either of us, CCCS just kept sending the payment - we're 13 months on now and they're still accepting the payment. So, some of it won't be cut and dried.

I'd recommend to newbies - getting a concertine file thing or a load of envelopes, have one space per creditor and start keepign all the paperwork in order - things can get a bit complicated if the debt starts moving around. Make sure you have your CCCS/payplan ref number and phone number near the phone - if creditors ring, and you don't want to talk to them, simpyl tell them you're on a DMP and to speak to your provider.

Don't be intimidated by the creditors, there's only so much they can hassle you. You're doing the right thing by trying to work through your debt problem - it's irrelevant now how you got into debt, the time for guilt is over and the time for action has begun :rotfl:

BTW, after my experiences going onto a DMP, CCCS asked me to do a short blog for their MoneyAware site - the articles can be found be following the info in my sig. It might be useful or encouraging to some.


JasperConran, I'm sorry to hear about the hassles. I don't know what to say really except my thought was that the creditors could just be trying it on because they think you might have more to offer. I'd be tempted to hold steady on the offers. Have you phoned CCCS to make the request to restart?

Best of luck

SAAC13

Thankyou !! I sat in bed last night and read your blog, it was really informative and helpful thankyou. I will now sit back and look forward to the letters along with the Xmas cards dropping on the doormat !

simmousm

Thanks sickasachip. I've also read your blog and there's some good information there about what to expect while my DMP is starting up. Good tip about the concertine file too - my paperwork is so disorganised at the minute so that's a great idea to help keep things in order.

sickasachip13

Hey thanks for the kind words folks, I only did the blog in the hope it would help others in the same boat. For those who are having trouble finding it:

http://moneyaware.co.uk/2011/09/my-debt-hell/

and

http://moneyaware.co.uk/2011/09/my-debt-help-2/

Anyhow, yes the concertina file is a worthwhile investment - a decent size tesco will have one for about £4. Make a pocket each for each creditor, maybe one for CCCS statements. Then, any letters that come from the creditors or, in relation to that debt, stick it in the relevant pocket. This will keep them organised but also helps you feel more in control and calmer (well, it did for me anyhow)!


I also set up a basic spreadsheet listing:

Creditor name - creditor contact details - amount owed - amount paid per month (prior to DMP) - contacts. Then I added in columns 'DMP accepted' - DMP payment per month. I found this helpful especially because we have so many creditors. For the first couple of months I did fill in the contact etc religiously - letters / phone calls etc. It was lovely to see the DMP Accepted column getting lots of 'yes's'!

Several of our debts started being shifted around really quite quickly. Sometimes when they pass on, they get a new ref number. So I stuck a column in for this too! It did mean that if I needed to contact creditors I could do so incredibly easily and I had all the info to hand but this would be a bit OTT for some folk ;-)

Then, once we knew that pretty much everyone was on board, I stopped filling it in. Now I rely on my statements, those I don't get statements from I ring every month and check the balance and then check that against the CCCS statements online. Some people don't do this but I must say that I think it's important to stay 'connected' - it might sound weird but I really enjoy checking the balances every month because, for the first time for many years, it's decreasing :-))))

SAAC

sarahowen

Delurking rather shamefacedly. Am pretty much on track with the payments to the CCCS but am having real trouble sticking to my budget.

Any sage words of advice??

:-(

wannabee_in_credit

sarahowen wrote: »

Delurking rather shamefacedly. Am pretty much on track with the payments to the CCCS but am having real trouble sticking to my budget.

Any sage words of advice??

:-(

I'm with you on that one. I'm so pleased I signed up here. There are so many fantastic people and so much good advice. I feel more motivated already.
Good luck

ianmak

wannabee_in_credit wrote: »

Hi everyone

I'd really love to join this thread and get a number if I can. I'm currently in a dmp with cccs and have been for 20 months now. I've just found it a bit hard the past couple of months and my budgeting and willpower is slipping a bit so I thought I'd come online and find support from people who know what I'm going through.

After three years of struggling on a DMP, I finally setup a spreadsheet containing my regular incomings and outgoings, and record everything I spend out on. I think it's finally given me a (slight) grip on my budgeting. I've also found that drawing out your money (expenses) for the week, and sticking to that (rather than using a debit card), could also help.

Just stick in there!