DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Time_to_face_the_music

nicki342001 wrote: »

Just to keep you all up to date. Just completed my first year on a dmp. At times it has been a scrape to get to the end of the month, but if i hadnt gone down this route i think we would have been heading for a disaster.

Our debts when starting Feb 2012 were £33514.59, and are now £28129. Sounds a bit better dosent it. Hopefully debt free by 2018 or sooner, if we can increase payments.

Only worrys are car, which is about knackered, boiler which is about 24 years old, and my windows are pretty shabby.

Has anyone read anything about the Green Deal, it seems you can get a new boiler, and the payments are collected via your electricity bill, it states what you save you pay towards the price of the new boiler? Any comments appreciated.

Oddly enough I have been reading about Green Deal today but am still not much the wiser. You need an assessment which then tells you if the work you want would decrease your energy bill. If it would, you go ahead with the work and then pay the money back via your electricity bill.

It sounds good but a few things put me off:
1) You have to pay for the assessment. I am not sure if it is the same price from all providers but Bristish Gas charge £99.
2) You pay interest which seems to be around 8%.
3) The debt for the work belongs to the house, not the home owner. So if you sell the house before the work is paid for, you need to persuade the buyer to take on the debt.

I am sure if we got a new boiler, we would save money on energy bills but am not convinced this scheme is for us.

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

May I join the TTFTM and HH fan club too please? I think it is wonderful that people give their time and advice on this thread so freely and to complete strangers with no expectation of anything in return. I am sure there are many newbies who would not have got through those first few difficult months of a DMP with help from our two star contributors. Three cheers for HH and TTFTM!

Oi! Less of it! You help lots of people too!

When I first came here HH, AmyV, Wannabee_in_credit, ianmak and SAAC all helped me. I felt really stupid at first, I didn't even know how to cancel my DDs and how to set up new ones in our new bank account! I panicked over bank transfers and standing orders and Transcash payments. I was just about useless and it showed

Like HH, I have no idea where I would be now without this thread. I think all contributors to this thread are stars and without everyone's input, it would not be mutual support. We are all in the same boat and we all support each other.

So three cheers for this thread and everyone who posts in it :T

Mossop01

Hi everyone,
Had some good news today, mbna (virgin money) have been the first of my creditors to write back and accept the dmp freezing all interest and charges for the duration!!! Just hoping the others follow suit... Time will tell!
Still struggling to work out how and where to make a signature about my debts, although scary to see it in writing it would be nice to keep adjusting it as it comes down. (Im probably being thick!)
Thanks to everyone for advice and supportive comments do far, it really is priceless!

Time_to_face_the_music

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi everyone,
Had some good news today, mbna (virgin money) have been the first of my creditors to write back and accept the dmp freezing all interest and charges for the duration!!! Just hoping the others follow suit... Time will tell!
Still struggling to work out how and where to make a signature about my debts, although scary to see it in writing it would be nice to keep adjusting it as it comes down. (Im probably being thick!)
Thanks to everyone for advice and supportive comments do far, it really is priceless!

Great news on MBNA and fingers crossed for the others :T

Now for a signature. Have a look at the page, just above the words DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8.

You should see:
Main Site
then Forum
then User CP

Click on User CP

Down the left side of the page, you will see
Your Control Panel

Under Settings & Options

Click on Edit Signature

Type in whatever you want then you can preview it and finally save it

Give it a go

Mossop01

Thanks TTFTM! Easy when u know how!
Really hoping to keep up with the forum throughout my debt busting days, to help to keep me focused and to help others on their journey (although feel very useless at the moment) but if i can share my experiences to help others then all will not be lost
Cheers

Time_to_face_the_music

It looks great. well done

Sharing your experience is what this thread is all about :T

Growurown

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Oi! Less of it!
:T

Ok I'll stop now.:D:D

bertman

Good news alert...

After feeling a bit down yesterday the post turned up. There was the usual HSBC statement, but what a turn up... They have refunded over £275 of interest.
The strange bit is that the statement still shows interest at 29.9% but the field for that part of the statement shows £0.00 and only the refund and my SC payment are transactions for the month.
I took some advice from here and wrote to them asking for the letter to be lodged as a formal complaint, they did ring me and ask yet again for the SC details but I told them they had had this 6/7 times already, then I heard nothing until yesterday.
It just shows though the highs and lows of living on a DMP...

Thanks everyone - I updated my spreadsheet within about 5 min's of getting the statement!!

Time_to_face_the_music

That is brilliant news Bertman! :T

I know I harp on about it but if anyone else has a creditor who is still charging them interest, try an official complaint. If that does not work, take it it the FOS. We don't always win but sometimes we do. so it's got to be worth a go :j

dmp2013

Hi everyone. I read your post with interest Bertman, as HSBC are being our worst creditor at the moment too. Stepchange said not to worry too much as they have a huge backlog of DMP info to sort out, but I hate getting all their letters. They are still charging me interest, despite several letters and couple of phonecalls. They even charged me a late fee for my Stepchange money that went in recently- so I paid £12, but their interest and charge was £16 something-ahhhhhh!! I am hoping as they catch up they will refund some of these charges, as they did with you Bertman. Have a good day everyone.. at least no post today ;-)