DMP - what to expect

9780ninjalt

Have completed my CCCS Debt Remedy and they reccommended a DMP and are sending the pack out. My question really, is what should we expect to happen in the coming weeks. Should we even continue with the DMP idea? Currently we are up-to-date with ALL payments and bills, no arrears. We are starting to make late payments tho' and even making minimum payments is becoming a struggle. Yes we're all paid up but we have no 'life'. By this I mean, we don't go out or socialise. School trips, weddings, etc are a nightmare situation to find money for. Even buying new shoes for the kids is a problem which involves much shuffling around of money and payments. Even having money left for a weekly shop is becoming more and more difficult and the arguments between my hubbie and I are becoming so frequent and so bitter I've forgotten what it's like to a have a 'nice' week!!! So that was what prompted me, well us, to CCCS having read these forums for years.

Will the fact we are up-to-date work against us? Will this make the creditors refuse our DMP? Do we need to inform them or will CCCS do that for us? What should we do once the inevitable phone calls start? Should we even answer the phone? And doesn't it mean we're going to end up with lots of Defaults and/or CCJ's? or do creditors not do that when you're on a DMP?

Sorry, questions questions questions.

I don't feel ready to post a S.O.A. on here yet for the world to see, but the CCCS Debt Remedy highlights are:-

Income:- £2548
Outgoings:- £1970
Contractual Outgoings:- £1026
Number of Creditors:- 8
Total DEBT:- £32,500 :eek::eek::eek::(
CCCS say we have £614 available to pay our creditors and hoping all interest is frozen we should be debt free in just under 5 years.

My head is telling me this is good, fabulous, as we have No hope of being anywhere near debt free in 5 years without doing this. It'd probably be closer to 50 and we'd be divorced and bitter. But, something is holding me back. The worry of the letters and phonecalls? the feeling of failure? my pride? Feeling that it's wrong to 'bail-out' on our stupidity. It's our fault we're in this mess and it seems wrong to be able to do this? AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH what to do!!!

Rant over lol. Anybody ever done a DMP etc and regretted it? Looking forward to anybodies responses and/or advice. If anything it's been nice to rant.

Here's looking forward to being Debt Free and HAPPY :beer:

sickasachip13

Hi there,
DMPs are not an easy opt-out of debt that's for sure but, for some people, myself and Mr SAAC included, they can be a godsend. There's a DMP Mutual Support Thread in this area of the forum, do have a look at it - there's some people on there that have recently started their DMP journey and I'm sure you'll find their stories useful (there's an older mutual support thread too, that got a bit big so we moved onto a newer one). Also, I did a short blog about going on a DMP - you can find it by looking up the info in my blog - this was done at the request of CCCS.
Best of luck
SAAC

drvorlon

exactly the situation we are in... everything is paid up to date, but ALL my money went on bills and debts, and ALL my wives went on fuel and food and we have literally NO money to live or even treat our kids to the odd day out etc..
neither of us have seen any of our friends socially in about 2years, was my sisters bday last week and we couldnt even go for a cheap meal and drink to the local pub with them...

in the end even making min payments was becoming a struggle and i was going overdrawn with bank every month...
its starting to affect our marriage and everything we are always stressed out and arguing...

our DMP is now starting in feb and we will be going from paying about £1200 a month on our debts to about £450...
if we carried on as we are paying the min payments it would be about 30yrs before we got free..
it might cause some hassle, phone calls, people calling etc, but at least this way its gone in 8yrs....

I know its all our own making and i really hate and regret being in this situation, but it cannot go on as it is and I am now glad we took the step and saught help..

sickasachip13

Yes, Vorlon has reminded me - we had not defaulted on anything at the point of DMP, but we were in dire straits and living off credit and using more credit to pay for it. I actually wish, in hindsight, that we'd gone on the DMP earlier (after I was made redundant) instead of trying to carry on, it would've saved us thousands.

The thing I most like about the DMP is seeing the actual amount you owe dropping every month and that the money the creditor is getting is coming off the debt, not being subsumed by % charges. The thing I least like/d was probably getting used to living without credit, that was scary and required a real change in mindset.

SAAC

cakechops

I've been with CCCS since July and we were in exactly the same boat as you- everything paid each month but living on credit cards etc......and ending up in debt of almost £40K.
Touch wood it has gone unbelievably smoothly although each month is a struggle to keep to budget as we pay out £620. None of the creditors have been mean or phoned me at home and things feel much better- light at athe end of the tunnel and all that! My husband was terrified of the DMP and saw it as a failing but is 100% glad we did it 6 months down the line- good luck!

9780ninjalt

Thank you, SAAC and Drvorlon. Can I ask, obvs we're going to have to get a new bank account ASAP (alot of debt with our current bank d'oh!). Any reccommedations? I've looked at the Co-op and Barclays one but the Nationwide and Natwest seem possibles?

xx

9780ninjalt

Cakechops:- we're the opposite. Last year my other half was all for the DMP route but I wasn't. It was a failure if we did it. We became one of 'them' people. Now I can't believe I've been so stupid and pigheaded. I've put my family on the line for my pride! We all make mistakes and we will learn from them. Well done all of us x

sickasachip13

Bank accounts - you need to be absolutely sure that the new bank account is not linked to any of your creditors otherwise they can dip into it and take what they fancy.... put up a list of your creditors then people can advise. Also, get the move done quickly before the creditors get wind of the forthcoming DMP and make sure you move only the necessary DD - morgage/rent, elec, water etc etc

(we went with santander)

drvorlon

I put off seeking help for about a year and struggled on, a huge chunk of our debt (at least a third) was in a single loan that ends in 2yrs and i thought if i can make it to that point we'll be ok... but before xmas we reached the point where I realised it just couldnt go on...

I felt humiliated to have debt problems or be doing a DMP as my dad was always a nightmare with money and my mum was always answering the door when i was little to DCA's and bailiffs, and i swore i would never be like him, in a way I am not because I am paying for my debt, he just never used too and has about 15CCJs... but I also feel like I have let my wife down putting her through all this hassle (even though some of the spending is hers)..

there are so many banks and cards co-owned by parent companies and we owe so many different cards that we never had much choice with banks, I think we had about 4 to choose from...
we have gone for natwest....

happycrafter_2

our DMP is with CCCS and they have been wonderful, for me the biggest change was not being scared to answer the phone or dread the postman every day. CCCS are always there to talk to about debt and I have spent many a time crying down the phone as I couldnt see the light at the end of the tunnel, but now I can. The odd phonecall still happens (mostly lloydstsb) but I quote our cccs ref number at them and they go away.

my debt free due date is 2016 and we have so far paid off 50% of our debt.

SpagBol

Thanks for posting this, it's exactly our dilemma, there's something stopping me though! Good luck with it.