DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

jasperconran wrote: »

will this never end!!!????? Despite us sending numerous letters to metropolitan and apparently them never getting them. I sent one last week on the 12th special delivery and its still showing on royal mail as progressing through their network!!:eek:

So now today OH received a letter from D G Solicitors (thanks to Metropolitan) saying that they want full payment now of £7290 (yeah right like ive got that!) or they state: we may be instructed to take legal action against you in the county court to recover this debt. must pay this in 14 days blah blah blah. If you need more time to pay then contact us etc. trouble is my hubby is going through some tough times with his business and is on the verge of a mental breakdown.

So I have today composed another letter this time to D G Solicitors and put ALL the copies of ALL the letters that we have sent to Metropolitan.

What else can I do???? any advice anyone?? I am so stressed and cannot trouble OH with this. thanks

Hi jasperconran

I am sorry to hear things are so bad for you at the moment. We did consider trying to do a self managed DMP but decided in the end we wanted the buffer of a company who could help us in situations like this. Are you determined not to return to a managed DMP or would you consider going to CCCS or Payplan and asking them to help you?

I really hope things get better for you soon and your OH's health improves.

Growurown

Hi Jasperconran,
Sorry to hear this is still happening and is causing you so much trouble. I would send all the paperwork recorded delivery.

I hope everything works out for you.

jasperconran

Hi guys,

Thank you all for the support:) Well, your never guess, but I decided to take the plunge and rang D & G Solicitors. At first the advisor was like, cant talk to you its your husbands account. I told her of all the letters we have sent including the one my OH sent giving me authority to talk to them on his behalf.

First of all, it was the same as Metropolitan, no sorry didnt receive it blah blah blah. Then......she put me on hold. came back, and......they got the letter!:j:j I was sooooooo relieved.

I went through things with her, explained why the big debts, explained and worked through our I & E, and guess what.......they accepted the flaming £70 that we have been offering for the last 4 months!!!!! and been flipping paying:rotfl:

Seriously these companies do my head in! But what a great way to end the day. I did get upset on the phone and break down but the advisor was a lovely lady who gave me some time and I was then able to carry on. She was very understanding.

All that stress for nowt lol. ahh well, alls well that ends well:) Now I know I can do it, I will continue on with self managing our dmp. bring it on!!!!!!!

AmyV_2

Hi all !

JasperConran - Good news about D G Solicitors!

Just wanted to say though for anyone being threatened with Country Court, all it means is a CCJ and to be honest if you are on a DMP, another mark on your credit file is no big deal.

In our sort of scenario where we are on DMPs, CCJs go through a bulk clearing house, its just a paperwork exercise so nothing to be scared of.

We had one creditor (nasty, hateful people they were) who went straight for a CCJ within weeks of setting up the DMP even though we were paying the DMP on time and never missed a payment.

When they put in the paperwork you have to reply to the paperwork and send it back to the company (not the Court). They falsified information telling the courts that we had not returned the form to them which was a lie as we had the proof with special delivery. Because of that, the courts said we had to pay up the full amount immediately.

We contacted the company who said they could do what they liked (told you ... nasty hateful people)

Anyway, we ended up contacting the courts and explained what horrible liars these people were and they had had the paperwork. So the courts reviewed it and set the payment to the same as the DMP - which is what usually happens anyway.

The thing is, when a CCJ is in place they can no longer charge interest, and it also means when we increase our payments to the CCCS, not a penny more goes to the CCJ as it is set at the same rate until it is paid off :-)

Every cloud has a silver lining

Growurown

jasperconran wrote: »

.......they accepted the flaming £70 that we have been offering for the last 4 months!!!!! and been flipping paying:rotfl:

Fantastic news - you must be so relieved. Well done for persevering:T

Hope things start to improve for you and OH now.

Disduprop

Looking for a bit of advice. Quick, simple question.
My DMP with CCCS is coming up for it's first annual review. Will CCCS contact me or should I give them a phone?
Thanks.

candypop

Disduprop wrote: »

Looking for a bit of advice. Quick, simple question.
My DMP with CCCS is coming up for it's first annual review. Will CCCS contact me or should I give them a phone?
Thanks.

