DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 8

Payplan_company_representative

Hi superkings, I am not sure whether you've spoken to us yet but just thought I would answer some of your queries for you....
If you enter into a DMP then we would contact all of your creditors for you.
During your assessment call we will discuss all of the options that are available to you and you can then decide which is the best route for you.
Also have a look at our website, AmyV has copied some content from it which should help with your other query.

BlushingRose

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I assume I will have to leave all of these to our next budget review which is 10 months off. Our payment is extremely high but we expected that due to the amount we earn and our debts and I really don't want to reduce it to keep our debt free date ASAP. I may get a small pay rise but doubt OH will as his teacher's pay has been frozen already

Thanks very much for the suggestions, there is food for thought for next year :T

No, you don't have to wait until next review. You can ring them up and explain that you've realised that you've missed one or two bits and pieces and are finding things difficult to manage. They should be fine (they were with us) and will change it for you

fermi

Updated debt management guidance issued by the OFT.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/news-and-updates/press/2012/21-12

May be useful for those being contacted by creditors etc.....

Creditors’ responsibilities (109)

3.48 The OFT expects creditors (110) to have appropriate regard to this guidance when dealing with third parties acting on the client’s behalf. Creditors should not refuse to deal with a debt management business or other third party unless the debt management business or third party failed to comply with relevant consumer protection legislation and/or have appropriate regard to this guidance. Under such circumstances, the creditor should be able to satisfy the OFT that it has an objectively justifiable basis for refusing to deal with the other party if asked to do so. Creditors who provide advice to customers who are behind with their payments should have regard to the spirit of this guidance.

109 This guidance primarily focuses on creditors’ (and their agents’) responsibilities towards third parties acting on the debtor’s behalf. For further information on creditors’ responsibilities, see the sector specific OFT guidance for creditors and other businesses involved in debt recovery: Irresponsible lending (OFT1107) and Debt collection (OFT664rev).

110 Including debt purchase businesses and agents of creditors.

3.49 Examples of potentially unfair or improper business practices include:

a. refusing to accept payments tendered, including reasonable token payments (111)

b. refusing to engage, appropriately or at all, with a third party representative, such as a debt adviser at a free advice centre or a debt management businesses, or with a debtor developing his own repayment plan, (112) unless there is an objectively justifiable basis for doing so

c. contacting consumers directly and/or by-passing their appointed representatives without permission to do so from the consumer or his representative, unless there is an objectively justifiable reason for doing so (113)

Where those seeking to recover debts refuse to engage with (or bypass) third party representatives and contact debtors directly, the OFT may require them to satisfy us that there was an objectively justifiable basis for doing so.

111 Where reasonable payments are tendered by the consumer, or by someone acting on his behalf, it is a principle of law that creditors should not refuse to accept those payments. The OFT considers that, in this context, if the cost to the recipient of processing individual repayments exceeds the amount of such repayments, consideration could be given to, for example, accepting the same token repayments but on a less frequent/cumulative basis. That is to say, rather than accepting and processing individual token repayments each week, collect and process them on, for example, a quarterly basis (to reduce the processing costs). The practice of creditors returning payments, or not crediting payments to consumers’ accounts, purely because they are received through a debt management business, is a matter which is relevant to a consideration of the fitness of the creditor.

112 For example, using CASHflow – www.cashflow.uk.net

113 For example, creditors may be required to send debtors a ‘default notice’ in accordance with the requirements of section 86E of the Act.

For example, it may be objectively justifiable to contact the debtor directly where repeated efforts have been unsuccessfully made to communicate with the debtor’s representative.

Operating a policy of refusing to negotiate with certain third party representatives or with a debtor developing his own repayment plan would not in itself, in the OFT’s view, constitute an ‘objectively justifiable basis’ in this context.

d. where a creditor is in dispute with a particular consumer representative, not making its position immediately known to the consumer and the representative

e. operating a policy of only entering into negotiations about, and/or agreeing to freeze, interest and charges, if the consumer has engaged the services of a specific ‘representative’ with whom the creditor has an arrangement

f. inappropriately passing on consumer’s details to lead generators, debt management businesses, creditors, debt collectors or brokers (114)

Debtor’s personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully and only for specified purposes. While it may still be possible to lawfully pass a debtor’s (sensitive) personal data to an appropriate third party, in the absence of the debtor’s prior consent having been obtained, where one of the other DPA conditions relevant for the purposes of processing personal data is met (and, where appropriate, one of the other conditions relevant for the purposes of processing sensitive personal data is met), the OFT would normally expect the debtor’s consent to be sought (as a matter of good practice) before doing so.

