DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

lizzy23

good morning everyone, just wanted to check in, no real news on the DMP at the moment all is very quiet, but will see what happens in the coming months :D just wanted to share a couple of things with you that have really made me smile, the first one is its Friday and i still have a fiver left in my purse from this weeks budget :j:j and because its Eid one of my work colleagues is fetching lunch in for us all cooked by his mum :A:A so no spend there, and the other is we have a wedding to attend this weekend, neither me or DH had anything to wear, (we live in slobs with 5 dogs and never go anywhere) so we went shopping last night and bought clothes with real money that we had in our budget, i'll say it again real money not credit real money, and do you know what it felt so good

alyxzandra

UGH.....starting on our DMP and it looks like it will get delayed until 1 December because I've dropped my hours from 35 hours a week to 30 hours to sort things our for my son. And I need evidence of what my new income will be.

Anyway, got a new basic account with Nationwide and changed everything with my employer. I was supposed to be paid today and when I saw I didn't get my salary I called my employer. I was told it looks like it went into another account that is not mine!!!!!! I am waiting for the payroll department to get back to me. What am I going to do as we are running out of money!!!

Lulu21

alyxzandra wrote: »

UGH.....starting on our DMP and it looks like it will get delayed until 1 December because I've dropped my hours from 35 hours a week to 30 hours to sort things our for my son. And I need evidence of what my new income will be.

Anyway, got a new basic account with Nationwide and changed everything with my employer. I was supposed to be paid today and when I saw I didn't get my salary I called my employer. I was told it looks like it went into another account that is not mine!!!!!! I am waiting for the payroll department to get back to me. What am I going to do as we are running out of money!!!

I've just made the 1st step into setting DMP up. Feel better already! I've also changed the account to LLoyds.

rdchick

Hi guys, back again, I never got my DMP off the ground last time, I just need a bit of advice. I have changed my job to an hourly paid job rather than a fixed salary and I wondered what happens about that as each month will be different... Plus I get paid expenses for petrol as I am a mobile care worker so need around £400 just for fuel a month (crazy I know, but obviously I get that paid back) I roughly earn the same amount as my last job so I can afford repayments, however I haven't paid a penny back in about 4 months... So now I am getting the default letters etc. which actually isn't too daunting as I know they will be more willing to accept lower payments etc... The thing that worries me is the doorstep stuff... I plan to restart my DMP proceedings tonight with the new account numbers and such likes and hopefully get a DMP in place to start December 10th... The doorstep call had been mentioned by Mackenzie hall and I know they aren't legally allowed to send a guy round until it goes to court, which it hasn't so will they still do this? If so how quick does this happen? I am feeling pretty scared but this is what happens when you bury your head in the sand! Xxx

jubilee14

Hi All, off out tonight for first time in i dont know when to celebrate DH 40th, have had dinner at home ( pizza special from tesco) and off to cinema to see 007 courtesay of Nectar vouchers and treats bought at asda.

Baby sitter come as at a charge of a pack of crisps ( brother) so thats good too. hope you all have a good Friday and weekend>

katy_ann

Very are constantly sending me letters even though they know Im on a DMP! Have a good weekend DFW'ers! x

stupid-fool

I've made a very similar post on the "ask a debt advisor" thread, but I think this might be a better place. I'm sorry but I haven't managed to wade through such a long thread end to end, but I really need some quick advice.

After years of just about keeping our heads above water, my wife and I finally have to admit that we've got in beyond our depth and need to fix the problem.

2 years ago we negotiated with our bank (LloydsTSB) to get our mortgage switched to interest only which meant we could *just* hold our own each month, but any unexpected expenses (eg car repairs) end up on credit cards as we have no spare cash each month. Our mortgage interest free has now ended and C&G won't extend this facility although their collections dept just agreed to allow a lower payment for 6 months but this will put us in arrears for the first time. There is no way we can manage this month with a full mortgage payment so we are on the slippery slope and get in deeper every month.

