DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Julie67

Hi all,

TTFTM thanks for your comments. I feel for your dh. It's so hard to do something else when your trained for something. People think your crackers trying to change what you do. I'm really lucky that I'm not the main earner but I really hope he can think of something else.
Ellieseleven, thank you so much for your post. I find everyone on here so supportive and its great to hear from people further down the line as well.
Moved a little further forward today. Another four of our token payment cheques have been cashed and had a letter from SC confirming our start date and the amount and date of the direct debit.
Still no phone calls or letters from the creditors. I suspect this may be due to the fact that we were more or less up to date with our payments so will only become a month behind at the end of February.
On a positive note my ds2 has been offered the second job he went for, he was also offered the first one last week. He is going to accept the second, more money, better benefits and the company has a good reputation for training and progression. Plus he will be able to contribute some towards household expenses:j I don't want to rely on this really as he spends 90% of his time at his gf apartment and I wouldn't be surprised if he moves in there before long.
Had a couple of good eBay sales this week which will go into our emergency fund. We have decided to put the second car on hold and try and upgrade dh's car so he has something very reliable for work as the main wage earner. I can do any running about in the evening or at weekends and am hoping mostly I will be working from home.
Hope your all doing ok J x

gizmo111

cocoloco wrote: »

On the way of DMP...

I try to be pro-active and complete letters to creditors (not posting it yet) with token payments before my meeting with Payplan on Monday.

I felt that I was strong enough (at last) only to have a cry in work for an hour yesterday after somebody talked to me off hand (they were under stress) looking like a complete numpty:o

I'm not looking forward the Current Account switching at all- I'm getting paid monthly so my pay won't be paid into the new account until March so I hope to set up my DMP starting in April. I opened a Natwest account on Monday on-line but i guess it will take a few days for the paperwork to get sorted.
My plan is to pay my Mortgage DD and my 2 loan DD (one with current bank)and some utility DD on the 1st of March as normal then do sweep and take anything left and close all DD and SO and close the account. My OH gets paid weekly and he can change his bank details with minimal notice. Is this plan make any sense? I hope we be able to build up a little nest egg this way- my 13 years old car getting MOTed on 25/02/13 + road tax due by 31/02/13 and makes me really worried about repair costs.

I keep reading the previous threads to give me courrage and find the advise priceless. I'm so greatfull that there are other people other there who can share their tale of DMP and advice.

PS- funnily enough my OH received an in-house MBNA form saying that he may have been missold PPI and to fill out a form if he wishes to make a compliant about it. I checked the form, its legit and we have nothing to loose by completing it even that I can't remember having PPI (not anymore anyway). I think I read on this forum that we can still receive PPI refund on this account even if default and go on DMP? Is it right or was i just dreaming (somethimes I read the forum at the middle of the night if I can't sleep from the worry). Any advice would be greatly welcome.

What date do you get paid?

If you can I would take all salary into new account - and pay utitlities and mortgage by card - all other debts just send a token payment.

Enough_Now

Hi all

A quick post to say well done and welcome to all of the newbies. You are just a few months behind me in the process and, believe me, it does get better.

Originally 6 out of 9 creditors had frozen interest/charges and the other two had halved interest. I challenged the creditor who had not co-operated, requesting an interest reduction/freeze and after a further phone call to complain and threaten with the Ombudsman, they offered interest freeze for 12 months, saving me over £1700 in payments.

I am going to write to the remaining two creditors soon, as the interest is still at 13-15% and the SC payment is not making much of a dent at all.

One of my cards has been defaulted/terminated now but I have just received a letter to say the FOS has taken on my PPI complaint against the company (with a 12-month turnaround time though!). I was unsure whether I should go for the complaint but the response from the company was so full of errors and very condescending in tone, so I thought what the hell?!

Anyway, I guess the message is to give the DMP a few months to see how your creditors respond and then keep plodding away to get the interest reduced as much as possible. It's amazing how their attitude changes once the magic words 'complaint' and 'financial ombudsman' are mentioned together

Onwards and upwards people. We all have bad days but hopefully we are working towards a future full of better days on our journey to being debt-free. :beer:

EN xx

Growurown

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi all, managed to get the kids to bed early tonite, so I've sat and sorted out spreadsheets

patator wrote: »

How do you do the spreadsheets? I tend to find columns/tables of numbers a little bewildering, but it sounds like a really helpful thing to do if you can get it set up and keep on top of it?

Oh I love my spreadsheets. It took me a little time to set them up the way I want them but now it is easy to keep up with them. I have a worksheet for every month and I download my bank statement and just paste the info in. I have headings which mirror my SC budget so I can keep track of whether I am overspending which I tend to do with the food budget especially. When I start a new month I just copy and paste the headings from the previous month.

