DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Payplan_company_representative

2spicy wrote: »

.. Im 100% happy with the service from Payplan, the response I get when I send an email question is brilliant too .. I have toyed with the idea of a self managed DMP, but now we have ditched the Direct Debit with Payplan, and gone back to the Standing Order, all of our payments have gone out ontime. I too wonder why it takes almost 18 days to pay my creditors, and the monthoy statments sometimes show a missed payment that is carried over onto the nextr month where they reconcile ok, but for now, Im happy

Hi,

I answered a similar question earlier with regards to payments being distributed. Here was the response...
"We never hold onto your payments and we do distribute them to your creditors as soon as we received them. However in some instances creditors request that payments are sent to them on specific times of the month, therefore depending on when you make your payment, the funds for that particular creditor could be distributed slightly later at the creditor’s request."
Many Thanks
Gemma

Time_to_face_the_music

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Great news that is suiting you 2spicy. Did they do anything to help get interest stopped?


Are you saying payplan hold onto all payment for 18 days?

Does anyone know if Payplan will take over DMPs from CCCS?

HHx

I think that the only way to ensure that payments go out immediately to creditors is to pay them ourselves.

All I need to do now is persuade Mr TTFTM that a little boat rocking can be a good thing

StepChange_Pavan

Hi everyone,

In response to the comments about monthly DMP payments:We find that the most efficient way to distribute money on our clients’ behalf is to pay it once a month, on the 25th. We provide a free DMP service to over a hundred thousand clients and disburse to hundreds of different creditors each month, so one bulk payment is the most efficient method.

The OFT allows us to administer client payments in this way (even though nominal interest is being earned), because all funding received by us is used for charitable purposes. All payments to the charity are used to help new people as well as supporting you and our other clients by providing a completely free service.

All clients are made aware of our payment procedure before they begin a DMP, to ensure they understand how long their payment will be held before being passed to their creditors. Banks and other creditors, in their turn, are happy to operate with this procedure as they value the free charitable services provided by us.

If you’ve got concerns about your individual circumstances please give us a call and we’ll be happy to address them.

Kind regards,
Pavan

ben80

From my point of view, I work roughly 10hrs a day, 6 days a week and simply couldn't cope with running a DMP myself. I'm happy for the CCCS to hold my money until their payment day (I chose 1st of a month at the start of my DMP knowing the actually date was around the 25th) - I have a had a few problems (last summer) with later payments, but even my worst creditors told me not to worry & that that they'd amend it on their system. The interest the CCCS must accrue from my payment is, at best, pennies. And, at worst, it's being made by a charity that offers a kind ear & free service to people with debt problems. Rather that that letting it sit in creditors' coffers!

dlb

2spicy wrote: »

.. Im 100% happy with the service from Payplan, the response I get when I send an email question is brilliant too .. I have toyed with the idea of a self managed DMP, but now we have ditched the Direct Debit with Payplan, and gone back to the Standing Order, all of our payments have gone out ontime. I too wonder why it takes almost 18 days to pay my creditors, and the monthoy statments sometimes show a missed payment that is carried over onto the nextr month where they reconcile ok, but for now, Im happy

I too changed to Direct Debit from standing order and was shocked how long payment took to clear at payplan and so making payments late to creditors, i have since canceled the dd and now pay online through payplanplus website, clears within 3 working days...but other than this little problem i have been 100% happy with them too.

ben80

dlb - just read your sig... 3 months and counting... well done!!

Time_to_face_the_music

ben80 wrote: »

From my point of view, I work roughly 10hrs a day, 6 days a week and simply couldn't cope with running a DMP myself. I'm happy for the CCCS to hold my money until their payment day (I chose 1st of a month at the start of my DMP knowing the actually date was around the 25th) - I have a had a few problems (last summer) with later payments, but even my worst creditors told me not to worry & that that they'd amend it on their system. The interest the CCCS must accrue from my payment is, at best, pennies. And, at worst, it's being made by a charity that offers a kind ear & free service to people with debt problems. Rather that that letting it sit in creditors' coffers!

I am stressing because I know we could be over a month ahead with our DMP if we self managed it but I am also scared of making the change and Mr TTFTM really does not want to rock the boat. My argument to him is that the creditors would all receive an extra payment one month so surely they would be happy with that but he is not convinced, though is coming around to my constant [STRIKE]nagging[/STRIKE] ooops I mean, gentle persuasion.

