DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Growurown wrote: »

Brilliant HH:T:T I bet you can't wait. Are you going to be looking at doing some F& F settlements?

At least another three years for us:(

Hi GUO

Not going for F&Fs. Interest being paid to 4 creditors totalled £37 this month, considerably less than I was paying. Because debt has gone down so has the interest, so more of the DMP payment being taken off the debt.

You know how I like to put a positive spin on things when I can........We are more than half way through this year, next Xmas 2014 will be in the middle of the three years and the one after will be the last one for you. Does that feel any better?

HHx

Find_The_Real

Great news HH to be under the next thousands mark and well done for paying off so much so far.

I know 3 years can seem like along time GUO but I am sure it will soon go. I always look at it that I would have been living with a life time of debt had I not taken any action, so the 6 years (hopefully) to pay back the parents is looking far better IMHO.

sharpeyes66

Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!

Halifax Collections wrote to me in middle of June to say they had accepted the payment offer from SC for an initial period of 6 months. SC made the monthly figure offer-£148, I assume, based on the O/S balance. Prior to getting into difficulty I was on a 0% bal tfr offer and as a min payment £90 was missed before the first payment from SC, the agreement was broken as they started to add charges, late fees and interest at 18.95%.
Somehow, by Halifax receiving the first payment from SC they have taken the acc out of Collection and back to mainstream card services and they now say that the minimum payment will be the monthly accrued interest plus £5. That means that the Sc payment is more than the minimum payment and so the account is not in collections and they will just treat it as a normal account at std interest. Because of the credit limit, the monthly interest will never get to within £5 of the Sc payment so I am stuck in a Catch 22 and am repaying a £8800 debt at about £10/15 per month instead of £148. Spent nearly 90 mins on phone to halifax today and finally got to speak to someone who sais they understand and would pass it through as a complaint. It doesn't really go along with the policy on their letters of 'treating customers in financial difficulty in a sympathetic and positive manner' They suggested I go back to SC and ask them to reduce the payment so that I'm below the minimum monthly figure but cant see SC doing that. Really confused, annoyed and worried that I'm racking up massive interest charges and its undoing what I'm trying to do to clear this debt:(

futurewish

Have a tele. appt. with payplan this afternoon - hopefully this is the start of improving things, how quickly will the ball start rolling..??

Time_to_face_the_music

gamblebee wrote: »

How did you manage to pay off your debts so quick? Are you with SC?

Started DMP last year with SC with 73k debts, year after it's now 64k. Wanted to pay off my small debts and would like to offer f&f offer to creditors but I don't know how to go about it. Do I need to get SC involve? I am concern that they won't allow me to pay off my small debts as it is against treating creditors fair and equal. Please advise.....

The simple answer is that we both earn good salaries and have made a lot of extra money and thrown it all at our debt. Are also saving for an endowment shortfall which has slowed us down this year.

We started off with StepChange for 10 months then went self managed so we could play hard ball with interest charging creditors. It's also allowed us to do what you would like to and pay off small debts. W believe that there is no such thing as fairness towards creditors as they don't play fair with us! We are not interested in F&Fs as we want to pay off every penny we owe but can understand why people want to do this.

I think I have advised you before that if you ask StepChange to offer F&Fs now, they will ask you why you are not putting that money towards your DMP. You can ask the question anonymously on their thread Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question - top sticky on the main DFW board.

If you feel confident about it, check out the opportunity to go self managed either completely solo or via NED CAB:

http://mymoney.nedcab.org.uk/moneyadvice/dmp.asp

Time_to_face_the_music

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Morning all from HH

Still excited on payday mornings, especially when there is money left over from the month before:). I have paid all creditors, my DMP balance is now just under 13k (£12 999). Really pleased given I started at £59 214 and with first months interest went to £60 516. Hoping next month to hit 80% paid off and be done in 10 months.

Have a good day all

HHx

Brilliant news Twin :T

Your positivity always keeps me going and am sure it inspires many more :j

TTFTM x

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Brilliant news Twin :T

Your positivity always keeps me going and am sure it inspires many more :j

TTFTM x

Thank you and like wise twin

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

sharpeyes66 wrote: »

Aaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!

Halifax Collections wrote to me in middle of June to say they had accepted the payment offer from SC for an initial period of 6 months. SC made the monthly figure offer-£148, I assume, based on the O/S balance. Prior to getting into difficulty I was on a 0% bal tfr offer and as a min payment £90 was missed before the first payment from SC, the agreement was broken as they started to add charges, late fees and interest at 18.95%.
Somehow, by Halifax receiving the first payment from SC they have taken the acc out of Collection and back to mainstream card services and they now say that the minimum payment will be the monthly accrued interest plus £5. That means that the Sc payment is more than the minimum payment and so the account is not in collections and they will just treat it as a normal account at std interest. Because of the credit limit, the monthly interest will never get to within £5 of the Sc payment so I am stuck in a Catch 22 and am repaying a £8800 debt at about £10/15 per month instead of £148. Spent nearly 90 mins on phone to halifax today and finally got to speak to someone who sais they understand and would pass it through as a complaint. It doesn't really go along with the policy on their letters of 'treating customers in financial difficulty in a sympathetic and positive manner' They suggested I go back to SC and ask them to reduce the payment so that I'm below the minimum monthly figure but cant see SC doing that. Really confused, annoyed and worried that I'm racking up massive interest charges and its undoing what I'm trying to do to clear this debt:(

Sorry to hear about Hellifax. My situation was identical. After wrangling with them I got them to change repayment date so no charges. Also got 6 months interest reimbursed through credit to the account. Could not get them under 14.9% though and by that time I was there I was well over minimum payment so 14.9% it was.

If you have proof in writing you have asked them to reconsider and to treat as a complaint then call the FOS. Good luck with it, please let us know how you get on.

HHX

Growurown

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Hi GUO

Not going for F&Fs. Interest being paid to 4 creditors totalled £37 this month, considerably less than I was paying. Because debt has gone down so has the interest, so more of the DMP payment being taken off the debt.

You know how I like to put a positive spin on things when I can........We are more than half way through this year, next Xmas 2014 will be in the middle of the three years and the one after will be the last one for you. Does that feel any better?

HHx

Yes, thank you!

I was feeling a bit out of sorts this week and a bit blue. July has been a difficult month with the car needing lots of work so had to reduce our payment. Our rent has gone up, my heating oil provider wants shed loads more because we have got a bit behind due to extra heating we had in the cold spring, and now the boiler won't start. So I have got to get someone in to look at that. So already August is looking a bit dodgy and there is another family wedding so more costs there. Sometimes it does feel like two steps forward and one step back.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Growurown wrote: »

Yes, thank you!

I was feeling a bit out of sorts this week and a bit blue. July has been a difficult month with the car needing lots of work so had to reduce our payment. Our rent has gone up, my heating oil provider wants shed loads more because we have got a bit behind due to extra heating we had in the cold spring, and now the boiler won't start. So I have got to get someone in to look at that. So already August is looking a bit dodgy and there is another family wedding so more costs there. Sometimes it does feel like two steps forward and one step back.

It does feel like one back one forward sometimes doesn't it. You can't buy back time though. Think about going back to SC to tell them you need a reduction if there's a cost to the boiler. Yes the debt needs paying but you need a break too and DMPs should allow for these surprise bills if they are not giving a healthy emergency fund allowance.

I hope karma is restored very soon for you

HHx