DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

DMPhereIcome

Walaboobah wrote: »

DMP payment went on 10th October, the creditors have been paid today, everything has gone smoothly so far.

Thanks to everyone for their advice, even to Gopher Money who suggested a DMP, even though I didn't go with them (thank goodness) but if it hadn't been for them I'd never have heard about a DMP and wouldn't have checked these boards for more information.

Big thanks to the CCCS with whom I have started this journey! I say I as the vast majority of the debts are in my name but I actually mean we as this is a shared journey between myself and my other half.

The light at the end of the tunnel is a tiny speck at the moment but today we are one step closer to seeing it as a great big beam of light!

:beer:

Good Luck! I had a run in with Gopher Money...their DMP man shouted at me when I said I didn't want to go with Harrington Brooks and would do it myself (I had heard of CCCS and Payplan)...I put on my posh phone voice and told him where to go politely and hung up...he then rang me back and apologised profusely and that he only wanted to help...they are AWFUL!! lucky escape!

best wishes x

Loopylou1

folks..

i'm doing a self dmp :eek:

I was just wondering, once I pay off my smaller debts and start increasing the payments to the loan and the credit card - will they start charging interest again? (at the moment i'm paying under the minimum payment so they aren't)

Thanks

Time_to_face_the_music

Hunnies wrote: »

Hi,

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I have been reading though.

I've jsut been updating all my notes and thought I'd let you know how my DMP with CCCS is going so far:

13 Creditors:
Lloyds overdraft = Charging interest and account fees =£48 per month!
Lloyds C/C = No interest
Barclaycard = No interest
Virgin Money C/C = No interest
Next = No interest
Halifax O/D = Fees coming out of my ears!
Halifax C/C = Interest at 27% plus late and overlimit fees (Total £100 per month)
Lloyds Loan = Can't get a statement
Lloyds C/C (Hubby) = No interest
Evans = No interest
House of Fraser = No interest
Burton = No interest
NRAM Unsecured loan = No statement so not sure what's happening

So out of the 13 creditors it's only Halifax (O/D and C/C) and Lloyds (O/D) that are being a pain. How do I go about getting them to stop the interest? I pay £25 per month to Lloyds for my platinum account which gives me a reduced interest rate so do I cancel this platinum cover and end up paying the higher interest rate but still be no worse off as it's abotu what I pay with the account fee and interest rate combined? If I do this do I then plead for them to freeze all interest?

Any help would be most gratefully received.

Loving all the slow cooker ideas, I'm following Slimming World at the moment so am going to try and see if there are any recipes it could work on.

Cancel Platinum account immediately, never pay an account fee when on a DMP. You are paying for the account benefits and the reduced interest rate never compensates for it.

Make compaint to Lloyds TSB if you have not already done so. If you have done it, contact FOS now.

If you haven't done it already, wait for Lloyds TSB to ignore you for 8 weeks and then contact FOS.

Try to avoid speaking to Lloyds TSB Collections department if at all possible. They must be eligible for the worst customer service award ever

soappie

I could really do with some advice here.... I entered my DMP in July just gone - first payment to Pay Plan went out on the 4th of that month, since then, the payments have gone out like clockwork and the statements I'm receiving from all my credit card creditors show 0% interest charged and the alloted amount credited.

Trouble is now, 3-4 months on (of payments showing on statements), one of my creditors has passed its debt on to Westcot. I received a letter from the creditor last week about it and giving a Westcot reference. I phoned PayPlan on the day I received that letter and its representative took the reference number and said she would get in touch with Westcot and that future payments would be directed to them. She said it could take up to 8 weeks for things to settle down.

Since Wednesday, I have been receiving calls from Westcot on my home landline and texts and calls on my mobile. Fortunately, because both are "caller ID" enabled, I only ever answer if I know the number!

Today, I received a letter through the post from Westcot asking me to pay the outstanding balance within 7 days or phone them on a particular number otherwise....

I do have the non-0844 number noted down thanks to my caller id so I could phone them on that. But my questions is if I do, what do I say and will they accept a short call (no identifiers given) saying that they must contact me through PayPlan in future?

Time_to_face_the_music

Loopylou1 wrote: »

I was just wondering, once I pay off my smaller debts and start increasing the payments to the loan and the credit card - will they start charging interest again? (at the moment i'm paying under the minimum payment so they aren't)

It seems to depend on the creditor so there is no easy answer. We have two accounts still charging full interest and 4 at a lower rate of interest, then 3 wonderful ones who have frozen interest.

One account is already above minimum payment and is charging full interest, two are rapidly approaching minimum payment and are threatening to restart full interest. One is above it and seems quite happy to carry on frozen.

They appear to make it up as they go along :wall:

Time_to_face_the_music

soappie wrote: »

But my questions is if I do, what do I say and will they accept a short call (no identifiers given) saying that they must contact me through PayPlan in future?

I never speak to a creditor if I can help it. Everything should be in writing, it's the only way of having some proof.

I think you should write to them and explain you are in a DMP with Payplan, reference number is XXXXXXX. Tell them that they should deal directly with Payplan and not to contact you but if they must contact you, it needs to be by letter only as you consider constant phone calls to be harrassment.

If it persists, we can hunt out a template letter for you to use but fingers crossed it is all sorted soon

Time_to_face_the_music

Walaboobah wrote: »

They also said they will continue to apply interest and charges but as of yet they haven't done. The monthly overdraft fee is almost identical to the offer of payment they have accepted from CCCS, it won't be long before we go over the O/D limit and then the charges will mount up even more!

Have you written a letter of complaint to Halifax?

soappie

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I never speak to a creditor if I can help it. Everything should be in writing, it's the only way of having some proof.

I think you should write to them and explain you are in a DMP with Payplan, reference number is XXXXXXX. Tell them that they should deal directly with Payplan and not to contact you but if they must contact you, it needs to be by letter only as you consider constant phone calls to be harrassment.

If it persists, we can hunt out a template letter for you to use but fingers crossed it is all sorted soon

Thank you! :A I guess I send it recorded delivery to the registered office address or is there some other known address for Westcot where letters are actually read?

savvysass

Hi all, hows everyone? CCCS have agreed to us delaying our first payment so we can sort the car out thank goodness. Hopefully now things will settle and we can get on with our lives! Very catalogue are driving us mad tho, callings about 10 times a day, I have told them the reference number for CCCS, that we requested contact in writing etc etc but they still keep phoning. We don't answer the phone now but has anyone else had any dealings with them?

bertman

Had a letter today from Halifax saying they had passed our CC debt onto Apex management solutions. Has anyone had any dealings with this company? I am going to tell CCCS tomorrow and see what they suggest.
Our mortgage is fully up to date but with the Halifax - can they do anything like cancel our mortgage? Just a question as this has spooked me a bit...