If you are new to spreadsheets this is a useful site to learn more. It is aimed at GCSE learners but gives the basics.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/modelling/0spreadsheetsrev1.shtml

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

Oh I love my spreadsheets. It took me a little time to set them up the way I want them but now it is easy to keep up with them. I have a worksheet for every month and I download my bank statement and just paste the info in. I have headings which mirror my SC budget so I can keep track of whether I am overspending which I tend to do with the food budget especially. When I start a new month I just copy and paste the headings from the previous month.

If you are new to spreadsheets this is a useful site to learn more. It is aimed at GCSE learners but gives the basics.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/ict/modelling/0spreadsheetsrev1.shtml

I love my spreadsheets too!

I was always a bit obsessed but my twin HH's enthusiasm has taken me well OTT

Current favourite is projected debt payments for the year and how many months remaining on each debt. I have an extra column for additional payments so I can work out how much I need to pay to reduce DFD by a month, a year etc :j

Time_to_face_the_music

Ellieseleven wrote: »

For us a DMP has been the best thing that we could have done. We can't get credit but we don't want it. I need a decent car for work as I travel a lot but so far I have managed to pay for servicing and repairs out of our emergency fund.

We have a brighter future to look forward to and for the first time in years I can see a debt free future

This forum and the advice and friendship from it has always been and continues to be my lifeline. It motivates me, allows me to let off steam when I need to, gives me advice, helps me to see that I'm not alone etc. etc.

For all of those of you that are just starting out, hang in there! It does get better and better and that DFD starts to become clearer the further along the journey that you travel:)

Take care all
Ellie xx

Fab post Ellie, really inspiring and just what we all need at the moment :j

Time_to_face_the_music

Julie67 wrote: »

Hi all,

TTFTM thanks for your comments. I feel for your dh. It's so hard to do something else when your trained for something. People think your crackers trying to change what you do. I'm really lucky that I'm not the main earner but I really hope he can think of something else.
Ellieseleven, thank you so much for your post. I find everyone on here so supportive and its great to hear from people further down the line as well.
Moved a little further forward today. Another four of our token payment cheques have been cashed and had a letter from SC confirming our start date and the amount and date of the direct debit.
Still no phone calls or letters from the creditors. I suspect this may be due to the fact that we were more or less up to date with our payments so will only become a month behind at the end of February.
On a positive note my ds2 has been offered the second job he went for, he was also offered the first one last week. He is going to accept the second, more money, better benefits and the company has a good reputation for training and progression. Plus he will be able to contribute some towards household expenses:j I don't want to rely on this really as he spends 90% of his time at his gf apartment and I wouldn't be surprised if he moves in there before long.
Had a couple of good eBay sales this week which will go into our emergency fund. We have decided to put the second car on hold and try and upgrade dh's car so he has something very reliable for work as the main wage earner. I can do any running about in the evening or at weekends and am hoping mostly I will be working from home.
Hope your all doing ok J x

It sounds like it's all going well Julie, fingers crossed for a smooth start up :j

Excellent news on DS2's job, he must have really impressed them :T

supersavershal

I have set up my DMP via stepchange this week.
I feel so much better, my OH and I now have more control ove what is happening and the stress and tension of balancing everything is better.
I did feel terribly guilty, we were up to date on everything but only because we were juggling everything and using credit to keep up to date. I console myself with the fact I am paying my debts off every single penny and probably quicker than before where CCs were concerned.
I am going on a full days training next month about excel and setting up spreadsheets so I can see me becoming a bit obsessed.
I have been moneysaving for a long time so doing a budget and sticking to it doesnt feel to hard.

Time_to_face_the_music

supersavershal wrote: »

I have set up my DMP via stepchange this week.
I feel so much better, my OH and I now have more control ove what is happening and the stress and tension of balancing everything is better.
I did feel terribly guilty, we were up to date on everything but only because we were juggling everything and using credit to keep up to date. I console myself with the fact I am paying my debts off every single penny and probably quicker than before where CCs were concerned.
I am going on a full days training next month about excel and setting up spreadsheets so I can see me becoming a bit obsessed.
I have been moneysaving for a long time so doing a budget and sticking to it doesnt feel to hard.

Oh I know the worries of juggling money and wondering how it is possible to make every payment on time. We too felt guilty at first, particularly about my bank of 20+ years. However they have been one of the worst problems, so all feelings of guilt are well and truly gone :mad:

Well done on getting this set up and welcome to another member of the DMP spreadsheet geek club! :hello:

We will all be asking you for advice after your Excel training

Time_to_face_the_music

Happy Valentine's Day to all DMPers :happyhear

I paying back debts
I spreadsheets
I this thread

Oh my OH isn't bad too :rotfl:

Just in case he takes a sneak peak, he already knows he is the love of my life and my soul mate and I love him to bits