PayPlan

ashden

Hi Jo,

I'd already calculated what we spend a month and took a bit of advice from the National Debt Line about allowances. Mine was worked out for a couple and I think we were allowed about £300 house keeping, £45 total for all phone bills including internet, £15 car maintenance (new car), £19 for hair cuts and £40 clothing (I think!). I can't remember the rest but we certainly won't be left short if we're careful.

Apparently it's going to take about a month to set up, so in the meantime they've told me to make whatever payments I can to the creditors.

Just be honest about all your income and expenditure, they were so helpful trying to get it to work out the best way for us.

I think PayPlan will advise you to move away from A&L if you've got a CC with MBNA. I mentioned a savings account that I'd got with A&L and he told me it wouldn't be safe because of my Abbey card (MBNA).

Good luck, let us know how you get on!

Ash x

Eupho

Hi Ash Jo

We are all in similar places with all of this at the mo.. My payplan *call* is on Saturday lunchtime.. I dont know about you but i feel sooo much better already.. a relief really.. that something will finally happen.. or at least and LAST i have finally pulled my head out of the sand.

The thing im worried about the most really is losing my debit/connect card.. I use it allllllllll the time. (so not crediting.. just using my money) TO shop online etc.. Ive already got my head around spending less and bugeting, Ive been doing that for a few months now..(although i still need to do better) but I am worried about always having to have cash on me, instead of just slapping my card on the counter..

The online payments thing is worrying me, because i use it alot for shopping and bargin *gift* hunting.. not spending lots (anymore) silly things.. like ebay.. I rarely use it.. but does it mean i will have to pay by postal orders and stuff? I wonder if I can still use paypal.

I too am probably connected to almost every lender/bank in one way or another.. Im (also) worried about the opening of a new account and the transfer of all the direct debits. That i might mess it up.. and end up missing payments etc. Much as im in huuuge debt (about 38G i think) ..I still am uptodate with eveything.. JUSTTTTT...

I was looking at my two bank accounts this morning.. and im about to sink like a stone.. :eek: :eek:

gawd listen to me.. moan moan moan.. :rolleyes:

giddykipper

Don't worry about it - I'm sure that Payplan will explain everything for you so that you know exactly where you stand and put your mind at ease even more (I too feel much better just having pulled my head out of the sand).

I didn't know that you can't have a debit card - have you been told that definitely? I use my switch card to pay for all sorts (bills online, council tax etc) but I suppose I could always set up direct debits for the things I usually do online.

I would imagine you can still use paypal because you can set it up so the money comes straight from your bank account - so I would imagine as long as the money is in your bank account, you can use it!

I never thought of that!

Does anyone know for definite about the debit card situation?

Cheers

Jo x

alemted

My phone call from payplan is tonight, will let you know how it went tomorrow.

Until things are set up, we are going to struggle paying bills for the next few weeks, some are now late and they will be sending reminders and adding charges for late payment.

Currently over overdraft limit until I get paid tomorrow, then mortgage payment comes out and dipping into overdraft again until wife gets paid in 10 days. Then most big bills come out 1st of next month. (And we won't have much money to pay them).

Have got new account setup with co-op/smile, got confirmation today. (Phew).

ashden

Hi Eupho,

I'm glad there's a few of us at about the same stage.

With the smile account I'm swapping to I can still have a visa debit card, but I'm mainly going to use cash so I actually realise what I'm spending (I'm also going to get a Tesco Clubcard Plus hopefully). This also means I'll still be able to use PayPal as I can add my debit card to my account - with PayPal you can also add your bank account so that payments come directly out of your account, so not having a card wouldn't be a problem.

I'm soooo worried about transferring DDs. Fingers crossed it'll go OK. Smile will do it all for me, I just need to sort a letter out. The only problem is, my old smile account is still in my maiden name so I need to get that changed, and I need to get it converted into a joint account - only then can I transfer the DDs. I also need a second account as I'm self-employed.

We're managing all of our minimum payments at the moment, but we're overspending by about £500 a month - we've only managed this long because over the past 6 months or so for one reason or another we've been getting lump sum payments from places, so these have been keeping us going. We've got nothing like that coming up so there's no way we can keep overspending and all the interest rates on our cards have gone up.

I really can't wait for the DMP to be in place.

I hope the call goes well for you on Saturday!

Ash x

giddykipper

What sort of accounts are you all setting up with smile? A normal run of the mill current account?

Jo

alemted

If you are switching to a new bank account, most of the basic ones come with a Visa Electron/Maestro debit card.

Nothing to stop you using it if you are in a DMP AFAIK, it's just an electronic way of spending YOUR money.

ashden

Hi alemted, I hope everything goes well for you too x

giddy, I've just got their normal current account but it's got a £500 overdraft so I need to cancel that - I want to wait until the DDs are set up properly first though.

alemted

I switched to a smilemore joint account as we still have a good credit rating. (Not for long though).

It does cost £10 per month but it comes with breakdown cover which we definitely find useful and we would pay that anyway.

We are also going to be cancelling the overdraft facility of this account.

giddykipper

Excellent - thanks for the info!

I take it from the number of people with smile accounts that they're not linked to anyone else?