2 weeks on from LBM

Sparkles81_2

Hello everyone, some of you may I remember I posted just over 2 weeks ago about the debt I have had kept hidden from my husband and finally telling him and fear I had he was going to leave me.

2 weeks on he is still here and is being very proactive in trying to get all this sorted. With the help of the CCCS we are going on a DMP. Well hoping to, they wrote to most of our creditors last week, so far Royal Bank of Scotland and written back to say they will not accept the DMP and reduced payments due to recent spending. Hubby has gone mad, as he says interest is just piling up and is frustrated that he is doing everything he can to get things sorted etc etc and they dont want to help us by freezing the interest and accepting the DMP.

However, after reading another thread on here about creditors not accepting the dmp, it would seem this is quite common and I get the impression that we just have to fight them the best we can and hope eventually they back down.

I am just scared that we will end up with baliffs on the door or them taking us to court over it.

I guess I had fooled myself into thinking that because we were using CCCS it would all be easy to set up and it would all fall into place within a couple of months. But I read something people have a lot of problems with creditors refusing to accept the dmp.

It seems we are going to be having a few fights on our hands. Need to find the confidence to fight them.

Sparkles

olivia84

RBS were the worst for us as well - back in 2008 we owed just over £24,000 on a very big loan and an overdraft - contractual payment was £399 per month and we reduced it to £246 - they wrote to us saying they would accept and review in 6 months time - 6 months later we offered the same again and they accepted again and said they would review in another 6 months time - then only a few weeks later court papers arrived on our doorstep! they basically wanted a decree (ccj) against us to enable them to get an inhibition order against our house. this didn't really bother me as all that entailed was that IF we were to sell/re-mortgage our house then they had first dibs on any profit. well, we knew we weren't going to be moving in the near future so we were ok with it - it secured the debt for them and in the short term, didn't really affect us.

just keep plugging away asking them to freeze the interest. my guess is eventually they will - what would be the alternative?? keep adding and adding to your debt until it's completely unrealistic that it will ever be paid so you have to go bankrupt and they get nothing??

it'll all work out in the end - i know it's hard to believe it but it is only money - RBS will get it back in the end - just a bit longer than they should have! at least i've learnt from my mistakes and i have a much much better attitude to money and you will too - i'm actually making my auntie a birthday card on the work computer rather than buyin one that's how bad i am!

xx

Sparkles81_2

Hi, thanks for replying. you would think with all there bad press at the moment and there contribution to the recession they would take more sympathetic approach, but I know in reality it doesnt work like that.

The credit card with them is for £2800 but I guess that will soon be over £3000 with the interest.

I have found on another thread some letter templates and hubby and I are going to write to them tonight.

Nervous now about what the other creditors are going to do.

Thanks again.
Sparkles.

olivia84

my honest opinion is that they will eventually freeze the interest and perhaps pass it on to a 3rd party debt collector (which will be much easier to deal with in setting up payments etc) i think they would be unlikely to take you to court for that amount if you are offering them something every month - however, you need to be realistic in that they have every legal right to and they might do just that. IF that happens (and i really do not think they will) a judge will decide what you have to pay based on your income and expenditure. believe it or not judges are so so impartial and they are fair so do not worry about baliffs etc. when i was in touch with the lawyers for RBS i stupidly told the guy that i was applying for a new mortgage (only because my fixed rate was ending and i wanted another fixed rate - i had no equity in my home and would have needed a 100% mortgage - turns out i couoldn't get one anyway and am now on the variable rate) the lawyer hit the panic button and arranged for an emergecny court hearing to get a deceree and subsequent inhibition order against me in the unlikely chance that i was going to make 24 grand by re-mortgaging!! i went to court and explained to the judge my situation and he refused to grant them the decree (ccj)!! don't get me wrong they got the decree about 3 weeks later with the original court date anyway but i was rather proud of myself for standing up to them!

anyway i'm rambling now - i don't want to frighten you but just want you to know that it really isn't as scary as you think it'll be - it might not even come to that but IF it does, a fair and impartial person will be making the decision on what you pay - not RBS. just stick to your guns - they cannot get blood out of a stone and they are bright enough to realise that something is better than nothing for them so chances are eventually they'll accept your offer and freeze the charges.

i was a bit like yourself in that i hid most things from my partner; he knew the amount of debt we had but i was always responsible for paying everything and keeping the money and i always felt if he wanted money for something (a night out or a part for his project car) i had to give him it and borrowed because of it. he didn't know this was happening and would have never spent what he did had he known the full scale of the situation. for the last month he has been in complete control of the money - he knows exactly what is going in and out of the bank and he is keeping the general spending, food and petrol money. it is such a weight off my mind i can tell you!

anyways - good luck - you'll get there.

xx

wannabee_in_credit

I'm really pleased to read that you're making progress and that your partner is supporting you. DMP is difficult for the first couple of months, but really it does soon settle down. I'm almost 2 years in and, touch wood I've had very few issues. Just making my payments and chipping away.
Good luck, and keep us updated with how you're doing

olivia84

....the thing about the balance being £2800 and with charges might go up to £3000 - i might be in the wrong but i don't bother too much about things like that - my reasoning is that if you were continuing to pay the minimum payment to the credit card you would be spending more just maintaining the interest but not actually paying off any of the debt, so long term it may even cost you more than if they just added a couple of hundred quid on to the balance the now but then froze it to allow you to actually bring the balace down

xx

Wellyboots6

Hey Sparkles,

Just popped by to say well done on how you are coping with this.

I followed your previous thread and am so proud of the way you bit the the bullet and got stuck in to tackling this. When I had to do my 'admitting' it took me a lot longer to get up the courage, both times!

Keep up the good work and stay positive. It is in noones interest for you to go bankrupt as they will get nothing from you, so eventually they will accept your offers. They can't make it easy first off though otherwise they will look like pushovers, so they have to dig their heels in a little

Take care

Mort

They may not agree to reduced payments on a DMP but in my experience they will always accept the payments. Don't worry about the refusal they will come round eventually, probably after they start receiving regular payments from CCCS.

yamsteroo

Hi Sparkles, as others have said, it can take a while for creditors to accept you're on a DMP and then they start to make things a bit easier as they see the regular payments coming in each month. MBNA still charge me interest 2yrs into my DMP but they did cut it down to 8% from 19% so I'm in a better position than when I started. Santander took 18mths but eventually cut it to 0%. The rest of my creditors dropped the interest altogether pretty much from the start but it took maybe 6mths before things really settled down and the letters stopped dropping onto the mat.

I'm glad you were able to tell your OH - I had a similar problem with £29k worth of debt and in the end I just blurted it out in the kitchen one evening - to say he was shocked was an understatement as the only debt he had was the mortgage and he thought I had none at all!

The important thing (and this is what makes it all the tears worthwhile) is that now, rather than adding to my debt trying to hide it and still being skint, I'm still skint but my debt is reducing (£15.5k now, about 2yrs to go until DFD) and I don't have the stress of trying to hide it from OH or make sure I get to the post first.

If I've learnt anything it's that I don't need all the 'stuff' I used to waste money on - it really was wasted too, I've nothing to show for it - and when my DFD arrives, the £600 I currently pay to my DMP will go into savings as I don't want to slide back into spending money for the sake of it.

Good luck, I hope it all works out well for you but at least you're on the right road