DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

gamblebee wrote: »

Hi all,

Can somebody help me?
I started DMP with CCCS few months ago. Most of my creditor froze the interest except for one or two. I have a huge debt with Natwest for loan and overdraft. I have paid around 2-3k on my personal loan interest but after the DMP started, my current balance with them is now almost or over the amount I borrowed since they continue to charge the interest. I have send them a letter if they can reconsider stopping the interest just to help me with my financial difficulty, but to no avail. They just sent me an automated letter not answering my request. I have contacted CCCS to ask for advise about this and they told me to write a complaint to Natwest.
Am I in the position to make a complaint? (I am the debtor who didn't fulfill the credit agreement). Surely, this isn't helping me with my finances as I am paying and lowering my other debts but because of a huge debt with Natwest, a big chunk of my monthly DMP repayment goes back to the interest with Natwest.
If I am in the position to make a complaint, can somebody give me a template of the letter that I can send them.
I am thinking that after 6 months of DMP with CCCS, I don't think my DMP is working. I am certain that IVA is not an option as 75% of my debt is with Natwest and I am sure they will decline my IVA application, so my next resort will be to go into bankruptcy. Please help as I am really confused of what to do and which way to go through.
Thank you.

Hi Gamblebee

Yes you are in a position and within your rights to make a complaint and I would suggest doing so ASAP.

We won a case against NatWest, it did take about 5 months and it was stressful but in the end, they refunded all of the overdraft interest we had paid to them while in the DMP and it made a significant difference to the amount we owed them.

Write to NatWest again, use something like this, using one letter for each account you have with them:

You

Date

Them


Dear Sir/Madam

Re: NatWest account No: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter/statement concerning the above account. I am sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account.

As you are aware, I/we am/are in a DMP with CCCS, reference number XXXXXXXX. The majority of my/our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in my/our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase my/our total debt.

I/we have already paid considerable sums in interest to my/our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments I/we am/are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of my/our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

I am aware that NatWest subscribes to the Lending Code which states that lenders will consider reducing or suspending interest and charges if these would cause the debt to increase or lead to the repayment term becoming too extended. I would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments I/we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

If you are unable to help me with this issue, I will have no alternative but to take this case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

You


At the same time, contact the FOS and explain the situation. You do not have to wait for NatWest to reply, the FOS will work at the same time as your letter:

How to complain

1. Complain to your bank, insurance company or finance firm

It's important that you complain first to the business you're unhappy with –and give them a chance to look into your problem. They have eight weeks to dothis. We can help by contacting the business for you, and telling them aboutyour complaint.

• phone our consumer helpline on
  0300 123 9 123 or 0800 023 4567
  Monday to Friday – 8am to 8pm
  Saturday – 9am to 1pm

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...complaints.htm

You can ring the FOS today so give it a go.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on

Time_to_face_the_music

dizzybee wrote: »

Not posted for a few days just sorting everything out. all letters sent but need to open new account tried Barclay's and co op today turned down by both for a basic bank account.had a account with Santander but never used it, was going to pop in tomorrow and see if i can get this up and running but before i do does anyone know if they have any links with RBS,Nat west or Halifax.
Need to get this sorted has have to sort my wages going into new account.and set up direct debit with step change.
Also today i had a visit from Provident manger who has told me that they wont accept a DMP and they are taking me to court for fraud.he got very threatening so much so i was left shaken and upset.

Hi dizzybee :hello:

Check this link for bank connections:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings/full-list/


Did you ask Barclays for the cash card account?

Ignore Provident, they are talking rubbish! They have no rights to come to your house so I would write and say you want all communication by mail only or you will report them for harrassment :mad:

Time_to_face_the_music

iwilldoitthistime wrote: »

I got a PPI recalim yesterday which was paid into my defunct Lloyds account, paying off my overdraft. Should I ring Stepchange to tell them this, as I was paying off the overdraft as part of my DMP, or should I just adjust the balance owing on the website? Will it involve lots of re-jigging with the other creditors? Im worried that this will cause lots of trouble.

thanks x

Great news on the PPI claim :T

I think you should tell StepChange just to make sure they don't carry on paying Lloyds but there is no harm in also adjusting the balance to zero. I think I would want to do it for the satisfaction :j

The money usually paid to Lloyds will be shared out by StepChange to your other creditors. I think they normally complain when they are getting less so hopefully they will all be happy with a bit more

Time_to_face_the_music

MarkG76 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have, as many others been using this site, and particularly the forum regarding DMP over the last week or 2 as a 'lurker' (although there is probably a nicer sounding name!)

Anyway after years of 'getting by' I have finally decided to do something about it, rather than keeping finding credit and not really moving my debt done it is clear I need to do something different. DMP it is! I already have 2 defaults from credit cards on my file and to be honest would rather get my debt paid off and all the associated worry than think about the effect it has on my credit rating.

So, after much investigating I plumped for Step Change and have just sent off my documents (along with about 7 questions for them) Have transferred my pay to go into a new bank account. It does feel like the calm before the storm at the moment. Will send a letter off now to my creditors informing them I am going onto a dmp.

My major worry is that I will be contacted my phone at work, I think one or two of my creditors have that number! Does anyone have any advice on how to potentially stop this. After reading others experiences it is clear that once the early days have been got over then it does calm down.

