DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

bertman

Grand_Benders wrote: »

I felt like that too, cleokat, but they won't appreciate that you're giving them anything special. You're going to default and that's the bottom line. I would say send the letters telling them you're in financial difficulty and currently speaking to CCCS about starting a DMP, and in the meantime you'd still like to show willing and pay them something. Then send them a cheque for £1. It's enough to not classify as a missed payment. They won't thank you for leaving yourself stuck to pay them any more. You're an account number to them, that's all. Any customer loyalty you felt to them should be left at the door now.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's true. Read back on this thread and you'll see a combination of people saying exactly that, and others confirming what HH has said; that they wished they taken a month to get set up and build a fund. I had been thinking about two months but then became a victim of my own organisation and felt like, since I had everything in place, I should just get it sorted, but to be honest, having lost most of our cushion to car repairs, I sort of wish we HAD waited another month.

Only you can decide what to do. But if you're thinking you will gain any favour from any of your creditors by giving them a larger payment than anyone else, you won't.

Look after you and your family first.

x

This is very sound advice - look after yourself and your family first and foremost, the debt free journey on the DMP will be measured in years so a month extra will not make any difference at all.
We have paid token payments for two months due to the way the DMP has started and when CCCS took their first payment - today by the way!!
We are just an account number to the companies which their computers spew out letters according to what you have paid or not.

ben80

ikkle87 wrote: »

I'm just jumping in for a quick opinion guys, hope you don't mind.

As you know we've just set up our DMP recently. Now, when we set it up we had some arrears on essentials like council tax etc.

They were:
Council Tax 1 arrears of £374 - this is now £448 due to court fee's and we allocated payment of £49.50 a month for them.
Council Tax 2 arrears of £49 which we allocated we would pay our normal £50 a month and then an extra £7.50 to clear arrears.
Water arrears of £52 where we allocated the normal monthly payment of £26 plus £12 towards arrears.

Now this morning we received a letter from Council Tax 2 so I rang them and they explained that I can actually just extend my direct debit plan with them for another month as we only had it on 10 months. This means now instead of paying them £50 a month plus £7.50 we just pay £48 a month - so this is an extra £9.50 a month in the pot.

The water board also contacted us as they bill quarterly and we haven't used as much as predicted so they have knocked £46 off the bill for the quarter which has eradicated the arrears as I made an over payment last month for the arrears so the monthly payment would be back to £26 a month. So another £12 a month in the pot.

This is where I am trying to decide what is best to do. Is it worth contacting CCCS and asking them to redo the budget or would you use the £21.50 to pay off a bit extra on Council Tax 1 to try and clear it quicker so that once that's clear then we can edit the budget?

I'd leave it as it is and use the £21 as 'spare' - pay off the Council Tax 1 a bit quicker. Then, when that's cleared, go on the CCCS website and update the balance to £0, then you can either leave it as extra spare, or call CCCS and tell them you have some spare and you want to add it to your DMP.

ikkle87

ben80 wrote: »

I'd leave it as it is and use the £21 as 'spare' - pay off the Council Tax 1 a bit quicker. Then, when that's cleared, go on the CCCS website and update the balance to £0, then you can either leave it as extra spare, or call CCCS and tell them you have some spare and you want to add it to your DMP.

Thanks that's what I was thinking. Paying the Council Tax 1 off at the current rate will take 9 months, the extra £21.50 a month cuts it down to 6 months and then paying the full £71 a month into the DMP knocks an awesome 8 years off our debt free date.

Rochdale_Guy

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Not sure that I am sane:rotfl:

I thought that I was cracking up at first and had lots of sleepless nights with some very dark thoughts about ending it all:eek: but I just came on this forum all the time and realised that I wasn't alone and that there were many people the same as me. One of the things that I really struggled with was missing payments when I had always made at least the minimum and the phone calls (I felt so ashamed).

This forum helped me realise that there was hope and at the end of the day it's only money and there are things in life that are far more important!

Once the phone calls and nasty letters stopped and the DMP settled in things were better but there have been times when I feel it's like taking one step forward and three back! Every time we manage to put a bit of money away something happens e.g. redundancy!!!!!

