DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

rdchick

So, today's the day EVERYTHING bounces... wages went into my new account - I am still setting up it all with CCCS and I have forgotten another PDL (seriously - what was I thinking) it turns out Lending Stream take little payments each month which make you pay back double what you borrowed :eek: I will need to write to them too although can't find the account number etc.

It is nice to see a few hundred quid in the black in my new account rather than ridiculous amount in the red like I am in the overdraft other account!

Hope everyone is good! xxx

cleokat

This thread is AMAZING!!! I feel so much more prepared for what I'm getting myself into now.

Spoke to CCCS on the phone this morning stressing about a million and one things. The chap on the phone was so patient as he must have been bored stiff. I even cried... ooops!!! Need to toughen up!! The upshot is that if I can get everything sorted quickly enough my DMP start date should be 1st September.

Can I just ask a quick question- I get paid on 15th of each month so basically I have two weeks to open new bank account, transfer my pay to it, change all my direct debits, send out letters/token payments to creditors etc... do I have enough time or should I be looking to start in October realisically? I'm working away for two weeks at the end of August so won't be able to do anything then. (Imagine the plie of nasty letters I'll have to open on my return...).

Also, I don't have statements for all of my debts. How funny are banks etc.. about proving them? Do they charge you for requesting them?

Sorry to keep asking lots of questions - I promise to settle down. Hopefully one day I'll actually be able to be helpful to others like you guys are!!

Grand_Benders

cleokat wrote: »

Thanks HH. I think I'll be worse off because when I put the total amounts owed on my barclaycard and my Halifax card CCCS automatically calculated the minimum payments and didn't let me put the totals i actually pay in. I currently pay barclaycard £195 per month but CCCS put it down at £245 and with Halifax I pay them £96 per month and CCCS have it at £171!! Will this get resolved as I get further into the paperwork?

On the plus side, they reckon that if all creditors dropped their interest charges I'd be debt free in 2 yrs 8 months!! If only that would happen!

Thanks for your help x

Hey Cleokat

Congratulations on having your Light Bulb Moment! (Your date's a month out in your sig, btw).

I think you might want to log back on to CCCS Debt Remedy and go through your budget thoroughly. This is what you will be living on for the next 3 years, and you need to make sure that it is comfortable and achievable. If you've put down figures as they are right now (ie, you've been scrimping and saving and not eating properly... etc) then put in a realistic amount in the grocery heading.

The 'suggest amount' button is quite good in giving you an idea of what they expect a family of your size/circumstances to live on, and if your spend is currently over that amount for whatever reason, then put in your actual spend.

If it comes out that it's too high, you can speak to CCCS and they will put a note on your budget explaining why it's higher than the norm. For example, we have a car but we also have two scooters, so our insurance, road tax etc was higher than normal. They put a note on ours to explain that during the summer months we plan to try using our scooters more, to cut down on fuel consumption and car costs to reduce our spending overall. And we have two cats, so the costs for food, litter and pet insurance were higher than their suggested amount. A note that we have two cats was all it took to clear that up.

On the 'hairdressers' heading, even if you only get your hair cut infrequently, put an amount in here (or take their suggestion) so that you can afford to get your hair cut when you need to without having to use your food budget. Others have suggested that even if you don't smoke, put something into the smoking heading. I didn't do that (mostly because I'm such an anti-smoker) but if you feel you need a bit of 'wiggle room' that's up to you.

CCCS don't expect you to be grovelling around in poverty. You're entitled to an acceptable standard of living, and your creditors will get whatever is left to share between them.

You'll find that once you've put realistic figures into the living expenses, the amount left over for your debts will be reduced and will probably take you down to a level below the minimum payment anyway.

Also, make sure you have included every single debt you have. We actually forgot about one of our credit cards because it had a balance transferred on to it and we'd never actually used it. Thankfully we spotted it before we finalised anything with CCCS.

