DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Sazzie23

Mojo13 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I know I've probably asked this before but can't seem to find my own post, pt it down to old age!!! Having a wobbly moment how does DMP effect your ability to renegotiate or fix an existing mortgage.

Thanks

All

Hi Mojo


sometimes posts vanish......into the mists of time.....
From my experience - and what I recall on here - keeping with your existing mortgage company is probably OK, don't mention DMP unless they ask. Going to another company depends on how much your DMP is for versus amount of equity in house. I haven't been able to remortgage to clear my shortfall as my DMP is too high v my equity too low.

Others have managed it though so its a bit variable.

Time_to_face_the_music

DanielleNic87 wrote: »

Ideally what I would like to do is to start overpaying my Argos card ( balance of £500) which is still charging interest and thought that I couldn't do that.... But comments following suggests I could possibly do that.

When we were with StepChange, (then CCCS), we always made overpayments to creditors who were still charging interest and then just adjusted the balance on the CCCS website each month.


Have you made an official complaint to Argos and followed it up with the FOS?

Time_to_face_the_music

Hi and welcome to maggiesden and On that log road :hello:

Sazzie - The issue with smilies seems to be related to IE10, has your laptop recently updated itself with MS upgrades?

fermi

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Have you made an official complaint to Argos and followed it up with the FOS?

Worth doing.

Example from a quick search: Read --> http://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/viewPDF.aspx?FileID=21784

DanielleNic87

Thank you TTFTM and Fermi. I will do just that.

Monkeyballs

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

When we were with StepChange, (then CCCS), we always made overpayments to creditors who were still charging interest and then just adjusted the balance on the CCCS website each month

Morning!

Ooooh... I didn't think this was acceptable, SC certainly seemd to suggest it was a no no at the time I set mine up?

Was there anything more to it than what you mention because Barclaycard while having reduced interest dramatically I still wind up paying about £11 in interest each month (as opposed to the pre dmp £60) and when they're only receiving £33 per month it's a third of my repayment gone up in smoke!

Thanks,

MB

Time_to_face_the_music

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Morning!

Ooooh... I didn't think this was acceptable, SC certainly seemd to suggest it was a no no at the time I set mine up?

Was there anything more to it than what you mention because Barclaycard while having reduced interest dramatically I still wind up paying about £11 in interest each month (as opposed to the pre dmp £60) and when they're only receiving £33 per month it's a third of my repayment gone up in smoke!

Thanks,

MB

The way I look at it is like this, a DMP is an informal agreement but you are supposed to treat all creditors fairly. Some stop interest, default quickly and play nice, others don't. So they don't treat me fairly and why should I treat them equally? This may seem a bit simplistic and flippant but it is the basis for how I have handled our DMP.

We started off with Stepchange (ex CCCS), who unfortunately did not have much luck in getting any interest or charges stopped for us. The explanation for this seems to be the way they distribute the payments which is based on your previous minimum payment and not the total owed. We owed a lot and were fortunate in being able to pay a lot into our DMP but this meant that some payments to creditors were above our minimum payment and they hence refused to accept that we were in financial difficulty and would not stop interest.

I thought at first we just had to accept this and CCCS told us this happened sometimes and there was nothing they could do about it, there is no legal obligation for creditors to stop interest. I started reading the previous threads on this forum and also on other debt forums and realised people did fight this and won, so was determined I could too.

First step was to negate all interest charged each month, while fighting to get this stopped and refunded. We started making extra payments to each creditor who was still charging interest, this was earned by selling stuff on ebay/Amazon, working extra hours, OH marking exams etc. In the meantime we wrote letters of complaint and followed everything up with the FOS. Most we won, one we lost. So we concentrated on getting that one paid off.

This one creditor told us that if we dropped our payment to them, they would stop interest. We discussed this with StepChange and they refused to drop the payment, we got the creditor to put it in writing and send it to StepChange but it was still a no go. Next step was to figure out how to play hard ball with creditors who were giving us a bad time and we realised we could only do this by taking over our own DMP, so we went it alone. It's amazing how a couple of months token payments instead of their full amount can soften up a difficult creditor

Another advantage of going it alone meant it immediately put us one month ahead with our DMP, as all creditors got 2 payments that month. It's still not perfect, almost 2 years in we still only have 2 defaults but I will fight these as each debt is paid off and try to get the default backdated to within 6 months of the start of the DMP.

StepChange do a good job and they help many people but they are not for everyone. I also never completely trust the fact that they are funded by our debt payments. I wish I had known at the start what I know now and I believe life would have been a lot easier but hey, we live and learn and without the help, advice and support of this thread, I have no idea of where we would be now

Monkeyballs

Hi TTFTM,

Hmmm... Most interesting and something which I think I'm going to have a serious look into.

The reality is that because of the budget I generally don't have any money left (or not what I had originally thought would be significant) but I do have enough to perhaps pay an extra £5-15 each month and if I could pay that to them then that means their balance comes down in line with my other creditors too!

In the meantime I'll look into sending a letter of complaint, I seem to recall a link to one on this thread a couple of pages ago - worth a shot, nothing to lose I guess.

Thanks again,

MB

janet43

hi
I am a newbie to this and in need of some help please.
I am waiting for the pack from SC to start my DMP. I was wondering what bank to change to and do I tell them about starting a DMP.
When do I stop the DD and SO?
DO I carry on paying the minimum amount on CC??
I am worried about all this because being on my own and not having any one to talk to (my mum has just died and she was my only support).
I need to start dealing with my debt which has been very hard to look at.
any advice would be appreciated thanking you in advance.


janet

Growurown

janet43 wrote: »

hi
I am a newbie to this and in need of some help please.
I am waiting for the pack from SC to start my DMP. I was wondering what bank to change to and do I tell them about starting a DMP.
When do I stop the DD and SO?
DO I carry on paying the minimum amount on CC??
I am worried about all this because being on my own and not having any one to talk to (my mum has just died and she was my only support).
I need to start dealing with my debt which has been very hard to look at.
any advice would be appreciated thanking you in advance.


janet

Hi Janet :hello:

You will need to change to a bank where you have no connected debts. Lots of people go for a Co-op account. I went to First Direct as we had no debts with HSBC. You don't need to tell them you are on a DMP.

When you get your pack all the info will be in there. You will need to write to your creditors telling them you can't pay. SC will give you a template or I'm sure someone on here can find one for you. It's difficult to know when to stop the DD's and SO's because you don't want your current bank to cotton on to what you are doing if you are going to include any money you owe them in the DMP. I started cancelling things when I had my new account set up and the salary was being paid into it. That way my old bank couldn't take any of it to pay off the over draft.

If you really can't afford to pay minimum payments at the moment you can pay a token pound and write to those creditors asap. This will mean cancelling DD's etc. but the bank probably won't cotton on if the ones you cancel are nothing to do with them.

Try not to worry. We've all been through this process. It will be a few months of sorting out creditors and then it should all settle down. I'm sorry to hear about your Mum. Hopefully we can help to support you through this now.:)