DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Samjangi

Hi not been around for a few days. It has been a flurry of post and phone calls in the last few days. My husband finally felt brave enough to answer one and was so surprised at how ameniable they were (M & S) as soon as DMP and Stepchange were mentioned that we continued to telephone everyone else! We had already sent out letters and made token payments.
Well today amongst the post was a letter from MNBA stating they accept our offer and are freezing interest and all charges!!! It felt like Christmas opening that letter!
I know it is very early days, our first payment comes out 1st November but feeling so much more positive about life and the future than I have for years. :j

Time_to_face_the_music

carlyfluck wrote: »

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

Lloyds or Lloyds TSB or whatever they call themselves at this present moment in time are hard work. It's taken us 20 months to get a default but we did eventually get the interest back from them, thanks to the help of the FOS.

When you write to them, use the word complaint, don't ask nicely, they don't listen!

Use something like this:

You

Date

Them

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: [Creditor name] account No: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter/statement concerning the above account. I am sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest/charges on the above account.

As you are aware, I/we am/are in a DMP with XXXXXXXX, reference number XXXXXXXX. The majority of my/our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in my/our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase my/our total debt.

I/we have already paid considerable sums in interest to my/our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments I/we am/are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of my/our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

I am aware that XXXXXXX subscribes to the Lending Code which states that lenders will consider reducing or suspending interest and charges if these would cause the debt to increase or lead to the repayment term becoming too extended. I would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments I/we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

Please consider this letter as a complaint about the interest charges you are continuing to apply to my account. I would like to see these stopped immediately and previous interest charges refunded.

If you are unable to help me with this issue, I will have no alternative but to take this case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

You


And contact the FOS at the same time, telling them you have already requested they stop interest and Lloyds have ignored you

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

The only thing that actually worked in the end was us asking Lloyds to default us and they eventually did but you need to be persistent.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on

Growurown

Scouter wrote: »

Sorry, when I said all being paid at the same time, I meant as in the debts cleared at the same time at the end of the agreement. Didn't word it very well though.

Carly alluded to the first of their debts being paid off before the others, I just assumed they'd all be paid off together.

Hi Scouter

No they may not all be paid off together, it depends whether they stop interest or not. Step Change work on the assumption that interest has stopped and calculate the balance on your statement as though every penny you pay to your creditors goes to reducing the debt. However some creditors may still charge interest so you will have to update your balances on your DMP account on the website. Unless I can get the Halifax to stop charging then I will be paying them back long after everyone else. They are my only creditor to still charge interest.

I have heard some horror stories of people getting to the end of their DMP only to find they still owe creditors because they didn't realise the balance on their DMP didn't truly reflect the actual amount they owed.

Growurown

:hello: Hi to all you newbies! Apologies if I have missed anyone out and good luck on your DMP journey. Remember there are no stupid questions so ask away if you have any worries or concerns. This is the mutual support thread after all:D

carlyfluck wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Boxchatter wrote: »

Hi all

Rookoo wrote: »

Hi all

Scouter wrote: »

Evening all.

Samjangi wrote: »

Hi

scaredandpoor wrote: »

I wish to set up a DMP even though it may take 26yrs to pay off and need all the tips I can :-)

Puzzcat

Samjangi wrote: »

Hi not been around for a few days. It has been a flurry of post and phone calls in the last few days. My husband finally felt brave enough to answer one and was so surprised at how ameniable they were (M & S) as soon as DMP and Stepchange were mentioned that we continued to telephone everyone else! We had already sent out letters and made token payments.
Well today amongst the post was a letter from MNBA stating they accept our offer and are freezing interest and all charges!!! It felt like Christmas opening that letter!
I know it is very early days, our first payment comes out 1st November but feeling so much more positive about life and the future than I have for years. :j

Well done Sam.. I found M & S lovely as well... well for now anyway....!!! And how lovely of MBNA, not heard from any of mine with regards to offer acceptances or not yet, but the offers will only just be going out.. I shall keep you posted and hopefully have some success too...

Love Puzz.

Puzzcat

Well I started the day with an email from N.West requesting I contact them as they have tried to get in touch and to quote the ref number in recent correspondence...

So I rang them, they confirmed my contact numbers and I confirmed that they had made no contact with me by phone or letter.. so probably put the poor guy on the back foot for a minute... I told him I was starting a dmp blah blah and he then advised me to tell SC where to make contact with them and to tell SC that the offers must be based on the outstanding balances blah blah.. I said I don't think they operate like that and I'm not in a position to tell them otherwise.. so more... well your offer may be rejected blah blah, go to recovery, be chased for debt... etc etc... you get my drift...

