DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

Twit_Head

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Whilst waiting for my DMP to be set up, I seem to have a daily panic about something or other and today is no exception:eek:

The payment to CCCS is only going to be £326 per month but my contractual payments amount to around £1100 per month - will this be enough for the creditors to start with or is it going to cause me more problems? Any advice or experience gratefully accepted.

You are all my saviours at the moment and help me to calm down when I get myself worked up:o

Thank you
Ellie :T

Because of my low income my monthly payments are probably are somewhere in the region of a slightly more than a fifth of previous contractual payments.
I think the main intent is to show that you are being responsible and reliably maintaining regular payments to your creditors. After the first few months of shuffling around and 'can we get more out you' it tends to settle down.
Just keep on paying what you can and don't stress! Easier said than done, but don't worry yourself to a frazzle. When you start to get feedback from the creditors then is the time to re-assess and take stock but you will still be in a better place than you are now.:)

'Twitty'

Hopelessly_Hopeful

MRS_A wrote: »

Oh dear I owe money to Halifax as well That' something to look forward to then lol.

No standard pattern with these things, accept one person and not the other although there are certain noticeable rogues and Hellifax are on that list! They can't have what you aint got!

scouselad1974 wrote: »

It makes you scared to up your payments doesn't it. It may be better to pay less over a longer period :cool: although I would love to pay everything back ASAP

I'm right with you there Scouse. My advice is squirrel for a rainy day and if it comes to bringing it in earlier at the end then so be it.

ex-rayday wrote: »

Quick bit of help required, just got home from a nice freebie day out to a letter from Credit Security Limited threatening CCJ and debt collector. Apparently they are working for Lloyds (current account) annoying as 2 Lloyds credit cards have accepted payment and we are 5 years down the line of a DMP.

I will send them copies of the letters that I sent Lloyds etc, but has anyone heard of these people before or has anyone with a Lloyds account had them passed onto this, the letter doesn't give any scope for negotiation just pay £900 now please, without the please!

Thanks for your time

Ouch, bet that hurt. Out of interest do you mind me asking a) if DMP was ticking along nicely and b) how much longer in terms of years do you have left to pay on it? They could just be trying it on of course. I think sometimes they have to go through this with some of their clients at random to satisfy their insurance/indemnities. Hope it gets resolved soon for you. Let us know how you get on. Remember as pure says... they can have your money but they can't have your life.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Whilst waiting for my DMP to be set up, I seem to have a daily panic about something or other and today is no exception:eek:

The payment to CCCS is only going to be £326 per month but my contractual payments amount to around £1100 per month - will this be enough for the creditors to start with or is it going to cause me more problems? Any advice or experience gratefully accepted.

You are all my saviours at the moment and help me to calm down when I get myself worked up:o

Thank you
Ellie :T

Hi Ellie - I agree with Twitty. At the end of the day although CCCS is set up as a charity they are funded by the industry and will be working with them in terms of overall strategy I would imagine. THEY set the £326 amount not you. They do this according to approved allowable budgets and following the principle that after paying your contractual amount you should have a tight but liveable budget that will allow you to feed yourselves and not have your health suffer. If it's any use if I am having a fret I start busying myself planning budgets re shopping, cleaning, thinking about what life's going to be about after the DMP. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather not have had the 30% interest rates slapped on me to significantly contribute to putting me in this position but then in other ways my life is so much richer in terms of me reevaluating what's important in life. Keep in there Ellie and if you're having a wobble then shout up. HTH

HHx

ex-rayday

My DMP has been going on fine all these years, I have never used an agency before just the debtline pack. But recently I lost my job and had to lower payments, other two Lloyds accounts which are much bigger amounts just accepted the new payments. All interest has been frozen and any that was added on I moaned about and got back.

I am afraid I have never worked out when my DFD was, I had just accepted it as a long term lifestyle, paying my debts off and never using credit, bar a mortgage again. Think it was approximately 19 years, but I was gradually rounding payments up and sending more.

Thanks for your comments, it was a bit of punch in the side when you have things ticking along, I will treat this agency like I have the others and send out the same letter and try to find out who to make cheques payable to etc. In the long term if they do accept payments it could be in my favour as one less on the books with Lloyds gives me another account I can slowly chisel away extra payments too etc, when we had 3 with Lloyds it was impossible as we have to be seen treating them "pro rata"

Thanks again.

Twit_Head

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Our freezer is full of ready cooked meals but we sometimes forget to label them so half the fun is the surprise of the mystery package

Apologies because absolutely nothing to with a DMP, but I well remember the days when our family became proud owners of a freezer.
My Mum (who was a keen baker) went into overdrive but unfortunately her labelling skills fell short.
Many's the time we sat down to a meal of apple pie, mash and carrots. And her steak pie with custard was to die for! :rotfl:

'Twitty'

Twit_Head

ex-rayday wrote: »

My DMP has been going on fine all these years, I have never used an agency before just the debtline pack. But recently I lost my job and had to lower payments, other two Lloyds accounts which are much bigger amounts just accepted the new payments. All interest has been frozen and any that was added on I moaned about and got back.

