DMP - help

helen_f_3

Hi
Everyone who have the worldly experience of a DMP. We are in debt like most on here and have completed the on-line form with CCCS and it has recomended a DMP. we have paid the token payments and written all the letters to our debtors and I have filled in the pack I need to send to CCCS. I am due to post them tomorow and starting to have second thoughts. I am really scared are we doing the right thing. It is making me feel sick with worry of what can go wrong. I have been reading all the different threads from people talking about court and balifs and things like that. I know deep down this is probably the only way to get out of debt as I can see us being in debt for the rest of our lives. But is it a scary hard slog and are we going to get so much in trouble from it.

Please help:(

DNW_2

Hi helen

I'm only a newbie myself but have also spoken to CCCS and just written all the token payment letters so think I am at around the same stage as you. You have most definitely done the right thing, it's an awful merry-go-round ride that you (and I) are on (minimum payments, can't make ends meet so spend more on cards etc etc) - and finally you've managed to stop the ride and are about to step off. Yes you'll be a bit dizzy at first, and it certainly is very daunting, but in time I'm sure we'll both see the benefits of taking control and dealing with things head on.

I'm also worried about door step collectors (bailiffs can only collect on behalf of council tax, inland revenue and secured debts I believe - please someone put me straight if this is incorrect info), nasty phone calls and letters - but the alternative of carrying on paying £1000's in interest every single month and never breaking out of this vicious circle is a whole lot scarier for me.

Good luck on your journey, I shall be reading with interest every step of the way

helen_f_3

I am glad someone else in the same boat and at the same stage as me, maybe we can help each other. We have £29k of unsecured debt and like you not got that much to show for it. I am sick of not having any money left at the end of each month and we have for the past few years robbed Peter to pay Paul. I hope you are right about the baliffs as we having being paying the priority bills. My husband is not sure of doing the DMP as he thinks it might be better to ring everyone ourself and he is worried as we both have cars and we need them for our jobs as they are requirements of the roles and he is worried that we might be made to sell them or they get taken away.

Good luck on your journey too xx

Tixy

Hi helen and welcome

Its usual to be a bit nervous entering a DMP. I suppose you have to consider the DMP to what other alternatives you have. most people entering a DMP don't have many other options (except perhaps to consider insolvency). Yes being on a DMP will ruin your credit rating but if you cannot keep up with your repayments anyway then that is likely to happen whatever. And being in a DMP means you are in control of what is happening.

As you are aware it is possible that you might get CCJs on a DMP. These are not particularly common on a DMP, it might seem like it happens to a lot of people from reading the forums but its worth remembering people often only post when they are having problems, there are lots of people in a DMP never taken to court but they are less likely to be posting a query on the DFW thread so it probably looks disproportionally high (if that makes sense). Plus if you read about the court cases and bailiff threads you will see a lot of these relate to people who have tried to run away from debt or for people who are behind with things like council tax.

Even if a creditor does take you to court and obtains a CCJ that doesn't mean that bailiffs will be calling round. Providing you ask to pay the CCJ in installments and keep to those installments then the creditor could not send round bailiffs.
(DNW - you can get bailiffs for consumer credit debts if your creditor has a CCJ and you don't keep up with the repayments ordered).

Your creditors may send a lot of threatening letters, keep phoning and rarely they even send round doorstop field agents but these things can be stopped by sending out some of the templates we have on here - there is one to stop phone calls and another to stop any doorstop agents calling at your premises.

Good luck with your DMP - I hope it works out well for you.

sickasachip13

Hi Helen F and DNW,

If it's any consolation that's what we felt like around 7-8 months ago when we started down this route. We are with CCCS, making very small payments on some significant debts and have had a relatively trouble free ride so far. Yes, some of our debts were passed to DCAs to manage and they have ben fine - the ones that have become involved have accepted our DMP payment and charged no % etc. One was a little pushy last week on the phone but they can't have what we haven't got and will continue, I'm sure, accepting the small payment we're making.

The relief of stopping the chaos, and the descending spiral into more and more debt, has been well worth every niggle and worry at the start of the DMP for us.

Have a look at my previous posts if you like and it'll give you an idea of where we were and where we are now. Also, the DMP Mutual Support thread is great as it let's you see where people are in their journey.

