DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Hopelessly_Hopeful

jubilee14 wrote: »

Hi all
had posted a seperate line earlier but no responses about whether interest being applied when they told me verbally they would apply but wasnt showing up on my statement.

well this month's statements have arrived and barcl7card are still not showing interest but Hfx have whacked on the interest meaning i am only paying £23 capital off a 10k debt. They are also still applying to my loan ( which i had paid most upfront. Another couple of complaints letters me thinks.

Does get a bit frustrating as was seeing balance go down reasonably wish i hadnt kept using 'my bank' for all credit purposes as i see HBOS as a regular difficult creditor on here where as others seem more ammeniable to freeze. Hey ho.

Keep in there, it does get better and it will be going in the right direction.

My start out debt was just short on 60k. Three years in I have paid a total of £5677 in interest so far which equates to £157 a month. Fingers crossed I will only have another £432 to pay in this last year so then averaged out it would be £6109 interest or £129 a month or an APR of 5%. It think that's a reasonable compromise but could probably have got it cheaper if I had fought harder along the way.

Get those letters off your desk, will make you feel better, very best of luck with it

HHx

jubilee14

thanks HH have drafted them. HFx have at least reduced interest but due to the way SC split payments its not making as big a dent in as i would like ( could live with 5% lol) yes will keep plugging till i cant do any more. You have dont brilliantly it is good to see those just getting into the final stages as one day it will happen just dont want it to be in 40 years time. Lol.

Find_The_Real

Hello all

Congratulations and good luck to those who have set up their plans and a best wishes to those still trying to get creditors to play nicely, I hope you get the results they should be doing by freezing the interest. Also sorry to hear a few are having payment problems, hopefully it will get sorted by the time the next lot of payments go out.

I had a nice letter from 1stCredit today about my loan with Blackhorse. They sent it to the old address though I haven't a clue why as BH know I moved over a year ago, and to be honest I seemed to know more about the state of the account than they did.

Strangely enough they did actually have my new address but decided not to use that one. I can see I am dealing with an expert DCA here.

nextyeartina

Hi

I'm after a little advice please. I'm on a DMP with Stepchange. A couple of the companies have been offered & accepted monthly payments of £5 yet they are charging me £12 a month for being in arrears. Is there anything I can do? I'll never be clear of the debt if this keeps happening

Tina x

Hopelessly_Hopeful

nextyeartina wrote: »

Hi

I'm after a little advice please. I'm on a DMP with Stepchange. A couple of the companies have been offered & accepted monthly payments of £5 yet they are charging me £12 a month for being in arrears. Is there anything I can do? I'll never be clear of the debt if this keeps happening

Tina x

There's some guidance that says they shouldn't add to your debt. I'd search OFT debt guidelines in google. Here it is http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consultations/OFT664Rev_Debt_collection_g1.pdf

see page 42

In the OFT's view, creditors should [FONT=Univers,Univers][FONT=Univers,Univers]consider [/FONT][/FONT]reducing or stopping interest and charges where a borrower evidences that he is in financial difficulty and is unable to meet repayments as they fall due or when he can only make ‘token’ repayments such that his level of debt would continue to increase if interest and charges continue to be applied.


Also complain to the creditors. Send recorded delivery and if no joy then call the FOS.

Good luck

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

nextyeartina wrote: »

Hi

I'm after a little advice please. I'm on a DMP with Stepchange. A couple of the companies have been offered & accepted monthly payments of £5 yet they are charging me £12 a month for being in arrears. Is there anything I can do? I'll never be clear of the debt if this keeps happening

Tina x

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

There's some guidance that says they shouldn't add to your debt. I'd search OFT debt guidelines in google. Here it is http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/consultations/OFT664Rev_Debt_collection_g1.pdf

see page 42

In the OFT's view, creditors should [FONT=Univers,Univers][FONT=Univers,Univers]consider [/FONT][/FONT]reducing or stopping interest and charges where a borrower evidences that he is in financial difficulty and is unable to meet repayments as they fall due or when he can only make ‘token’ repayments such that his level of debt would continue to increase if interest and charges continue to be applied.


Also complain to the creditors. Send recorded delivery and if no joy then call the FOS.

Good luck

HHx

Great advice from HH.

If you need any help with a template letter to make your complaints, give us a yell. Make sure you use the word complaint and ask for your interest to be frozen, and for interest and/or fees already charged to be refunded.

