DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

Grand_Benders wrote: »

Just want to say a quick Hi. I'm about halfway through this thread and plan to read the rest, but just popping in to get it out there.

We just had our LBM a week ago, after reading the diary of Gargrave50 and realising we needed to do something, since our overdrafts were growing and we were about to run out of options for paying all our monthly minimum payments. Up till now no missed payments, but it was a ticking time bomb!

This week, we've gathered all our financial info together, completed the CCCS Debt Remedy, which confirmed our figures and DFD, and they've recommended a DMP, as I suspected they would. Just requested our package from them this evening, but not sitting around waiting for it. We've cancelled the DDs for our credit cards (except the ones for Santander as we have our mortgage and bank accounts/overdrafts with them too and need time to switch accounts before they get a headsup there's an issue) and plan to write to all of them tomorrow with the template letter from CCCS advising them we've started the process of DMP and including our token payments. Since I haven't involved our bank yet, I'm planning on sending cheques for these.

Since I was on a roll, I decided to call Sky tonight to cancel, as we had already decided we could live without it and just buy the episodes of our favourite shows on iTunes if we really couldn't live without them (or get them on Netflix). With nothing to lose and a plan to switch our broadband to BT to get a deal and get it cheaper, I ended up on the phone to a very nice chap called Craig who has set up a deal to save us over £20 a month by bringing our line rental over to Sky from BT and doing deals on our broadband and TV packages. With the difference of what we'd have been paying BT on the new package, staying with Sky is only about £2 more and we won't have to buy on iTunes now and we've only lost one channel that had one series on it that we watched occasionally

So, not a bad start and feeling pretty positive about the whole thing after losing many nights' sleep this week since we pulled our ostrich heads out the sand and had our light bulb moment!

Want to say thanks to everyone who has shared their story on here. There's a definite recurring theme to the posts, and the majority are pretty positive about being pleased they started the DMP process, so I'm hopeful we'll feel the same.

Cancelling the DDs was a bit scary tonight, but I'm sure I'll get over that when I start writing letters and cheques for token payments tomorrow.

Thanks again to everyone for sharing. We feel like we have so much support already, from the information you all have given us.

Hi Grand Benders and welcome :hello:

Your message shines through that you have had your LBM and are doing something about it. Well done for getting in there fast before any more damage is done :T

I have learned so much from this forum, particularly this thread, and the support, advice and experience is outstanding, it keeps me sane ..... sometimes

Good luck and please keep us updated on how it's going.

Grand_Benders

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Sounds like you have everything heading the right direction.

Up up up! (The only way is up!)

klfairy wrote: »

Hi Grand Benders, you sound like you're in pretty much the same place as us. We haven't quite hit trouble yet but it's only a matter of time.

OH came home from his new job yesterday full of hope that he'll be earning very well quite soon. I hope he's right. We might be able to avoid a DMP if he's right and and it happens quickly.

I'm very firmly of the opinion now that in our position, DMP is the solution to be embraced, not avoided! Would it be worthwhile sitting down with him and doing a full review of how much you're paying now and how much is actually going towards your debt rather than interest? It's worth going through the CCCS Debt Remedy just to get a financial picture, work on a budget and make sure you're not being misled by optimistic new job feelings.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's been easy for my OH and I to sit and think 'well, we have over £3000 a month net income... we can manage these payments... how could we possibly be in trouble... it'll all work out if....' but we were kidding ourselves.

The sad fact is, if we didn't have any of this debt, we would live very comfortably and definitely within our means. It's the historic spending that's our problem (some of which was forced on us because of unforeseen issues in our house, but some of which was just buying shiny new things when we didn't need to). I'm now really mad with myself that we are both in reasonably well paid jobs but have to struggle to clear this debt. Paying 2 Grand a month to credit cards was NOT sustainable! Sorry if this is a newbie lecturing but your comment worries me as we had the same attitude till last week

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Hi Grand Benders and welcome :hello:
Your message shines through that you have had your LBM and are doing something about it. Well done for getting in there fast before any more damage is done :T

I have learned so much from this forum, particularly this thread, and the support, advice and experience is outstanding, it keeps me sane ..... sometimes

Good luck and please keep us updated on how it's going.

The only reason we've been able to act fast is because of the amazingly open and honest posts from people on this board. We saw others in similar, worse, and in some cases, better, positions than us who have gone through this battle and posted their experiences for others to learn from. All the information of what we had to do, what we could expect, where the wobbles might come... it's all right here and we feel like we're properly armed with the knowledge we need to get through it.

I hope that we can share our 'War on Debt' likewise and perhaps help someone else as we've been helped.

To quote Tom Hanks in 'You've Got Mail', quoting The Godfather... We're going to "Take it to the mattresses"! And to quote Meg Ryan in the same conversation: "Fight! Fight, fight fight!"