Glad you found this thread. I read it from page 1 to page 90-something and it helped me with my process and made me realise that it wasn't a hopeless case and there was a way out of this. I can't believe we're going to be debt free in less than 6 years. Before I found this and read about DMPs, I thought it was never-ending and couldn't imagine how we'd get out of this mess we'd created.

You will get so much amazing advice and information on here and before you know it you'll be offering advice to others too.

So... hello :hello: and welcome to the start of the rest of your debt-free life.

cleokat

Grand_Benders wrote: »

Hey Cleokat

Congratulations on having your Light Bulb Moment! (Your date's a month out in your sig, btw).

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:Oh my word! What a wally I am!! My brain is clearly not switched on...

Thank you so much for your advice. It's a really good idea to add in expenses to have some wriggle room. My payment has come out as £732 which seems LOADS (probably more than I'm paying out already) so perhaps I'm not being realistic enough.

Started to put together all my paperwork for CCCS so am feeling a little more proactive and in control today! Oh and rang all the banks and got statements sent out. I felt soooooo guilty as pretended I was just record keeping!! Halifax even tried to get me to upgrade to their premium account - as if!!!!!

How far are you into this process? How have you found it?

bertman

cleokat wrote: »

This thread is AMAZING!!! I feel so much more prepared for what I'm getting myself into now.

Spoke to CCCS on the phone this morning stressing about a million and one things. The chap on the phone was so patient as he must have been bored stiff. I even cried... ooops!!! Need to toughen up!! The upshot is that if I can get everything sorted quickly enough my DMP start date should be 1st September.

Can I just ask a quick question- I get paid on 15th of each month so basically I have two weeks to open new bank account, transfer my pay to it, change all my direct debits, send out letters/token payments to creditors etc... do I have enough time or should I be looking to start in October realisically? I'm working away for two weeks at the end of August so won't be able to do anything then. (Imagine the plie of nasty letters I'll have to open on my return...).

Also, I don't have statements for all of my debts. How funny are banks etc.. about proving them? Do they charge you for requesting them?

Sorry to keep asking lots of questions - I promise to settle down. Hopefully one day I'll actually be able to be helpful to others like you guys are!!

Hi,

Seriously, if you manage to buckle down, two weeks should be enough for you. We managed to open a bank account with the Coop in about 5-7 days, just a basic one which was all we wanted, but we get a debit card and can set up DD's for our bills. It took me a morning to do all the direct debit changes so it might be best to take a half day off work as most of the companies don't work weekends!! I got written confirmations from them all within the week.
The strange thing was this month to see our wages go into the new bank account and nothing in the "still open" old account. Our payment to CCCS goes out tomorrow and is divided out between the debtors on the 25th August. Its gone so smooth so far - just keeping my fingers crossed.
Best of luck in your journey, you are now in control!! Its a good feeling!!

cleokat

bertman wrote: »

Hi,

Seriously, if you manage to buckle down, two weeks should be enough for you. We managed to open a bank account with the Coop in about 5-7 days, just a basic one which was all we wanted, but we get a debit card and can set up DD's for our bills. It took me a morning to do all the direct debit changes so it might be best to take a half day off work as most of the companies don't work weekends!! I got written confirmations from them all within the week.
The strange thing was this month to see our wages go into the new bank account and nothing in the "still open" old account. Our payment to CCCS goes out tomorrow and is divided out between the debtors on the 25th August. Its gone so smooth so far - just keeping my fingers crossed.
Best of luck in your journey, you are now in control!! Its a good feeling!!

I've just applied to Coop too! Luckily I'm off work this next couple of weeks so I can give it my full attention. Good to know that it's possible to organise it to such a tight schedule.

Good luck with yours! Hope it continues to go smoothly. I'll be glad when I'm in the same position as you and my first payment is taken. Glad you're feeling good - hooray! :T

EDIT: Just got an email through within minutes saying that my coop account has been approved subject to fomalities and the paperwork will be sent out! Hooray!!! Feel like things are really moving now!!!

