DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

Mrs_Ryan

I've just put my Studio account onto my new DMP (it was absolutely crippling me) and I had to ring them today to tell them - was dreading it but they were lovely, really understanding. Thats one less thing to worry about

MadamMim2013

Well, I rang the CCCS this morning to discuss the hic-up thanks to Tax Credits and they were great.. :rotfl:
Have changed the income bit needed and it'll now be £152 per month instead of £198.
I'm a little sad coz everything will take longer to pay off but when our income goes up again we can do the same with the payments:T

Hubby answered the phone yesterday to someone from the Royal BO Sctland who was demanding a creditcard number?? He told them he doesn't have a credit card and promptly hung up!!!
I know the RBOS own Natwest but why were they ringing & requesting that, it seems a bit random??? I've told H in future to simply say "we are in the process of setting up a DMP, please put everything in writing"... hope that'll be ok??

Hoping everyone is ok this fine morning :cheesy:

Twit_Head

sunfleur wrote: »

Twitty could you explain what difference a 'digital' signature and the real signature and a signature written in capitals etc makes? I get that some DCA's have forged people's signatures in the past but would the banks do that?

Hi
It can all be a bit complex. A digital signature is a bit of a techie process to encrypt a signature, probably not used much for our purposes.

However, it would be OK to type your name in a different font etc, or capitals at the bottom of your letter. Or to hand sign a scribble but the aim is to make sure the signature bears absolutely NO RESEMBLANCE to your own!

Letters shouldn't be signed with your true signature as there have been cases where a DCA or bank has taken the signature from one letter and placed it on another or a credit agreement that the debtor never signed. That's also why a postal order is recommended instead of a cheque.

Crafty beggars aren't they?

'Twitty'

danilou1910

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I'm currently working with CCCS to get my DMP setup to start helping to clear our 22,000 worth of debt. I've got my DMP pack through and have just about collected all the info needed ready to photocopy and post off. Only problem is me and my hubby need to open up a basic joint bank account as none of our acc's are safe as we have credit with all our banks. We have credit with HSBC, Halifax and Natwest. I need to get this sorted asap so we can move forward with DMP as CCCS adviced us to hold application until we have account sorted incase our banks freeze any of our acc's. Could anyone offer advice on a good bank to go with need the application to go through as fast as possible coz I just want to get things rolling. I was thinking of alliance and lester as they are not linked to any of our banks and you can bank through post office which makes account more accessible for us as we have 3 local post offces???

Thanks in advance for advice

sunfleur

danilou1910 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I'm currently working with CCCS to get my DMP setup to start helping to clear our 22,000 worth of debt. I've got my DMP pack through and have just about collected all the info needed ready to photocopy and post off. Only problem is me and my hubby need to open up a basic joint bank account as none of our acc's are safe as we have credit with all our banks. We have credit with HSBC, Halifax and Natwest. I need to get this sorted asap so we can move forward with DMP as CCCS adviced us to hold application until we have account sorted incase our banks freeze any of our acc's. Could anyone offer advice on a good bank to go with need the application to go through as fast as possible coz I just want to get things rolling. I was thinking of alliance and lester as they are not linked to any of our banks and you can bank through post office which makes account more accessible for us as we have 3 local post offces???

Thanks in advance for advice

Hi danilou

Welcome to the thread. We have just changed from the A & L and Hellifix to the Co-op. DH told the Co-op that he was about to move into a dmp when he set it up on the phone and they were great with that. You don't have to tell them but he just happened to tell them. They all take a week or two to set up fully and to get the account number so that you can then move your direct debits to your new account. We just held off giving the CCCS the go ahead until we made sure that all wages and payments IN to the bank had been changed to the correct account. We changed our DDs by hand which took the best part of a day doing it online and phoning where we couldn't do that but it all went very smoothly. I didn't want the bank we were going to to do it as it never tends to go that smoothly when we have done that in the past and I didn't want any of the payments to not go out - especially the urgent ones.

Good luck with everything.

sunfleur

We have had one or two 'dodgy' letters from a couple of the creditors this week - one mentioning that if we didn't pay up they would pass our account to debt collectors and that said debt collectors would turn up at our door. When we wrote the nice friendly letter back we reiterated once again that the CCCS were now working on our behalf as go-betweens. We also included the first Notification of Debt Management form and a copy of the letter that we sent with that photocopied on the back of it (didn't want to waste any more paper and ink on them and we printed them on draft...) We hadn't sent the first lot recorded delivery but this lot will be going that way so that they are in no doubt whatsoever we mean business. We did mention to them that debt collectors would only be allowed to visit us if we made an appointment and that wasn't going to happen. We didn't say it just like that but in a more round-about-way whilst also mentioning that the FOS and the FSA guidelines wouldn't look kindly on anyone saying such things........ We like to have a bit of fun because in the next paragraph we asked them to consider stopping all charges and interest LOL This is the same letter we told them that we had NOT had a 'conversation' with anyone at that company as it made out on the letter.

