Getting professional help to beat debt. Diary

Nat0273

Well to update you on mine
Mbna still not got the form to go on the permanent pay plan interest is frozen though I owe them 8900
Barclaycard reduced to 6.9apr for 12months and owe them 6500 100pound a month payment accepted
Halifax didn't here from them but when my statement came I saw I was now on 0percent interest and my payment offer was down as the min payment I owe 3300 and min payment 51.00 no interest
Tesco I range them as letter didn't make sense they have cancelled my direct debit and interest will be frozen but can take a few months she said I can choose to pay what I offered or wait to hear from them officially which could take a couple of months I am paying I owe 3700 and offer is 53.00 month
So keep going I couldn't have got anymore credit anyway at least the money is paying of the debt now

Getmeoutofdebt

Thanks Nat for the update, it's good to have you on here as you are in pretty much the same situation so its great for mutual support.
If I presume that MBNA have accepted my offer, I only have Barclaycard to hear from now. I have 2 cards with them as one was an Egg card and they took it over. I was dreading all this a couple of weeks ago but they seem to just let you do what you ask and don't bother you too much so a big Phew from me! (fingers crossed Barclays will be nice now i have said that)
Good luck with yours, it's great to have reduced payments isn't it and to know they are actually going off the debt. Im just a bit worried that my creditors only seem to be offering 3 months interest free but I have written back to them so hopefully they will extend it.
x

shazz5555

Hi. I have had my Debt Management Plan for 2 years now. National Debline reerred me to Payplan. I now pay £150 a month, whereas before I was paying over 450 with interest costs still spiralling. My Interest costs are frozen. The letters and phone calls have stopped, so I have piece of mind. It will take about another 8 years for me to be debt free, but time travels fast. I am actually better off with my DMP, can last from month to month without having to borrow from Family and friends.I still get the odd letter from Debt collection agencies, but I just ignore them. Chin up you will sort it out in the end. Good Luck ! x

Getmeoutofdebt

Hi Shazz,
Thanks for your message of support! I really appreciate everyones comments on here because it makes me feel less nervous about it all knowing that other people are in the same position as me and are managing. Good luck with your debt. It is a huge relief to get started on a plan and to pay less monthly but know that the money is actually paying your debt and not interest! I wish I had done this years ago but like you say time goes pretty fast and our nightmare will be over before we know it!
Good luck x

Getmeoutofdebt

28th March 2012

Yayy I got a letter off MBNA explaining everything I need to know! It looks like it was sent the same day as the other two but only arrived today. I am interest free and they won't charge me any fees/fines and I can pay my offer 0f £57 per month, no questions asked! How easy was that? i expected them to be really horrible to me! The only thing that is not so good is that they are going to put a default on my credit file and they may decide in the future to sell the debt to a collection agency but for now I just pay my £57 each month and they are fine with that! Phew!!
Still no word from Barclaycard though.... hmmmm..... they are the only one left to contact me, though my online banking says payment received even though I have only paid half so I'm not sure whats going on there. fingers crossed I get a letter soon.

