DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

stupid-fool

Hi TTFTM

Thanks for your post - it is a great motivator for those of us who aren't as far along the road.

Well Done so far :T

stupid-fool

I'm feeling positive today after a good result.

For the last few weeks I've been doing battle with Lloyds TSB Collections Dept for Loans. Step Change set up the DMP but Lloyds got the wrong payment date (1st Month) in their system and cancelled our agreements as soon as they were missed. I had notified them previously both by letter and phone of the error and also Step Change had to send their paperwork 3 times.

I finally wrote a formal letter of complaint and today had a call from a nice, UK based, lady from the collections team. She has corrected and reinstated the payment agreements but I also managed to raise the question why they still charged interest on my loans - the loans I have apply interest monthly.

The final result of my call was that she explained that they needed to default our loans and pass to a collections agency before they could stop interest, but that they were hoping to avoid this if our situation was short term due to the damage it would cause to our credit profile. I explained that our situation was long term and that we already had defaults issued by Lloyds TSB credit card collections and so suspension of interest was the best option for us.

The net result is that she agreed to pass to accounts to their collection agency and default the accounts which should result in no further interest being added - I'm thinking that this is a good result :j

So it seems that I only have my Flybe card with Creation still adding interest now - and I issued a formal complaint to them last week so I can start focusing on that once their 8 weeks expires.

Ellieseleven

Well done TTFTM you have done fantastically well in reducing your debt. You should feel so proud of yourself!

gizmo111

We have realised that while we valued the start up from CCCS (now StepChange), we will be better taking this over on our own to have the flexibility we need when the creditors play dirty

I have been helping a cousin, having been through this debt nightmare myself and I found that we very quickly got F&f finals which cleared the smaller debts abd allowed savings to accumalate to get rid of the others.
Good Luck with it - you are doing really well.

365days

Hi there, I am seriously thinking about starting up a DMP with step change. At the moment i have no late payments,but poo is about to hit the fan. Any advice before i sign the forms; was thinking of filling the freezer etc??

bertman

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Good morning everyone

Well it's almost the end of 2012 and we are at the end of month 11 on our DMP. This time last year, we were in a very bad place, though we were putting on a good show of being happy and ready for Christmas. The reality was having no idea how we would pay the bills in January then we faced up to facts and added up how much we owed. It was one of the worst moments of my life when we realised it was £81,306. That was a light bulb moment and then some!

I had never heard of a DMP this time last year and had never visited the MSE website, now I spout off about DMPs all the time and am never away from this place

So where are we, 11 months down the line?

On paper we have paid off £18,762.86 or an average of £1705 per month. This is actually a lot more as we have had a massive amount of interest, account charges and we also had a couple of debts we did not add to our DMP as they were buy now pay laters and we thought we could manage them. An educated guess takes our true payments for the year to approximately £22,000 :eek:

We have paid off a total of 23.1% of our debt. If it kills me I will get this to 25% by the end of the 12 month so watch out for the 25% figure in my signature at the end of next month. :j

We have realised that while we valued the start up from CCCS (now StepChange), we will be better taking this over on our own to have the flexibility we need when the creditors play dirty.

With the help of the FOS, we have battled Lloyds TSB and NatWest and won. We fought hard against M&S too but were defeated in that one. :mad:

If someone had told me last year that we would have done all of this and be almost one quarter of the way to paying off that massive debt, we never would have believed them. But we have done it and it's all down to the advice, help and support of this forum and particularly this thread. :T

So I finish with a truly heartfelt thanks to you all and offer my very best wishes for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year. Let's all raise a glass to more help, support and debt busting in 2013 :beer:

TTFTM x

Great post! We too started a DMP earlier this year and have got things under more control, if it hadn't been for this thread I don't know what we would have done. I follow a few contributors on this thread as they are in similar positions to us and this helps you in the wee dark hours - we are not alone.

We will have a rough start to the new year as we will lose OH's wages, but its swings and roundabouts as I have been promoted so one will cancel the other out - but we will continue with the existing DMP payment.

To anyone going through hell at the moment - please get a cup of tea (nothing stronger just yet) get all your debts together and get hold of one of the charities for help, you will be amazed at the transformation. But be honest with yourselves - don't hide anything - it will come back to haunt you. Things will get better.

Have a great 2013 everyone - and thanks for the advice over the last 12 months!

Earthmother_2

Hello everyone and Merry Christmas!

The post has just plopped on the mat, and we have just got a letter from Lloyds saying as we have been unable to agree a suitable repayment plan (huh?) they have passed the debt on to Moorcroft.

I've just emailed Moorcroft and instructed them to correspond through Stepchange, so will see what the new year brings! Fingers crossed they accept the DMP and things will carry on as normal.

DaveK1971

Hi all,

Been a few weeks since I've been on here. Been on a SC DMP since mid November and made my first payment in early December.

Things were manic at first but seem to have settled a bit.

Capital One, First Direct and Wonga have agreed to my repayment plan.

Sainsbury's haven't and have added nearly £100 in fees (I know it's HBOS really but this annoys me after the amount I've spent in Sainsbury's over the years, don't think I'll be shopping there again soon).

Everybody else seems to still be in limbo. They have had payment from SC and a few of the balances have dropped which is nice to see but most of the short term lenders seem to be ignoring my emails and not really understanding what's going on when I ring! Gonna mail again tomorrow and ring between Christmas & New Year I think!!

Trying to call people without having a landline is proving annoying. My mobile bill for next month is a lot more than normal and I've tried using call boxes but they seem to just eat coins!

Nice to have a new bank account and a budget. Not done too bad budgeting wise but am going to have to bargain hunt for Christmas gifts!

Hope you are all doing well.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

MrDJB192 wrote: »

Spoke to each and every one of my creditors today - here's the outcome so far (my first payment of £482 is due 1st Jan:

Halifax OD - £2500 - No charges or interest to be charged for 12 months
Barclays CC - £2340 - 30 day hold - pending review of my situation
Halifax OD -£86 - No charges or interest to be charged for 12 months
Halifax CC -£3929 - 30 day hold - pending review of my situation
MBNA - £3380 - No Charges or interest to be added for at least 6 months
Virgin MBNA - £2520 - No Charges or interest to be added for at least 6 months
Nationwide CC - £2991 - 30 day hold - no confirmation of contact from myself or StepChange
QuickQuid - £875 - No Additional Interest to be charged
Sainsburys - £7425 - Interest remaining at 8ish%

Happy with most - sainsburys, not so happy but i'll work on that

Had a job interview yesterday too for a second (16 hours a week) role fitting around my career job - seemed to go well so here's hoping!! :j

Excellent progress. Good luck on the second job but please make sure you look after youself and don't run yourself into the ground. I tried to do another job before DMP and the first 6 months or so but nearly killed myself. It's only money and not worth harming yourself. Having a short duration DMP must be a huge motivator though so all the best with it.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Enough_Now wrote: »

So I finally got my Excel spreadsheet set up and all of my December statement balances input and, yes, my debt has increased - but only by 1.3%.

I've heard back from most of the creditors now and only one is refusing to reduce interest (Sainsburys CC), due to the StepChange payment being more than the minimum. So that debt will be incurring a whopping 29.9% interest.

Anyway, I hope that I will feel a bit happier in the New Year, when I see the other balances reducing.

Merry Christmas all and thanks for helping me start on the DMP journey.

EN xx

Well done. 1.3% is quite good, mine went up 2.5%. Appeal to Sainsburys, then complain, then if at three payments no response report to FOS. I have 5 stop interest but those that did didn't stop until month 3.

HHx