DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

sickasachip13

Hey Matty,

I would suggest you get yourself a cuppa, a notebook and pen and sit and read through this thread. You'll come to realise that you're far from alone, that your situation is far from unusual and that the way you're feeling is pretty typical of how many of us felt. You'll also pick up some useful and practical tips.

If you're interested, I did a blog at the request of CCCS, about going on a dmp, it can be found here: http://moneyaware.co.uk/2011/09/my-debt-hell/

Welcome aboard and all the best
SAAC

matty2712

I haven't long come off the phone to cccs, they have explained to me that it is common practice when sending the letters to your debtors, to send a token payment along with it, I am a little scared of doing this as surely i will get letters back from them saying i haven't met my minimum payment. Then I will surely owe them a heck of a lot more...

How much of a token payment do you guys suggest?

How will i know if they have received this token payment?

Sorry for being a pain I know I should have asked the cccs counsellor but I forgot quite a lot of things i need to ask.

Agghhhh sorry guys

speshfesh

matty2712 wrote: »

I haven't long come off the phone to cccs, they have explained to me that it is common practice when sending the letters to your debtors, to send a token payment along with it, I am a little scared of doing this as surely i will get letters back from them saying i haven't met my minimum payment. Then I will surely owe them a heck of a lot more...

How much of a token payment do you guys suggest?

How will i know if they have received this token payment?

Sorry for being a pain I know I should have asked the cccs counsellor but I forgot quite a lot of things i need to ask.

Agghhhh sorry guys

Hey matty,

Welcome to the madhouse :rotfl:

It's time to get tough my friend and put aside trying to 2nd guess how your particular creditors might react.
It's a bit scary I know because we've all lived under one threat or another as a result of our individual financial situations and we're just conditioned to believe our creditors control everything.;)

The truth is, a DMP will give you your life back whilst you can be proud that you're paying back every penny you owe at the same time. There will be times when the DMP journey will hit a few bumps in the road but CCCS will keep you on track and lend a hand if your circumstances change.

Be brave, pay the token payments (typically £1-£5) and don't worry about the nature of any communications from your creditors while the DMP is in the first couple of months. You may very well get letters that will raise the stress levels now and again but that's what this forum is here for and ultimately CCCS.:D

Stay frosty!:T

Time_to_face_the_music

matty2712 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have been having a look around the site, as you can see I am "A NEWBIE"

Yesterday it dawned on me that I cannot carry on paying the ammount of debt I/WE have, so posted on the forum and got some great advice.

We are thinking really hard whether to go into a DMP with CCCS, all looks fantabadosie, put in our SOA and the CCCS have come back with a monthly payment and says we would be Debt Free within 3 years, this sounds too good to be true. :T

So i have been advised to come to this forum for help and support, so any help and support you can give please be assured im here listening as I dont know what i am going to do, at my lowest.

Thanks in advance

Matty2712:(

Hi Matty :hello:

It's great to see you here as well as on your original thread, thanks for coming to join us

Token payments can be anything you can afford. Some people just pay £1 each, some pay a little more. If you can do it, it's a good idea to pay a small amount and then put a bit of money aside to start you off on an emergency fund. This is something I wish I had known when we started our DMP, we just piled in all guns blazing with 2 months payments to CCCS in February. Then thought oops what do we do if the car breaks down etc

You say you are at your lowest but you are already being really pro-active in getting your debt sorted so well done :T

matty2712

To be honest, it feels as if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, any recommendations on what i should do to start ie, shall i send the letters to my debtors asap? then send all my details off to cccs or shall i do it altogether?? the reason i ask is it is coming close to the shut off where you pay cccs, or shall i wait little confused as to dates and things when cccs cut off..

I have also come across another debt, which my OH brought to y attention but havent added it to my original plan with cccs. What will happen with this??

matty2712

I have a question hope you can help

Its regarding changing bank accounts,

I am with Lloyds tsb, i have no debts at all with them, no overdraft or anything, however I have a black horse account which is for my car on HP, as i am aware i think this is a sister company would this affect anything with lloyds, as I would like to stay with my bank, even though they havent helped in anyway, i just feel it would be a huge hassle chaning bnks, ie direct debits, going into work with new bank details...

Any advice please :mad::mad:

Time_to_face_the_music

You can phone CCCS back and tell them you need to add something. Until you have finalised and signed your DMP, you can make changes and if something comes up, you can have your DMP reviewed while it's ongoing too.

CCCS generally take payment on either 1st or the 10th of the month and pay it to your creditors on the 25th of each month.

Have you been advised to change your bank account? We opened a new bank account first, cancelled all our direct debits with the old bank, organised salaries to be paid into new account, then set up the direct debits for the new bank. Or don't you have debt with the bank you have your salaries paid into? If not, there is no need to do this, just remember to cancel any direct debits for debt payments.

It does feel like a huge weight has gone. When we started the DMP, I remembered what it was like to sleep through the night without waking up worrying about money

Time_to_face_the_music

Is the car loan going into the DMP?

If not, you don't need to change banks. If it is, sorry you will have to do it or Lloyds TSB could offset

matty2712

I havent come to the stage of knowing what a good night sleep is as yet, i am also off work due to depression, mainly down to this debt, hence why i have been on here the last 2 days checking through things..

By the way that noddle site was a life saver, believe it or not all my debts had been paid on time my OH also, but we still had a credit rating of 1 out of 5, Whoooaaaa that is bad isnt it ???

matty2712

No we cant put the car in as it is on HP