DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Time_to_face_the_music

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi all, bit of advice needed, NEXT have started charging interest and fees again only 2 months into dmp, recieved statement and no payment from sc showing, so i rang them they havent recieved any payments for march! They advised me to ring SC and find out where payment is, tried phoning many times last week, on hold for up to 15 mins a a time. So i rmailed SC on monday last week and still no reply! Next say if payment not recieved then they will go back to interest charges and not accept the plan, they advised that i pay them the amount i owe personally again, what should i do!

You definitely need to speak to StepChange ASAP. Do you know if this lack of payment affects all of your creditors or just Next?

I would suggest reposting this on the Ask a debt advisor a question thread and asking them to arrange a call back for you tomorrow morning.

I think StepChange may have bitten off more than they chew with all their new clients from advertising, there have been a lot of reports of slow service from them lately. They want new clients but they need to look after their existing ones too!

I hope you get it sorted Mossop, please let us know how you get on.

Bettingmad

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

We moved from StepChange to self managed last November, which was the 10th month of our DMP.

I asked for a review just before we went solo to give us some breathing space with the creditors. All of our paperwork since has been prepared via NED CAB website, which I can't recommend highly enough, it is brilliant. We also set up a MyMoneySteps account for comparison and the figures were practically identical, we just liked the feel of the CAB site more.

None of our creditors seem in the least bit bothered by the change. It appears if they get roughly the same amount of money on or around the same date they don't care.

The obvious advantage is you can adjust your figures to keep below minimum payment or other trigger figures for interest increases. We have also used a couple of months of token payment to play hardball with creditors who won't play nice.

I must thank Alice in Welfareland who gave me tons of advice and support when I really couldn't decide if I was brave enough to do it. My twin HH has also recently gone self managed and we encourage each other on a daily basis :T

Thanks, what was the result from sending tokens for the ones who wouldn't play ball? This is a tactic I want to utilise myself hence wanting to go solo.

Time_to_face_the_music

Bettingmad wrote: »

Thanks, what was the result from sending tokens for the ones who wouldn't play ball? This is a tactic I want to utilise myself hence wanting to go solo.

It certainly chilled Lloyds TSB down. They had reintroduced interest, claiming we were no longer in financial difficulty as we had reached minimum payment on a CC. The facts were that the debt would have actually increased each month as the interest was higher than the minimum payment. I dropped their payment to £1 a month for 3 months and they threatened to default me and pass the debt on. I begged them to bring the default on! They still haven't but the interest is frozen again so am paying them just under the minimum payment and we will see what happens.

Bettingmad

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

It certainly chilled Lloyds TSB down. They had reintroduced interest, claiming we were no longer in financial difficulty as we had reached minimum payment on a CC. The facts were that the debt would have actually increased each month as the interest was higher than the minimum payment. I dropped their payment to £1 a month for 3 months and they threatened to default me and pass the debt on. I begged them to bring the default on! They still haven't but the interest is frozen again so am paying them just under the minimum payment and we will see what happens.

They don't like defaulting, same as I have found with Barclays. They once sent me a letter threatening to default me after I had to reduce one months payment. I promptly wrote back urging them to do exactly that!!! No surprises that they didn't respond and have kept me on AP's.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Hi BM

I haven't formally told them I am self managed I just took over paying them! Early days for me yet but decided I could cope with snowballing if it all went t*** up!

I would challenge Barclay on the Egg one. Egg had frozen my interest. Barclaycard reintroduced it twice and then froze again when I complained. Worth a try.

Good luck self managing.

HHx

Bettingmad

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Hi BM

I haven't formally told them I am self managed I just took over paying them! Early days for me yet but decided I could cope with snowballing if it all went t*** up!

I would challenge Barclay on the Egg one. Egg had frozen my interest. Barclaycard reintroduced it twice and then froze again when I complained. Worth a try.

Good luck self managing.

HHx

I am planning on doing this as they have responded to my CCA request providing an uneforceable agreement.
Ironically I only set off on this path as a result of complaining about interest on both accounts albeit both at 6.9%. They responded by lowering my old Egg account to 3% despite this being at the same payment % figure as the Barclaycard account. This raised a small flag in my eyes hence the CCA request.
To make a stand I will need to go solo as Paypal don't seem very proactive in addressing accounts where interest are being charged.
Not surprising really as I suppose they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.

Mossop01

Thanks ttftm, ive posted on there and will try ringing again in the morning, im fretting now that if next havent been paid what about the others? Its showing up on dmp account online as paid, hope this doesnt mess things up..... Eek!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Mossop01 wrote: »

Thanks ttftm, ive posted on there and will try ringing again in the morning, im fretting now that if next havent been paid what about the others? Its showing up on dmp account online as paid, hope this doesnt mess things up..... Eek!

I had this with SC and M&S one month. It got sorted.

Hope you get a quick resolution

HHx

Mossop01

Hi all, got through to SC, they said next are taking up to 6 weeks to cash their cheques, so thats why payment hasnt been processed they advised me to ring next back asking tgem to refund charges and interest and they wouls resend request for plan acceptance. Spoke to a nice lady at next who reinstated plan and reduced all charges. She said this is quite common in first month due to them cashing the cheque from SC and dividing it all up between accounts. Phew! Thats reassuring... Panic over!

Apart from that hiccup dmp seems to be running smoothly, letters/ phonecalls have stopped and we are plodding along nicely.... Touch wood!!
Hope everyone else is doing well and welcone to the newbies, as frightening as it can be at the start it really is the best way forward and it does settle down
Good luck x

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi all, got through to SC, they said next are taking up to 6 weeks to cash their cheques, so thats why payment hasnt been processed they advised me to ring next back asking tgem to refund charges and interest and they wouls resend request for plan acceptance. Spoke to a nice lady at next who reinstated plan and reduced all charges. She said this is quite common in first month due to them cashing the cheque from SC and dividing it all up between accounts. Phew! Thats reassuring... Panic over!

Apart from that hiccup dmp seems to be running smoothly, letters/ phonecalls have stopped and we are plodding along nicely.... Touch wood!!
Hope everyone else is doing well and welcone to the newbies, as frightening as it can be at the start it really is the best way forward and it does settle down
Good luck x

Glad to hear you are getting started

HHx