DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Tigsmom

talisker78 wrote: »

I hear you, and I totally agree. My worst CC was BOS. I was paying £110 a month, and the interest was £107 a month. Crazy. At that rate my grandchildren would have been paying it off!

I've had too many years sticking my head in the sand hoping it will all clear up 'someday'. Whilst I have managed to pay off nearly £30,000 in five years, I firmly believe the stress of dealing with my debts in the manner I was would have finished me off. Now, with even less money in the pot, its just not worth it anymore. I've been very close to suicide on a number of occasions in the past two years - not just money related, other things happening in our lives too, but the debts really didn't help - but I've come back from the brink and things can never be as bad as they were then. On the positive side, I think I needed to go through what we did to realise that defaults and a bad credit record for 6 years are really not the worse things that can happen in life.

It still annoys me how much debt I got into so young. So stupid. Lived way above my means for far too long. Hindsight is so wonderful, but at least I am still young enough (relatively!) to get the debt sorted and enjoy my life with my kids while I can.

Long live the DMP! Onward and upward!

Good to hear you're more positive now. Don't beat yourself up about getting into a financial mess. I'm forty-something and am ashamed to say I still can't manage money because I was never shown how to. I think Martins :money:campaign to get financial education in schools is fantastic but it won't help me. I try to do spreadsheets to work out my money but I'm going wrong somewhere. Never was very good at maths at school When i was 18 and a student TSB gave me a credit card. Of course as a poor student living away from home this was magic money that I never had to pay back! And so the story began and now twenty plus years later I have only just realised that it has ruined my life by allowing me to buy lots of stuff I couldn't afford and never really needed. It is appauling to think that since then the goverment have brought in student loans so that young people have no option but to get into debt with no financial education to back it up. I think they should run free courses for adults too.

talisker78

I agree with you Tigsmom, financial education in schools is an absolute must. I certainly would have benefited from it. I also totally disagree with the idea of student loans. I read a post on DFW today from a student who is 22 and has just left Uni with no job and 32,000 in debts. Thats insane. Thats what I have now and at least i'm settled. To be 22 and have that much debt and no job must be sole destroying. Really felt bad for him when I read that.

Tigsmom

talisker78 wrote: »

I agree with you Tigsmom, financial education in schools is an absolute must. I certainly would have benefited from it. I also totally disagree with the idea of student loans. I read a post on DFW today from a student who is 22 and has just left Uni with no job and 32,000 in debts. Thats insane. Thats what I have now and at least i'm settled. To be 22 and have that much debt and no job must be sole destroying. Really felt bad for him when I read that.

I was one of the last few that got grants. I remember going on a protest against loans and the government backed down (but not for long eh?) Education should be free. It's an investment for industry and should be backed by them. Look at Australia - they were desperate for skilled educated people to migrate. UK will end up like that if we don't provide free education. No 22 year old should have that much debt. What a start to your working life. If it's still the same when my kids are that age I'd advise them to get straight on a dmp. The government will end up paying one way or another so why not the right way with free education instead of bailing out young people with debts?

tiggeriffic

Hi Guys,

I've been with the CCCS since last year and its going really well. Everyone has accepted and I no longer get calls or letters :j
I have a question though, My partner is about to remortgage. He has had mortgages for over 12 years with no issues and has an excellent credit rating.

We have a joint bank account. Does that mean that my DMP will affect his chances of re mortgaging?

Any advice would be great x

Justalittleteapot

Hello everyone. I'm a long time lurker here. My dmp is almost two years in and the feeling is great and I've never regretted it even though I've got lots of years left! I try not to think about that. Anyhow was wondering if any of you have been through a review yet and how much information was needed? Also do you need to send in photocopied payslips and things? I want to get myself organised so I can get it all done at one time. Good luck on your dmps everyone.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Grand_Benders wrote: »

It was, indeed, me. They said they would refer me to Compass mortgage brokers (who specialise on finding deals for people with credit problems, etc), but I haven't actually heard anything from them. I was going to speak to them about getting that part of my mortgage onto a better deal now that the fixed rate is done. Must get back onto CCCS and ask them about it again.

Oh thanks.

Good luck with it.

On a selfish note I would be very interested to hear how you get on with them

HHx

Growurown

Justalittleteapot wrote: »

Hello everyone. I'm a long time lurker here. My dmp is almost two years in and the feeling is great and I've never regretted it even though I've got lots of years left! I try not to think about that. Anyhow was wondering if any of you have been through a review yet and how much information was needed? Also do you need to send in photocopied payslips and things? I want to get myself organised so I can get it all done at one time. Good luck on your dmps everyone.

We have just had a review after our first year on a DMP. The first thing I did was check all my balances and updated them through the website. The ones shown on your CCCS statements are estimates so you need to check them. I then looked at the budget we did last year and went through adjusting the amounts to what we are paying now. Our rent has gone up but some things had come down. Then it was just a phone call to CCCS and we went through all the changes in the payments and that was it really. No photocopies or paperwork to send in at all. Good luck:)

Grand_Benders

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Oh thanks.

Good luck with it.

On a selfish note I would be very interested to hear how you get on with them

HHx

I'll try and remember to post back here, once I successfully remember to phone CCCS while I'm next to a house phone and not having to pay extra outwith my plan on my mobile to call their 0845 number. Might be next week before I make that happen, as I have 'holiday brain' at the moment! :rotfl:

Growurown

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Then I started to learn the price of everything and make sure I was getting value for money. Then I started monitoring variance and spending ahead in the right places to get yearly grocery shopping down rather than week to week.

HH can you explain please about the monitoring variance? This is appealing to the geek in me.:D

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

HH can you explain please about the monitoring variance? This is appealing to the geek in me.:D

Oh no! The spreadsheets are out :rotfl:

By the way, do you know it's 1506 minutes until the 25th when I can update my signature