DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

D3P0

April99 wrote: »

Finally faced up to our mess yesterday, called cccs. Going to do us a dmp. She told me to cancel our dd's but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm scared. We have no choice really. Keep thinking what if we plod along as we are, be more careful with money etc... But have tried it do many times, always pay the loans with a struggle but overdrafts and cc are a nightmare! Feel very ashamed We have got our selfs into this, my parents would be devestated if they knew we owed 28k and have nothing to show for it. Shocks me to be honest. Feel like I've let my children down too - not that they know about it but just feel like a bad mum. Husband is worried about the dmp too. I'm scared of the calls etc.. Can anyone find out about this? Is it likely we will get a ccj? Scared everything will get taken away from me. Really need some reassurance please. Can they take our house? Or is that totally safe providing we pay our mortgage?

April - firstly. Stop. Calm down. They won't cart you off overnight, nor will they boot you out of your house. I believe others will tell you that as long as your paying the mortgage your house is safe.

As for nothing to show for it. We're all there. I have £40k's worth of debt. I sold my house. Wasted the money we made on that. We're all the same. My mum and dad would die if I told them what I owed, I have nothing at ALL to show for it.

I had a strange thing happen to me last Sunday night. My wife works Sunday and Monday so I look after our baby boy. He's 11 months. His cot bed broke the other week and we don't have enough money to buy him a new one. I sat on the bed looking at him crying, thinking what a failure I have become, couldn't even afford £50 to get him a bed from Ikea. You know what he did? He looked me straight in the face... and laughed at me. Cheeky !!!!er. Money doesn't matter to him. My LOVE is what matters to him. God's honest truth that.

It may be dark now, but take heart. Cancel the DD's. Face upto those debts. Nothing, and I mean nothing! Is ever as bad as it seems. We're here to help. The CCCS are here to help.

Look up my posts. I have come from a VERY dark and low place, and within 2 / 3 weeks, I'm starting to feel better about things.

Keep us posted with your progress, and get on with it!

AmyV_2

D3P0 wrote: »

Nothing, and I mean nothing! Is ever as bad as it seems. We're here to help.

That is so true!!

gamblebee

Hi Everyone. Can somebody help me or provide me with a link to write letters to creditors. I'm not good at it and I don't know what informations to write. I am on DMP with CCCS, got £70k mess with 12 creditors. So far, only two of them froze the interest and I have been bombarded with calls from Natwest and nationwide, not to forget the demanding letters to make urgent payment. My DMP started only this month but stopped paying creditors since August as I really could no longer afford my monthly payments. I have been ignoring calls from unknown callers and I don't know if it was right not to take their calls. I have been charged by natwest with interest up to almost £100 resulting to me going beyond my overdraft limit and this will become unarrnaged o/d which incur me £6/day charges? do i pay them just to be below my o/d limit and not incur hefty £6 daily charge? Please advise on this. Many thanks to all of you.

D3P0

Gamblebee, you need to speak to the CCCS for advice. Call their aftercare 0845 272 5400.

Have you changed your standing orders / DD's to a new account?

lizzy23

D3P0 wrote: »

Morning Lizzy,

The same as me. I'm from a family who believe if you can't afford it, don't have it, which is right. But from a generation where sadly we didn't listen!

It would be interesting to know, how many of us on this thread starting earning our own money in the 80's when it was the done thing to have everything now, i freely admit our debt is our fault we've not wanted to wait for anything so borrowed basically to put on a show and keep up with the jones.

I worked it out the other day i took my first loan to buy a car in 1989 i have never been debt free since, and i have never completed the term on any loan i have had i've always paid off when taking another, i cam to credit cards quiet late, but boy have they had some hammer since. its very sad really that i have never had to say no to myself, well thats going to change isn't it, i think it will be quiet satisfying budgeting and saving for the things we want

talisker78

April99 wrote: »

Finally faced up to our mess yesterday, called cccs. Going to do us a dmp. She told me to cancel our dd's but I just can't bring myself to do it. I'm scared. We have no choice really. Keep thinking what if we plod along as we are, be more careful with money etc... But have tried it do many times, always pay the loans with a struggle but overdrafts and cc are a nightmare! Feel very ashamed We have got our selfs into this, my parents would be devestated if they knew we owed 28k and have nothing to show for it. Shocks me to be honest. Feel like I've let my children down too - not that they know about it but just feel like a bad mum. Husband is worried about the dmp too. I'm scared of the calls etc.. Can anyone find out about this? Is it likely we will get a ccj? Scared everything will get taken away from me. Really need some reassurance please. Can they take our house? Or is that totally safe providing we pay our mortgage?

