DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

He can go and play on his own or I have suggested he goes and collects our granddaughter and gets the sledge out in the park. It's actually snowing again and I am already dreading work tomorrow

Make use of the carrot? Do you mean for carrot and coriander soup? Or have you been reading those books again ..... :silenced:

It's the guessing that keeps you going!

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

It's the guessing that keeps you going!

HHx

It's the spreadsheets that keep me going :rotfl:

It's snowing again and have just realised we can't get out of the back door to get the sledge. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaw what a shame

Enough_Now

Some good news and a small victory for me yesterday.

I telephoned Sainsburys CC as they didn't deal with a complaint letter re. interest and charges to my satisfaction. They proceeded to inform that there was nothing they could do as my DMP payment is more than minimum. I queried their adherence to the Lending Code as by applying charges TVO £48, they had put me over my limit and increased my debt. They then said Lending Code doesn't come into effect when you are managing to meet your minimum payments.

I then told them that, as they hadn't dealt with my complaint to my satisfaction, I would be lodging a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman. Within 10 minutes, they had agreed to freeze interest for 12 months and refund the £48 in charges!

So that's seven creditors who have frozen interest/charges and two who have halved interest. I am one happy bunny at the moment, knowing that by this time next year I should have paid back a quarter of my debt

eyeopener2

Poor do with the snow here, only a smattering but my golly gosh it's cold. Should stay in but have to venture to Aldi for provisions (chocolate and crisps).

bertman

eyeopener2 wrote: »

Poor do with the snow here, only a smattering but my golly gosh it's cold. Should stay in but have to venture to Aldi for provisions (chocolate and crisps).

Try Asda own dark chocolate - the smart price one - honestly its really tasy, especially with a glass of the red stuff!! Only 30p a bar:j

bertman

Enough_Now wrote: »

Some good news and a small victory for me yesterday.

I telephoned Sainsburys CC as they didn't deal with a complaint letter re. interest and charges to my satisfaction. They proceeded to inform that there was nothing they could do as my DMP payment is more than minimum. I queried their adherence to the Lending Code as by applying charges TVO £48, they had put me over my limit and increased my debt. They then said Lending Code doesn't come into effect when you are managing to meet your minimum payments.

I then told them that, as they hadn't dealt with my complaint to my satisfaction, I would be lodging a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman. Within 10 minutes, they had agreed to freeze interest for 12 months and refund the £48 in charges!

So that's seven creditors who have frozen interest/charges and two who have halved interest. I am one happy bunny at the moment, knowing that by this time next year I should have paid back a quarter of my debt

Well done!! Each small victory makes you feel great....

Time_to_face_the_music

Enough_Now wrote: »

Some good news and a small victory for me yesterday.

I telephoned Sainsburys CC as they didn't deal with a complaint letter re. interest and charges to my satisfaction. They proceeded to inform that there was nothing they could do as my DMP payment is more than minimum. I queried their adherence to the Lending Code as by applying charges TVO £48, they had put me over my limit and increased my debt. They then said Lending Code doesn't come into effect when you are managing to meet your minimum payments.

I then told them that, as they hadn't dealt with my complaint to my satisfaction, I would be lodging a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman. Within 10 minutes, they had agreed to freeze interest for 12 months and refund the £48 in charges!

So that's seven creditors who have frozen interest/charges and two who have halved interest. I am one happy bunny at the moment, knowing that by this time next year I should have paid back a quarter of my debt

Excellent news :T

Growurown

I'm snowed in too.

What does SUMO mean other than a big Japanese wrestler not wearing a lot of clothes?

Alice_in_Welfareland

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Thank you but we don't have much choice in the matter, the DMP providor sets their level of reasonableness of what it should be according to someone's salary etc. My DMP payment has just gone down because SC have agreed to revise my budget. Collusion and lack of transparency in the credit industry around DMPs will not allow the debtors to freely see the 'allowances'. I was 'trying' to live on half the food budget I am entitled to. When I raised this with SC they wouldn't tell me what their guidelines are to the maximum, it was how I imagine a game of poker may be to squeeze some extra allowance out of it!!!!

HHx

I think that Stepchange's budget is considerably lower than the official trigger figures. As an example Stepchange allows £341 for food, toiletries and cleaning materials for a couple. Northeast Derbyshire DMP allows £505 and I understand their allowances are from the CFS.

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

I'm snowed in too.

What does SUMO mean other than a big Japanese wrestler not wearing a lot of clothes?

It means Shut Up, Move On. It comes from Paul McGee who is a life coach and it's also a title of his best selling book. It's all about a philosophy for dealing with life and its challenges. My OH who is into NLP, CBT and Mindfulness thinks it's the bees knees.

The 6 principles are:

1. Change Your T–Shirt – take responsibility for where you find yourself inlife. Being proactive not passive.

2. Develop Fruity Thinking – The impact and importance of attitude and mindset.

3. Hippo Time is OK – Managing your emotions and developing resilience under pressure.

4. Remember the Beachball – Building better relationships with customers and colleagues.

5. Learn Latin – How to overcome procrastination and take positive action.

6. Ditch Doris Day – Forget 'whatever will be, will be′ take action to create the future you want.

It's actually very applicable to debt and debt management as well as business and life in general