DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

trainergirl

Newchapter wrote: »

Hi Time to Face the Music

No, this financial advisor charges and I know not thats not a recommended route...but Payplan made it clear that they will not negotiate for a reduced balance for any of my creditors, nor have they been successful in freezing any interest charges, whereas my friend has just halved one of her credit card bills.

I think my budget is not right for me either. I have an allowance for £160 a month for petrol, but I easily use £200+ just to go to work and back. I have phoned sick a few times and not gone to work because I have no petrol and no money...its really embarrassing to admit this.

I've been advised that the monthly payment to a DMP should be approx 1% of the balance owed. I'm currently paying £830 a month and I owe £58k. I have a bald tyre on the car, ewhich I cannot replace until payday, have cancelled my union/professionmal body subscription (at £26 a month) because I can't afford it, and feel awful because I cannot give my 17 year old daughter any allowance/pocket money...she has a disability and will probably find it hard to get a Saturday job. I really need a new plan, one thats sustainable, I think....sorry for wittering on!!!!:)

Hi NC

Welcome to the forum and I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. You've come to the right place as everyone on here can give a friendly word of advice, we're all in the same boat!

Firstly I've never heard about a monthly payment on a DMP being a certain % of the balance. It should be about what you can afford. Secondly you shouldn't pay for financial help - no matter what.

If you want some advice on what to do the best thing to do is prob post a SOA (statement of account) on here, listing all income and outgoings as well as all debts.

I don't know about Payplan as I'm with CCCS for my DMP but I'm not sure about the info you've been given by them. How can you manage a household while paying off your debts if your budget isn't a true reflection of your needs?

It may be that another route other than DMP may be best for you but we can't say till we see your details.

Good luck
TG x

2spicy

There is nothing to say that you cannot negotiate with creditors "if" you should come into a pile of cash ... That is .. if you are in a position to let the DMP run for a year or two, and can put aside a few pennies every month, there may be a point where you can speak directly to a creditor and ask if they will accept £XYZ as full and final payment of your debt to them.

We tried the direct contact approach after 6 months of our DMP being started as Mr Spicy recieved a works bonus but were knocked back by the creditor we approached who said basically "all or nothing"!! .. So they recieved their monthly agreed payment and nothing else... We then used the cash to pay off a "family loan" ... This was their loss.

Now, 3 years into the DMP, we recieve letters from 3 creditors almost quarterly asking us to contact them to discuss the possibility of them accepting up to 50% of the outstanding balance as a full and final settlement. Unfortunatly we donot have a few thousand spare or we would.

Payplan did advise at our last review that "if" we came into some money, they would be in a position to negotiate a reduced settlement with creditors

The_mangler

Ive had a letter today from MBNA re: Virgin credit card, there is only a balance of £300 or so but they have reduced the interest to 9.7% - not the nil I was hoping for Hope the others will be more generous

iwilldoitthistime

Hi

finally got a text and email from CCCS today to say my DMP starts in June (email says 1st, text says 10th). Glad to get it all underway. Just wait now to see if my creditors freeze the interest:o

My debts are mainly with LLoyds (cc, OD and loan), Barclaycard x 2 and MBNA. Anyone got any experience of these? I rang MBNA last week to get something from them with my debt total and the guy on the phone said I probably wouldnt be able to do a plan with them because of my recent spending on the card? Not sure what he meant by that? He said because I had spent at Argos (a new kettle because the old one bit the dust) and Sports Direct (half price kids trainers for school) I probably wouldnt qualify, but they would talk to CCCS about that

any ideas?

925pws

iwilldoitthistime wrote: »

Hi

finally got a text and email from CCCS today to say my DMP starts in June (email says 1st, text says 10th). Glad to get it all underway. Just wait now to see if my creditors freeze the interest:o

My debts are mainly with LLoyds (cc, OD and loan), Barclaycard x 2 and MBNA. Anyone got any experience of these? I rang MBNA last week to get something from them with my debt total and the guy on the phone said I probably wouldnt be able to do a plan with them because of my recent spending on the card? Not sure what he meant by that? He said because I had spent at Argos (a new kettle because the old one bit the dust) and Sports Direct (half price kids trainers for school) I probably wouldnt qualify, but they would talk to CCCS about that

any ideas?

