DMP or DIY?

murtle1981

Hi all,
Im currently with Chiltern Debt Management, been with them for 3 months now,
Was with Baines and Ernst for 2 years but far far from happy with their services, big bullies rather than helping folk plus my debt didnt really seem to go down in that 2 years!
Chiltern seem ok but thats what I thought of Baines and Ernst at the start.
Ive been advised to DIY but weve tried that in the past and our creditors demanded ridiculous amounts of money every month, totalling way over 400 a month so when my friend suggested a DMP, i thought why not?
Our debts are approx 5 1/2 k.
My partner is ill and cannot work and im his carer so on benefits
Paying Chiltern £85 a month so only £50 of that goes to creditors and seeing as we have 10 creditors, they are getting a pittance every month and our debts will take 7+years to clear.
How do i DIY? More to the point, how do i come to an arrangement with my creditors to pay them what WE can AFFORD rather than what they WANT (or should i say demand) us to pay?
Also been advised about Payplan and CCCS as they dont take a fee?? so every penny goes to my creditors.
I just feel like im fighting a losing battle.
I know I havent got debt levels like some people ive seen on these forums (bless you all) but i really want to wipe the slate clean so even thought of bankruptcy.
I dont want credit ever again!

Jinx

If you want to do your own DMP its quite simple - you write to them telling them what you can afford and how often ie 10 quid a month(you can enclose you statement of affairs if you want). You then pay this without missing a payment - Ive always used recurring online payments so I cant forget.... When you write also request that they freeze interest and stop all/any charges.

You will get LOTS of letters and they will often write to say its not enough, we dont accept. But the truth is if you are paying them the money they will take it and eventually they will accept that you are doing your own DMP. You will of course trash your credit rating, but by this point its not normally something you can do anything about....

Good luck.

Hannah_10

No Payplan and CCCS really do not take a fee. CCCS are charity and Payplan were set up by the finance industry and actually get their fees from the creditors. Many others say they do this- they are liars. It's only Payplan or CCCS that are truly in your interests, rather than in the interests of profits.

DIY is pretty simple if you adopt a hard headed attitude to it. You send a letter saying something to the effect of I have this list of debts with this list of creditors, I am in financial difficulty, I have this amount to repay with, therefore as of now you will be getting this amount. You work the amount out by calculating who has what percent of your debt, then paying them that percent of your free money. Eg. if a Nat West loan accounts for 37% of your dent they get 37% of your available money.

Some wont agree to repayments, but then you just play hardball back and send it anyway in the signed-for post, paying by Postal Order or cheque if you have it, making sure to deduct the postal fees (postal order fee and signed for postage) from thier total. They like this option even less because they get even less. The statement to remember, which underpins any dealings with creditors when you really can't pay, is "they can't have what I haven't got". Tiz true. They can't. Annoyingly for them the court also see it that way so if your SOA stands up (you needn't give it to the creditors if you don't want, just have one ready) then they aren't going to get any court to squeeze more out of you either- they usually end up with a telling off and having to pay costs for bothering the judge too... They know this, so they don't take you to court, they just hope YOU don't know it so they can scare you with hollow threats.

murtle1981

Thank you both of you for that info.
I think its about time that i was back in the driving seat with my debts instead of letting some profit making DMP company take a valuable chunk of my money!
Have you ever noticed that when they figure out your disposable income, they NEVER take into account money for any emergencies? When I was with Baines and Ernst for example, I couldnt pay them one month cos my cooker blew up. I had to have a new(or should I say second hand!) cooker as Ive got 3 kids to feed. The nasty sods slammed me for making sure that my kids were fed and tried to make me pay double the month after! This is them who said "if you ever cant pay for whatever reason, dont worry about it as were here to help and we understand your situation". Yeah right!

So if I wanted to leave Chiltern and either go with pay plan, cccs or set my own DMP up, would chiltern give me back all my creditor letters that ive sent them?? as i will obviously need ref numbers, telephone numbers etc (been a bit daft in that respect as i should have kept photocopies for myself really)The reason Im asking is simply due to the fact that when I left Baines and Ernst, I had to really fight them to give me any info regarding creditors, ref numbers etc and they gave me the odd one or two but otherwise they werent playing ball so Chiltern (and me!)had to do a hell of a lot of leg work to get hold of all the required info.
Would it also be worth a trip to CAB to see if they could help me go it alone?

Hannah_10

!!!!!! :mad: Any judge would see that you bought as cheaply as is fair (second hand) and a cooker is in no way optional!!! I don't know who B&E think they are!!!

Chiltern ought to give you back your letters, they should have kept them on file. The thing is they might not have. Another way to get your details is get your credit file because it has your creditors addresses. Write to them without a ref in the first instance, they will write back with the ref on.

A trip to the CAB certainly can't do any harm and they should have printed info on DIY DMP's, as do National Debtline.

murtle1981

Another question about DMPs.
I delayed my 3rd payment to chiltern (1st payment to my creditors as the first 2 payments were "set up" fees)by a couple of weeks because they had only heard back from 3 of my 10 creditors with an agreed monthly repayment amount by the time my 3rd payment was almost due. When Chiltern rang to ask where the payment was, they gave me a bit of a roasting for delaying payment. I told them id done it as what was the point in me paying them when they were waiting to hear back from the rest of my creditors? They originally told me that they would only make payments to my creditors when they had received agreed payment offers from ALL my creditors to save confusion and paying my money out in bits and bats. Anyway, i made that payment to Chiltern yesterday just to stop them hassling me plus I didnt want to leave it too long,and still only 3 creditors have been in touch with them. So what happens to my money while they are waiting to hear back from the rest of my creditors? Does it get "put away" til every creditor gets in touch, or does it go in their back pockets?