DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Jenjen wrote: »

Hello everyone.

I found out this week that HSBC had started charging me interest on both our overdrafts again in January and for the last 3 months they have been adding interest that is more than our monthly DMP payment to them. We've not had a statement from them since October so I only know about it because I logged on to check everything was still going smoothly.

Anyway I emailed them through secure messaging politely asking them to stop and to consider refunding the interest since January and mentioning that I would turn it into a formal complaint if they continued to charge this unfair rate. The only reply I've had to my message was an acknowledgement saying they will investigate and a garbled message on my answerphone asking me to ring them which I think was from them but she spoke so fast I couldn't tell a word she was saying.

Today I logged on to check if they had added interest for April now as well and was surprised to find that on Friday they refunded all the interest they have added since January. That was amazingly easy! Lets just hope they continue to play ball now!

Well done and thanks for letting us know.

It's also a reminder to us all to make sure we keep ontop each month so no surprises.

HHx

Suseka

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Have you tried it, are you on?

HHx

It sends a new password to the email address held on file - which is OH's email and I can't access it. OH's out and about at the moment, so I'll get him to retrieve it when he gets back and I'll let you know

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Suseka wrote: »

It sends a new password to the email address held on file - which is OH's email and I can't access it. OH's out and about at the moment, so I'll get him to retrieve it when he gets back and I'll let you know

Fingers crossed. Maybe worth considering changing the email to a joint email address?

HHx

Suseka

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Fingers crossed. Maybe worth considering changing the email to a joint email address?

HHx

Indeede... need to swop it over to mine, because the fact is it is me that's dealing with all the paperwork and business of the DMP anyways. OH not good with that sort of thing... kinda why we are where we are.. never mind. Could be worse - could owe £100k, rather than a meagre £80k. Gotta laugh or cry hey ho!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Suseka wrote: »

Indeede... need to swop it over to mine, because the fact is it is me that's dealing with all the paperwork and business of the DMP anyways. OH not good with that sort of thing... kinda why we are where we are.. never mind. Could be worse - could owe £100k, rather than a meagre £80k. Gotta laugh or cry hey ho!

Instead of concentrating on the amount why don't you think of the DFD and length of time. Even if you get interest applied it is unlikely to exceed 5 years which can often be a standard length of time for a loan.

HHx

Julie67

Evening all,

It's been a tough week this week. We are sticking to our budget on spending but have a set amount to pay in each week to make the budget work. Unfortunately that depends at the moment on dh having enough work and its been such a quiet month. We have barely scraped through this month. We should just about pay everything including the SC payment but it feels like the old days when we had very little control over anything.
I know it's not really and hopefully this month will be a normal one, but so desperate to try and start getting an emergency fund together. Which at the moment feels impossible. Have been out for lunch today, a treat from my DS otherwise we couldn't have gone, but am so fed up of being skint. Hopefully I can start work soon, sorry for the moan just feeling a bit fed up with everything.
Hope others are faring better.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Julie67 wrote: »

Evening all,

It's been a tough week this week. We are sticking to our budget on spending but have a set amount to pay in each week to make the budget work. Unfortunately that depends at the moment on dh having enough work and its been such a quiet month. We have barely scraped through this month. We should just about pay everything including the SC payment but it feels like the old days when we had very little control over anything.
I know it's not really and hopefully this month will be a normal one, but so desperate to try and start getting an emergency fund together. Which at the moment feels impossible. Have been out for lunch today, a treat from my DS otherwise we couldn't have gone, but am so fed up of being skint. Hopefully I can start work soon, sorry for the moan just feeling a bit fed up with everything.
Hope others are faring better.

Hi Julie

Sorry you are having a difficult time. Do you need to adjust the budget? Best to get it sorted early on before the creditors settle down. Better to exceed it to give you less stress rather than over stretching yourselves?

HHx

ANewLeaf

Evening Everyone!

Sunday Night Blues are kicking in - anyone else dread a Monday morning?!

Its great to see some others starting their DMPs on 1st June - thats when my first payment goes out to StepChange too.

Im probably a bit ahead though, as I send off all my letters last month and have chosen to do 2 months of tokens before my first payment - I should be able to have an emergency fund of £1000 by then which should come in handy for any disasters!

For anyone still to send out the creditors letters - I altered the standard ones slightly and its worked brilliantly so though id share the news - As well as the parts about setting up the plan, I added some paragraphs asking them to freeze all interest and charges to help support me in my debt free aim, plus asked them to only contact in writing and remove all telephone numbers from their systems.

I have 24 creditors - all of which are now overdue on payments by up to a mont - but I have not had 1 telephone call or charge!! I have received letters from about half of them too accepting the payment plans from StepChange and agreeing to freeze interest so its all going brilliantly so far!!

Im sure I will still encounter some bumps along the road - we have 70k to clear after all! - however if I had known how much better i would feel, and how smoothly it could go, I should have done this years ago instead of further relying on credit.

My DFD is 4 years away, butwe do get bonuses and OT so 3 years exactly looks doable which isnt so bad - so now I cant wait untill June to see those balances go down!!

I have written to all of my creditors again tonight, thanking them for their support and reminding them that they wont get a full payment untill June, just so they dont start thinking ive missed the first payment in May! Anyone else had any experience of this and how did it go?

Sorry for the long post, but im feeling positive, and rewarding myself with a large glass of wine before bed :beer:

antonic

ANewLeaf,

I would recommend that you base your repayments on your basic salary and exclude Bonuses & O/T , because you dont know if they will suddenly end.

Good luck to you , from someone who is nearly there !.

grant1wish

Hi All,

Been a while since I posted on here, but I have been reading daily since I started my DMP in November.

All going OK and have a couple of updates for you:

Barclaycard are still charging me interest of 3%, which whilst good is not ideal. I rang them last week and they stated the following:

Because I am paying between 1.5% and 2.5% of the balance I am charged 3% interest. If I was paying between 0.5% and 1.5% of the balance there would be no interest. So basically being punished for paying too much! I don't think I can do anything about this whilst on a DMP with stepchange.

Also, Argos are currently charging me £15 interest a month. My DMP payment is £11! However, when I first took out the DMP I was on an interest free period with Argos and this is why my plan was not accpeted. This period has now finished and therefore they have stated that the plan will be accepted. Stepchange are going to send everything through again, so fingers crossed Argos will keep to their word.

Thanks

G1W