DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

jenster78

Hi everyone, thank you for the warm welcome :beer:

Bev, I think you and I are joining together at the same time, I hope you are feeling ok, as I know it's a bit horrid and scary at the moment

Well, we have had a right a nightmare already trying to set up our new bank account. Went to the natwest and they want us to agree, sign up and move all our direct debits now. When we said we wanted the control of that they didn't like it. I came out thinking maybe they are onto us starting a dmp (not that it's a crime) but my mum raised a good point that they probably want to see what they can get out of us ie credit card, overdraft etc...

I've just spoke to the Yorkshire bank and they were really helpful and said we could open an account with them and they have said that this would not need to be our main account. I justo wondered what experienced or advise anyone could offer on this part part of the process?

Thank you in advance and I promise to she around and support the other posts on here. Just trying to sort the the kids out on top of all these dmp arrangement :rotfl:

jenster78

I just wanted to say a big thank you, you have all made me feel so much better just being part of your little dmp family

Time_to_face_the_music

Larac wrote: »

I am currently in my second year on a DMP of a seven year journey and just wondering that when you have an annual review there is an expectancy that you will automatically increase your payments.

Last year I had a small pay raise (appreciate I am lucky to get one) half got swallowed up by increases to the DMP debt and the rest went on the cost of living rises on utilities/food etc.

Again this year I have got a small pay rise but have lost child benefit allowance due to the new rules + son hopefully off to Uni, so my pay rise + reductions in company car tax make me about even.

Can anyone advise as my review comes up in September? This time I realise I need to be better prepared for the review and do it on time, as I had NRAM chasing me as I had missed the review by a month and for some reason they only agree a year at a time to take reduced payments

Just would like to say that I appreciate this thread as you realise that there are a lot of others in this boat and the advice given is so helpful.

Hi Larac :hello:

There is nothing written in stone that you have to increase your payments. It's just a matter of going through your income and expenditure again, same as you do at the start up of a DMP. If you have no more to go towards your debts, it is accepted that your payments cannot increase.

Just have everything prepared for the review and you will be fine

GibbsRule_No3

Larac, agree with ttftm. You are more likely to get to the end of a five year dmp and thus pay the debts, if you don't have to struggle. I never increased the money I paid, I think I paid less the second year, nothing happened with my creditors and like you I received pay rises but they usually were negated by the rise in costs. Rent etc in my case, I don't drive so petrol increase did not impact me directly. I think we forget that so many others are in the same boat with the creditor that our personal debt is not the be all and end all with them and so long as they receive money on a regular basis, rather than nothing, they are mostly going to leave us alone. So try and have a life over the next five years, it will get easier as you settle in.

Time_to_face_the_music

Bev45 wrote: »

Hi! Thanks for the welcome! So nervous about this! Was wondering if anyone knows how a dmp will affect our mortgage? We are currently only paying interest only, but when our circumstances change we will change to repayment. Will they put the interest rate right up? Is it better just to save the money seperately to pay some of the mortgage off? Also as we will have defaults, will this last on our credit history for six years from when the defaults were first made or 6 years from when the debt is completely cleared? Sorry for all the questions!

I'm definitely with Bertman on this one, if possible do everything you can to change your interest only mortgage to a repayment before the DMP starts, then you can include the cost of this in your expenditure.

Some people are reluctant to go on a DMP and wonder what it will do to their credit rating etc. To be honest, by the time most of us arrive here, we have no other option open to us and our credit is so overused, it's damaged anyway.

A DMP is pretty much a last resort, if you want credit in the next decade and can afford to pay back your debt in another way, e.g. snowballing, do that instead. But bear in mind that many, and I include myself in this, believe we can manage until one day our world just collapses around us. This came for me on 10th January last year when I realised we had no money to last the remainder of the month and every source of credit we had was maxed out and more.

You will read here and on other threads of the lightbulb moment (LBM), that was mine. When we have our LBM, it's awful, it really does feel like your world is falling apart and you will never be able to do anything to stop it but it's generally a real turning point.

17 months ago, I thought we would lose our house and still owe a fortune, today we have paid off over £31,400 and hope to be debt free in approximately 2.5 years. We have ruined our credit records but we don't care because we never want credit again. If I had to choose between available credit and peace of mind, I know which one I would go for every time. I sleep at night, I laugh with my family and I welcome bills instead of dreading them.

