DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

MadamMim2013

I'm hoping to make my token payments today, but what do you guys recommend as best... going into branch and paying £5 into each thing or do it by electronic bank transfer from new bank with "token payment" as one of the references??

Twit_Head

ianmak wrote: »

Well it's nice to know you miss me...

In response...

1) I never mean to insult, I just sometimes have a fist in mouth moment.
2) I've been ill, and working too much, so haven't had time to respond, and haven't needed to with all the excellent advice on here.
3) I've spent time being the only male in a female work environment, and I occasionally realise when it's time to keep my mouth shut.

Hope everyone is well!

Oh bless! I was missing you!
Your 'insults' (i.e.my age) always brighten my day and you get back as good as you give
You look after yourself. Don't frazzle yourself out. Your health and wellbeing is too important. (I hear this voice in my head saying "yes,Mother"!)
You take care lad.

'Twitty'

sunfleur

BrianTheSnail wrote: »

Is this really the case? I have tried VERY hard not to miss payments and not paid council tax and water bills which are priority after all. What should my approach be then? write and apologise for not being able to make the payments and to send a token payment? or should I go with CCCS straight away = they suggested I do similar do this but let them send the token payments. Either way amounts to the same thing I guess.

While I wouldn't necessarily tell people not to pay their bills Brian this is what I did and the reasons why:

We got to the point where we just couldn't pay the unsecured debt minimums. We weren't paying anything to the overdrafts and they were semi-permanent by this time, one loan we had we always paid. So we stopped paying the credit cards mainly (after we decided on a course of action with CCCS) but we did try to pay minimum amounts via the internet as we didn't want to send cheques but THEIR system wouldn't let us pay a minimum - we did then start the DMP within two months of missing some payments and one month of missing others and we didn't miss any payments for the loan except the month we now offer a minimum payment - and they are still in denial mode because we have only missed one payment. We never missed ANY priority payments at all just the credit cards because there are more sanctions and consequences with priority bills. Some of the priority bills we have managed to reduce too by swapping but some you can't do anything about. We hated to miss any payments to credit cards too and we always assumed that we would lose our house etc like everyone else does. Once we had read CAP and CCCS information we just tried to do the best we could.

I hope that helps some although I'm not an expert - just a newby like you. You have to eat, have a roof over your head and pay for warmth and water and have licences and insurance that the law says you have to have. You can't pay money you haven't got to anyone.

powerchimp

pure_dead_dopey wrote: »

Guys, if you are all just starting on a DMP and have so far never missed a payment, I would definitely send token payments (£1) for a couple of months. This lets you build up a wee emergency fund and lets you get priority debts sorted out. It will MAKE NO DIFFERENCE to how the banks treat you, trust me, but you will have a bit of money for those emergencies that do crop up. I know its hard if you've never missed before but you have to look after you and yours first, creditors come way down the list. Twitty I still think a quick look at UE for you would do no harm and might save a lot of money in the long run, PM me if you need Nid's new website.

I on my 2 round of token payment mainly because I can't get the DMP set until the 1st September.

Up til now I'd never missed a payment (although struggled to make them ) But after the way I was treated 2 months ago; my attitude has changed.

Today I've had a C/C statement in and the minimum payment has nearly double (£350) which looks bad and is upsetting but I'm now much calmer about it and not panicking as I know the DMP isn't far away now.

I have written letters and phoned the two main C/C creditors but their customer service people were pretty nasty IMHO and that's why attitude has changed

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Short on time but just wanted to say I fully agree with PDD. If I had my time over again I'd pay 2 or 3 months of token payments so that I could have built up an emergency fund.

Happy Monday everyone

HHx

the_tooth_fairy

Hey, YP, great to hear from you again, and thanks for your support. I can't believe how quickly this review has come round (it's on 26th Aug), Eeek!!!
I get all wound up talking to Payplan as well! Even though we are paying up every month, I feel like I'm apologising for being alive,ha ha!!
PDD, that was really good advice to both the newbies and Twitty, thanks.

ttfx

sunfleur

Just posted on DFW long haulers something similar but got two letters today accepting payments and stopping interest - well we think Barclays have because on their statement they don't put anything about interest and the debt hasn't gone up this month except for the cheeky fraud insurance payment they took from us LOL We will be asking them for a refund on that since we won't be needing it on this account any more LOL

maxmax

Hi All....One of our debts has been passed to Moorcroft Debt Recovery,we have been on a DMP for 8 months now...just wondering if anyone else has had any dealings with them,
Many Thanks For Your Time And Help

Max.

pure_dead_dopey

BrianTheSnail wrote: »

Is this really the case? I have tried VERY hard not to miss payments and not paid council tax and water bills which are priority after all. What should my approach be then? write and apologise for not being able to make the payments and to send a token payment? or should I go with CCCS straight away = they suggested I do similar do this but let them send the token payments. Either way amounts to the same thing I guess.

Trying very hard to please the creditors doesn't really cut any ice, you just have to read through the forum to see that in black and white, they don't really care. At the beginning of this process you need to read and listen to everything, knowledge is power, CCCS will do the initial stuff but its your DMP and your debt so ultimately you need to deal.
You must pay your priority bills (council tax, mortgage, etc) but the banks will treat you as a debtor as you are going into a DMP, they will default you, it doesn't matter to them that you gave yourself a nervous breakdown trying to keep up with the minimums, they just want the money.

You need an emergency fund, for emergencies! Taking a couple of months on token payments its about the only way you are going to get one at the moment and you must do all you can to protect yourself and your family. Its the little things, broken fridge, TV etc that you need a back up for

twoflower169

Hi all, Welcome to all the newbies, just keep going, you are doing the right thing and it is hard to begin with.

This is a very long over due update.

Well its been a year since we first spoke to cccs, and 9mths since starting dmp (we initially were going down the iva route but Northern Rock changed their minds half way through!).

We now found ourselves in the situation were we are going to inherit about 15k, so as 30k of debt is linked to our mortage, with a unsecured loan through a NR together mortgage, we plan to do f&f offers on all our creditors then go back to paying our full mortgage payment(we are currently on interest only) and the loan payment. But this is of course if all our creditors accept f&f offers, we know to start offering low and of course we can only go up to 50% as thats all we have.

But of course it throws up loads of questions and the fear of uncertainty again, what worries me most is if only some of our creditors accept and some dont where will that leave us, especially as I am pregnant with our 2nd child and will be going on maternity leave in november and wages will go down march next year so wont have as much to offer for our dmp anyway.

Anyway, just an update. Will keep you updated as it all unfolds.