114 This may also be a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

fermi

Sorry about the formatting of the above.

The OFT seem to have an obsession with the overuse of footnotes and text boxes.

ewansmam

im so sorry to be a pest but am looking into a dmp plan and have looked at payplan is it true they dont charge you and that what you pay them gets paid straight to the people you owe any advice would be appreciated ty and im sorry if this is the wrong way to post its my first time

Time_to_face_the_music

BlushingRose wrote: »

No, you don't have to wait until next review. You can ring them up and explain that you've realised that you've missed one or two bits and pieces and are finding things difficult to manage. They should be fine (they were with us) and will change it for you

Thanks BR

We are going to keep it the same for the time being to try and get some serious paying off done but the price of diesel reaching £1.50 per litre, as it's predicted to soon, could necessitate a change. Have just been notified that our electric and gas direct debits both need to be increased too so we need to look at some economies there. Thank goodness for sunny days and line dried washing, keep them coming! :T

Time_to_face_the_music

ewansmam wrote: »

im so sorry to be a pest but am looking into a dmp plan and have looked at payplan is it true they dont charge you and that what you pay them gets paid straight to the people you owe any advice would be appreciated ty and im sorry if this is the wrong way to post its my first time

Hello ewansmam and welcome

No-one is a pest here, you will find it a very friendly, welcoming and above all helpful place, I know I have.

Both Payplan and CCCS offer a totally free DMP service, every single penny you pay to them goes to your creditors. People here seem to be equally split between the two and there are probably small differences but they both do the same thing.

Hang around and someone will be along with some more advice for you soon but remember to never be afraid to ask

BlushingRose

ewansmam wrote: »

im so sorry to be a pest but am looking into a dmp plan and have looked at payplan is it true they dont charge you and that what you pay them gets paid straight to the people you owe any advice would be appreciated ty and im sorry if this is the wrong way to post its my first time

Yes, it's true. Payplan and CCCS are two of the DMP providers who do not charge you. They arrange with you a budget that you can afford per month and then take any remainder off you to pay your creditors for you.
So, for example, they will make sure that mortgage/rent, council tax, water/gas/electric, groceries, petrol etc etc are all accounted for and only then, when there's a 'spare' amount that you don't *need* to live on, they'll take that and make an arrangement to pay your creditors.

I hope that's clear, any questions, please yell.

Earthmother_2

scared-sick wrote: »

Got a bit stressed yeaterday. initially i was happy as got letters from 2 creditors saying they had accepted reduced payments however they both required payment before 8th april. So I rang cccs and explained that these letters said they accepted but If I failed to keep up the agreed repayments then the agreement would be cancelled. The companies are never going to get paid on the 8th with cccs so I was worried.

Cccs told be that by the date of the letters, this offer was only made due to MY initial letters and that cccs had only just sent their official letters out the day before. So she said not to worry and it was just a crossover. I asked if I should ring the companies as a courtesy and tell them this. cccs said you can if you want but dont get into any financial talk with them or agree any payments.

So started off with the first one. Told them I wont be paying by the 8th and that cccs pay creditors on the 25th. Woman said oh well this means you will have breached your agreement and it will be cancelled. Tried to explain again to her but she said nothing she could do. She tried to get me to make a payment then and there. I said I needed to go back to cccs and get some advice from them. I came off the phone exhausted!

I know I probably shouldnt, but I have decided to leave it and see what happens. I know cccs have sent the letters out and in them they specifically say they pay on the 25th and lots of these creditors regularly deal with them so the companies know this. Also, I now realise these companies have given me THEIR offer of a reduced payment not what cccs are telling them they are going to get. So i am leaving them to it for now. I have decided I will take up the battle again once the dmp payments start going out.

Sorry about the long winded post, but sometimes it makes me feel better to get it off my chest!! Sorry!

This has happened to us too, so I spoke to CCCS who told me the same as they told you. So I decided against ringing and am seeing what happens. I've just got a CC statement from LLoyds and it doesn't show the token payment I made, so need to keep an eye on that or else it's £30 down the drain. On the plus side they have knocked interest from 30% to 5.94%, not as good as zero but better than nothing!

BlushingRose

Earthmother wrote: »

I've just got a CC statement from LLoyds and it doesn't show the token payment I made, so need to keep an eye on that or else it's £30 down the drain.

Checks the dates - the statement might have been produced before your payment went through.
or, in the case of one of our creditors, they actually sent the PO back to us as we'd sent it to the wrong address.