DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Bleachbird

Well, (deep breath) cccs dmp agreement posted recorded delivery and nearly there with sending token payments out.:)
No co op bank account details yet so have spoken to cccs and they said to post everything to them anyway so they can get started and to send in the direct debit mandate when the co op give me the account info. So am leaving off sending token payment to HSBC as its where i bank and have a cc debt with so dont want them to take all of my pay next month if I dont have time to move current accounts before then......
Got a letter from NRAM this morning telling them that HSBC have told them I have cancelled their direct debit and to set it up again before paymeny is due on the 5th sept. The cheek of it - havent even missed a payment yet!!! Well £1 will have to do am afraid.
So its all go at the moment and am looking forward to when this messy bit is over and I can start posting my sig updates and living life dreaming of the day its all over :j
Many thanks to Grand Benders whose letter to creditors I nicked off her!!

Tigsmom

Growurown wrote: »

I use excel too. I have a spreadsheet with all my direct debits and standing orders and check online with the bank to see what has been paid, add up what is left to go out that month so I know how much is left over for spending. I have another bank account that I pay monthly by standing order to cover the cost of things like the car tax and servicing to make sure I don't spend any money that I should be putting by.

I have a monthly spreadsheet for everything I spend. I use a new worksheet for every month. Along the top I have a column for each of my outgoings as listed on my CCCS budget. Then I download my bank statement and cut and paste that into the rows on the left. Then I go through each payment going out of the bank and type it into the correct column. Sounds a bit labour intensive but once set up it doesn't take long at all to fill it in especially if you do it regularly and make good use of the copy and paste. That way I can keep a running total of what I am spending especially in the food and petrol columns to see if I am going over budget.

It gets difficult though like you say when payments are waiting to go through. It's doubley difficult when OH spends money and doesn't tell me! That's why I am thinking of drawing out the 'spending' cash weekly and banning all use of the card.:rotfl:

That sounds very similar to my current system so I must be doing something right!

I think maybe I need another bank account though for non dd payments. Either that or draw the cash out. This month we have left it in and used the card but I am struggling to keep track so next month I might try the envelopes.

Bleachbird

Just a quick question for you knowledgable lot! Do you keep all of the letters from your creditors after going into dmp i.e pressurising ones and the like? or do you shred? Thinking its only good to keep the statements and any default ones to keep track or am i missing something? not had any yet so want to know what to do as I think it will be horrid to get them- initally anyway-!
bbx

Time_to_face_the_music

Keep absolutely EVERYTHING is our rule! Get one of those cheap filing boxes and put in a divider for each creditor, one for your new bank and one for CCCS

Bleachbird

Thanks TTFTM, will get one this weekend and make sure once the horrible letters are read they get put away out of sight (and hopefully forgotten about a bit anyway )!!:)

Time_to_face_the_music

I don't like reading them either but if you ever need to make a complaint, either to the creditor or to the FOS, they will come in very useful

bertman

Tigsmom wrote: »

Thanks Bertman. That's good news. I'm looking forward to that feeling next month (8 days to our first CCCS payment :j). Our phone too has gone very quiet so I'm guessing that means the penny has dropped with our creditors. Let me know if you get your statements. I've not had any for months apart from HSBC so I have a feeling I might have to chase them up. Does anyone know if the automated telephone balance still works when youre on a dmp?

Its good to know that the calls have stopped for you, they keep you on edge don't they? Its good to be able to actually get on with your life!

Hunnies

Growurown wrote: »

They won't come round. You are a long way off from that happening and it won't happen as long as you keep up with your payments. Five of my debts have now been passed over to a DCA. They have all accepted the amounts I had been paying to the original creditor, and on the whole have been OK to deal with apart from one snotty woman I spoke to at Blair, Oliver and Scott. I guess sometimes they might put the pressure on but just keep repeating the mantra 'I am on a DMP with CCCS and my number is .....'

One creditor tried it on with me and I told him I couldn't pay him more as it was unfair to the other creditors on my DMP. He backed down then. They play on your fear and hope you don't know how things work. However we know better:D

Thanks for your reply, that's good to know.
We have no intention of not keeping up our payments to CCCS and we have always made payments on time with all of our creditor's so hopefully they will see we're not trying to shirk our debt.

One other question, I tried to see my credit report on Noddle today but it couldn't verify me from my new bank account and wouldn't let me see my report. Anyone else had this?

Time_to_face_the_music

Hi Hunnies and welcome :hello:

I tried my credit report after about a month in my new bank account and it worked then, so it could be worth giving it a little while then trying again

donniet

The last 6 years have been a pretty hard slog - paying debts of more than £40,000 via a DMP with Pay Plan (thanks for your contribution Mr Ex-hubby - much appreciated !! ). Still faced several more years of the same ....... but with a strange twist of fate have just been made redundant from the NHS. This could be considered a negative - other than it has given me the funds to completely clear the remaining debts ...... and I have managed to secure an even better job immediately meaning any remaining redundancy money will be a small nest egg :-)
It's a wonderful feeling ....... to be completely debt free for the first time in almost a decade. Add to that a divorce & a new career ..... I can see why they say life begins at 40 !! Thank you 2012 :-)

Hard lessons - tough times ..... but if I can get there - even with a little bit of luck - so can everyone else :-) All the best my fellow DMP'ers' ...... the advice given on this forum kept me going xx