We have always managed to make every monthly payment to date and are not yet in arrears with any creditor. In November I expect to pay the agreed reduced mortgage amount but make all other payments as on time as normal.

I contacted CCCS who advised a DMP. We owe around £70k unsecured, have no secured debts except our mortgage, and CCCS calculated that we can manage to repay £928 per month to be debt free in around 6 years.

Most of our debt is with LLoydsTSB (overdraft, loans and CCs) with around £3k with Tesco loans, £5 Sygma CC and £5k Santander CC.

I understand that entering a DMP will mean we go into arrears, but I really don't know what to expect, or how the creditors will react. I currently have this rosy expectation that they will all agree to the CCCS proposal and accept reduced payments whilst suspending interest payments, but a terror that it will all go wrong.

Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect?

1. Will I be bombarded with debt collection attempts and threats?
2. Is it really likely that interest charges will be suspended or will we end up with huge additional charges?
3. How do our specific creditors (LloydsTSB, Tesco, Sygma, Santander) tend to behave in a DMP situation?
4. I know this will hit our credit scores for some years to come, but how bad will this get. Will I be able to get mobile phone contracts, gas and electricity accounts etc or will it get bad enough to be facing pre-payment meters and absolutely no credit options. We have 3 teenage kids who know nothing about this and I think hitting rock bottom would totally destroy us.

I still haven't plucked up the courage to drop the DMP forms back in the post although I have just opened a new bank account and started to transfer the direct debits as I need to avoid LloydsTSB getting a whiff of the situation and snatching our working cash (we start the month at zero and live on overdraft) for the month leaving all bills unpaid.

I need to understand if DMP is really the right way to go and what sort of life we will have for the next 6 years or more?

Thanks for reading

Hopelessly_Hopeful

stupid-fool wrote: »

I've made a very similar post on the "ask a debt advisor" thread, but I think this might be a better place. I'm sorry but I haven't managed to wade through such a long thread end to end, but I really need some quick advice.

After years of just about keeping our heads above water, my wife and I finally have to admit that we've got in beyond our depth and need to fix the problem.

2 years ago we negotiated with our bank (LloydsTSB) to get our mortgage switched to interest only which meant we could *just* hold our own each month, but any unexpected expenses (eg car repairs) end up on credit cards as we have no spare cash each month. Our mortgage interest free has now ended and C&G won't extend this facility although their collections dept just agreed to allow a lower payment for 6 months but this will put us in arrears for the first time. There is no way we can manage this month with a full mortgage payment so we are on the slippery slope and get in deeper every month.

We have always managed to make every monthly payment to date and are not yet in arrears with any creditor. In November I expect to pay the agreed reduced mortgage amount but make all other payments as on time as normal.

I contacted CCCS who advised a DMP. We owe around £70k unsecured, have no secured debts except our mortgage, and CCCS calculated that we can manage to repay £928 per month to be debt free in around 6 years.

Most of our debt is with LLoydsTSB (overdraft, loans and CCs) with around £3k with Tesco loans, £5 Sygma CC and £5k Santander CC.

I understand that entering a DMP will mean we go into arrears, but I really don't know what to expect, or how the creditors will react. I currently have this rosy expectation that they will all agree to the CCCS proposal and accept reduced payments whilst suspending interest payments, but a terror that it will all go wrong.


Can anyone give me an idea of what to expect?

1. Will I be bombarded with debt collection attempts and threats?
2. Is it really likely that interest charges will be suspended or will we end up with huge additional charges?
3. How do our specific creditors (LloydsTSB, Tesco, Sygma, Santander) tend to behave in a DMP situation?
4. I know this will hit our credit scores for some years to come, but how bad will this get. Will I be able to get mobile phone contracts, gas and electricity accounts etc or will it get bad enough to be facing pre-payment meters and absolutely no credit options. We have 3 teenage kids who know nothing about this and I think hitting rock bottom would totally destroy us.

