DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Bring_It_On

When I was thinking about going onto a DMP I was really worried about ruining my credit score but I could see no other way out of this mess.

So I thought I would check my credit report so I know where I am starting from and was shocked to see it was classed as very poor and a high risk to lenders.

The only negative thing on there is 2 late payments over the last 12 months as I was paying everything we just wern't living anymore, yet my rating was through the floor just because of the amount of credit I had.

So morale of the story is if you are thinking of a DMP but worried about your credit rating, chances are it is not as good as you think and can only get better, so go for it!

On a plus side Simply Be (reliable collections) have accepted my DMP and stopped interest, but they say providing payments are received every 28 days, surely CCCS would have told them it is 25th of every month, are they setting me up to fail? Should I contact them or leave it and see what happens?

seanmorley01

Hi,

I have been quietly following this thread for a number of years, and have been reassured by the similar experiences of others.

In April 2008, I started a DMP with PayPlan to clear nearly £13k of credit card/loan debts. I have been paying this off with monthly payments of £250 throughout the duration of the plan, and have never missed a payment to date.

Well 4 years later, I have been advised that PayPlan are currently calculating the end of my plan as I have an estimated debt remaining of £145.

I know from a current credit report that the balances on my 4 accounts aren't as PayPlan thinks. This credit report shows that across my creditors, my balances total around £2000 due to interest charges incurred.

A total balance of £2000 is very different from the £145 that PayPlan think there is, and I am very anxious that I am really nowhere near the end of my plan.

So really my question is, does anyone have any experience of how PayPlan deal with this? I know they say interest isn't written off automatically, however I feel I have managed my debt to the best of my ability and have repaid the original debt.

My creditors are:

Barclaycard, M&S Money, NCO Europe (American Express) and Natwest.

I look forward to hearing of other people's experiences with this kind of situation.

Many thanks in advance,
Sean

iwilldoitthistime

Hi

We are about to start a DMP with CCCS. Ive completed the online info and am just waiting for a statement from MBNA with a final debt amount before proceeding.

Our current account is with Lloyds at the moment and we have a CC, overdraft and loan with them. Reading the info on here we will have to open another account to run everything from. Its just I have a Halifax current account already open (which we were made to open when we took our mortgage out) which only gets the CB paid into it. We have no other debt with Halifax (other than the mortgage) - so could we use this account? I know Halifax is now owned by Lloyds, but are they still treating customers seperately?

People keep mentioning the co-op account, but is this something you can do online, as I have no idea where branches would be?

Also - when is the best time to move account? we are too late to change our pay at work for the end of this month, so can change it for the end of May, but should we just pay the essential bills (elec/gas/mortgage etc) this month and write to the CCs etc and offer a token amount?

Sorry if this has been gone into earlier in the thread, its just that these are the things immediately worrying me. I will go and read the rest of the thread for the rest of my Sunday night lol... looking forward to all the help it will give!

thanks again x

Bring_It_On

iwilldoitthistime wrote: »

Hi

We are about to start a DMP with CCCS. Ive completed the online info and am just waiting for a statement from MBNA with a final debt amount before proceeding.

Our current account is with Lloyds at the moment and we have a CC, overdraft and loan with them. Reading the info on here we will have to open another account to run everything from. Its just I have a Halifax current account already open (which we were made to open when we took our mortgage out) which only gets the CB paid into it. We have no other debt with Halifax (other than the mortgage) - so could we use this account? I know Halifax is now owned by Lloyds, but are they still treating customers seperately?

People keep mentioning the co-op account, but is this something you can do online, as I have no idea where branches would be?

Also - when is the best time to move account? we are too late to change our pay at work for the end of this month, so can change it for the end of May, but should we just pay the essential bills (elec/gas/mortgage etc) this month and write to the CCs etc and offer a token amount?

Sorry if this has been gone into earlier in the thread, its just that these are the things immediately worrying me. I will go and read the rest of the thread for the rest of my Sunday night lol... looking forward to all the help it will give!

thanks again x

You will need to change accounts as they can offset the debt because part of the same group now. I was going to wait and let my next wages and direct debits go into/out of the old account but I was stressing that much that my bank may freeze my account I took the step to change it straight away, we were lucky that mine and my partners bank details could be changed with work there and then and I phoned everyone up I had a DD with and they just took the first DD a bit later from my new bank and will revert back to my regular pay date next month, I was dreading changing banks but it went so smoothly.

You can open a co-op account online, I went with Nationwide and I did that online as well.

I would just pay essentials and just pay each provider a token amount this month, a lot of people start sending token payments straight away to build up a bit of an emergency fund before your DMP starts.

Good luck x

Time_to_face_the_music

seanmorley01 wrote: »

Hi,

I have been quietly following this thread for a number of years, and have been reassured by the similar experiences of others.

In April 2008, I started a DMP with PayPlan to clear nearly £13k of credit card/loan debts. I have been paying this off with monthly payments of £250 throughout the duration of the plan, and have never missed a payment to date.