Anyway, all in all quite theraputic really. Not sure how I really feel, pleased that I have done it, but would like to magic myself 3 months down the road when it is all sorted and settled into a routine!

Cheers!

Hi Mark and welcome :hello:

Ellie and Hunnies have already given you great advice on the phone issue :T

So I will just say please stick around and ask anything you need to know. There is no such thing as a daft question here, and if there were, I would have asked them all already

I found the help, advice, experience and, above all, support here invaluable when we were were setting up our DMP. I hope this thread can help you in the same way too

bertman

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Hi Mark and welcome :hello:

Ellie and Hunnies have already given you great advice on the phone issue :T

So I will just say please stick around and ask anything you need to know. There is no such thing as a daft question here, and if there were, I would have asked them all already

I found the help, advice, experience and, above all, support here invaluable when we were were setting up our DMP. I hope this thread can help you in the same way too

If you are worried about getting contacted at work you need to quickly get moving. Write, email and phone all the creditors and update your details - we bought a cheap £10 pay as you go mobile and gavce that as the only contact number. That way we could control when and where we recieved the calls. It worked really well. We also stressed that hey should only contact us by email or letter but that didn't really work. It took me a couple of hours to do this one evening after work as most are open to around 9pm. Its worth it for the piece of mind.

Time_to_face_the_music

bertman wrote: »

If you are worried about getting contacted at work you need to quickly get moving. Write, email and phone all the creditors and update your details - we bought a cheap £10 pay as you go mobile and gavce that as the only contact number. That way we could control when and where we recieved the calls. It worked really well. We also stressed that hey should only contact us by email or letter but that didn't really work. It took me a couple of hours to do this one evening after work as most are open to around 9pm. Its worth it for the piece of mind.

Brilliant advice Bertman and well worth the tenner! :T

Stuh

thanks for your advice fermi, i now have a piece of mind that i will go full steam ahead and partially settle all the accounts asap and when the defaults are up that will be the end thank god!! cheers stuh

Growurown

:wave:Hi fellow DMPers, and hi to all the newbies. You are definitely in the right place for helpful advice. TTFTM & HH are so good at this now I reckon they should take it up for a living:D

Anyway nothing much to report on the DMP front, things just ticking along and living out of the freezer until payday after the Christmas madness.

On the job front it does look like I will be made redundant at the end of March but the company I work for have other jobs on offer in a different area which are only open to current staff. So I won't be in competition with lots of other people, which makes me more hopeful that I could be successful. It's a bit more of a commute but hey its a job at the end of the day. If I did find myself unemployed then we could probably scrape through on OH's wage but it wouldn't leave much for the creditors. That doesn't really bother me because as it has been said before they can't have it if you haven't got it, but it would seriously set back my debt free date which I don't want. Off to write some job applications.

Growurown

Just been over the the 'how much did we pay off in 2012?' thread and added my total of £12,146.16

Why not go and add yours too?

ohohoh_2

This is more of a pondering really, I've been on my dmp since November 2008, I will be debt free by summer!!! This is very exciting but one thing that worries me is my credit score, it seems to be so bad!

One thing that has giving me a really bad credit score is missing payments to some credit cards, I got in to debt partly with spending, I was just about balanced their until I had some problems with BT and NPower.

BT set up my broadband incorrectly, I asked to be set up on the top plan and pay monthly, I was told I was unable to pay monthly it would have to be quarterly by direct debit, okay, I thought nothing of it until a few months later a few hundred pounds went out (I ended up having to use my credit card to pay other bills) - After hours/days on the phone trying to get through to BT I found out I had only been put on the light plan - at first they told me that I must have requested this, I pointed out I had been using the internet for close to a decade and was fully aware I used it heavily, then they said that it must not have been available in my area - I said if that was the case then they should have informed me. Anyway after many tears and a lot of frustrated phone calls they agreed they must have been in the wrong but they were unable to refund the actual money, I could only use it in services and that would have to be the internet, oh and I would have to sign another contract for a year with them on the correct plan :mad: so I did as this was the only way I could somehow get my money back - so I had another year of terrible service with them.

Now the second problem was with NPower, I lived in a 1 bedroom flat with my partner, it was electricity only, we had storage heaters and an electric cooker. We both worked full time and were out most of the day, we had a total of four rooms including the entrance/hall, and we weren't the type of people to leave things on for the sake of it. We mainly used a 19" crt in the kitchen. Anyway bills gradually went up which we couldn't work out, I was covering these bills, this was about 5 years ago now and I was being charged £180 a month, they then tried to adjust it to £280 a month which was around 6 times the amount my parents paid for gas and electric in a large detached house at the time. I was told £280 was about right for a 1 bedroom flat?!?!

Anyway I never got this sorted as it would have cost us thousands to have it investigated - our meter was in another flat so it was really difficult, one thing that was strange was the building was a house and two flats but only had two meters.

Anyway this is in the past - sorry for such a long rant, I do still like to moan about this , but I started to struggle to make payments although I never missed them, before going with cccs I approached another company with a view to go for an IVA, I was told to do this I would have to skip payments, in the end I was refused an IVA by one of the banks. Anyway, after this long waffle I was wondering whether skipping the payments will be a strike against me forever? Will I struggle to get a mortgage or even a normal bank account? As I was requested to skip payments can I somehow put this on 'file'?

Anyway again sorry for the long waffle, I hope I'm in the right place Even after all these years I find it cathartic to go on about it,