I still haven't plucked up the courage to drop the DMP forms back in the post although I have just opened a new bank account and started to transfer the direct debits as I need to avoid LloydsTSB getting a whiff of the situation and snatching our working cash (we start the month at zero and live on overdraft) for the month leaving all bills unpaid.

I need to understand if DMP is really the right way to go and what sort of life we will have for the next 6 years or more?

Thanks for reading

Hello and welcome

1) Whether you will be bombarded with debt collection attempts and threats? – Depends, some people get lots others little or none. I learnt to turn the call on them by bombarding them with what are you going to do to help me and stop interest, why not etc. They soon want to hang up on your trust me. Knowing your rights makes a huge difference. For example there are letters you can use to say only communicate by letter, send recorded delivery and if they flaunt it again, report them to FOS.

2) Is it really likely that interest charges will be suspended or will we end up with huge additional charges? Usually suspended or reduced. The longer your dmp the more chance you have. You need to consider in light of what you are paying now and that eventually the credit will run out. Most of us wish we had come forward years before as a significant amount of the debt is due to unsustainable interest charges which made life pre dmp fruitless without paying any balance off.

3) How do our specific creditors (LloydsTSB, Tesco, Sygma, Santander) tend to behave in a DMP situation? If only we knew! DMPs are informal so subject to randomness. That’s the downside of them, not like taking a loan where you know where you are. That said, people rarely say Lloyds have been very reasonable with us!

4) I know this will hit our credit scores for some years to come, but how bad will this get. Will I be able to get mobile phone contracts, gas and electricity accounts etc or will it get bad enough to be facing pre-payment meters and absolutely no credit options. We have 3 teenage kids who know nothing about this and I think hitting rock bottom would totally destroy us. In the worse case scenario your credit rating will be trashed for DMP plus 6 years. Would you ever want credit and interest charges again? Phone gas and electric, insurance etc will be fine, they are in effect pay as you go. You don’t pay your monthly fee then they cancel your policy but that’s not going to happen is it? The premise of DMP is you have money to live on and the surplus pays your debt.

As you have less than 5 creditors have you considered an iva?
My advice is don’t start too quick, Consider to do a month or two paying tokens and trying out your budget. Sounds like you are on track with the switch over. No reason that will not work.

I appreciate you want quick answers but there are no hard and fast rules due to the informal nature. The main point is you cant carry on much longer as you are. There are no quick fixes, it will involve some pain but there is a solution and you can get out and be debt free.

Please take the time to take a few days to read back threads, they are invaluable for seeing the journey and helping the penny drop.

Hope that helps

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

Tigsmom wrote: »

Is there a pattern to when/why debts are passed on? Are they large/small debts?

I have often wondered this too. We are 9 months into the DMP and all of our debts are still with the original creditors and yet some people seem to have their debts passed on to a DCA almost immediately.

It seems to be like the freezing interest, some do for some people, the same ones don't for other people.

I think they all make it up as they go along

Time_to_face_the_music

lizzy23 wrote: »

good morning everyone, just wanted to check in, no real news on the DMP at the moment all is very quiet, but will see what happens in the coming months :D just wanted to share a couple of things with you that have really made me smile, the first one is its Friday and i still have a fiver left in my purse from this weeks budget :j:j and because its Eid one of my work colleagues is fetching lunch in for us all cooked by his mum :A:A so no spend there, and the other is we have a wedding to attend this weekend, neither me or DH had anything to wear, (we live in slobs with 5 dogs and never go anywhere) so we went shopping last night and bought clothes with real money that we had in our budget, i'll say it again real money not credit real money, and do you know what it felt so good

Well done on having money left over :T

Isn't that feeling of spending your own money rather than putting it on a card just the best! I am really looking forward to Christmas this year because it will all be paid for with our money and there will be no CC bills to dread in January :j