Hi CCCS normally just send you a letter to say your review is due and to ring them. You can ring them yourself though if you wish.

sunfleur

ianmak wrote: »

I'm so sorry to hear about your problems. Can't imagine what you must be going through, but also pleased that you have sorted yourself out (to an extent!).

Thanks ianmak. Yeah I am sorted out financially for now. The stress comes in other parts of my life at present. I still say that organising a DMP was the best thing I have done in a long time. I love that once the bills/debts are paid for the month I know to the penny how much I have. It is easier now that I have two accounts. One for Bills and one for Living expenses. It's so much easier.

I love looking at everyone's sig lines to see how their debts are coming down. I spent yesterday making a debt reduction spreadsheet. It's good to see which month will see a drop in the hundreds or thousands and then to see at the end of the spreadsheet DEBT FREE! :T:T

Sunfleur

Growurown

Hi All,
Reading 2Spicy's advice on starting up a DMP reminded me of a very useful post from Toffeepenny that helped me out alot when I started out. I've copied it out as it was on the last thread. Hope it helps all you Newbies just beginning as well.

'I want to reassure you all that there is absolutely nothing to worry about setting up a DMP with CCCS or Payplan charities.
Creditors will accept your DMP and regular payments from CCCS/Payplan because they will have every minute detail about your income/expenditure. They know CCCS/Payplan have been realistic with setting up a monthly budget and will accept payments from them.
Every penny you pay each month is going towards your debt and not in the pockets of someone who works for GREGORY bloody Penfold Creditors will be MORE willing to hold off interest and charges when with CCCS/Payplan than any fee charging company.
If creditors know you are with a fee paying company they are more likely to kick up stink and not play ball. Why can't Halifax or Lloyds or whoever you owe to have that £30 monthly fee you are paying Gregory? If someone owed you money would you be pleased they were giving £30 a month away for nothing when it could go in your pocket and pay you?
I cannot stress enough the importance of setting up a realistic budget when starting out. You cannot be expected to live on beans on toast every day until you are debt free, whilst there is nowt wrong with beans on toast (I like mine with a sprinkling of cheese!)it would be one miserable long road to being debt free let me tell ya!. You are allowed a bit of a life honest! The creditors can be like Great Whites sometimes but even sharks have a heart!

DMP Budget advice



The CCCS website is completely confidential and you can tweak budget figures up or down to suit what I mean by this is......
do you wear glasses? No? well you do now, put whatever the maximum they will allow you for eye tests, glasses per month
don't eat much? well now you do, try and put a little extra in the groceries box
take a packed lunch to work? well now you have meals at work
have teenage kids? well they all catch the bus to school
don't smoke? well now you do put something in this box
See where I am coming from? It may not be entirely honest I know but retune your budget to allow a few extras and this could add a few tenners in your pocket here and there. It does not get checked on but it's the difference between having a little something over at the end of the month to make life a bit more bearable than miserably wishing for every payday because you are skint to the bone month after month.

After your DMP is all set up and running and you are budgetting well or have a little bit more to pay towards your debt then you can always ring CCCS up and say you would like a budget review and arrange to pay more. Your debt free date will be nearer and the creditors will be happier. It's a win win.'

bertman

We are about to start a DMP with CCCS, my OH is about to start maternity pay which means we lose half her monthly wages which will mean we can't pay everything. At the moment we can just get by but from May we can't.
We are setting up a new bank account on Monday so will start transferring DD's over in the next month, I have looked at all the comments on this thread and got some really great advice from different posters. To be honest after 3 years of struggling we are looking forward to having this set up so we can get on with our lives and start to see the debts going down, I know it will be hard to begin with - especially with a new baby here as well, but we will get through it....
I have absolutely no time at all for CC companies now, we haven't used any cards for over 3 years. We had to run up debts to stop our business going under, a terrible time of our lives, but since then CC companies have racked up interest to 30% and wouldn't reduce them. We are paying a huge amount every month and paying a fraction of the debt off, we might as well throw the money in a bin!!
So I guess its a new chapter in our lives!!!