There is a great stock of letters on the National Debtline website:

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

And if you need to contact the FOS, do it by phone. They can take down all the details of your complaint and then send it out for you to sign:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

Good luck Tina

Hunnies

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading the thread but don't post often but thought I should give an update.

On Friday I checked the banking expecting to see a £228 credit for child/working tax credits, there was only a total of £48 and that said it was for Child tax credit. I panicked (despite my husband saying they have probably got it wrong) and called them. They said that it's becuase when I gave them my new salary last year after returning to work following maternity leave they don't adjust the payment you are due until the next financial year which has just started. So, we will now always only get £48 per month and that meant we had lost £180 out of our budget! I couldn't get through to Stepchange until Monday and after a very tearful phonecall (after a sleepless/stressful weekend) they said we could look to review my budget to see if I can keep on the DMP. I asked if there was a minimum amount needed to keep on the DMP and they said it was £5 per creditor so I needed £65 per month (13 creditors). We rejigged some figures and they agreed to lower my £208 payment down to £65 per month so I am still around £40 worse off than I was before the tax credit changed but I can live with that by tightening the belt a little more. It was a big shock though, I hadn't had any paperwork from HMRC but I feel a bit better now. The lady also said that as I pay them on the 1st of the month and they pay on the 25th she could refund me this month's difference of £143 and they will accept just the £65 from this month instead of waiting until 1st May to reduce my payment so that has helped a great deal.

Just thought I'd let you all know in case anyone else is going through similar or wondering about the minimum amount needed for a DMP.

Great to see so much good news in here recently, here's to a great rest of 2013!

Mossop01

Hunnies wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading the thread but don't post often but thought I should give an update.

On Friday I checked the banking expecting to see a £228 credit for child/working tax credits, there was only a total of £48 and that said it was for Child tax credit. I panicked (despite my husband saying they have probably got it wrong) and called them. They said that it's becuase when I gave them my new salary last year after returning to work following maternity leave they don't adjust the payment you are due until the next financial year which has just started. So, we will now always only get £48 per month and that meant we had lost £180 out of our budget! I couldn't get through to Stepchange until Monday and after a very tearful phonecall (after a sleepless/stressful weekend) they said we could look to review my budget to see if I can keep on the DMP. I asked if there was a minimum amount needed to keep on the DMP and they said it was £5 per creditor so I needed £65 per month (13 creditors). We rejigged some figures and they agreed to lower my £208 payment down to £65 per month so I am still around £40 worse off than I was before the tax credit changed but I can live with that by tightening the belt a little more. It was a big shock though, I hadn't had any paperwork from HMRC but I feel a bit better now. The lady also said that as I pay them on the 1st of the month and they pay on the 25th she could refund me this month's difference of £143 and they will accept just the £65 from this month instead of waiting until 1st May to reduce my payment so that has helped a great deal.

Just thought I'd let you all know in case anyone else is going through similar or wondering about the minimum amount needed for a DMP.

Great to see so much good news in here recently, here's to a great rest of 2013!

Hiya, CTC do work like thats although it seems a stupid way of going on and nice if them to inform u of the change before it happened!!
What an awful shock, we dont claim CTC as we are £10 a year over the limit! In some ways im pleased though cos ive heard lots of stories of them getting figures wrong etc.
glad SC helped though, someone once said on here that no probl is unsolvable!
Glad u got it sorted shame it will put ur DFD back abit but its the here and now that u need to concentrate on.
Keep plodding on x

ANewLeaf

...now there is a phrase I never thought I'd say!

I have been a bit nervous about the whole DMP thing this week as most of my payments will start to default in the next week, and I come home to 3 lovely letters from MBNA accepting Step Changes proposed payment and freezing interest and charges woohoo!!!

So thats 3 out of 25 :eek:creditors playing nicely - whats the chances the other 22 will be so nice?!:D

All joking aside, my payments are pretty large so im hopeful that they will be supportive, however im worried about paydayuk, wonga and poundstopocket as their proportion of my payment from StepChange seems really small - anyone got experience from these companies at all?

Im loving this thread it really puts my mind at ease to see how successful people are at clearing their debt - im starting off at 70k but have a DFD of 25/07/17, aiming for a year earlier with bonuses and OT hopefully!

mum26

Hi all, we are on a DMP with StepChange and our car is about to die Does anyone have any experience of what our options are likely to be please?