Princess is taking control

princess18

Ok, so I've been in a pickle and I've been very stupid with credit but I am now taking the reins and sorting it out. This first step alone is filling me with a sense of achievement. I have decided to go down the route of self-managed DMP (eeek!) and still have the option of outside help from free companies if need be. But I'm actually quite confident with what I'm doing. I've done my SOA (which I will put in the next post when I get chance. I've contacted creditors and even had some acceptances (some of which are payday loans!) Im awaiting responses from the rest and have already made token payments to most of them (those who would hand over bank details to pay into) I've opened a new basic bank account and they were very grateful that I was honest with them about the pickle I'm in. I'll be starting the first few payments as planned at the end of this week.
I'm on maternity leave until January so when I go back to work I can afford to increase all payments. As I've currently worked out my debt free date is April 2013

princess18

Suddenly got several creditors agreeing to payment plans, in particular payday companies which surprises me a bit. In the space of 24 hours 3 more creditors have agreed on the offered amount.

To be honest I'm a little unnerved about how easy this seems to have been so far. The people who seem most unwilling to budge are payday express but from what I can gather this isn't unusual

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary!
Keep posting!

princess18

Thank you
ok, so so far payday uk, pounds2day, studio and rbs have accepted my payment offers. pounds to pocket have accepted but we are just sorting out bank details.
i have already made first payments to payday uk, rbs and studio and will be making my first payment to pounds 2 day tomorrow.
i've sent off letters of offers to all the other creditors, although i know that due to the bank holiday they havent arrived yet. i've done alot through emails but not all creditors have a email address that i can find (particularly the credit cards).
i'm still being hasseled alot by aqua cards, despite explaining the situation to them on the phone. they rung back asking for money 5 minutes after i'd spoken to them and made a token payment!
payday express still arent playing ball and are back to hasselling again but i was expecting that. the phone calls are getting a bit much though, both companies phone an average of 10-15 times a day, no matter what i say to them. even once i speak to someone a different person rings back. GRRR!

princess18

time for a little update:

i have now written to all creditors and have repayment plans with:
Payday UK
Vanquis Bank
Pounds 2 day
Pounds 2 pocket
studio

i'm still awaiting communication from:
aqua card
Rise card
Wonga
Payday Express

I've found Aqua and Rise dont have email addresses so i have had to write to them and havent had any letters back from them. i've been emailing wonga with so far no reply. Payday express are doing my head in!! i write them an email and get a generic answer about ringing them instead. so i email them back and say i wish to be contacted in writing in accordance with OFT's guidelines, and they say yes fine send us your SOA, which i do. then i get the email about ringing them again and we go round in circles. i've had a letter from them today which was a notice of default sums and telling me they will add the cost of sending letters to my account. and again telling me to ring them. i've rung them twice and they really applied the pressure so i dont feel comfortable ringing again, i need to have proof in writing. i posted them my SOA and a letter of repayment offer but they seem to be ignoring it and are more interested in getting me to ring them than to look for a solution (i can understand why). they are also ringing me a good 8-10 times a day and texting me to tell me i havent made contact (which i have) and thay my account will be passed to a DCA if i dont contact them?? not really sure what to do about them now??

chris_debtfreewannabe

hi princess,

i have a loan with pounds to pocket and tried ringing them to get a payment plan with them but to no avail!

Did they freeze your interest on the loan?

Also they said if i emailed them they needed a dmp policy number :S

chris

princess18

hi chris, sorry for the late reply.
pounds to pocket were quite helpful with me, but i believe how far you are into your loan makes a difference. i'm over half way through paying it back before i got into difficulty,which they actually brought up when i contacted them. i contacted them all by email. i dont think they have frozen interest as such, i still have to pay back the total including the interest i would have originally paid back and they have added a default sum of £21. they have not asked me for a dmp number before agreeing and havent hasseled me by phone either, even though im yet to make a payment (its arranged to start in october).
have you defaulted yet? once you default twice (on two consectuative months payments) they are more willing to listen. this is when they add the default charge but IMO i'd rather pay an extra £21 overall to be able to pay back what i can afford each month. once you have defaulted twice, email them and explain your situation.
hope this helps and good luck

princess18

update:

wonga and rise have both now agreed and the first payment to wonga has been made. rise have requested the first payment on 19th october.
so now just waiting on aqua and payday express. i've asked both of them on several occasions to contact me in writing and so far they havent except for emails from payday express telling me i've not contacted them at all (???) and loads more requests to phone them.

princess18

finally recieved word from aqua today. they've refused. the letter says:

"following an in depth review of your financial assessment and repayment offer, we are unable to set up a repayment plan on your account. this is because your offer is overour qualification critera to enable us to set you up on a plan.
however, we will set a 3 month arrangment on your account with full intrest and charges being applied, this will not effect your credit reference. "

i'm a bit confused as to what this means??

princess18

UPDATE:

aqua card refused a repayment plan BUT agreed to make my minimum payment just £18.50 for 3 months to give me a breather.
Wonga originally agreed to £40 a month for 6 months then a review, they've now changed it to £40 a month until July 2014 which is when the entire debt will be repaid (i plan to make some extra payments when im back at work to bring that date forward).
Pounds2day have just offered me a full and final settlement of £136 of a £300 debt, which i will accept and have advised them i can pay it on my next payday in a few weeks time.
Pounds to pocket payments are set up and they have said £30 a month for 3 months (although they never mentioned a review so im a little worried they will want the full amount then which will be before i go back to work)

still having trouble with payday express. recieved a letter off them saying that as i have not contacted them my account has been passed to the collections manager. i emailed them today stating that im assuming the accusation of not contacting them disregards my 27 emails, 4 letters and a phonecall??
they rarely get back to me, and when they do it just says to phone them. i've told them countless times i am uncontactable by phone and that according to oft section 3 part k.k they should respect how i wish to be contacted, they wont accomodate.after sending my email i got a reply 30 mins later saying "please call us" despte me reiterating in the email that i will not be phoning them and to contact me in writing!!

princess18

:j:j:j:j YAHHOOOOO!!!!

payday express have finally agreed to a repayment plan. which means all creditors have now agreed :rotfl:
just got to carry on making payments which i will increase when i finish maternity leave, but things are on the up :T