DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Find_The_Real

Hello Murph and welcome to the board, I just wanted to wish you good luck with everything. I think most of us have found creditors have no sense of any logic and don't even treat everyone the same it seems.

If you have any questions feel free to ask or just join us as we continue on our DMP journey.

Suseka

Morning all,

We've been waiting to hear back from the email we sent SC about OH's change in salary and finally got a response saying they can't change what we originally said until we can prove the change in salary. His lower salary will start next month, when the DMP is due to start. They said they'll start the DMP based on the original I&E and will amend once we advise the actual reduction (and prove it). Seems a waste of time that tbh - because they'll have to drop the DMP payments by a £100 or so, just one month after its set up. Hope that doesn't pee off the creditors!

Also - we amended some household costs on the original I&E and I'm now not sure if they are going to revise it or not! Seems I'm going to have to make another call on Monday to try and get this sorted. The delay is (frankly) doing my head in... but patience is a virtue, so they say.

Spent the morning doing a bit of a spring clean - amazing how much more motivated I feel when the sun comes out

I'm going to compile my creditor letters tomorrow so that they are ready to send as soon as the April payment has gone. Then I'll follow that up with a token payment in May -before the DMP starts in June. Will take cocoloco's advise (ta) and will state in my letters that I only wish to be contacted by post - and hope they listen.

Anyway - that gives us 1 month to save up some £s for that inevitable emergency down the line, which is another positive.

Bettingmad

Suseka, that a rediculous stance by SC with regards to your husbands income. They should be there to help you so should take your figures at your word. They can have the proof later to confirm the correct amount. They sometimes seem to forget that it's your plan which they are only facilitating.

Suseka

Bettingmad wrote: »

Suseka, that a rediculous stance by SC with regards to your husbands income. They should be there to help you so should take your figures at your word. They can have the proof later to confirm the correct amount. They sometimes seem to forget that it's your plan which they are only facilitating.

I know and I'm starting to feel quite worn down by all this. When I called SC after receiving original I&E, I amended some household bill figures and then asked what to do about OH's salary reduction. We had explained during the initial consultation that his salary would decrease, but we didn't know how much - so kinda guesstimated it.

During my follow-up call the advisor said not to worry and advised OH to try and find out what the reduction would be, call him back and then he would update the I&E again and send us a revised statement.

OH finally managed to get some sense out of his payroll dept some days later and when we finally managed to get hold of SC we were told that they can't change the salary details, without providing a revised payslip...aargh!

His salary won't reduce until he gets his company car - then they'll take his car and mileage allowance away (gulp). We had no choice - it's new company policy. Seems they'll save money giving employees company cars and not paying those allowances - sigh! It was this that finally broke us

He's expecting his car mid to end April - so his payroll dept said the true reduction won't show until he gets paid in June and by then we'll have paid our 1st month's DMP. My concern is that the creditors will get a little pee'd off if we reduce their payments, just one month after starting the plan. But I guess we'll have to trust SC on that one.

I did suggest to OH that we could perhaps delay the DMP until 1st July if needs be- but he's in such a stress about all this, he just wants to get it up and running (as, to be fair, do I).

He's been getting calls and nasty letters - even though he called all his CC's as soon as we decided to go the DMP route -and it's wearing him down. The last caller said that although the account was flagged as being on a 30 day hold (and we are still within that period) it wouldn't stop that type of 'collection' call. I said next time he/she calls he should give the phone to me and I'll remind them of their obligations

Oh well - as I said, must be patient and hold onto the fact that it'll all be sorted in a month or so...

Back_on_budget

Has anyone had any luck taking Lloyds to the FOS?

All other creditors have stopped interest, and Lloyds have done on our current account overdrafts. They won't however stop on the wife's credit card or a loan we have with them. The loan is the big problem, as the balance is going up, not down. They have accepted our reduced payment, but have had another letter today saying they won't stop or reduce interest. We have paid over £1300 since we started on the DMP, but the current balance is £200 more than when we started!

I'm planning to reply with the template letter that was posted a couple of pages back. If that doesn't work, does anyone have a template to send to FOS?

Bettingmad

Back_on_budget wrote: »

Has anyone had any luck taking Lloyds to the FOS?

All other creditors have stopped interest, and Lloyds have done on our current account overdrafts. They won't however stop on the wife's credit card or a loan we have with them. The loan is the big problem, as the balance is going up, not down. They have accepted our reduced payment, but have had another letter today saying they won't stop or reduce interest. We have paid over £1300 since we started on the DMP, but the current balance is £200 more than when we started!

I'm planning to reply with the template letter that was posted a couple of pages back. If that doesn't work, does anyone have a template to send to FOS?

Have a look at the below thread courtesy from CAG. Post 13 seems to have had a great result from e-mailing someone higher up the food chain.
It would be worth following that path to see what happens, if no joy proceed to FOS.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?363850-Lloyds-CC-Vs-Payplan(1-Viewing)-nbsp

Back_on_budget

Bettingmad wrote: »

Have a look at the below thread courtesy from CAG. Post 13 seems to have had a great result from e-mailing someone higher up the food chain.
It would be worth following that path to see what happens, if no joy proceed to FOS.

Thanks bettingmad. Certainly looks like there has been good results from that email address!

Julie67

Back on budget,

The template posted a couple of pages back worked like a dream for me with HSBC who had been a pain in the @rse.
Just the mention of a complaint seemed to do the trick. I sent it recorded delivery first class on Tuesday and they rang us Wednesday afternoon.
Hope it does the trick

humphrd

Couple of breakthroughs today - 3 letters from my creditors acknowledging they are holding of charges and interest whilst waiting for my DMP to kick in and 1 saying they have accepted the reduced payment and are holding off all interest and charges.

Just one more to hear from and hoping that they will all accept the plan !

I also shopped in Aldi today to see how much I could save and I was surprised on the difference on some prices such as 1kg chicken for 6.98 which is normally closer to 10 in Sainsburys so am planning how I can make some switches to reduce the outgoings - quite a change actually as it's a long time since I've bothered to check really !

Allypops

Back_on_budget wrote: »

Has anyone had any luck taking Lloyds to the FOS?

All other creditors have stopped interest, and Lloyds have done on our current account overdrafts. They won't however stop on the wife's credit card or a loan we have with them. The loan is the big problem, as the balance is going up, not down. They have accepted our reduced payment, but have had another letter today saying they won't stop or reduce interest. We have paid over £1300 since we started on the DMP, but the current balance is £200 more than when we started!

I'm planning to reply with the template letter that was posted a couple of pages back. If that doesn't work, does anyone have a template to send to FOS?

I think I will be following in your footsteps. Lloyds finally stopped adding interest and charges across our accounts only to reintroduce it on my credit card account on this month's statment. All other creditors have been good. It is always lloyds that cause me to want to jack the whole thing in and admit defeat. TBH I now wish we'd gone down the IVA route so they couldn't keep changing their mind about whether they will be reasonable or not, but we are a bit far down the road for that now. :mad: