DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Hunnies wrote: »

Hi,
I'm still reading the thread every week but don't get much chance to post but today I have a few minutes so thought I would.

In the last week we've had letters from 4 of our creditors to say they are passing the debt on. Lloyds (2 x cc's) has been refered to SCM Solicitor's who Stepchange tell me are an internal collections office at LLoyds. Halifax have sent our c/c debt to Westcot (again internal company I believe) and Barclaycard have sent our debt to Mercer's who I think is external but according to Stepchange it's good news as they are very easy to get along with and will be likely to offer us F&F settlements in the future, although at the moment we have no saving's so that won't be much good for us.

We also received letters from NRAM saying we might be eligible for the refund against our unsecured loan taken out in 2005 for approx £8000 so we've got to wait to see what happens there but fingers crossed. I guess there's no chance of them actually sending a cheque out if we still owe them on our DMP is there?

Everything else seems to be running ok, a couple of our creditors are still charging interest but I'm going to write to them again to ask them to review it.

Great to see everyone else is getting on well and good luck for all the newbies just starting out.

I hope you all have a relaxing Christmas and we can all look forward to a new year where we are taking control of our debt and seeing it decrease! x

Well done.

Being passed onto others and debt collectors is a good sign as it will be more likely to have accepted reduced payments and interest frozen as they cant then say you aren't in financial difficulty which is what some of us have battled against.

Re NRAM, anything is a bonus even if it comes of the debt. On the NRAM thread though someone has already been paid out, still has a loan with them but they have paid into their current account. Fingers crossed for you.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Prowler1973 wrote: »

Hello there,

My plan starts in January. Just looking forward to the calls and letters. Hope all is getting by and getting free from debt. Good luck all and enjoy Christmas.

Hi and Welcome.

All moving forward for the good year which is a great start.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

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

Ah what nice words. You've done brilliantly well, and kept us all going as part of the process. Thanks for the advice, being a sounding board, oh and of course for starting the DMP geek club and finally for the sense of humour that reminds us there is life with and after debt.


HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

stupid-fool wrote: »

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.

Looks like you have all in order. It's great to see the newbies posting progress. This is really important as it helps the ones struggling or considering starting to have some experience to reflect on. These things only work if people contribute by posting things like this and not just read or take.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

365days wrote: »

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??

Hi

My advice is prepare to start, only put essential bills on dd. Take money out and pay cash as cc spending is frowned upon. Alternatively do a couple of month of tokens then do DMP, this will allow for the freezer and emergency fund. Will also help you practise the budget. DMPs work better when there is the least amount of change, so yes you can change payments but it can raise all sorts of computer madness so best to have a realistic plan and be able to stick with it.

Hope that helps

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

bertman wrote: »

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!

Hi Bert, great advice about the honesty, helps manage do end, even if the light bulb does start glaring away!!!!

Thank you to you too.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Earthmother wrote: »

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.

Fab to see all this great progress and people feeling in charge of their own money and destiny.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

DaveK1971 wrote: »

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.

Appreciate what you are saying about Sainsburys but one thing that hits home early on in DMP land is loyalty counts for nothing wtih finanical institutions, it's just profit and minimising risk for them.

Glad you are enjoying Xmas planning, you will do it.

Personally I wouldn't bother my time or money on phone calls. What you need is an audit trail and a letter will do that for you.

Good luck whatever you decide.

HHx

antonic

Well, I am now down to my last 6 months .... never thought that I would say that 7 years ago when I made my first payment.

The two positive things that I have got out of this experience are :

1) How to budget PROPERLY and

2) Become teetotal.

At times its been a rocky road, but with the support of my family I am coming to the end of it.

For all newbies who post here I would say the following :

1) You have done the hard bit by facing upto your problems and dealing with it
2) Use a free debt charity like Payplan, Stepchange etc
3) Dont be afraid if events occur that your budget cant cope with - life is like that, just discuss it with your DMP provider
4) Dont be bullied by your creditors and finally
5) Living life without credit is brilliant !.

Happy Christmas & a Prosperous New Year to you all.

eyeopener2

Great post Antonic and I am with you on the two positives! Becoming teetotal changed my life as has living on a restricted budget. I do wonder what's going to happen when the budget is relaxed post DMP in September but I' m hopeful that all the lessons learned Will stick.

Still scares me slightly, the thought of being debt free in 8 months time.