DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Growurown

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I think we have all been guilty of burying out heads in the sand at some stage. I've seen it called Ostrich syndrome

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Yes that's what I used to call it.

Growurown

antonic wrote: »

Payplan have confirmed that ALL my 4 creditors have frozen interest & charges.

Only 7 months now for me till I am DF on 02/06/2013.

Hey Antonic couldn't you sleep or are you just an early riser?:D

Well done on your progress. Can't wait for our debt free date.:j

Time_to_face_the_music

Squidge123 wrote: »

Did you look at the budget and then think about doing a self DMP now that you have that budget to go by?
Now that I see the recommended spend and money I have left over it makes me want to try it myself.

Did you do the token payments to save an emergency fund before you signed up to the DMP?

Sorry for the million questions

We are 9 months into a CCCS (now StepChange) DMP. Some of our creditors have never stopped interest and as we are approaching minimum payments, others are threatening to start it up again. Some creditors have actually told us that if we pay less, they will stop interest but CCCS can not/will not agree to this. If we ran our own DMP, we could choose to do this hence our possible change.

We didn't do the token payments for a month, we had our DMP up and running in less than a week. We found it hard work to stick to the budget because we weren't used to it and we had no emergency fund if anything went wrong. Given our time over again, we would delay the DMP for a month and save some money and practice budgeting.

Ask as many questions as you want/need, this thread is all about mutual support

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Yes that's what I used to call it.

I thought it was you GUO but didn't want to quote you in case I was wrong. It's a great name :rotfl:

antonic

GUO,

I`m an insomniac !

(Actually I start work @ 7 am each morning and it takes me approx 60 mins to get to work , I also wargame a lot and like to get my moves done before I go to work !).

Growurown wrote: »

Hey Antonic couldn't you sleep or are you just an early riser?:D

Well done on your progress. Can't wait for our debt free date.:j

PinotGrigio41

Squidge123 wrote: »

Did you look at the budget and then think about doing a self DMP now that you have that budget to go by?
Now that I see the recommended spend and money I have left over it makes me want to try it myself.

Did you do the token payments to save an emergency fund before you signed up to the DMP?

Sorry for the million questions

Hi Sqidge, if you can delay the start of your DMP by a few months and gather together some form of Emergency Fund I think it will help you alot in the long run and certainly take some of the early stress and worry away whilst you settle into the budget.

We originally spoke with CCCS but decided it wasnt for us and we are now with CASHflow which gives you more control, not quite self managed , but as near as damn it. It is working for us, but its not for everyone. The Trigger Figures (I believe ) are slightly more generous which has allowed us to squirrel away a little more into the Emergency Fund than we would have had we been with CCCS / Payplan. You dont have the same support network as you do with CCCS though, which alot of people do neeed to rely on, particularly at the start of their DMP journey.

Anyway its just food for thought.

Mrs PG x

Ellieseleven

Well done Fraggle, I love to hear when one of us nears the end of the journey. I find it a great motivation to keep going knowing that one day it will be me that posts that my DFD has arrived

Ellie xx

Squidge123

I think i'm going to delay it for a month or two while i get a bit of savings together and learn to stick to a budget.
Think I'll aim to start the new year with it as I start a new job soon and can pay more towards it then.

Time_to_face_the_music

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

We originally spoke with CCCS but decided it wasnt for us and we are now with CASHflow which gives you more control, not quite self managed , but as near as damn it. It is working for us, but its not for everyone. The Trigger Figures (I believe ) are slightly more generous which has allowed us to squirrel away a little more into the Emergency Fund than we would have had we been with CCCS / Payplan. You dont have the same support network as you do with CCCS though, which alot of people do neeed to rely on, particularly at the start of their DMP journey.

Hi Mrs PG :hello:

Can I just ask you about the allocation of payments under CASHflow please.

CCCS shares out payments according to the minimum payment and not the total debt. This never made sense to me and this is causing us issues as we are paying more to some debts with lower balances and hence reaching minimum payments quickly. I looked at the NED CAB self managed plan and they appear to suggest payment allocation according to total debt so I wondered what CASHflow does?

Thanks very much for your help
TTFTM x

debtdawg

All pretty quiet here so far. Barclaycard have written to say that interest and charges have been suspended for a month whilst they wait to hear from the DMP company and the two £1 token cheques I sent for the loans (Lloyds and Nationwide) have been banked, so at least I know they are definitely aware of the situation!

First payment to SC goes out on the 1st December. My bank account has never looked so healthy lol. I won't be scrabbling around for the rent because of struggling with my debt repayments this month which is a relief.:T