DMP - Should I continue?

B1G_DAV3

Hi all,

Apologies if this is the wrong place for this. I need some advice (and opinions) on what I should do, and any is appreciated.

To cut a long story short, in my youthful naivety I enjoyed being in a £26k a year job at 18 a little too well and am now over £20k (minus interest) in debt (loans, credit cards & catalogue credit).

I was managing well with it, paying off more than the minimum I had to until last year when I left a job expecting to move to another one, but fell through (lesson learnt; never leave a job until I've signed the contract with the other one).

Thankfully, I found the Debt Management Plan through PayPlan, which helped get the creditors off my back. Sadly, I was only able to afford £100 a month while on JSA & poorly paid jobs.

However, I am very lucky to have obtained a secure & well paid job again, which leads me to wonder if continuing with the DMP is the right thing to do!?

The Maths

My income is around £1600 per month (post Tax/NI).

My other expenses (including decent living costs) are around £300-400 per month.

At the moment, I am lucky enough to be living at home with my family, but because I have this new job and my mum gets help with rent etc, I will have to move out or she loses the help. Because of this, I need to add another £600-£700 for rent (London).

So I'm realistically going to be able to afford £600 a month to the DMP.

My concern is that this is going to take quite a while to pay off and eventually, the creditors will want me to deal with them individually or/and start charging me interest (some still do).

Therefore, I am wondering if it would be worth me going bankrupt, or looking for alternative solutions, as I don't particularly want to be in debt past 27 (23 now) which could happen...

Thoughts??

Once again, anything is helpful. :money:

bertone0377

Hi, personally I would stay on the DMP, increase the payments and pay the debt off quicker. Hope fully my response should bump you back to page 1 of the forum so that others with more experience can help. Good luck!

B1G_DAV3

Cheers for that.

After speaking to PayPlan, it seems that if I increase the amount I pay, it is likely to trigger my creditors wanting the minimum amount & charging interest. This makes using a DMP redundant, as this will mean the interest takes up more than the amount I'm paying.

Of course the upside of this is that I keep debt collectors away from my door...

Thoughts anyone, please?

Regards,

Dave

andy1886

Not in the spirit of things but could you stay on your dmp paying what you currently do whilst saving up and offering full and final offers to your creditors at a later date .

cottonhead

I would stay with the plan. Its usually easier to deal with creditors via a third party. Increase your payments and then when the balance is down you could make a final offer and clear them early.
Brankrupcy is not an easy option. It will stay with you for a good few years.