Best of luck.

GeorgieFTB

Ok, you both sound like you need a little propping up...

Whats the worst that could happen... you get a few scary phonecalls... tell whichever call centre bunny is on the phone you are starting a DMP and could they deal with CCCS, then give them your number and hang up...

Before bailiffs come round there is always paperwork, you will know they are on their way and they can't force their way in so they will go away if you don't leave any windows open!

You're credit rating will be trashed... it probably already is...

If any creditors do take you to court, you will not be made to pay more than you can afford, you're already paying that... can't get blood out of a stone!

On the plus side, if you're creditors are reasonable they will freeze or lower your interest and you will finally be paying off your debts!

Its scary, and the first couple of months are the worst but it will get better.

Gx

jim99_2

I realise i have posted this in the wrong place intitially

I've been lurking on this thread for a while now and have finally gathered the courage to post my dilemma!

I currently have approximately £14000 of unsecured debt with 3 creditors. The debts ar at time of writing as follows:

Natwest OD: 2000
Natwest Card: 2048
Barclaycard: 2048
Halifax Card: 1046
Natwest Personal Loan: 5963 (originally 6000)

All the cards are at cash advance fee interest levels (approx 29%).

There are multiple reasons for my debt, from a cut in working hours leading to a reliance on cards to some stupid financial mistakes. I have also had a really tough time at home recently with a collapse of the family business leading to depression. However, after burying my head in the sand for the past year I have finally plucked up the courage to face this problem head on.

I have an appointment at the CAB on wednesday (I have already been with my parents as they are currently in the process of an IVA... so i know the drill). Thing is, I'm not sure what the best option is to consider. I think I may qualify for a DRO (as my disposable income is often below the £50 threshold) but I can't find much in the way of 'experiences' on the forum.

I have yet to write to my creditors (i'm going to wait until the appointment at the CAB before I do this). I have an appointment at the bank to open a new separate account for my wages. The wheels are in motion I just still feel a little bit lost .

I want to reiterate that I know the debt is my fault, regardless of the reasons behind it and I want to make a concious effort to get the slate cleaned no matter how long it takes.

I would appreciate any help or advice from anyone willing

Thanks

Deep_In_Debt

helen_f wrote: »

Hi
Everyone who have the worldly experience of a DMP. We are in debt like most on here and have completed the on-line form with CCCS and it has recomended a DMP. we have paid the token payments and written all the letters to our debtors and I have filled in the pack I need to send to CCCS. I am due to post them tomorow and starting to have second thoughts. I am really scared are we doing the right thing. It is making me feel sick with worry of what can go wrong. I have been reading all the different threads from people talking about court and balifs and things like that. I know deep down this is probably the only way to get out of debt as I can see us being in debt for the rest of our lives. But is it a scary hard slog and are we going to get so much in trouble from it.

Please help:(

Might not be much help but I've been on a dmp with CCCS since Jan 2008. It was a bit hairy at first but most creditors settled after a while and I've not had a call from a creditor since Oct 2008.

I only received one court threat in all that time from a dodgy DCA who is well known for it. They played games for a while and threatened to take me to court and I challenged them to do so...and they went quiet! Not heard from them for nearly 3 years.

Courts and bailiffs usually only happen if you don't pay for a while. If you are paying all you can afford, then it's unlikely a creditor will take you to court as they know the judge will look favourably on you and it costs the creditor money to take you to court with no guarantee of getting their money back. They'll threaten and come out with all sorts of stuff and are mostly full of hot air. Once you know what they can and can't do, it's quite fun spouting it all back at them...the amount of times they put the phone down on me is unreal!

Yes, it is a hard slog, but you get used to it in the end and learn to live within your means. It can be fun shopping for bargains too and cooking from scratch etc.

Good luck!

Deep_In_Debt

jim99 wrote: »

I realise i have posted this in the wrong place intitially

I've been lurking on this thread for a while now and have finally gathered the courage to post my dilemma!

I currently have approximately £14000 of unsecured debt with 3 creditors. The debts ar at time of writing as follows:

Natwest OD: 2000
Natwest Card: 2048
Barclaycard: 2048
Halifax Card: 1046
Natwest Personal Loan: 5963 (originally 6000)

All the cards are at cash advance fee interest levels (approx 29%).