Sorry for the ramble! Never worry about asking questions, we are all in the same position or have been in the past. Mutual support is what it's all about

jenster78

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I'm definitely with Bertman on this one, if possible do everything you can to change your interest only mortgage to a repayment before the DMP starts, then you can include the cost of this in your expenditure.

Some people are reluctant to go on a DMP and wonder what it will do to their credit rating etc. To be honest, by the time most of us arrive here, we have no other option open to us and our credit is so overused, it's damaged anyway.

A DMP is pretty much a last resort, if you want credit in the next decade and can afford to pay back your debt in another way, e.g. snowballing, do that instead. But bear in mind that many, and I include myself in this, believe we can manage until one day our world just collapses around us. This came for me on 10th January last year when I realised we had no money to last the remainder of the month and every source of credit we had was maxed out and more.

You will read here and on other threads of the lightbulb moment (LBM), that was mine. When we have our LBM, it's awful, it really does feel like your world is falling apart and you will never be able to do anything to stop it but it's generally a real turning point.

17 months ago, I thought we would lose our house and still owe a fortune, today we have paid off over £31,400 and hope to be debt free in approximately 2.5 years. We have ruined our credit records but we don't care because we never want credit again. If I had to choose between available credit and peace of mind, I know which one I would go for every time. I sleep at night, I laugh with my family and I welcome bills instead of dreading them.

Sorry for the ramble! Never worry about asking questions, we are all in the same position or have been in the past. Mutual support is what it's all about

What a wonderfully inspiring post, thank you

Growurown

Hi all, welcome newbies!

Coming up to my 2 year review soon. Had a change of job and earn a bit more but there is more travelling so not much left over by the time I deduct the extra petrol. Changes to the tax meant I had a bit extra too, but that was more than wiped out by the amount OH lost! Car needs a lot of work so looking to decrease payment to SC next month to cover the cost. My landlord is insisting that our septic tank is emptied every year now even though it is huge and there is only two of us in the house, and of course we have to pay for that.

On the plus side one of loans will finish this month freeing up another £60 towards the overall debt.

Oh and the catalogue of things going wrong - managed to fix the mower ourselves, hairdryer making a funny noise eventually gave up the ghost but found an old one in the drawer. It's not brilliant but it will do. The Aldi iron wasn't a good purchase:(

Hey ho not to worry don't like ironing anyway:D

Have a good weekend all.

Enough_Now

Hi fellow DMPers

Welcome to our new joiners too.

I haven't updated for a while as work has been busy.

I've just been onto my online StepChange DMP page to input the correct debt amounts and there was quite a difference - negatively

Their calculations assume no interest is being added and it just showed how much quicker I would be finished if the remaining two creditors would agree to 0%.

Still, on the positive side, after six months on the DMP I have repaid 12.5% and my trusty spreadsheet predicts I will be debt-free by June 2016

I am due my annual review with SC in October. Can anyone tell me if you have to provide statements etc or is just done over the phone? I want to make sure I am prepared, so there are no delays in SC communicating with my creditors.

Many thanks

EN x

Growurown

Woo-hoo! I have just been on line to check my latest SC statement and I have broken through the thirty thousand mark and am now in the twenties. Still away to go but we are getting there!

Bev45

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies Bertman, time to face the muslic and Jenster! Yes Jenster it looks like we are starting this scary journey at the same time, hope you are ok too! We are planning on sending all the paperwork back on Monday. Thanks for the replies about the mortgage, I really don't know what to do, I need to speak to step change on Monday again. What scares me is if we cant change it to a repayment mortgage and then in the future the mortgage company try and change our mortgage from interest only and we can't afford it until these debts are paid off. And then when they are paid off when we try to change it to a repayment the interest rate will be far too high because of our poor credit because of the dmp. I'm not worried about our credit otherwise as I never ever want credit again!! Another option would be us if we just save the money that we would be paying into the mortgage our selves so we have a lump sum to pay off? As long as we can stay interest only until the end I think that could be an option without us having to change our mortgage! Sorry for the rambling, this is all very stressful!!!