Grand_Benders

cleokat wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:Oh my word! What a wally I am!! My brain is clearly not switched on...

How far are you into this process? How have you found it?

My LBM was 15th June, so I'm only about 6 weeks behind you. My first DMP payment goes out of my new Co-op basic bank account tomorrow.

It was really strange cancelling all my DDs for cards and loans, but a lovely sight to see a BLACK balance in my bank account for the whole month of July!

This is mainly down to the fact that I transferred all of my June salary straight out as soon as I could get it into my new account, taking my OD back to what it was before my pay went in. I transferred the amount of my DMP planned payment into a savings account (Co-op basic online one) and then planned out the whole month of July as a 'trial' month to work to the budget set out with CCCS. The amount transferred to savings will be our 'emergency' fund (although we started the month with a £600+ car bill, so not much of that left). :eek:

I spent a lunchtime (slightly extended) changing all my DDs on the phone and online but I had lots of privacy to do that in the office. It will depend on your circumstances whether that's doable. I had no problem changing my bank account for my salary, since I'm the one that does the payroll :rotfl:

I sent a letter and token payment cheques for £1 to all my creditors (except bank for ODs) and they were all pretty much cashed within 10 days. I've had letters back from a few accepting the reduced payments and freezing (or reducing in one instance) interest and charges. I've already had two defaults, which is good news as the countdown starts now to get them off my credit file (6 years).

I got a really great app for my iPad/iPhone called Accounts Tracker which allowed me to set up my budgets and then allocate spend to the appropriate place as it happened, and could see at a glance what was left for the month.

We also started trying to cut back some of our expenses, so we negotiated a new deal with Sky, reduced our package and moved our phone to them to get a better deal than we had with BT. We tried a different brand of cat food and litter with our cats and they've been fine (in fact, one of them has a much nicer coat with the new food!), and we changed our shopping from Sainsbury's to Aldi. In total, these three changes have actually saved us over £100 a month!!

Our LBM was a major shift in our realisation of our situation as well as a major shift in our attitude to our money (we stopped ignoring it hoping it would be ok) and we now know where EVERY penny goes. It has actually changed our lives and we will never have debt ever again.


Edited to apologise for another chapter of War and Peace!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Brevity can be over rated!

HHx

thewad

Started mine in 04/10 and best thing I ever did.
Not had a peep from the creditors apart from the
odd monthly statement or informing me of change
of debt ownership.
It's frightening starting off but once you get up and
running it's easier.
I was lucky in that none of the debt was to my own
bank so kept my old account.
On the outgoings sheet you fill in go a little above with
the figures, this will give you breathing space when you
get an unexpected surprise.....major car repairs etc.
Also means you don't have to alter your DMP down to
compensate for it.
By the way where do I get the smilies?

cleokat

Grand_Benders wrote: »

My LBM was 15th June, so I'm only about 6 weeks behind you. My first DMP payment goes out of my new Co-op basic bank account tomorrow.

It was really strange cancelling all my DDs for cards and loans, but a lovely sight to see a BLACK balance in my bank account for the whole month of July!

This is mainly down to the fact that I transferred all of my June salary straight out as soon as I could get it into my new account, taking my OD back to what it was before my pay went in. I transferred the amount of my DMP planned payment into a savings account (Co-op basic online one) and then planned out the whole month of July as a 'trial' month to work to the budget set out with CCCS. The amount transferred to savings will be our 'emergency' fund (although we started the month with a £600+ car bill, so not much of that left). :eek:!

AM really interesting in holding off my CCCS start date for a month and having a bit of an emergency fund but surprise surprise am stressing about it! I get paid on 15th of the month and most of my DDs come out around this time. If I made token payements for August then paid CCCS on 1st October with my September pay then it means my creditors would have nothing but token payments for two months. Would this be ok? Has anyone else done this?

Would it be better to just start in September and forget the emergency fund? Sorry for all the stressing. It's just that I've never missed a payment before and I don't know what will happen.