I did then contact SC to advise them of the details given and they agreed that N.West don't know what they are talking about, its all done electronically and they will make the offers as they usually do...

Whilst I was on the phone I asked about my creditors offers as the paperwork I received said they were paying each one 1p.. and he agreed this was incorrect and gave me the correct details... Not sure I'd have got any acceptances with a 9p offer against a 59k debt..:eek:

So onwards and upwards and I shall wait to hear from my lovely creditors..

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
Love Puzz. x

ianmak

ianmak wrote: »

Update from me, after a month of getting knowhere with full & finals through PayPlan (creditors want 75%, I have 50% to offer), I've ended up doing a F&F IVA. It's obscene the amount PP take (The creditor ends up with 27%), but if it gets rid of my debts, and the Creditors are stupid enough to accept that rather than the 50% I offered, then more fool them.

I don't agree with the IVA, but my surplus had dropped by 90% after moving in with my partner, and I just don't have the time to negotiate with the creditors on my own (Plus the creditors wanted to deal with PP!), I felt it was my only option moving on to being 'technically' debt free.

Well I had the creditors meeting yesterday, and they've accepted. I've paid my money, and I've got to wait up to two months for the completion certificate before I am debt free.

I don't know how I feel tbh. Not a lot will change, and until I receive that certificate I won't feel safe. I won't be allowed credit for 6 years, and I'm very happy with that. It'll mean 11 years in total without it! And they've asked me to destroy my credit cards (which I've kept all this time). So I may shred them and get them mounted on a plinthe or something.

And it's a shame that after 5 years of DMP I had to resort to an IVA after all.

ianmak

Growurown wrote: »

Hi Scouter

No they may not all be paid off together, it depends whether they stop interest or not. Step Change work on the assumption that interest has stopped and calculate the balance on your statement as though every penny you pay to your creditors goes to reducing the debt. However some creditors may still charge interest so you will have to update your balances on your DMP account on the website. Unless I can get the Halifax to stop charging then I will be paying them back long after everyone else. They are my only creditor to still charge interest.

I have heard some horror stories of people getting to the end of their DMP only to find they still owe creditors because they didn't realise the balance on their DMP didn't truly reflect the actual amount they owed.

Scouter - I believe with Stepchange they calculate according to minimum contractual payments, so some creditors will get paid off sooner.

Sazzie23

Samjangi wrote: »

Hi not been around for a few days. It has been a flurry of post and phone calls in the last few days. My husband finally felt brave enough to answer one and was so surprised at how ameniable they were (M & S) as soon as DMP and Stepchange were mentioned that we continued to telephone everyone else! We had already sent out letters and made token payments.
Well today amongst the post was a letter from MNBA stating they accept our offer and are freezing interest and all charges!!! It felt like Christmas opening that letter!
I know it is very early days, our first payment comes out 1st November but feeling so much more positive about life and the future than I have for years. :j

Oh good news Samjangi - it is very empowering being able to call creditors without them being judgemental, I think they have figured out giving you a hard time won't invent any extra money.

Good luck with DMP

carlyfluck

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Lloyds or Lloyds TSB or whatever they call themselves at this present moment in time are hard work. It's taken us 20 months to get a default but we did eventually get the interest back from them, thanks to the help of the FOS.

When you write to them, use the word complaint, don't ask nicely, they don't listen!

Use something like this:

You

Date

Them

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: [Creditor name] account No: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter/statement concerning the above account. I am sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest/charges on the above account.

As you are aware, I/we am/are in a DMP with XXXXXXXX, reference number XXXXXXXX. The majority of my/our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in my/our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase my/our total debt.

I/we have already paid considerable sums in interest to my/our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments I/we am/are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of my/our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

I am aware that XXXXXXX subscribes to the Lending Code which states that lenders will consider reducing or suspending interest and charges if these would cause the debt to increase or lead to the repayment term becoming too extended. I would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments I/we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

Please consider this letter as a complaint about the interest charges you are continuing to apply to my account. I would like to see these stopped immediately and previous interest charges refunded.

If you are unable to help me with this issue, I will have no alternative but to take this case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

You


And contact the FOS at the same time, telling them you have already requested they stop interest and Lloyds have ignored you

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

The only thing that actually worked in the end was us asking Lloyds to default us and they eventually did but you need to be persistent.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on

Thankyou for this, its much better then the one i wrote haha, ive printed it off and will send off today. fingers crossed they may do something!
when contacting the FOS what do you actually say and what info do they need? ive never had to deal with them before! x