DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

trevor_john

It may be wise to move from Barclays as I am sure Barclaycard can and will dip the new accoun t.

MadelinesMum

trainergirl wrote: »

Hi all, I'm having a bit of panic and would appreciate some advice.

All the info about the DMP has come through from CCCS, so far so good. However I'm still worried about the amount of hassle I'm going to face as it starts so I'm considering applying for a loan instead of doing the DMP.

I've already been turned down by Lloyds and M&S Money but I figure I could give it one last roll of the dice.

I've made so many bad decisions when it comes to my finances - is this another one? Should I accept the DMP??

Am so confused!! Any advice from the good people on here would be great

Hi, we were in the same position last year and opted for a loan. Unfortunately we continued to spend on the credit cards and ended up maxed out and owing the loan payments as well. We have now gone for a DMP. I think a DMP is better for us because you can no longer use credit. It's going to be tougher, living to a budget but tbh it is the best way to live - I feel a lot happier and have loads more pride in the things I have saved up to buy.
Good luck!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

sunfleur wrote: »

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

Sorry you have had a rough ride.

I am addicted to my spreadsheet so I am right with you xx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

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.

Well done and thanks for the update, keeps us all going

HHx

Bring_It_On

Growurown wrote: »

No I don't think so, but sometimes it can be difficult to know what company owns what bank so you may inadvertently open a new bank account linked to another debt. Whether a creditor would cotton onto this or not I don't really know but they certainly will if you send them one of their own cheques.

I was with Natwest and I am now with Nationwide so think I should be ok fingers crossed. Thanks for the advice :-)

AmyV wrote: »

I don't think they can do anything with the details, I think the reason we decided on postal orders is that you don't need to sign them. At the time (going back about 3 years) there was a lot of talk about a debt not being collectable unless there was evidence of the original credit agreement. (I don't think thats necessarily true anymore). Many Creditors had lost these, particularly when they kept merging in different companies and documentation gets lost.

It was said that some of the more unscrupulous Creditors were therefore forging signatures on credit agreements which they had gleaned from correspondence or cheques.

So we don't sign anything, just print the name. Just a safeguard really, but of course if you write a cheque you have to use your real signature.

I expect this is very, very rare, and I haven't heard of it happening since then so I wouldn't be overly worried.

I am learning so much from this forum would have never have thought of that but then I signed all my letters to my creditors so bit late for that, thanks a lot panic over I think was stressing last night :-)

Bring_It_On

trainergirl wrote: »

Hi all, I'm having a bit of panic and would appreciate some advice.

All the info about the DMP has come through from CCCS, so far so good. However I'm still worried about the amount of hassle I'm going to face as it starts so I'm considering applying for a loan instead of doing the DMP.

I've already been turned down by Lloyds and M&S Money but I figure I could give it one last roll of the dice.

I've made so many bad decisions when it comes to my finances - is this another one? Should I accept the DMP??

Am so confused!! Any advice from the good people on here would be great

I can only share from my experience, I have consolidated into the mortgage twice, got a secured loan and moved CC's around and each time I thought I was solving the problem but I wasn't. I was about to get another loan with my bank right before I had my LBM, I saw the rate on the internet and worked out rather that making minimum payment on one of my many CC's of £175 per month for £174 to go on interest I would increase my loan to get it paid off, when I called up to ask about it I was told I would not qualify for the rate I saw on the internet due to my credit rating and the rate they offered me would not make as much of a differece to my debt as I wanted.

But in hindsight even if I had have got this loan at the rate I saw it would not have solved my problems, it would have given me £175 a month to live on as we had nothing left at the end of each month and that would not have been sustainable.

It is weird because it is such a scary time for the first time in my life being chased for debt, yet I am excited for the first time I can see a way out of this mess.

Good luck with what ever you decide just really give it some thought so you don't just put off the inevitable, I wish I had my LBM years ago x

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Bring_It_On wrote: »

I can only share from my experience, I have consolidated into the mortgage twice, got a secured loan and moved CC's around and each time I thought I was solving the problem but I wasn't. I was about to get another loan with my bank right before I had my LBM, I saw the rate on the internet and worked out rather that making minimum payment on one of my many CC's of £175 per month for £174 to go on interest I would increase my loan to get it paid off, when I called up to ask about it I was told I would not qualify for the rate I saw on the internet due to my credit rating and the rate they offered me would not make as much of a differece to my debt as I wanted.

But in hindsight even if I had have got this loan at the rate I saw it would not have solved my problems, it would have given me £175 a month to live on as we had nothing left at the end of each month and that would not have been sustainable.

It is weird because it is such a scary time for the first time in my life being chased for debt, yet I am excited for the first time I can see a way out of this mess.

Good luck with what ever you decide just really give it some thought so you don't just put off the inevitable, I wish I had my LBM years ago x

Am sure this would ring true for many.

I know it will be a significant belt tightening for the next 6 years for you but a loan could easily have been for that period of time.