Hi ya
I'd be interested to hear what you find out about MBNA also. Really not sure what they mean because of your recent activity? Hopefully someone more on here will be able to help. Thing is it is CCCS that will be negotiating with probably someone more senior than the person you spoke with on the phone.

I'd also be interested to hear what others experience is with Halifax and Barclaycard.

Many thanks for all the continued support.

Time_to_face_the_music

2spicy wrote: »

There is nothing to say that you cannot negotiate with creditors "if" you should come into a pile of cash ... That is .. if you are in a position to let the DMP run for a year or two, and can put aside a few pennies every month, there may be a point where you can speak directly to a creditor and ask if they will accept £XYZ as full and final payment of your debt to them.

We tried the direct contact approach after 6 months of our DMP being started as Mr Spicy recieved a works bonus but were knocked back by the creditor we approached who said basically "all or nothing"!! .. So they recieved their monthly agreed payment and nothing else... We then used the cash to pay off a "family loan" ... This was their loss.

Now, 3 years into the DMP, we recieve letters from 3 creditors almost quarterly asking us to contact them to discuss the possibility of them accepting up to 50% of the outstanding balance as a full and final settlement. Unfortunatly we donot have a few thousand spare or we would.

Payplan did advise at our last review that "if" we came into some money, they would be in a position to negotiate a reduced settlement with creditors

More very useful advice, thank you again :T

We do have a management bonus scheme and also a share option scheme. Neither have been worth anything over the last couple of years but business is starting to look up so there is always the chance .....

Time_to_face_the_music

The_mangler wrote: »

Ive had a letter today from MBNA re: Virgin credit card, there is only a balance of £300 or so but they have reduced the interest to 9.7% - not the nil I was hoping for Hope the others will be more generous

MBNA reduced our interest too but I think it dropped to around 3%. Maybe you could consider writing to them, there are lots of template letters or I would be happy to share the letter we use.

We write all the time to Lloyds TSB, NatWest and M&S, plus now we have the FOS writing to them too. None have responded to our pleas yet but because we made an official complaint to NatWest and it took them an unreasonable time to answer it, they have given us £50 plus refunded the interest fees for the last 2 months and waived the interest for this month. This added up to a very nice total of £254 off our debt

Time_to_face_the_music

iwilldoitthistime wrote: »

Hi

finally got a text and email from CCCS today to say my DMP starts in June (email says 1st, text says 10th). Glad to get it all underway. Just wait now to see if my creditors freeze the interest:o

My debts are mainly with LLoyds (cc, OD and loan), Barclaycard x 2 and MBNA. Anyone got any experience of these? I rang MBNA last week to get something from them with my debt total and the guy on the phone said I probably wouldnt be able to do a plan with them because of my recent spending on the card? Not sure what he meant by that? He said because I had spent at Argos (a new kettle because the old one bit the dust) and Sports Direct (half price kids trainers for school) I probably wouldnt qualify, but they would talk to CCCS about that

any ideas?

We HATE Lloyds TSB but others say they have had good experiences with them so it seems like a bit of a lottery. Barclaycard we have no experience. MBNA lowered interest to 3%.

One of our creditors, HBOS, did the same to us re recent use of the card. We had used the card on 2nd January to put diesel in the car and they considered this unacceptable. They harrassed us for about a month stating that they were refusing the DMP blah blah but still accepted CCCS's payments. CCCS told us to ignore them, which was difficult to do with several letters every day and loads of phonecalls but it was good advice. After 5 weeks they defaulted us and froze the interest.

The first few weeks, even months of a DMP are a real rollercoaster ride but it does settle down. CCCS will pay our 4th month's payment this Friday and the only letters we get now are monthly statements. We have had no phonecalls since week 6. Hang on in there and try not to worry too much, CCCS are there to do that for you

savvykaz

Today we've received a letter from Barclaycard saying they will suspend any further fees or interest charges (until they've heard from CCCS) and a letter from Nationwide accepting our payment offer and agreeing not to charge interest/fees as long as we keep up with the payments; they are also issuing a default notice (to be expected).
Two down six to go.

Growurown

MBNA stopped all interest on the Virgin CC I had, however it was one of my bigger debts - over 5K. Maybe they charge interest on small debts as they won't take so long to pay off. Not sure why they carry on charging some people and not others - all seems a bit arbitrary to me.