DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

bones65

All creditors have stopped interest thank god took 6 month of constant badgering to achieve this but if you keep on you will wear them down.
I do have some money saved now to pay off a few of the creditors thanks to sale of car and house and all the furniture.
It just seems to me it is going down really slowly and wondered if there was anything elase i should be doing.

Julie67

Thanks Betting Mad, letter done and posted:D

catandy

sorry another question from me...

I'm having a nightmare with Aqua - they refuse to freeze interest until I have made payments as per a payment plan for 3 months on top of the nominal payments for a further 3 months that I have aleady paid - so thats 6 months in total of hammering interest on at 41%pa:eek:

Ive done the letter asking for it to be frozen which had totally no effect whatsoever.

question is this - aqua are 'owned' in someway by Halifax - can they offset this debt to my other accounts with them?

I have my main bank account with Halifax and a loan that is not part of my DMP that I have managed to keep up with the payments, I also have a business bank account with BOS who are part of the same banking group.

Can they offset my debt on this CC to any of my other accounts? Business account and my personal bank account both have enough to clear it but its earmarked for running the business and me paying my bills so I really dont want this to happen as it would make my situation a whole lot worse.

oh and the revised budget is working, thanks for the help last time I asked - my kids and I have had the heating on all week and been able to eat a cooked meal each day (what luxury!)

Growurown

bones65 wrote: »

All creditors have stopped interest thank god took 6 month of constant badgering to achieve this but if you keep on you will wear them down.
I do have some money saved now to pay off a few of the creditors thanks to sale of car and house and all the furniture.
It just seems to me it is going down really slowly and wondered if there was anything elase i should be doing.

If they have stopped interest then at the moment you have a finite amount to pay back unless of course they start interest again. You could try pursuing the F&F settlement route to get rid of them or just carry on slowly chipping away at them. Another thing people do is try to up their income to throw more money at the debt, selling on ebay or doing online surveys etc.

Time_to_face_the_music

Julie67 wrote: »

SC tell me it doesn't work like that and payments are based around the amount of your original. Monthly repayment.

This was our main problem with StepChange and ultimately the reason we decided to go self managed. The system of basing your allocated payment on previous minimum monthly payment can mean you reach minimum payments on CCs quickly and then creditors either won't freeze interest or they do briefly and then reintroduce it because "we consider you are no longer in financial difficulty as you can make your minimum payment".

It's a real Catch 22 situation and we got fed up with creditors telling us if we paid less they would stop the interest.

Good luck Julie, I hope you manage to get it sorted out.

TTFTM x

Julie67

Morning all,

TTFTM I agree its a strange way to work. I had just assumed that they allocated the payment based on the amount you owed. I think the more I learn and understand about dmp's I think the more I could manage this very well myself without SC, probably better in fact.
But I think for the time being I am going to stay with them. I think maybe when I'm in a position to up our payments I may well think about going self managed.
I've sent my letter to Asda CC to try to get them to remove interest completely and refund what they have charged since the start of the DMP. Fingers crossed.
We also got a call from HSBC in response to our letter. Couldn't have been more sorry or apologetic that its taken this long to sort out. Not so sorry they removed the overdraft but have stopped all interest and charges on the OD and have accepted the payment on managed loan, despite saying they wouldn't so before.
Just shows what a bit of knowledge and mention of the financial ombudsman can do.
Will keep fighting on, have a good day all J x

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Julie67 wrote: »

Morning all,

TTFTM I agree its a strange way to work. I had just assumed that they allocated the payment based on the amount you owed. I think the more I learn and understand about dmp's I think the more I could manage this very well myself without SC, probably better in fact.
But I think for the time being I am going to stay with them. I think maybe when I'm in a position to up our payments I may well think about going self managed.
I've sent my letter to Asda CC to try to get them to remove interest completely and refund what they have charged since the start of the DMP. Fingers crossed.
We also got a call from HSBC in response to our letter. Couldn't have been more sorry or apologetic that its taken this long to sort out. Not so sorry they removed the overdraft but have stopped all interest and charges on the OD and have accepted the payment on managed loan, despite saying they wouldn't so before.
Just shows what a bit of knowledge and mention of the financial ombudsman can do.
Will keep fighting on, have a good day all J x

Well done

Just goes to show what steely determination and help and support of the thread can do.

Assume this will have made your weekend:)

HHx

hopefulforthefuture

Hi i have finally taken steps to tackle my debt mountain and set up a DMP with Stepchange. The first payment is going out this month. I have obviously defaulted now on my CC payments as i couldn't afford to pay them. Do I need to make a nominal payment to the creditors or just wait for the SC payment to go out?
Also there has been a creditor who has refused my offer (Creation Financial Services) - any idea what will happen now with this one. The others are generally being very helpful although I don't know whether the interest has been stopped.
I'll be glad when it's all set up and few months in and i can sleep at night again. I can't believe i've ended up with so much debt and didn't taken action sooner
Your threads though make me realise I'm not the only one in this situation so thanks x

Bettingmad

hopefulforthefuture wrote: »

Hi i have finally taken steps to tackle my debt mountain and set up a DMP with Stepchange. The first payment is going out this month. I have obviously defaulted now on my CC payments as i couldn't afford to pay them. Do I need to make a nominal payment to the creditors or just wait for the SC payment to go out?
Also there has been a creditor who has refused my offer (Creation Financial Services) - any idea what will happen now with this one. The others are generally being very helpful although I don't know whether the interest has been stopped.
I'll be glad when it's all set up and few months in and i can sleep at night again. I can't believe i've ended up with so much debt and didn't taken action sooner
Your threads though make me realise I'm not the only one in this situation so thanks x

Regards the nominal payment, that depends on the gap between when they should have been paid and the date they will get payment from SC. If it is a short period then personally I wouldn't bother.

Worry not about creditors not accepting they will be sent payments regardless. They will either have to accept in the end or farm the debt out.

Be prepared for your balances to go up at the start of the plan, this is usual. The fear we all face making that jump onto a DMP is nothing like the reality in how easy it is.
I remember having all sorts of fears i.e taken to Court, constant phone calls, people arriving at the door etc I have not experienced any of them.

If you run into any problems on certain aspects then there are enough knowledgeable peeps on here to help. Remember there is no such thing as a stupid question.

Good luck on your journey towards financial freedom.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

hopefulforthefuture wrote: »

Hi i have finally taken steps to tackle my debt mountain and set up a DMP with Stepchange. The first payment is going out this month. I have obviously defaulted now on my CC payments as i couldn't afford to pay them. Do I need to make a nominal payment to the creditors or just wait for the SC payment to go out?
Also there has been a creditor who has refused my offer (Creation Financial Services) - any idea what will happen now with this one. The others are generally being very helpful although I don't know whether the interest has been stopped.
I'll be glad when it's all set up and few months in and i can sleep at night again. I can't believe i've ended up with so much debt and didn't taken action sooner
Your threads though make me realise I'm not the only one in this situation so thanks x

Hi and welcome

I agree with Betting Mad's sentiments.

Personally I wouldn't go other 31 days without some payment even if just a token £1.

Re Creation just carry on, they will have to fall in line, simple as! Wonder if they are called creaton as they make it up as they go along?


When you say obviously defaulted does that mean you have had formal default notices. Many people have default information fliers but don't actually have default notices. You can sign upto a free noddle credit report to check this too! It's a bit like speeding. Just because you speed doesn't mean you get a speeding penalty notice each time you do.

Good luck with your start up.

HHx