DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

Bring_It_On wrote: »

Hi all

Firstly just want to say that this time last week I was worrying myself sick about the fact that I had just entered into a DMP with CCCS then I found this forum/thread and I feel so much better about the whole situation, I was not answering the phone, dreading the post, worried about creditors taking court action etc., now I feel empowered to deal with my situation and thats thanks to you guys and all the stuff I learned on here, so thanks . My husband thinks I am addicted to this site and its not good for me but I have explained it is helping me so much.

I have constantly over the years been consolidating debts into mortgage, loans other cards etc. thinking I could solve the issue but in fact it just kept making it worse.

For the last 2/3 years we have been paying credit cards and then using them straight away to live on. We never missed payments but had no money at all left. Some cards I made my minimum payment (£175) and the same amount was charged in interest so I could see no way of clearing it. I had never heard of a DMP until end of March when I was searching for help out of our mess on the internet and come across CCCS debt remedy, liked it because it was annoymous and I was so embarrassed about our whole situation.

It suggested a DMP and we thought about it for a week and decided we had no other option. Now it is all set up, we changed our bank account and our first payment goes to CCCS on 10th May, CCCS and us have wrote to all our creditors and arrears calls and letters have started.

Our debts are with Natwest (OD, Loan & CC), RBS (CC), Santander (CC & 3 Store cards), Barclaycard (2 CC's), MBNA (CC), Littlewoods, Next & Simply Be Catalogues/store cards & Tesco (CC). Total debt is £50,574 eeek.

Now I have started to answer phone calls Santander have agreed to freeze interest and charges for next 30 days on all accs and Barclaycard have agreed to do the same on the 2 acc's. MBNA have wrote to say they have put a restriction on my account but thats it so far. So not as bad as I thought so far.

I am really worried about Natwest as I have read a few things on here and other sites that they can be difficult and they are our biggest creditors owing approx. 20k.

Anyway just checking in and saying hello as I will be sticking around for the long haul and hope by sharing my progress I can help others like you have helped me xx

Hi Bring It On - am loving that name and attitude

I'm addicted too but my OH has come around to thinking the advice and experience here is well worth it and I bet yours ending up agreeing.

Creditors seem to treat people in various ways and even the same person with more than one account differently so don't be too disheartened about NatWest. We have no problems with them over OH's CC but fight every day over his OD. It's all very inconsistent and if you read a couple of posts above yours, you will see 2 totally different accounts of Barclaycard.

The important thing is that you have taken the first and the hardest step, well done :T

Reducemydebt

Had a response from lloyds about my overdraft payment CCCS offered them to pay off the overdraft and they declined saying "the account is in credit" anyone had anything similar? - the account isnt in 'credit'; although I have 'only' used £240 of the £250 overdraft....

Of course CCCS just said they will continue to pay what we specified to pay it off but just found it a bit weird.

Bring_It_On

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Hi Bring It On - am loving that name and attitude

I'm addicted too but my OH has come around to thinking the advice and experience here is well worth it and I bet yours ending up agreeing.

Creditors seem to treat people in various ways and even the same person with more than one account differently so don't be too disheartened about NatWest. We have no problems with them over OH's CC but fight every day over his OD. It's all very inconsistent and if you read a couple of posts above yours, you will see 2 totally different accounts of Barclaycard.

The important thing is that you have taken the first and the hardest step, well done :T

Thanks TTFTM, I am so glad I have taken the first step, just to have money each week in the budget for food, petrol and dinner money is such a weight lifted, I feel like we can start living again.

But I do feel really unsettled at the minute because a lot of things are out of my control and I was used to juggling everything but knew it was all paid and to now be getting arrears letters its hard not to worry.

It appears from what I have read that creditors do seem to treat everyone differently based on their individual circumstances so you cannot bank on what to expect but with Natwest I have a loan of £12k, credit card of £8k and overdraft of £2k, the offer of payments on the loan and card is less than half what I was paying them and on the overdraft it is more than the interest was, so really not sure, as they were my bank they are the only ones not informed yet, when my wages and hubby's wages go into new account next week I will inform them, just don't want no hiccups.

Thanks for the encouragement

trainergirl

Hi

Would just like to say thanks for the help and advice everyone has given on here. I'm finding the forum really useful and will prob ask a million questions!!

CCCS advise me to set up a new bank account away from my current bank, articles on MSE say that Barclays and Co-Op are the best but I owe on a barclaycard and I'm worried about them dipping into the current acc once the DMP is set up and as for the Co-Op I don't live anywhere near a branch.

Is there any other places anyone could recommend?

Bettingmad

trainergirl wrote: »

Hi

Would just like to say thanks for the help and advice everyone has given on here. I'm finding the forum really useful and will prob ask a million questions!!

CCCS advise me to set up a new bank account away from my current bank, articles on MSE say that Barclays and Co-Op are the best but I owe on a barclaycard and I'm worried about them dipping into the current acc once the DMP is set up and as for the Co-Op I don't live anywhere near a branch.
Is there any other places anyone could recommend?

You can open a Co-Op cashminder account over the phone, i can recommend that account. don't open one with Barclay's whatever you do.You can pay into a Co-Op account at the Post office as well.

trainergirl

Bettingmad wrote: »

You can open a Co-Op cashminder account over the phone, i can recommend that account. don't open one with Barclay's whatever you do.You can pay into a Co-Op account at the Post office as well.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated

Bring_It_On

trainergirl wrote: »

Hi

Would just like to say thanks for the help and advice everyone has given on here. I'm finding the forum really useful and will prob ask a million questions!!

CCCS advise me to set up a new bank account away from my current bank, articles on MSE say that Barclays and Co-Op are the best but I owe on a barclaycard and I'm worried about them dipping into the current acc once the DMP is set up and as for the Co-Op I don't live anywhere near a branch.

Is there any other places anyone could recommend?

We had to set up a new bank account and was absoluterly dreading it as we had lots of direct debits to transfer over and had been with the Natwest since I was a kid.

We didn't want a basic bank account because there is more restictions on some and I really wanted to have a cheque book, I normally use this for school dinners etc to save having the right money, I got turned down by co-op but then realised it come with a £250 overdraft so think thats why, We went with Nationwide in the end and have a flex account which is a full current account but with no overdraft.

And the transferring over of our Direct debits (there is a transfer service but I wanted control over knowing when things were going out) was done in a day so it really wasn't as bad as I thought. Good Luck x.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Morning folks

I am with coop. Have only ever used a branch one. You can bank online and withdraw money from any atm, so havent found it restrictive at all.

Newbies all sound to be doing just fine. If any outstanding questions please do shout up.

HHx

Earthmother_2

I opened a cashminder account and can recommend it. The staff on the phone are really friendly and helpful, their online banking is straightforward too. I also have a smartsaver with them to transfer money that is to be saved for car insurance etc.

snpjaw

Can anyone give me a bit of advice?

My DMP has just started and I am starting to receive letters from creditors regarding my offers of repayment.

First Direct have accepted my offer but are now asking me to sign a Consumer Credit Agreement which will sign me up to the agreed payments over 12 months and then a final payment to clear the balance which I won't be able to afford.

It is set out to look like a further loan agreement to me so I haven't signed it on advice from CCCS and have written to them to explain why, however I've now received another copy and another signature request.

I am right not to sign it aren't I??