Getmeoutofdebt

31st March 2012

I am getting impatient! barclaycard, who I have two credit cards with, are the last to reply and I have heard nothing from them. Every day I come home from work expecting a letter from them and every day there is nothing. I am beginning to wonder if I sent my letter to the correct address. At 4pm today I logged on to my account and sent them a secure message asking them If there was any mention on my account as to whether they have received my letter. I was informed that I will get a response in less than 24 hours. I'm not convinced.
On the plus side I have got through the first week since payday with money left over! I withdraw my weekly allowance in cash and keep my debit card at home so that I can't spend more than I have budgeted. It feels amazing to have money left over and it is all due to my new reduced payments. I am using that money to pay towards my catalogue bill. It feels great to make a bit of a difference to my debt and not be struggling so much!
Other stuff I am doing...... Saving £2 coins in a sealed pot to pay for christmas. I am getting obsessive about it which is a good thing because I am less likely to break in and spend it that way. I have also worked out a debt free motto to use as the password on all my credit card accounts online so that every time I log in I remind myself of my goal. Every time I pay a chunk off my catalogue I use the commission earned from my payment to buy something off them that I can then ebay and I plan to use the money from that to pay back off my catalogue.
I also have joined good food website where you can save recipes for cheap and easy meals in a binder. Every sunday I sit down for half an hour, load up my binder and work out a meal plan for the week and try to plan meals that I can use the same ingredients in more than one meal so I'm not having to buy tons of stuff and less likely to have leftover food going to waste.
I have good days and bad days. I don't really know what causes it because some days I feel so positive and it feels like its going to be easy to get out of debt yet the next i feel terrible and I feel like its a pointless battle. Today I am having a good day! I have found a pair of new designer wellies in the shed that I got as a gift years ago & have never worn and a handful of books and some perfume to ebay. Fingers crossed in a weeks time I may have about £50 from selling that lot to pay towards my catalogue.
I am enjoying my debt plan so far. I feel I have a purpose and something to concentrate on. I find though that I am wishing my days away just waiting for my next payday to see where I end up after my payments come out.

Getmeoutofdebt

1st April 2012,

Got an e-mail off Barclaycard!! You can tell it's april fools day! They tell me that if I do not make my minimum payment they will charge me. If I am having difficulties I should contact citizens advice, CCCs or Payplan. Or I can write to them. (erm... I have already written to you you idiots!)
It's like going round in circles! I went to Barclaycard's website when I first wanted to sort my debt out and their website tells you that they are in partnership with Mymoneysteps and tell you to sign up to the Mymoneysteps website (part of National debt line) and follow the instructions. I sign up and also ring the debt line. They both tell me to contact my creditors in writing. I contact Barclaycard in writing as instructed and they tell me to contact Citizens advice or Payplan! What is the point in them being in partnership with a credit counselling service if they do not pay any attention to what this service tell their debtors to do? Grrrr!!! But in the meantime I have another address for Barclaycard so I have photocopied my original letter to them and will post it to this address too.

For anyone who is reading this and is struggling to find addresses this is the one for Barclaycard

BArclaycard customer relations dept
po box 9131
51 saffron rd
Leicester
Le18 9DE

if you need one for MBNA this is the one for them

MBNA credit card
Chester business park
Chester
CH4 9FB

and yorkshire bank credit cards

Yorkshire bank
Collection & recovery services
Brunswick point
Wade Lane
Leeds
LS2 8NP

I found it hard finding the right addresses to write to, they don't seem to advertise them. Maybe these will help some of you who are doing the same as me.

Well fingers crossed that my second letter will get a decent reply. I am wondering if they are just playing ignorant so they don't have to stop the interest just yet. Hmm!

Nat0273

Have you rang Barclaycard? I got a confusing letter of them asking me to send them a financial statement but that was what I had sent them in the first place and they must have got it to know I was in financial difficulties call them on 0844 556 5623 don't worry about calling them
X

Getmeoutofdebt

Cheers Nat. I'll try ringing them tomorrow. My statement was due online today so I was waiting for that to show up so i could see if there was anything different on it that might give away the fact that they got my letter (like reduced interest or lack of charges) But for some reason its not showing online yet so I'll check again in the morning and if it looks like they haven't got my letter i'll try ringing them. I did try a few weeks a go when I first started my plan and a got someone foreign who didn't understand me so it kind of put me off calling again but I think I rang a different number to the one you have. Did you get your letter from Halifax and the form from MBNA? x

Getmeoutofdebt

Just checked again to see if my statement had shown up online yet and it has! OMG Barclaycard have UPPED my interest rate from 22% to 27.9%!!! And charged me 81 in interest and put my minimum payment up from £110 per month to £160!!! Help!! They are definitely getting a phone call tomorrow! Yikes!