DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

Enough_Now wrote: »

Hi everyone

I just wanted to say a big thanks for the information and advice that can be found on this thread.

After countless years of overspending on credit for a variety of reasons, I have finally admitted to myself that I need to sort myself and my debts out!

I began thinking about a DMP last month when I received a letter from Santander saying that due to my credit rating they were increasing my APR to 34.9% from 29.9%. This from the same company that regularly sends me letters stating that they are aware that I am only making minimum payments and by doing this my debt will take longer to pay off.:mad:

I have decided the vicious circle stops here and now have a DMP with StepChange. They have been great so far, first payment goes out on 1st December.

Fingers crossed, if I can get through Christmas on my new budget then the rest of the year will be easier.

Hi Enough Now and welcome :hello:

Well done on taking the first and most difficult steps to becoming debt free. :T

You will be fine with StepChange, I still keep thinking of them as CCCS, but remember to check all your statements carefully and write to your creditors if they donn't stop the interest on your debts. StepChange do ask them at the start up but then it's up to us to fight for the interest freeze.

This thread is all about support, we are all in the same boat and anything you need help or advice with, please just ask. Or if you are having a bad day, and we all have them, just come here for a whinge or a moan. I found it a real life saver when we were first starting out and still seek advice here all the time

stupid-fool

stupid-fool wrote: »

I'm having a strange day today and I think I need some advice.

Firstly I got my StepChange password today :-) so I logged in and decided to correct any wrong balances. When I logged into my Asda card account (Santander) I found a small £5ish interest refund. Is this likely to mean that they are going to reduce/stop interest charges? Normal interest charge is around £50 per month.

Second is that despite not yet having missed any payments my wife received a default notice relating to her Lloyds TSB CC stating that she's broken her agreement and they require full repayment including the arrears of £0. It scared the life out of her as I hadn't warned her about defaults intending to do it when we fell into arrears. I'm away from home this weekend so haven't seen the letter, but should I be worried about the request for immediate repayment or is it a standard default notice? Also how can they default me when I'm not yet in arrears, and is this actually a good thing meaning interest is going to be stopped?

Thanks for any help

I've had another call from my wife today regarding our post. Lloyds have now written to say that they are closing her CC account, and we've now had another default letter for our main joint CC. Again this one is not YET in arrears but they've defaulted us. This CC is our biggest single debt so I'm worried what this means - if its a precursor to stopping interest or if they are going to try to make a grab for money in some way.

Can anyone relate this to how Lloyds have previously dealt with people.

Thanks

Growurown

stupid-fool wrote: »

I've had another call from my wife today regarding our post. Lloyds have now written to say that they are closing her CC account, and we've now had another default letter for our main joint CC. Again this one is not YET in arrears but they've defaulted us. This CC is our biggest single debt so I'm worried what this means - if its a precursor to stopping interest or if they are going to try to make a grab for money in some way.

Can anyone relate this to how Lloyds have previously dealt with people.

Thanks

Can't tell you anything about LLoyds and I know this is an anxious time but I think you are worrying unnecessarily. These letters are standard computer generated and everyone gets them. They may or may not stop interest. That is always everyone's biggest concern. If they don't then you can do something about it. If they do it will all be hunky dory. They can't make a grab for the money. You have entered into a DMP with a recognised debt charity and there is nothing they can do about it. They might argue the toss about the amount you are paying and you may need to tweak it but they will accept the DMP.

sickasachip13

I'd agree wholeheartedly with what Growurown says above. Try not to panic, you'll get various churned out missives, some of them will make no sense at all. At the end of the day the creditors can't have what you haven't got.
SAAC

sickasachip13

BTW, in case the newbies are interested, I was asked to write a short blog for CCCS (now StepChange) a while back, it can be found here:

http://moneyaware.co.uk/2011/09/my-debt-hell/

SAAC

carlyfluck

hi everyone, we have just had our paper work throu from step change, and hoping to get it all emailled to them by monday, how long did it take to arrange it all??

Growurown

carlyfluck wrote: »

hi everyone, we have just had our paper work throu from step change, and hoping to get it all emailled to them by monday, how long did it take to arrange it all??

Not long. If I remember rightly ours took a couple of weeks but others have set their plans up within a week.

debtdawg

carlyfluck wrote: »

hi everyone, we have just had our paper work throu from step change, and hoping to get it all emailled to them by monday, how long did it take to arrange it all??

9 working days, but it would have been quicker if we hadn't had issues with student finance and also sending through proof of income (i.e. our tax credits notification was over 3 months old so we got copies of our bank statement showing payments for the past 3 months).

carlyfluck

just a quick Q, when sending details of debts do you have to send addresses, phone numbers etc? or just company name, account no and how much??

debtdawg

I screenprinted the credit cards and loans that I didn't have statements for and made sure our account number was on them and sent those, for the loan I didn't have a statement or any paperwork for I put the bank name, our loan reference and the approx amount outstanding and that was seemingly sufficient.