Good luck

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

Bring_It_On wrote: »

It is weird because it is such a scary time for the first time in my life being chased for debt, yet I am excited for the first time I can see a way out of this mess.

Good luck with what ever you decide just really give it some thought so you don't just put off the inevitable, I wish I had my LBM years ago x

Great post Bring It On :T

It certainly rings true with me and I am sure lots of others here too. Our LBM came months too late, we just didn't realise how quickly debt could increase when paying off the minimum each month. The sense of relief at knowing it will be gone in less than 4 years is immeasurable. Life is so different now, the purse strings may be tightened but the freedom is wonderful

Growurown

trainergirl wrote: »

I'm still worried about the amount of hassle I'm going to face so I'm considering applying for a loan instead of doing the DMP.

I've already been turned down by Lloyds and M&S Money but I figure I could give it one last roll of the dice.

If you have already been turned down twice I think it unlikey you will be successful. I wouldn't do it anyway, the hassle was no where near as bad as I thought and it took me a long time to learn that you don't get out of debt by taking on more debt. The advantage with a DMP is that you can't take out more credit. You can if you get a loan - and you will because everyone does. A year down the line you will be back to square one with even more debt.

redfalcon wrote: »

Hello everyone!

Been reading through all the advice on this thread and it has finally encouraged me to face my debt and apply for a DMP through CCCS.

In the process of sending letters to my creditors and all the documents back off to CCCS.

Had to sign up for this forum so i'm not alone on this journey

Hi redfalcon, welcome aboard

MadelinesMum wrote: »

Hi all, I'm quite new to DMP and have just started to sort out a new bank account (Barclays). Payplan told us to open a Barclays account and sent us the forms to fill out. OH has just received a letter from his BHS cc and it states it is arranged through Barclaycard. He owes about £2k on the cc. I may be worrying about nothing, but am now thinking we will lose our wages if the BHS card takes money from our Barclays account Am I worrying about nothing or has Payplan advised us to open the wrong bank account? Thanks in advance.

Personally I wouldn't take the risk. Could you call Payplan and ask them? They might know something we don't!

mrshughes86

I'm a frequent reader of this board but thought I would just share my story to give some hope to people.

In 2010 my husband lost his job when the building company he worked for went under. Not only did he not get any redundancy, he was still owed two months pay when the company went down (while the owner was on holiday in Thailand) and we never got the money as the guy was declared bankrupt when he returned.

We had a loan and some credit cards on 0% deals from when I had been studying , and we were managing with these until he lost his job.

Unfortunately we put living expenses on credit cards, hoping he would find more work quickly, but this didnt happen. Our debts quickly mounted, with bank charges and late payment charges adding to the problem.

In the summer of 2010 I decided to try and tackle the problem and added everything up and did a budget, but our debts totalled over £55k and our current income was way off the minumum payments on each. I started having panic attacks, stopped sleeping, and spiralled into depression. I felt under extra pressure to carry on going to work everyday because I knew how desperately we needed my wage.

We were hassled by several creditors phone calls and letters everyday, which made me panic more and more. Luckily I could just about cope with anti-depressants and forced myself to continue working.

We decided the only thing to do was move into the spare room at my husbands parents house to cut our expenses as much as possible, but we still couldnt make minimum payments and our debts still kept increasing due to interest and charges even though we hadnt used credit cards for months and ploughed every penny we earn't into paying them off.

In October 2010 I read about CCCS. As soon as I got off the phone from them I felt like a great weight had been lifted.
They told me to immediately stop paying the money that all my creditors were demanding, as things like food, rent and heating were more important - something I'd seemed to lose grasp of!
They suggested a debt management plan of 6 years, and although it seemed a long time, at least there was an end date!
I was so happy that at last there seemed a resolution to our problem.

All of our creditors accepted our plan (Lloyds TSB loan, Lloyds TSB CC, Halifax CC, Tesco CC, First Direct loan, Santander CC, HSBC CC, Lloyds TSB overdraft, First Direct overdraft, as well as Argos store card and Next store card)

They stopped charging interest, accepted our reduced payments, and at last I saw our debts start to actually reduce!

We have now been on our plan a year and a half, and in that time my husband has found a job and we have increased the amount we pay each month.
What started out as a 6 year plan is now looking like it will be finished in around 4 years.

We had a few minor blips along the way, with our car gearbox dying and costing £2k to repair :-( but CCCS were always supportive and informative.

The thing that gave me most strength is knowing I can't be controlled by the creditors. We still get the odd phone call, but now all I say is "I'm on a DMP with CCCS, my client number is xxxxxxx - please direct your enquiry to them". This has helped no end with my stress and I am now feel back in control and am gradually reducing my anti-depressants.

Our initial £55k debt is now £38k and shrinking all the time!

As our earning situtation improves and items we had on hire purchase come to an end we can increase our monthly payments further and speed up our DMP. We started out paying just £600 a month of our debts, we now pay £800, and by June I hope to get this up to £1100.

I'm so pleased I rang CCCS that day! Thank you!