DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

jubilee14

Hi Puzzcat from memory i think i had it in email format within a few days. then the other pack followed shortly. dont think it was much more than a week.

Puzzcat

jubilee14 wrote: »

Hi Puzzcat from memory i think i had it in email format within a few days. then the other pack followed shortly. dont think it was much more than a week.

Thanks Jubilee14, I expect I am being a little impatient..:D

*Foolish*

Puzzcat wrote: »

Quick question if you please....!

Anyone know how long it takes for Sc to send the welcome pack to you...? This will be the details of how much they are offering each creditor etc... They said they would post or email and that was a week ago....

Thank you.....

Puzz. x

I didn't get one in the post, just by email and it came within a day. I'd maybe give them a call?

Puzzcat

*Foolish* wrote: »

I didn't get one in the post, just by email and it came within a day. I'd maybe give them a call?

Thank you, I will do that tomorrow.

Scouter

Evening all.

First post, so be gentle!

Where to start...Our situation came to a head recently when we realised there wasn't enough money in the pot to buy our son a birthday present (£50 for a s/h mountain bike - hardly a fortune). I say came to a head. To be honest, we've been reaching this point for a long time, and we knew it, but somehow we always got by, and I suppose deep down, thought 'something would turn up'...which, of course, it never did.

Anyway, cutting a long story short, I've been in touch with StepChange, and we're just in the process of setting up the DMP. Need to set up a new bank account too, as three of the debts are with the same bank as our accounts are held.

Our story is similar to many here, I suspect. We bought our house back in 1994, when there was just the two of us, both working full time, not on fantastic money, but comfortable enough. Our first child came along in 1996, which meant my wife had to drop down to part time, and a lower grade, though still with the same employer. So, we started to use credit to supplement our income.

We had a period of five years before our second child was born, by which time my wife had changed jobs and was full time again. During most of that time, we always had debts of some description (loans and credit cards) but had no problem servicing them.

What finally tipped us over the edge, was that twice in the last three or four years, my wife has been out of work for a period of three or four months, leading to us depending on credit to get through. Then, of course, you end up with the vicious circle of spending most of your spare income servicing credit cards, then having to shop on credit cards because you've used your spare income paying credit cards!

Fortunately, after her last spell out of work earlier this year, she found a job back in May, which is exactly what she wanted, on the same rate, but less hours, which has really compounded the problem. She is far happier with the job though, which is more important than money.

So, that's us in a nutshell. I'm quite ashamed that we've ended up in this position, and it's certainly not where I would like to have been once we reached our 40s. I'm quite reassured that we're far from the only ones in this situation, and also that our debt is not as bad as others I've read about on here (been lurking on and off for a couple of years - deep down I've always known this was coming).

Basically, we have a debt of £22K, across 6 creditors, which SC reckon will take 10 years to pay. Sounds a long time, but who knows what might turn up in the future (there I go again - eternal optimism!) At least we should be debt free well before retirement!

I have a couple of questions, but I'll pop back later with those.



PS: We managed to find enough to get him the bike in the end, but it was a close run thing! :eek:

jubilee14

Hi Scouter welcome. Yes your story is similar to mine and several others life moves and finances didnt adjust until your spending to pay the debt with nothing improving.

I remember well midway last september when i realised for the second month in a row there was nothing left once all the debts had been paid by 7th of the month and know i couldnt go on.

Not saying we are well off at all still having to watch the pennies to the end of the month . but it is the end of the month not a week after payday. and teh debt is now moving. will take a while but will be worth it.

great folks on here for lots of advice and sympathy when needed.

Sazzie23

Hi Scouter,

Welcome aboard and well done for making the first steps at sorting out your debt. In your position but for different reasons, however the outcome is the same, outgoings more than income = inevitable disaster.
I still have some big financial challenges to overcome, but the DMP has been a blessing in a lot of ways.

Plenty of help about on here and other forum threads, so ask whenever you need support.

Remember it's a marathon and not a sprint, I think heading toward retirement without debt is a great aim to keep in mind, thanks for that thought.

Sazzie23

Hi all

Just a point I wanted to remind people on SC DMP, the payment is taken early in the month - about 1st or 8th but the creditors don't get paid until 25th of each month after they after received the payment. e,g, pay 8 March, creditor paid 25th March. This can create quite a lag so it may be worth token payment if its longer than the 30 days grace period while you are setting up.

Hope this is useful

carlyfluck

Hi everyone, hope your all well.
we have been on our dmp with sc for a year nearly, this month will see the first final payment of one of our debts :-).
However i have just received current balances from other debts all with lloyds and they just seem to be getting bigger, due to interest and charges. I have just wrote a letter asking if they will stop these as they will never get their money back. Our biggest debt was a loan and when we started the dmp was at 9,100 after paying £1000 over the last 10 months its still 9100!
Has anyone had any positive action from lloyds with stopping charges etc?

Thanks

Scouter

Hmm, would be interested as to what the outcome is there - we're about to start a DMP and three of our debts are with LloydsTSB (actually, just Lloyds since the recent split) - two loans and an overdraft.

I assumed with a DMP that the creditors would be paid at an equal rate over the life of the agreement, with all being paid around the same time. Is that not the case then?