I am afraid I have never worked out when my DFD was, I had just accepted it as a long term lifestyle, paying my debts off and never using credit, bar a mortgage again. Think it was approximately 19 years, but I was gradually rounding payments up and sending more.

Thanks for your comments, it was a bit of punch in the side when you have things ticking along, I will treat this agency like I have the others and send out the same letter and try to find out who to make cheques payable to etc. In the long term if they do accept payments it could be in my favour as one less on the books with Lloyds gives me another account I can slowly chisel away extra payments too etc, when we had 3 with Lloyds it was impossible as we have to be seen treating them "pro rata"

Thanks again.

Chin up ex-rayday!
It must be an absolute downer when it all goes a bit bottom up after so many years.
Sorry I can't offer any solid constructive advice, but do you think because of your recent job loss it has become a similar situation to the intial 'squaring up' with the creditors? Agree you must send out letters etc. and wait and hope for a positive outcome.
Just so hope it resolves for you soon (and your employment situation improves.)

'Twitty'

goingforward_3

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Whilst waiting for my DMP to be set up, I seem to have a daily panic about something or other and today is no exception:eek:

The payment to CCCS is only going to be £326 per month but my contractual payments amount to around £1100 per month - will this be enough for the creditors to start with or is it going to cause me more problems? Any advice or experience gratefully accepted.

You are all my saviours at the moment and help me to calm down when I get myself worked up:o

Thank you
Ellie :T

Ellie we are also about to start our DMP..i have been through every emotion possible this week i think but...

At the end of the day every single creditor will get there money back albit (hopefully) without the interest .. i know deep down this is the right thing for my family. We could have gone on struggling robbing peter to pay paul but by doing that we would never ever have paid back everything we owe.

I should have done this a year ago... instead this yr alone i've probably paid £14k to creditors and reduced what i owe by a tenth of that maybe even less.

I will be paying about 48% of my contractual payments and i hope that is enough to keep my creditors at bay and if not well what can i do, they cant have what i havent got.

CCCS estimate i will be debt free i 7 yrs though i hope to reduce that by 2 years.

We will get there xxxx

Ellieseleven

Thanks all for helping me put things into perspective, I just need that bit of re-assurance at the moment:T

I know that we are doing the right thing and we too should have done this 12 months ago but we carried on robbing Peter to pay Paul hoping that things would get better but in actual fact they have got steadly worse. In 5 months we have paid 6k to credit cards but only 1800 came off the total amount owing:eek: We have scrimped to keep on paying but the creditors obviously realised we were struggling and just put the apr up and up until we have had to give in.

I'm glad that we are doing this but I'm still coming to terms with the impact that it will have on our lives. We don't want more credit so that's not a problem. Having a realistic budget means that we will have more money than we have had for a long time and that is the thing that I find difficult and I keep thinking that it can't be right. When I've looked through the budget I can see that it is taking things into consideration that we worried about paying for previously e.g. repairs and servicing on the car, a proper food budget etc. and these were the things that we would use the CC for.

I'm sure that we will adapt once these first few weeks are over and everything settles down

Once again thank you for all your replies, you really are making a difference and helping me through this!!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Thanks all for helping me put things into perspective, I just need that bit of re-assurance at the moment:T

I know that we are doing the right thing and we too should have done this 12 months ago but we carried on robbing Peter to pay Paul hoping that things would get better but in actual fact they have got steadly worse. In 5 months we have paid 6k to credit cards but only 1800 came off the total amount owing:eek: We have scrimped to keep on paying but the creditors obviously realised we were struggling and just put the apr up and up until we have had to give in.

I'm glad that we are doing this but I'm still coming to terms with the impact that it will have on our lives. We don't want more credit so that's not a problem. Having a realistic budget means that we will have more money than we have had for a long time and that is the thing that I find difficult and I keep thinking that it can't be right. When I've looked through the budget I can see that it is taking things into consideration that we worried about paying for previously e.g. repairs and servicing on the car, a proper food budget etc. and these were the things that we would use the CC for.

I'm sure that we will adapt once these first few weeks are over and everything settles down

Once again thank you for all your replies, you really are making a difference and helping me through this!!

Way to go Ellie :T

HH x

Ellieseleven

Twit_Head wrote: »

Apologies because absolutely nothing to with a DMP, but I well remember the days when our family became proud owners of a freezer.
My Mum (who was a keen baker) went into overdrive but unfortunately her labelling skills fell short.
Many's the time we sat down to a meal of apple pie, mash and carrots. And her steak pie with custard was to die for! :rotfl:

'Twitty'

Ha, Ha:rotfl:that's cheered me up and I'll think of you Twitty the next time that I take a mystery parcel out of the freezer:)