DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Tigsmom

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Hi Tigsmom :hello:

This is all par for the course in the set up and/or first few weeks of a DMP. You need to expect to get fees and charges left, right and centre. This is the reason why many people say that their debt actually increases in the first month or two, then settles and then starts to go down.

The banks will not consider token payments to be full on time payments and will penalise you for it. I know it's rough but try not to stress too much about it and look forward to a few weeks time when it's all settled down and you can see a decrease in your debt

Hi, Yes I know you are right. I was expecting charges really. It's just the way they do it that annoys me. I have been honest with them and given them plenty of notice but they've ignored my letter and just let it run the course and generate automatic letters as though they had no idea of it. An acknowledgement of my letter saying they are aware of my situation would be nice even if they still have to add charges. I daresay I'll get one eventually, even though my DMP starts in 3 weeks anyway.

Time_to_face_the_music

Six months in, we still have two creditors who have never acknowledged our DMP! Not that we care because they are among the ones who stopped interest

It's very frustrating at first and our initial month was heartbreaking, over £1700 paid and it made about £300 impact on the debt due to charges/fees/whatever

But it does get easier and when the totals start coming down it's all worth it

bertman

We had a letter from Natwest yesterday aknowledging our CCCS DMP, funny enough this is the only creditor who has openly named CCCS, they have agreed to the amount suggested and will freeze fee's and interest. But they have put a default notice in the letter which I am not concerned about, but they have said we need to pay £96 within 17 days...
We can't afford this so will speak to CCCS on Monday, probably another computer letter. But the only companies now who haven't got back to us are Santander, strange but they were really helpful over the phone.
Only had one call this week from Halifax, I wasn't in and OH took the number down, I tried calling but the number "doesn't accept incoming calls"......
I will post the outcome of the Natwest letter in case it can help someone else.
Very hot day here today so a relaxing day in the garden!!!

bertman

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Six months in, we still have two creditors who have never acknowledged our DMP! Not that we care because they are among the ones who stopped interest

It's very frustrating at first and our initial month was heartbreaking, over £1700 paid and it made about £300 impact on the debt due to charges/fees/whatever

But it does get easier and when the totals start coming down it's all worth it

I have read this a few times that the actual debt can even go up in the first few months. I guess the only way to look at this is that it is long term, at least we feel in charge now!!

Growurown

bertman wrote: »

I have read this a few times that the actual debt can even go up in the first few months. I guess the only way to look at this is that it is long term, at least we feel in charge now!!

Yes if you look at it long term the amount the debt goes up in the first couple of months is fairly insignificant to the amount of interest and charges you save on when they stop interest and charges, assuming of course that they do. Most of my creditors have stopped interest and it is great to see my payment bringing the debt down. The one creditor still charging is a pain but the amount I pay is tiny compared to the interest that I was paying when I struggled month to month to meet my minimum payments.

Time_to_face_the_music

bertman wrote: »

I have read this a few times that the actual debt can even go up in the first few months. I guess the only way to look at this is that it is long term, at least we feel in charge now!!

As Growurown said, it's the ones who keep charging the interest that are the problem. Our NatWest, M&S and Lloyds TSB debts all increased massively at first. For example, NatWest were charging us £85 interest per month plus £6 per day for being over our OD limit, it was the interest that had taken us over. Our first DMP payment to them of £150 still would not bring us within the OD limit because of the charges, so we ended up getting the money together and making an extra payment to bring it under the limit so that the DMP payment could start making a difference.

We still pay over £200 interest a month to these 3 creditors :mad:

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

As Growurown said, it's the ones who keep charging the interest that are the problem. Our NatWest, M&S and Lloyds TSB debts all increased massively at first. For example, NatWest were charging us £85 interest per month plus £6 per day for being over our OD limit, it was the interest that had taken us over. Our first DMP payment to them of £150 still would not bring us within the OD limit because of the charges, so we ended up getting the money together and making an extra payment to bring it under the limit so that the DMP payment could start making a difference.

We still pay over £200 interest a month to these 3 creditors :mad:

It's a devil the interest. Least they can do after trashing the credit rating and dictating what allowance we are allowed to live on is stop or reduce interest I think. I'm paying almost the same as you, grrrrrr. Still better than before and when I see that much money being wasted each month it just makes me determined not to have credit again.

Have a new geek technique. Look at the week's lottery payout with x amount of numbers and see what debts I would pay off etc. I know, I need help!

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Have a new geek technique. Look at the week's lottery payout with x amount of numbers and see what debts I would pay off etc. I know, I need help!

You are definitely worse than me! :rotfl:

What would last night's win have paid off? All of our debts? Someone must be feeling very good today

Tigsmom

Has anyone had problems with HSBC? DH & I are starting a joint DMP, however only one of the debts is in my name - HSBC CC. The rest are in DH name. Guess which one is turning out to be the most problematic? I keep getting phonecalls at ridiculas o'clock despite me having written to them twice asking them to write, email or contact CCCS. I've had nothing in writing from them. I'm starting to wish we had started 'his and hers DMP's' because my monthly minimum payment to them was actually £10 more than my monthy wage so I would've like to see that go to court! If it wasn't for DH & his wage they would've had a lot less from me a lot sooner.

bertman

I had a call from Halifax today, basically checking that the CCCS have got the payments scheduled for the 25th of August. The caller said that she would stop the letters and calls for 7 days, I told her that the DMP payment will go through on the 25th which is 14 days away but that didn't make much difference, she would check back in 7 days. So 4 hours later I get a call from another call centre of Halifax - this one had an American accent, I said that I had already gone through this earlier and could she check her computer screen, she did and then launched into a long monologue of what they were doing and what it would mean to me. I actually filled the kettle, put milk in a mug and coffee and when I picked the phone up again she was still prattling on!!! Still she said the same as the previous caller...!
But I would expect no more from Halifax, they have been sh+ts and useless for the last 3 years so I can't expect any more from them...