DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Julie67

Light Bulb Moment:dance:

Growurown

Gosh lots more new people joining, hello everyone.

Having internet problems at home so having to pop in during work time.

I have been taking a leaf out of HH and Ms. TTFTM's book and doing lots more on my spreadsheets.

Some of my creditors haven't sent me statements for a while so I wanted to find out my balances and put them into my spreadsheets so I can track the debt coming down in more detail. I realised that the Halifax were actually still charging quite a lot on OH's credit card partly due to the fact that they said we had broken our agreement with them because we hadn't sent them a new SOA when the six months was up. Anyway got that sorted now and noted when the next six months is up so we don't get into a mess again and they have agreed to reduce interest to 1%. So pleased with that result and will promise to keep on top of things more and be more organised. (Can't risk being thrown out of the spreadsheet geek club:D)

patator

Look at all the newbies! Yay - I'm a newbie too, enjoying seeing everyone popping up

Just had a lesson in 'open ALL your post before you panic' - opened a letter from NatWest about issuing a default and the fact that they would CONTINUE to apply charges and that my debt would INCREASE and that the full amount was due IMMEDIATELY and if I didn't pay by 1st of March they would take me to COURT'*

I then opened another letter and found a much nicer letter from NatWest to StepChange, saying that the other letter was a formality - they are actually freezing interest, are sympathetic to my situation and are accepting the payments. They are issuing a default (great - get that on there asap) and the letter is just their standard shouting default notification. Phew. I just nearly had a heart attack. For about thirty seconds. :rotfl:

*random capitals are mine; supposed to indicate shouty nature of letter

In comedy news...after MBNA accepted StepChange's offer and agreed to freeze interest...they sent me a new credit card this morning. Are they serious!? :rotfl: Right, I'm off to get the scissors...;)

cocoloco

Great news patator on natwest and MBNA!

One of our creditor is MBNA and hope they will be sympatetic with us as well.

Just a question about First Direct- we have a loan with £6000 still outstanding after we paid off all the interest at the start.

Q1- Do you think they will start charging interest again?!?

Q2- First Direct is a branch od HSBC- and I keep seeing in here that HSBC is probably the WORST creditor to deal with. Did anybody else dealt with First Direct- are they reasonable or a nightmare?
Thanks in adavance!

patator

Cocoloco - I really hope you find people are sympathetic. I've been pleasantly surprised; all my dealings with financial bods before now have involved people being very officious and not particularly helpful, but since starting DMP I've found everybody much more friendly to deal with. That said, I'm VERY glad StepChange are handling everything - don't know what I'd do trying to self-manage a DMP.

Good luck with First Direct/HSBC x

cocoloco

patator wrote: »

Cocoloco - I really hope you find people are sympathetic. I've been pleasantly surprised; all my dealings with financial bods before now have involved people being very officious and not particularly helpful, but since starting DMP I've found everybody much more friendly to deal with. That said, I'm VERY glad StepChange are handling everything - don't know what I'd do trying to self-manage a DMP.

Good luck with First Direct/HSBC x

Thanks patator!

I just keep to my mantra when I will deal any preditor:

" I can't give you what I don't have" and " I'm on DMP, my number is **** please contact Payplan" - I might turn into a parott by the end of it... :rotfl:

championless

Hi All

Newbie here. Just wanted to get a bit of advice really. I'm considering a DMP as I have £7K worth of debt. Have a good job, so currently managing to make all payments with very very little to spare after everything is paid. Considering a DMP but unsure whether it's the right thing to do and i'll tell you why:

I have a default on my report that's 3 years old. So another 3 years left to go on that before it falls off. My boyfriend is currently studying for a PhD, so in about a year and a half, his money pretty much doubles overnight and the original plan was to then save up a decent deposit and buy a house.

If i enter into a DMP, by the time we have a deposit together, my DMP would be completely paid and finished.

The one thing i'm worried about is that any DMP-related defaults would still be showing on my report and that this would affect us getting a mortgage together.

What i'm asking is, considering i'm still managing to make payments, do you think it's worth doing the DMP, even though i'm not left with very much once everything is paid? I know that it's likely to affect my chances of me getting a mortgage, but would that be the case if, by then, the DMP-defaults would all be around 2-3 years old and SATISFIED?

Looking forward to your suggestions.

Thanks
championless

NaughtySpot

championless wrote: »

Hi All

Newbie here. Just wanted to get a bit of advice really. I'm considering a DMP as I have £7K worth of debt. Have a good job, so currently managing to make all payments with very very little to spare after everything is paid. Considering a DMP but unsure whether it's the right thing to do and i'll tell you why:

I have a default on my report that's 3 years old. So another 3 years left to go on that before it falls off. My boyfriend is currently studying for a PhD, so in about a year and a half, his money pretty much doubles overnight and the original plan was to then save up a decent deposit and buy a house.

If i enter into a DMP, by the time we have a deposit together, my DMP would be completely paid and finished.

The one thing i'm worried about is that any DMP-related defaults would still be showing on my report and that this would affect us getting a mortgage together.

What i'm asking is, considering i'm still managing to make payments, do you think it's worth doing the DMP, even though i'm not left with very much once everything is paid? I know that it's likely to affect my chances of me getting a mortgage, but would that be the case if, by then, the DMP-defaults would all be around 2-3 years old and SATISFIED?

Looking forward to your suggestions.

Thanks
championless

Given what you've written I think I would do a SOA on the debt-free wannabe board and see where savings can be made. Look up snowballing debts and see if you can clear them yourself whilst keeping up with the payments, then your credit file won't be added to. Maybe do the debt management tool on the stepchange website and it'll give you an idea of the budget you should be living too. I realised too late there were so many areas we could've saved money, but instead we stuck our heads in the sand until we just ran out of credit.

championless

NaughtySpot wrote: »

Maybe do the debt management tool on the stepchange website and it'll give you an idea of the budget you should be living too.

Hiya NaughtySpot

I've done that, it shows i have just £123 spare income each month, which is what got me onto thinking about a DMP in the first place. I'm only JUST meeting minimum payments at the moment, but by later this year, things will have improved somewhat and i will have more money to clear things, but still, only just managing to pay things with little left over....

What do you think?

Thanks
championless

Find_The_Real

I have to agree with Naughty spot if you can make the repayments even if they are the minimum until things are likely to improve then it is far better to do that then enter into a DMP. I would also put up a SOA as it can be far more useful for things to be pointed out as I think we tend to base it on wants and not just need and it can be so useful to see what others think.

Good luck and I hope it all goes well for you.