I hope they know we've got their number when they get it back. It was all done in a professional and factual way LOL Not going to get complacent at all but they have had enough money out of us over the years and they will be getting all of what they are entitled to up to now but two can play at any game...

Triggles

sunfleur - I think you have to retain your sense of humour to some extent and deal with their letters without getting angry, so yes, I think you hit the right tone with your letters, based on what you're saying. I've sent off a few breezy letters to the creditors saying basically "just dropping a note to let you know our circumstances haven't changed, but that we're continuing to keep an eye on it - payments will continue as is on standing order" when they send us a "that's not enough money, send us more" type of letter. I'm sure it has a few people pulling their hair out, but it's honest, it's polite, and we're making payments. So what else can they ask??

I've told H in future to simply say "we are in the process of setting up a DMP, please put everything in writing"... hope that'll be ok??

Best thing to do, IMO. We have actually received letters from creditors saying "there's been a development" or "we have news regarding your account, please call us" and I send them a letter reminding them that we will only maintain contact by letter and if they have any news regarding our account, they are welcome to send it in writing so that we have a record of it. Generally, they don't have any "news" about our account at all - this is usually followed by a "pay more money" demand. LOL

MadamMim2013

Mrsgibbs1503 wrote: »

Hubby answered the phone yesterday to someone from the Royal BO Sctland who was demanding a creditcard number?? He told them he doesn't have a credit card and promptly hung up!!!

Just to say I spoke to someone from the RBOS/Natwest (they rang again!) to verified what they wanted, they were ringing to say how good it was we had such a fab credit history & could offer us more credit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

I laughed (a bit too loudly I fear) and said " well you've obvioulsy failed to read the letter I sent you regarding the DMP my husband & I are setting up" I will give her "credit" (get it:rotfl:) she was very polite & simply told me to contact their Collections department to arrange a "long term repayment plan"..... perhaps she didn't understand the term DMP??

sunfleur

Triggles wrote: »

sunfleur - I think you have to retain your sense of humour to some extent and deal with their letters without getting angry, so yes, I think you hit the right tone with your letters, based on what you're saying. I've sent off a few breezy letters to the creditors saying basically "just dropping a note to let you know our circumstances haven't changed, but that we're continuing to keep an eye on it - payments will continue as is on standing order" when they send us a "that's not enough money, send us more" type of letter. I'm sure it has a few people pulling their hair out, but it's honest, it's polite, and we're making payments. So what else can they ask??

Best thing to do, IMO. We have actually received letters from creditors saying "there's been a development" or "we have news regarding your account, please call us" and I send them a letter reminding them that we will only maintain contact by letter and if they have any news regarding our account, they are welcome to send it in writing so that we have a record of it. Generally, they don't have any "news" about our account at all - this is usually followed by a "pay more money" demand. LOL

Yes Triggles this is exactly what was in our thinking in sending the letters. To be honest one of our creditors hasn't even phoned or sent us a letter yet so we didn't send a second one to them as they are not demanding anything. Everything was said in a polite tone to basically tell them, again, what was happening and subliminally letting them know that we know our rights, these are our wishes, which are within reason, and that we won't be messed about either LOL. We want to stay in touch while we are going through this, although we won't be sending them letters all the time so that if we decide to go it alone at a later date to snowball the debts they will be more amenable as they can see we are serious about paying the debts.

Twit_Head

Mrsgibbs1503 wrote: »

Just to say I spoke to someone from the RBOS/Natwest (they rang again!) to verified what they wanted, they were ringing to say how good it was we had such a fab credit history & could offer us more credit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek:

I laughed (a bit too loudly I fear) and said " well you've obvioulsy failed to read the letter I sent you regarding the DMP my husband & I are setting up" I will give her "credit" (get it:rotfl:) she was very polite & simply told me to contact their Collections department to arrange a "long term repayment plan"..... perhaps she didn't understand the term DMP??

Fabulous isn't it? For ages after my DMP was up and running smoothly, I got invitations for credit. Especially for me because I was such a good customer :rotfl:
Actually, I am (like most of us are good customers) - trying to honour the debts and pay back what we owe. And we don't want to touch credit with a barge-pole thankyou very much

'Twitty'