DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on the car insurance. We decided to try and pay cash, in a very naughty, roundabout way which I think it's best not to discuss :shhh: :silenced:

We phoned the insurance company last night and were told we still needed a credit check to pay cash :mad: but we survived that and managed to get the cost down from £845.24 to £628.46 :j

It appears Mr TTFTM's union membership meant a big discount which we never knew before so it's always worth asking :T

Great news. Well done

HHx

Tigsmom

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on the car insurance. We decided to try and pay cash, in a very naughty, roundabout way which I think it's best not to discuss :shhh: :silenced:

Hey, desperate times mean desperate measures!

We phoned the insurance company last night and were told we still needed a credit check to pay cash :mad: but we survived that and managed to get the cost down from £845.24 to £628.46 :j

Well done!

It appears Mr TTFTM's union membership meant a big discount which we never knew before so it's always worth asking :T

My husband found out after he'd paid out for physio that he could have claimed on his health insurance :wall: It's always worth double checking what you already have. Lesson learnt.

Growurown

Tigsmom wrote: »

If the company you work for bank with Natwest and that's why your wages were late, thus causing you to be charged, can't you put a claim in to your wages dept and then they claim it back from Natwest?

I take your point, it is the same one made by my OH. However my employer isn't playing ball.

I went into my local Nat West yesterday and was told that they had made arrangements with all other banks that they could claim any charges that their customers had incurred directly from Nat West.

I telephoned First Direct and put this to them. The reply "They haven't made any arrangements with us. Just put you on hold whilst I talk to my supervisor."

Musical interlude.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, can you still hold?"

Musical interlude.

In the meantime phone bill going up, Nat West are you going to pay for this too?

"Sorry to have kept you waiting. As this situation wasn't your fault we are going to cancel the charges, and Nat West are big fat liars."

Well, no they didn't actually say they were big fat liars but that's what they meant.

So I have got my money back but have to say not impressed with Nat West at all.

ben80

Growurown wrote: »

... not impressed with Nat West at all.

Vote with your feet! (Though not always easy for us as we are limited by bank choices!)

Tigsmom

Growurown wrote: »

"Sorry to have kept you waiting. As this situation wasn't your fault we are going to cancel the charges, and Nat West are big fat liars."

Well, no they didn't actually say they were big fat liars but that's what they meant.

So I have got my money back but have to say not impressed with Nat West at all.

At least you got your money back.:)

If you wanted to be flippant you could tell your wages dept that you don't like their choice of bank/lack of help and want cash payment in future. However, if you pay a lot of DD's this could cause more problems than it's worth.

I changed banks prior to our DMP and rang and transferred 14 DD's. They all went through smoothly apart from the ones run by the council/government. Today I got a council tax bill for £630. I rang them and they said "you cancelled your DD". I said "yes because I changed banks and set up a new DD". Then after being put on hold for ages I was told new DD will take up to A MONTH to set up, therefore missing a payment, so I need to make a card payment in 2 weeks and will pay council tax for an extra month at a reduced rate!???? How come every other DD could be set up in a couple of days with no disruption to my payments? Hopeless. :wall:

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

I take your point, it is the same one made by my OH. However my employer isn't playing ball.

I went into my local Nat West yesterday and was told that they had made arrangements with all other banks that they could claim any charges that their customers had incurred directly from Nat West.

I telephoned First Direct and put this to them. The reply "They haven't made any arrangements with us. Just put you on hold whilst I talk to my supervisor."

Musical interlude.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, can you still hold?"

Musical interlude.

In the meantime phone bill going up, Nat West are you going to pay for this too?

"Sorry to have kept you waiting. As this situation wasn't your fault we are going to cancel the charges, and Nat West are big fat liars."

Well, no they didn't actually say they were big fat liars but that's what they meant.

So I have got my money back but have to say not impressed with Nat West at all.

Am really glad you got your money back but it just casts NatWest in an even worse light than we already see them :mad:

Growurown

Tigsmom wrote: »

At least you got your money back.:)

If you wanted to be flippant you could tell your wages dept that you don't like their choice of bank/lack of help and want cash payment in future.

Yes I got my money back:) Mind you I did think it was a bit mean of First Direct to charge me in the first place considering I was only a few pounds over drawn for just one day. As to my employer and cash payments......hmm wonder what they would say to that one!

Tigsmom wrote: »

Then after being put on hold for ages I was told new DD will take up to A MONTH to set up, therefore missing a payment, so I need to make a card payment in 2 weeks and will pay council tax for an extra month at a reduced rate!???? How come every other DD could be set up in a couple of days with no disruption to my payments? Hopeless. :wall:

A month to set up? What are they doing - carving the instructions on a stone tablet? I have to say my council are pretty quick at sorting out council tax but if you are claiming housing benefit then you are in for a 4 month wait.

Growurown

klfairy wrote: »

What do I have to do to get him to wake up and smell the lack of money?

Hi klfairy, has he had his LBM yet? I let the money run out. Very embarrassing when the cards don't work any more.

bertman

Our first DMP payment to CCCS goes through next week on the 1st, I have sent token payments of £1 to all the card companies again this month as they won't get paid by CCCS until the 25th August.
Its been very quiet since we sent out the initial letters, we got replies from all apart from NatWest and Halifax, all the others have frozen interest and fines until they get an offer, the first of these dates runs out with Barclaycard on the 3rd August so it will be interesting to see if we get inundated with phone calls. I spoke to CCCS a couple of weeks ago and they said all letters and offers had been set, so I guess its a case of "watch this space"

Hopelessly_Hopeful

bertman wrote: »

Our first DMP payment to CCCS goes through next week on the 1st, I have sent token payments of £1 to all the card companies again this month as they won't get paid by CCCS until the 25th August.
Its been very quiet since we sent out the initial letters, we got replies from all apart from NatWest and Halifax, all the others have frozen interest and fines until they get an offer, the first of these dates runs out with Barclaycard on the 3rd August so it will be interesting to see if we get inundated with phone calls. I spoke to CCCS a couple of weeks ago and they said all letters and offers had been set, so I guess its a case of "watch this space"

Wehey, you are more than off the staring block, just think how far you have come in the last month. Be prepared for balance to go up, especially first month, it will then start to come down and that will gather momentum over time.

HHx