We are both very busy people with stressful jobs so I don't want to take up any extra time but if I set up automatic DD payments to all the creditors, I don't think it would take us any longer and I already have a spreadsheet set up with interest rates/payments made blah blah. We have only been in the DMP for 4 months but no longer get letters/phonecalls etc, I don't know why this but possibly because our payment is high and was never that far off the minimum for most of our debts.

I don't know what to do really, if I could stay with CCCS but get that extra month ahead I would probably be perfectly happy. Decisions, decisions

dlb

ben80 wrote: »

dlb - just read your sig... 3 months and counting... well done!!

Thanks Ben, its been a long 7 years but the end is now in site...it is the best thing we have ever done, over the 7 years payments have changed sometimes going up and other dropping quite low to allow for changing circumstances, only my husband has worked on minimium wages throughout the whole dmp as we have 4 kids and iv stayed at home and made as much extra through ebay, cash for clothes, musicmagpie ect, i see my contribution as being the one who has learnt to budget to the penny, feed all 6 of us on as little as possible ( meal planning and budgeting can be a full time job lol).

Our DFD is sept this year..but i know this will run over by a few months as Halifax has never played ball in the 6 years and continued to add interest and husband has had 16 weeks of work on ssp after a knee op in past year, so a few extra payments to clear the interest added and then i will be offically debt free...also im awaiting a large ppi claim with my biggest creditor Natwest..if successful with will pay off the dmp and leave us with a few thousand in savings.....something i will belive when i see, but the thought of having savings is so exciting!!!!!

My top tips for dmp members are

1- never use a fee paying company, i did this for 18 months in the begining before swapping to payplan, if i had been with payplan from the start i would have been debt free a year ago!

2-Never be afraid to change your budget if you are struggling.

3- Dont think a dmp is the end of your life...we have managed with 4 kids who have gone without nothing , we have had a hoilday in th uk every year, they have the latest phones and games consoles....its all about budgeting planning and making the plan work for you. All this on minimum wages and have paid off over 24k in 7 years!!

4- BE PROUD TO BE DEALING WITH YOUR DEBT..NEVER BE ASHAMED OR EMBARASSED....IT MAKES YOU A STRONGER PERSON.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

dlb wrote: »

Thanks Ben, its been a long 7 years but the end is now in site...it is the best thing we have ever done, over the 7 years payments have changed sometimes going up and other dropping quite low to allow for changing circumstances, only my husband has worked on minimium wages throughout the whole dmp as we have 4 kids and iv stayed at home and made as much extra through ebay, cash for clothes, musicmagpie ect, i see my contribution as being the one who has learnt to budget to the penny, feed all 6 of us on as little as possible ( meal planning and budgeting can be a full time job lol).

Our DFD is sept this year..but i know this will run over by a few months as Halifax has never played ball in the 6 years and continued to add interest and husband has had 16 weeks of work on ssp after a knee op in past year, so a few extra payments to clear the interest added and then i will be offically debt free...also im awaiting a large ppi claim with my biggest creditor Natwest..if successful with will pay off the dmp and leave us with a few thousand in savings.....something i will belive when i see, but the thought of having savings is so exciting!!!!!

My top tips for dmp members are

1- never use a fee paying company, i did this for 18 months in the begining before swapping to payplan, if i had been with payplan from the start i would have been debt free a year ago!

2-Never be afraid to change your budget if you are struggling.

3- Dont think a dmp is the end of your life...we have managed with 4 kids who have gone without nothing , we have had a hoilday in th uk every year, they have the latest phones and games consoles....its all about budgeting planning and making the plan work for you. All this on minimum wages and have paid off over 24k in 7 years!!

4- BE PROUD TO BE DEALING WITH YOUR DEBT..NEVER BE ASHAMED OR EMBARASSED....IT MAKES YOU A STRONGER PERSON.

Well done and thanks for the tips.

Do you mind me asking if you were given a holiday and entertainment budget?

HHx

dlb

Not a hoilday budget no, but i used the money i saved through meal planning to cut down our food bill and used the money i saved from that plus my ebaying old clothes ect to pay for xmas and hoildays each year, we dont spend anything on entertainment as never go out apart from free stuff like walks, park pincnics ect, the only luxury we have it sky tv which again is paid for for food housekeeping budget,
I have also manged to pay for 2 of the kids to go on school trip abroad this year..it has been hard and we have cut back in everyway we could to allow this to happen...but like i said after so many years on the dmp i have learnt just where i can cut back if need be to allow for these extra things.