There are multiple reasons for my debt, from a cut in working hours leading to a reliance on cards to some stupid financial mistakes. I have also had a really tough time at home recently with a collapse of the family business leading to depression. However, after burying my head in the sand for the past year I have finally plucked up the courage to face this problem head on.

I have an appointment at the CAB on wednesday (I have already been with my parents as they are currently in the process of an IVA... so i know the drill). Thing is, I'm not sure what the best option is to consider. I think I may qualify for a DRO (as my disposable income is often below the £50 threshold) but I can't find much in the way of 'experiences' on the forum.

I have yet to write to my creditors (i'm going to wait until the appointment at the CAB before I do this). I have an appointment at the bank to open a new separate account for my wages. The wheels are in motion I just still feel a little bit lost .

I want to reiterate that I know the debt is my fault, regardless of the reasons behind it and I want to make a concious effort to get the slate cleaned no matter how long it takes.

I would appreciate any help or advice from anyone willing

Thanks

Make sure you open a basic bank account (and ensure that it is a basic one as many will put through as a normal and you'll get rejected) that is not linked to any of your creditors...i.e don't go for a Natwest or RBS account. You don't need an appointment with banks to do it...you can do it over the phone or on-line.

You can pick up some good template letters from the National Debtline website if you wish to use to write to your creditors.

Have you defaulted on any payments to your creditors or been paying reduced amounts? If you haven't they may be less sympathetic in accepting reduced payments as they will think that you are able to make the payments.

Hannah_10

Being on a properly calculated DMP and paying it on time is the best protection you have from court action. Even if you were taken to court, your figures are sound (the CCCS approved them, so they must be) and you will be paying it on time (because the CCCS have an excellent track record at this) so the realistic worst case scenario from any court action would be a ruling that says you have to keep on doing what you're doing.

Being on a DMP makes being taken to court in the first place less likely as a judge is actually quite likely to look at your DMP with CCCS and tell the creditor that they have been spiteful and should never have brought the case to the court in the first place. So your another very plausible scenario is that the judge says the creditor is "vexatious" (spiteful) and they get in trouble, you walk out in the same financial state as you walked in, but smirking more.

Yet another possible outcome is that your defence in court turns out to be a really good one. Some debts are not enforcible, which means there is nothing anyone can do about making you pay them. Not even a court. A court has to find in your favour, almost as if the debt doesn't exist. There are a lot of these about, your creditors will know if the debt they are chasing you for is one of them and they may have decided long ago they wouldn't dare take you to court but they've kept sending threats anyway because they hope you don't know this. If you are Scottish the news is even better, the debt can actually be wiped out if it's the right kind of unenforcible. So you may, without knowing it, have a court-proof case.

In all, you have nothing to fear from the court.

Hannah_10

Oh and sorry I should also have said...

A baliff can't be appointed by anyone else but a court. The court can't even send a baliff until there is a CCJ against you (which means your case has been to court and a decision has been made that you should pay something) AND your CCJ was not paid.

No one can sneak off to court and just get a CCJ like getting a copy of the newspaper. You have to be written to, given a chance to defend (always defend), it has to be moved to a court near you if you can't go to the one it was schedualled in, then the judge has to say that you fairly owe it and you should pay it.

If you're still worried on hearing that is it because you temporarily forgot that even if the judge does order you to pay it, he wont order you to pay it any faster than you would on the DMP you already have and he's not likely to be best pleased with your creditor for wasting his time.

Lets say it went spectacularly wrong. You somehow didn't open the letter that informed you of the court case, so you couldn't defend, so the court didn't hear your side and said youhave to pay the whole lot right now, then you didn't open that letter either and so you didn't pay and they appointed baliffs... Oh shtt... What now?

Simples. Don't let them in. Yes it really is that easy. They can not break in. Even for a baliff collecting an outstanding CCJ it is illegal to break in.

They can take your car because that doesn't mean breaking in, but they can only do that if they did thier paperwork right often they don't- so check with here first) AND if they could get your car without breaking anything or breaking into private property.

I wouldn't worry about baliffs either Helen.

As I said. Your DMP actually protects you from the outcomes you fear. There is no greater protection in your case, if there was something better you could do you can trust that the CCCS would have told you.