I try to keep positive and I keep a diary on this forum where I just put down all my thoughts and when I'm feeling really down I go back to it and see how far I've come. We've actually been able to cut our debt free date by around 4 1/2 years so far due to paying off the HP on my car - I did miss not being able to go and get another new car but I tell myself I really don't need one.... honest I don't, I DON'T!!!

I still come on this forum at least once a month just to see how everyone is getting along and I love it when I see people who have been around for a while getting towards their debt free date and I know that eventually mine will be in touching distance

Sending positive vibes

Take care

Ellie xx

Wow, you're an inspiration. Well done for sticking at it.

Rochdale_Guy

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Hi Rochdale_Guy :hello:

Am really sorry things are going so badly

Have you ever explored if bankruptcy is a better option for you than a DMP? I can't find the post now but am sure I remember someone recommending this to you a while back on the main DFW board :think:

Hello to you.

Yes, someone did suggest bankruptcy a few moons ago, but now I'm being made redundant, have to admit I'm pretty scared of what's gonna happen and what path to take now, and I still would do anything to keep the car, I know I know, I'm crazy...

Time_to_face_the_music

jasperconran wrote: »

thanks for the replies so far.

Our mortgage is almost £1,000 per month. we have council tax arrears, secured loan arrears and water arrears. we dont agree with the allowance that the CCCS put down for food shopping etc. the reason our income has drastically reduced is because my OH's so called business partner did a runner and dropped us right in it! so poor OH has had to start again from scratch, hence the lower wage.

Timetofacethe music, the 40 years to pay off debt outcome was going on a surplus of £118 per month when I did a brand new debt remedy, that was what the CCCS came up with based on our reduced income. however, as I said, we dont agree with their allowance for food shopping etc as we live on alot less. Hence we have advised them we can go to £350 per calendar month.

hope that pretty much explains things.:)

Sorry I am lost. In this post, you have said that CCCS are setting your allowances too high and you want to pay more than their recommended amount.

But in your initial post, you said CCCS wanted £660 amd you can only afford £350 and they would cancel your DMP if you did not pay it

jasperconran wrote: »

so we cannot afford the CCCS's recommended monthly payment of £660. I re-did the debt remedy out of curiosity, and it said with our surplus of £118 it would be take 40 years to pay off the debt:eek::eek: 11 years if we could find extra money!!!!!

We have sat down and worked out our own budget and we can comfortably afford £350 per calendar month. So what do we do???? CCCS have already threatened to cancel our dmp if we reduce our payment for a 3rd month in a row, but its not our fault. so unfair.

I think I agree that a SOA would be useful, at the moment, I am totally confused :undecided

Time_to_face_the_music

Rochdale_Guy wrote: »

Hello to you.

Yes, someone did suggest bankruptcy a few moons ago, but now I'm being made redundant, have to admit I'm pretty scared of what's gonna happen and what path to take now, and I still would do anything to keep the car, I know I know, I'm crazy...

How much is your car worth? Do you need it? Will you be able to afford to run it, insurance. MOT, fuel?

If you are really desperate to keep it, what about an IVA?

jasperconran

maybe I am not explaining it very well. basically 2 months ago we entered into a dmp with the CCCS. their debt remedy stated that after all income and expenditure we would have £660 per month to share between creditors this was when our income was £3981.20 inc child benefit. we then had 2 months of bad luck and CCCS said they would make token payments only, but we had to make the full payment in August otherwise they would close our plan.

As I said earlier, we are now on lower income this month of £3081.20 inc child benefit, so therefore, cannot make the payment of £660 based on previous figures.

I then decided to restart my debt remedy all over again, using the new figures, CCCS website stated that after all income and expenditure we would only have £118 to share amongst our creditors. but their figures for food etc are very very generous and we are trying to live on less. I am trying to get a second job to try and hopefully meet the CCCS's figures, but I cannot guarantee it.

Hope that explains it better

Time_to_face_the_music

It does explain it better, thanks

But if you have had a significant drop in income and can prove this, I don't understand why you don't think CCCS will accept this and will throw you out of the DMP

Just explain and show them your new income and I am sure it will all be fine .....

ben80

ikkle87 wrote: »

Thanks that's what I was thinking. Paying the Council Tax 1 off at the current rate will take 9 months, the extra £21.50 a month cuts it down to 6 months and then paying the full £71 a month into the DMP knocks an awesome 8 years off our debt free date.

Excellent news! That's really good!