DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Time_to_face_the_music

cocoa1990 wrote: »

Thanks! I've got my application pack now that I'm working through. I've already organised a new bank account and have provided my work with the details, hopefully for next payday.

My other big worry is people contacting me at work. Is there any way I can stop them doing this? I doubt they're likely to follow my polite requests, but in the long term personal calls could jeopardise my job and my ability to repay

I don't know if it works but some people have said that they go through any accounts they can access online and change their phone numbers.

cocoa1990

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I don't know if it works but some people have said that they go through any accounts they can access online and change their phone numbers.

I've tried, most wouldn't allow me to change my details online and wanted me to call customer service - no doubt so I could be bullied or refused. I've prepared all of my letters to send and included a line requesting to be contacted my post or email only. I've also attached them all to emails and sent them off so hopefully they won't claim that they haven't heard from me.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

cocoa1990 wrote: »

I've tried, most wouldn't allow me to change my details online and wanted me to call customer service - no doubt so I could be bullied or refused. I've prepared all of my letters to send and included a line requesting to be contacted my post or email only. I've also attached them all to emails and sent them off so hopefully they won't claim that they haven't heard from me.

If anyone does call you wherever that may be do make sure you take a note of time date and especially their name. If you have the nerve and its convenient tell them it is against your express written agreement and you are going to be reporting them. If it does happen write to the company and FOS. It will be ok

HHx

Growurown

Splather wrote: »

Hi guys

Just wondering if anyone had any advice regarding my friend's situation, which Fermi kindly reposted for me here (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=59452273&postcount=242)?

Many thanks!

Halifax were our only creditor who continued to charge interest. We've not made much of a dent in the balance tbh. We have complained and rearranged our payment plan with them and they have said they will now drop the interest to 1% but I am not confident that this will happen. This was partly my fault as I didn't keep my eye on the ball. Halifax will only agree to the repayment plan for 6 months at a time and I missed the date so they deemed our plan to be defunct and piled on a whole load of charges. I'm wondering whether to write to them to see if we can get some of the charges back because they have been receiving regular payments even though they considered our agreement to be broken. Worth a try I guess.

I have learnt a valuable lesson though and that is to actually read the letters they send me rather than assume they are just another load of bumph and chuck them in the pile.

Allypops

The car is very unwell. It needed a new clutch at the end of last year. Don't know what is wrong with it now but it has been making increasingly horrible noises and then today was also overheating. It's DH's car (I got rid of mine ages ago) and he needs it for work (shift work varying from 3am starts to 2am finishes). Our contingency fund has already run out with previous contingency type expenditure like boiler breakdown (boiler on its way out too) and additional leasehold service charges. I hope the car is fixable but then we still don't have any money to fix it. Oh carp!

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Allypops wrote: »

The car is very unwell. It needed a new clutch at the end of last year. Don't know what is wrong with it now but it has been making increasingly horrible noises and then today was also overheating. It's DH's car (I got rid of mine ages ago) and he needs it for work (shift work varying from 3am starts to 2am finishes). Our contingency fund has already run out with previous contingency type expenditure like boiler breakdown (boiler on its way out too) and additional leasehold service charges. I hope the car is fixable but then we still don't have any money to fix it. Oh carp!

Can you call SC and consider tokens for a few months to save money for another?

HHx

Growurown

Allypops wrote: »

I hope the car is fixable but then we still don't have any money to fix it. Oh carp!

Sorry to hear this Allypops. We had a huge car repair bill last year and had to drop our SC payment to help pay for it. Let's hope it isn't something serious. I have been looking at my budget on my DMP and it only allows £22 a month for servicing but what about repairs? £22 doesn't even get you an hour's worth of labour, well not around here anyway:(

Allypops

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Can you call SC and consider tokens for a few months to save money for another?

HHx

Thanks HH.
Don't know what to do at the moment as we cant afford to take it anywhere. DH might have to get cabs for the earliest/latest jobs for now to avoid doing any more damage to it.

Sorry to hear this Allypops. We had a huge car repair bill last year and had to drop our SC payment to help pay for it. Let's hope it isn't something serious. I have been looking at my budget on my DMP and it only allows £22 a month for servicing but what about repairs? £22 doesn't even get you an hour's worth of labour, well not around here anyway

Yes the car maintenance budget doesn't go far when something goes wrong and the contingency budget hasn't done too well lately either!
We are with Payplan, rather than SC, but I expect they both are much the same with this sort of thing. I don't want to risk upsetting the apple cart but I can't see any way round it at the moment.

Thanks for your replies and for listening to my moaning

Allypops

I wonder if I could convince DH that riding a push bike 8 miles at 3am is a good idea?

I think that is about as likely as a lottery win!

Back to the drawing board.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Allypops wrote: »

I wonder if I could convince DH that riding a push bike 8 miles at 3am is a good idea?

I think that is about as likely as a lottery win!

Back to the drawing board.

Morning All

Sorry this is giving you stress Ally. When I went on the DMP loosing my house was the biggest worry then it was the car as I knew it was unlikely to last out the DMP. Once I had got my knowledge up to speed I was relieved to see the house wouldn't be an issue. Have had several disasters with the car though. DMPs are informal and should work to the principle you need money (allowance) to live first and then the surplus is your DMP payment. A car is a need that should be in your allowance. Go to Payplan, ask for the options, will probably mean tokens and a readjustment to your car serviuce and spares budget line. My advice is if the preditors kick off, use it your advantage as further proof you are in financial difficulties and go for the kill on interest freeze and FOS if needed. This situation could turn into a win win for you.

We are all behind you. Go get em girl.

HHx