:rotfl:

(So sad that we lost Norah Efron yesterday. YGM is one of my favourite all time films so we'll be watching it again this weekend)

bertman

I have cancelled all the DD's to the CC's now, it felt a bit scary at first but as there was no way to pay them all it had to be done, all the letters have gone off to the companies now and the pack back to CCCS. I am going to call the CCCS tomorrow and just make sure that they are OK with everything. Its strange but I feel quite calm about it all where I thought I would be stressed right out. When I read about countries running out of money it kind of makes me feel that even extremely well educated experts get it wrong so they are really no different to us - just on a much larger scale!
I am still waiting on Natwest to send me a copy of the loan agreement - the monthly payment has been sent - and the Egg / Barclaycard statement, but this payment has been cancelled now. Once I have these they can go over to the CCCS as well.

sickasachip13

Hey,

Welcome Grand Benders. I did a blog about going on a dmp, if you're interested, more info in my sig.

Bertman, nice to see things ticking along. I felt a bit like a naughty child when I debunked into a new bank account, strange feeling, but a hell of a lot better than I'd felt for some time.

Onwards and upwards

SAAC

ben80

Bertman - well done for making a start!

SUCCESS! I am to pay my last payment (well, part payment) to CCCS at the start of February, then I'm free!!! Yay! I may cancel the CCCS DD after the January payment and then I can pay the rest of my creditors on Feb 1st. AWESOME!

klfairy

Everything is very up in the air at the moment. I've got an appointment with CCCS next week to go through things properly (already had an initial consultation).

Our debts... well I wish we had something to show for them, but we don't, not really. Some of it is from when OH was made redundant last year and didn't tell me when his money ran out, despite me asking. Some of it is my student debt from 7 or 8 years ago - I've never cleared that overdraft, to my shame. Some of it is just sheer stupidity (balance transfer, not cutting up the card, putting things on it to pay later and forgetting).

*sigh*

Sorry I've had a really, really shocking day on top of being totally and utterly exhausted. I just want to crawl into a hole at the moment.

Time_to_face_the_music

bertman wrote: »

I have cancelled all the DD's to the CC's now, it felt a bit scary at first but as there was no way to pay them all it had to be done

It is a bit scary at first and it's a bit of an emotional roller coaster too but I can honestly say 5 months down the line, it's like having a whole new life. Well done bertman :T

ben80 wrote: »

SUCCESS! I am to pay my last payment (well, part payment) to CCCS at the start of February, then I'm free!!! Yay! I may cancel the CCCS DD after the January payment and then I can pay the rest of my creditors on Feb 1st. AWESOME!

Fantastic news ben80. I am so happy for you :j

klfairy wrote: »

I just want to crawl into a hole at the moment.

Sorry you are having such a bad time at the moment. You really need to speak to CCCS and see if this is for you. My advice is that you need to be 100% on board before you go for it and it does help massively if both of you are singing from the same hymn sheet.

Hope your day gets better

ben80

klfairy wrote: »

Everything is very up in the air at the moment. I've got an appointment with CCCS next week to go through things properly (already had an initial consultation).

Our debts... well I wish we had something to show for them, but we don't, not really. Some of it is from when OH was made redundant last year and didn't tell me when his money ran out, despite me asking. Some of it is my student debt from 7 or 8 years ago - I've never cleared that overdraft, to my shame. Some of it is just sheer stupidity (balance transfer, not cutting up the card, putting things on it to pay later and forgetting).

*sigh*

Sorry I've had a really, really shocking day on top of being totally and utterly exhausted. I just want to crawl into a hole at the moment.

I had !!!!!! all to show for my debts too. I just lived beyond my means for a long time. Stupid really. Don't worry klfairy, everybody has bad days, but there are good days ahead... you just have to pay your dues and wait for them to come! (And you'll be a far better person for it!)
Chin up!

klfairy

Thanks. I really appreciate the quiet support here. I feel like I can't talk to anyone about money without feeling ashamed.

Grand_Benders

klfairy wrote: »

Thanks. I really appreciate the quiet support here. I feel like I can't talk to anyone about money without feeling ashamed.

As someone wiser than me said on here way back on this thread "It's not illegal to have debts". You haven't done anything wrong and definitely souldn't feel ashamed.

I'm really sorry if my somewhat over-enthusiastic post earlier made you feel bad. I was just really worried for you, if your OH's optimism was misplaced as ours was.

It's so hard to face things, and doing so and posting here is a BRAVE thing to do. You've done so well facing up to things and you just need to hold your nerve now and see it through.

I hope the consultation with CCCS next week helps put your mind at rest a little. In the meantime there is so much support and encouragement here that you should NEVER feel ashamed.

:grouphug: