I'm being ignored!! Help needed.

Zulu_Dawn

I am in debt and am working with CCCS to organise a DMP. I decided to do it on my own and put together an SOA and list of debts and hav ebeen communicating with my various creditors. It's been a very interesting experience.

Some have instantly frozen interest for a fixed period and agreed reduced payments. Others have argued a bit about the amount (MBNA in particular) but I have managed to come to an agreement I can afford and these have also agreed to freeze interest.

Today I had my first creditor (Egg) who has refused to freeze interest though they have accepted my reduced payments ans as interest is 7.7%pa, it is not the end of the world. I will try to negotiate further with them and see how I get on.

However the weirdest response has been from Liverpool Victoria BS. They have completely ignored my letters, banked my reduced payment cheques and failed to contact me. I was wondering if there was a reason for this and I suppose my main question is,

• Should I phone them and chase them up?
• Should I continue to pay them the reduced amounts and keep my head down?
• should I write to them to confirm whether interest has been frozen?
• Should I be worried?

My separate issue is to ask as I am negotiating this myself whether I need to treat all my creditors equally. For example I would like to keep one credit card that I pay off in full each month as this will give me 45 days free credit each month. Is this realistic?

Also what about my bank accounts. They are both marginally overdrawn but I don't really want to close them as I doubt I would now get a debit card if I applied for a new account elsewhere.

Thanks very much in advance.

ZD

southernscouser

Out of curiosity can I ask why you decided not to stay with the CCCS?

From what I've read they take alot of the stress away by acting on your behalf but well done you for tackling the creditors yourself! :T

My own opinion is that you should continue pressing them. If you fail to come to an agreement it's quite likely they will sell your debt on and then it could become more difficult.

As for treating them all equally, my own feeling would be to work out what you owe each of them as a percentage of all of your debt then pay each the creditor the same percentage out of your repyaments!

There are a couple of people who are effectively in their own DMP's. Try searching for them and it might help more.

Baggiebird1nil

We were in the same situation with everyone apart from Barclaycard refusing to accept my own DMP. We struggled for nearly four years with writing cheques every month, trying to keep records and having phone calls and letters. In the end I was off work with shingles (probably bought about with the stress) and I saw an advert in the Sun newspapaer for DebtMatters. I know people on here will probably be drawing deep breaths but I didn't know about this site then. I made one phone call to them and they were really understanding. It was hard being honest about the amount we owed but within 3 weeks they had arranged an IVA and we will be debt free in August 2010. I know they are taking a cut and with hindsight aand this site I would probably have gone with CCCS or the other site (it escapes me now). The phone calls and letters have stopped and we have a date to work to. Each year they ask for an SOA but this year there has been no increase. We are now on track and have a life. Sometimes things are a little tight as my OH's job is up and down but I know in August 2010 we will be debt free. I will NEVER EVER have another credit card in my life and I am trying to teach my teenage daughter that if you want something you save for it.
I gave up my years old season tickets at the Albion and instead got a job as a steward. They now pay me to watch!! Silly things like that. I shop at Aldi instead of Sainsbury's (their fresh produce is amazing), buy toothpaste at car boot sales. You really can save money if you shop around. Quidco has been amazing especially with Easymobile and I have clocked up £160. All this information was gained from this site. There are so many of us out there with debts. I am currently thinking about claiming back some of the charges from the banks who couldn't wait to give me credit and then pile on interest when things were bad (OH has been made redundant 4 times in ther last 10 years). My advice would be get some advice from CCCS or someone like that. People on this site will point you in the right direction.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

Kate

Zulu_Dawn

southernscouser wrote:

Out of curiosity can I ask why you decided not to stay with the CCCS?

I guess my thought process was twofold. Firstly I got myself into this mess and I want to get out of it myself. I'm used to dealing with these people and am more than able to sort through the process. I am lucky in that I have a good salary and so although my debt is huge, I can offer reasonable amounts in respect of monthly repayments.

Also dealing with it myself gives me more flexibility and I learn about the process at the same time.