Hello April and welcome,

i would utterly echo the sentiments of DP30. I had £63K of debt with almost nothing to show for it. The thought of my parents EVER finding out about my debt still fills me with dread. Embarking on a dDMP is scary, eveyone here has been through it. But HONESTLY, it has changed my life. No more worrying about how we are going to pay for things on top of paying the cards/loans. No more worrying about letters and phone calls. Basically, you can get your life back. It really can happen!

As everyone will tell you, as long as you keep up with your mortgage payments you WILL NOT lose your house. Secondly, the likelihood of your creditors taking you to court to get a CCJ is very slim. It costs them time and money to do that and creditors ALWAYS want to find the easiest and cheapest way to get their money back. For them, a DMP is just that.

You WILL NOT get bailifs round your door. The only way that will happen is IF they take you to court (CCJ) and then you break THAT agreement by not paying.

This forum is a great place to come, so many nice people with good advice. Good luck to you and please keep us updated on your chat with CCCS....

Time_to_face_the_music

gamblebee wrote: »

Hi Everyone. Can somebody help me or provide me with a link to write letters to creditors. I'm not good at it and I don't know what informations to write. I am on DMP with CCCS, got £70k mess with 12 creditors. So far, only two of them froze the interest and I have been bombarded with calls from Natwest and nationwide, not to forget the demanding letters to make urgent payment. My DMP started only this month but stopped paying creditors since August as I really could no longer afford my monthly payments. I have been ignoring calls from unknown callers and I don't know if it was right not to take their calls. I have been charged by natwest with interest up to almost £100 resulting to me going beyond my overdraft limit and this will become unarrnaged o/d which incur me £6/day charges? do i pay them just to be below my o/d limit and not incur hefty £6 daily charge? Please advise on this. Many thanks to all of you.

Hi gamblebee :hello:

If your DMP only started this month, your creditors will not have received a payment from CCCS yet. CCCS generally take payment from you on the 1st or the 10th of the month and pay your creditors on the 25th of each month. Fingers crossed it will all calm down a bit after they have received their payment.

NatWest did the same to us at the start up of our DMP and the £6 a day charges meant that the CCCS payment still would have left us over the OD limit and the same would have started again the next month. Although it was against CCCS advice, we actually paid enough money into the account to bring it back inside the limit to stop this.

CCCS will have written to all your creditors but there is nothing to stop you writing too if you want to. We used something like this:

Your address
Date

Their address

Dear Sir/Madam

Acc/Ref No xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thank you for your letter of xx-xxx-xxxx concerning the above account. We are sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account.

As you are already aware, we have entered a DMP with CCCS and our reference number is xxxxxxx. The majority of our other creditors have responded to this arrangement and have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase our total debt.

As you are aware, we have already paid considerable sums in interest to our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly installments we are paying will not even cover that interest. Also the co−operation of our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

We would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully
Your signature

D3P0

lizzy23 wrote: »

It would be interesting to know, how many of us on this thread starting earning our own money in the 80's when it was the done thing to have everything now, i freely admit our debt is our fault we've not wanted to wait for anything so borrowed basically to put on a show and keep up with the jones.

I worked it out the other day i took my first loan to buy a car in 1989 i have never been debt free since, and i have never completed the term on any loan i have had i've always paid off when taking another, i cam to credit cards quiet late, but boy have they had some hammer since. its very sad really that i have never had to say no to myself, well thats going to change isn't it, i think it will be quiet satisfying budgeting and saving for the things we want

Lizzie, great shout. Though for me I started work in 1998, to a company who was literally writing their own cheques. I saw the nice cars come and go and the fancy lifestyle. I grew up with money around me and when I started earning a bit more I wanted more of the good things. I started with a small loan in 1999 of £1500.00 and agree, the last one I took out about 2 years ago was £15,000.00. The money was just there. Not excusing me spending (wasting) it, but it all just seemed too easy.

Suppose that's a metaphor for society and industry throughout at the moment?

talisker78

To add to this thread, I was a civil servant until a few years ago. When I started around 2000, we could have as much overtime as we wanted. Weekends? (which were double time on BOTH days) - you could work every weekend if you wanted to....

No wonder the government is up to eyeballs in debt!

Time_to_face_the_music

Gosh you are all so young!