Well 4 years later, I have been advised that PayPlan are currently calculating the end of my plan as I have an estimated debt remaining of £145.

I know from a current credit report that the balances on my 4 accounts aren't as PayPlan thinks. This credit report shows that across my creditors, my balances total around £2000 due to interest charges incurred.

A total balance of £2000 is very different from the £145 that PayPlan think there is, and I am very anxious that I am really nowhere near the end of my plan.

So really my question is, does anyone have any experience of how PayPlan deal with this? I know they say interest isn't written off automatically, however I feel I have managed my debt to the best of my ability and have repaid the original debt.

My creditors are:

Barclaycard, M&S Money, NCO Europe (American Express) and Natwest.

I look forward to hearing of other people's experiences with this kind of situation.

Many thanks in advance,
Sean

Hi Sean

I don't really know much about Payplan but our DMP is with CCCS and they give you access to online facilities to check your statement, review your budget, look at your debts etc. Does Payplan have a facility like this? CCCS told us that it was important to check our statements against the information they hold and make online changes wherever necessary. So each month after our DMP payment has gone out, we check the online balances and amend to include any interest being charged etc. This way, both we and CCCS know exactly where we are up to and it keeps our DFD date accurate.

Are you still getting statements from your creditors? Is this the first time you have realised that the Payplan figures are not accurate? Or have you told them before and they haven't made the necessary updates?

Hopefully you can talk to them tomorrow and get this sorted out but please don't get stressed over it, even in the worse case scenario, i.e. you still owe £2000, you are still only a few months off your DFD. Hopefully it won't turn out like that and there may have been some sort of error along the way.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

iwilldoitthistime

Hi and thanks for the info Bring It On

I am planning to work out exactly what needs to stay in my current account for May and withdraw everything else before any loan payments etc come off. I will post the letters to Lloyds etc on payday to tell them Im paying a token payment and that CCCS will be taking over.

I will look to open an account online tomorrow after work, then I can move the extra money over. At least by only paying the token payments I can afford to get the car MOTd and taxed before I start the DMP. That way Ive got nothing to pay for until Dec as everything else is up to date.

When you send token amounts, can you only do it by postal order?

thanks

PayingMyDebts

I made sure that I checked with my creditors to ensure that my balances were updated and correct.

Last payment due on my plan a week Monday.

Chris_G77

hi all,

I've been on my DMP for just over 2.5 years now, starting balance of £33k, just had my statement through and the first of my creditors now has a zero balance. The total owing now stands at £8.5k with just over a year to go till debt free.

Just thought I'd share and say that although it's hard, I can finally see daylight again and if I hadn't taken the steps of a DMP I'd be paying these bills off for a lot longer than I currently am. It's also given taught a true value of something, no more credit except for a house at some point.

Bring_It_On

iwilldoitthistime wrote: »

Hi and thanks for the info Bring It On

I am planning to work out exactly what needs to stay in my current account for May and withdraw everything else before any loan payments etc come off. I will post the letters to Lloyds etc on payday to tell them Im paying a token payment and that CCCS will be taking over.

I will look to open an account online tomorrow after work, then I can move the extra money over. At least by only paying the token payments I can afford to get the car MOTd and taxed before I start the DMP. That way Ive got nothing to pay for until Dec as everything else is up to date.

When you send token amounts, can you only do it by postal order?

thanks

No probs.

I am sure someone with more experience can answer this as I am a Newbie myself but I cancelled all DD's and Standing orders for CC's and loan and paid mine via online banking before I closed my account down, then I just sent a £10 cheque for my loan from my new account, not sure if this is right or not?

I think the reason why people use a postal order is because you don't get a cheque book with a basic bank account but I opened another current account so got a cheque book but I could be wrong and there could be another reason.

Good plan to sort the car first you never know what the MOT can throw up and some people have had problems with funding things like this once the DMP has started as you might not have an emergency fund straight away. Some people have paid token payments for a couple of months first to build up a reserve, I didn't I just had a month of token payments and my first DMP payment is on th 10th May but something to think about.

keep in touch let us know how you get on x

Time_to_face_the_music

PayingMyDebts wrote: »

I made sure that I checked with my creditors to ensure that my balances were updated and correct.

Last payment due on my plan a week Monday.

Chris_G77 wrote: »

hi all,

I've been on my DMP for just over 2.5 years now, starting balance of £33k, just had my statement through and the first of my creditors now has a zero balance. The total owing now stands at £8.5k with just over a year to go till debt free.

Just thought I'd share and say that although it's hard, I can finally see daylight again and if I hadn't taken the steps of a DMP I'd be paying these bills off for a lot longer than I currently am. It's also given taught a true value of something, no more credit except for a house at some point.

Congratulations and well done to both of you :T

We are obsessed with our DFD, currently January 2016, and are determined to get some time off that. Currently decluttering for ebay and car boot sale and OH has some exam marking booked for May and June so fingers crossed, we can knock a month or two off