My goal in this process has been to reduce my interest costs as far as possible whilst ending up with a plan I can manage. Thus I was able to play hardball with one creditor where the interest rate was low and I had less to worry about if I couldn't get agreement. Similarly with MBNA, I was paying over 20%pa on a £15k balance so when they offered to freeze interest for 12m if I could meet a higher payment than I had offered, I bit their hand off. another creditor rejected my offer of £42. A long phone call and we agreed on £45.

CCCS just couldn't operate in this way and frankly this is just too important to me to leave to someone else.

Zulu_Dawn

Baggiebird1nil wrote:

We were in the same situation with everyone apart from Barclaycard refusing to accept my own DMP. We struggled for nearly four years with writing cheques every month, trying to keep records and having phone calls and letters.

Hi Kate,

Thanks for responding. You talk about struggling for four years. My honest experience so far is that it has been quite painless. I have agreement with six of eight creditors, standing orders set up and I've heard nothing from them since set up. Were you always able to meet your commitments because my understanding is that if I do what I am told, the thing should be reasonably painless. However I'm in the early days of this and you obviously know more than me.

I'll let you know how I get on.

ZD

sgx.saint

I have been self managing my own DMP now for about 6 months.

If I can be of any help, just ask

Zulu_Dawn

sgx.saint wrote:

I have been self managing my own DMP now for about 6 months.

If I can be of any help, just ask

Yes please!!!!

How's it going?

Any particular problems?

Are you still paying interest to any particular creditors?

What do you think I should do about LVBS (see below).

Thanks in advance.

Chris

sgx.saint

Its not going to bad. But a DMP is like a rollercoaster, you have your good moments and you have your bad. A bit like most things I expect!

For example, Egg, whom I owe the majority of debt to, around 60%, have been spot on from day one. Even CrapQuest(CapQuest) have been good to deal with, at least so far.

But some of my other creditors whom I only owe relatively small amounts too have been more awkward.

No major problems thus far in the DMP. I am actually in the process of building a new spreadsheet to track all aspects of the DMP. Balances, letters that I have sent, payments, interest and so forth.

Some creditors have frozen interest and some haven't. But my life is a bit hectic at the moment as I am returning to University.

Dont worry too much about them not replying. One of my creditors hasnt replied in about 3 months. I still continue to make payments as I detailed in my letters to them so all is well.

I will post more tomorrow, just its a little late tonight and my head is fried. Feel free to PM etc.

lynzpower

I would not recommend you have another credit card. I just cant see how this would gel with a DMP???

Zulu_Dawn

lynzpower wrote:

I would not recommend you have another credit card. I just cant see how this would gel with a DMP???

I'm not sure that there is a legal issue with it as a DMP is essentially voluntary.

The practical reason for doing it is to benefit from 45 days free interest. This will reduce the interest costs on my current account providing more available cash to repay my creditors.

By the same token I do not propose to include my overdraft as I don't want to relinquish my debit card, which I will have to do if I set up a cash account.

My hunch is that once you are on a DMP, the creditors are not going to be checking up on you to ensure they are being treated fairly provided you are keeping up with your commitments to them.

This I absolutely intend to do.

ZD

Baggiebird1nil

Zulu_Dawn wrote:

Hi Kate,

Thanks for responding. You talk about struggling for four years. My honest experience so far is that it has been quite painless. I have agreement with six of eight creditors, standing orders set up and I've heard nothing from them since set up. Were you always able to meet your commitments because my understanding is that if I do what I am told, the thing should be reasonably painless. However I'm in the early days of this and you obviously know more than me.

I'll let you know how I get on.

ZD

As I said all of our creditors apart from Barclaycard were great about it but every six months the letters and phone calls would start again. 'Why can't you pay anymore?', 'We need more money now' and then OH was made redundant again! I was reading the paper while I was off work sick and saw the advert, phoned and all was sorted in weeks and all over the phone. Now we don't get any communication at all apart from Debtmatters once a year. As I said previously it works for us.

Kate