DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Growurown

On_that_log_road wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome growurown! I've just seen my title which was supposed to be something profound "on that loNg road" Ah well. will keep it as it is. What will be will be. Keep them logs a rollin'. All the best! :rotfl:

I did wonder! I thought maybe the log road was a reference to something to do with a long hard slog. Whether a log road or long road you have come to the best place for advice and support:D

mr.brightside87

I am just about to start paying my dmp next month but I have a few questions that someone might be able to shed a light on.

We are moving (hooray!) but obviously, I will have my dmp all set up and paying it off. How will this effect our chances of getting accepted for a tenancy? I have been told that we can just put down my partner's earnings and leave everything out about me but surely, one look at that would mean I am hiding something. IS this the correct way to go about it or are we just going to have to stump up the extra deposit that will surely be asked for?

Monkeyballs

Ok, small achievement announcement time...

I have made a payment to a creditor in addition to my DMP payment!!!

Only £3.26 but it means that my Barclaycard is now back under my credit limit LOL

Now only my card which has a £2k limit I have £1 available to spend...

It's actually oddly satisfying

MB

Monkeyballs

Hi all,

Oddly quite exciting!

I've been doing some reading and have just emailed a couple of F&F offers to two of my creditors, they're only small but my brother is willing to give me £250 at the end of Jan from his annual bonus so long as I can prove to him that it is being used to repay off a (or several) debts in their entirety...

I have offered Capquest £100 against an outstanding balance of £280 and Welcome Finance £80 against a balance of £170 and with the remainder I can repay my Barclays overdraft...

I've only been on my DMP for 7 months (or 8 by the time the payment is made if accepted) and have around another 2 1/2 years to go before the end!

From experience do you think that these creditors are likely to accept? I probably have another £20 wiggle room if needed...

Thanks,

MB

Sazzie23

Welcome Janet & MBrightside

Well done for facing your debts and making a start at sorting them out.

Brightside, I'm not in the rental market, if they do a credit check on you now, would you be ok - payments uptodate & no CCJ ? in which case I'd say put you on the details. Some people tell me they've gone to private landlords who don't do the same checks as agencies. Is it worse to be on the details with a bad record or 'hidden' ..I don't know...sorry ?


Hey MB

Good news all round regards Barclaycard. I think the F&F thread recommends you start offers at 25% and don't accept anything above 75% but thats from memory as I'm not in a position to look at F&Fs yet.

TTftm Thanks, that was interesting, I have issues with interest for the same reason, I'd never considered a self managed DMP as I think the discipline of SC is good for me, but I can see good reasons why moving might be a good idea.

For anyone reading this though, I'd still thoroughly recommend SC as your starting point for a DMP, especially if like me, you had no expereince of having to deal with creditors..i.e. you always paid your bills on time etc etc (and you cried everytime anyone was nice to you like SC:o). When you've got going and understand everything better maybe that's when to switch if you can't get your interest stopped.

TTftm and GUO - thanks I switched to Chrome and smilies work :j

Hopelessly_Hopeful

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

In short yes but would probably be short on options anyway if your finances are ready for a DMP. Some people have negotiated better deals and renewed but this has been with existing lenders.


Have to view DMP as a marathon and not a sprint. The mortgage will take care of itself in the long run.


HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Hi all,

Oddly quite exciting!

I've been doing some reading and have just emailed a couple of F&F offers to two of my creditors, they're only small but my brother is willing to give me £250 at the end of Jan from his annual bonus so long as I can prove to him that it is being used to repay off a (or several) debts in their entirety...

I have offered Capquest £100 against an outstanding balance of £280 and Welcome Finance £80 against a balance of £170 and with the remainder I can repay my Barclays overdraft...

I've only been on my DMP for 7 months (or 8 by the time the payment is made if accepted) and have around another 2 1/2 years to go before the end!

From experience do you think that these creditors are likely to accept? I probably have another £20 wiggle room if needed...

Thanks,

MB

Good news then, well done.


RE F&F, I haven't done any but if you don't ask you will not know. These things are unpredictable. Good luck with it.


31 months will fly. Even if you are not lucky with interest you will be done in less than three years. I guess if you are like the rest of us you'd be unlikely to get a loan for that time so the future is bright.


HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

mr.brightside87 wrote: »

I am just about to start paying my dmp next month but I have a few questions that someone might be able to shed a light on.

We are moving (hooray!) but obviously, I will have my dmp all set up and paying it off. How will this effect our chances of getting accepted for a tenancy? I have been told that we can just put down my partner's earnings and leave everything out about me but surely, one look at that would mean I am hiding something. IS this the correct way to go about it or are we just going to have to stump up the extra deposit that will surely be asked for?

Welcome to the gang.


From what I have read they just do 'softer searches' so you should be fine. I've not known anyone on DMP having to pay bigger deposits. I have seen something on pp or sc site about it. Worth a look?



Found this......


Originally Posted by Experian company representative
Landlords can only conduct very basic credit checks and will not see your credit account history. Credit account history data can only viewed by lenders that are members of the credit reference agencies' data sharing schemes.

Landlords can obtain data form us but it is limited to public data such as court judgments, bankruptcies and so on - so in that respect a blank credit check is exactly what they're hoping to see.


Please let us know how you get on.


HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

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

Welcome


Sorry to hear about your loss


I agree with Ms TTFTM


You will feel better for taking charge of the debt situation. We all have done, very empowering. We will support you on your way.


HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

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

Fab post Ms TTFTM


I really don't think Id have had the guts to go with SC had it not been for the anonymous debt remedy tool online. Was hugely relieved and will always be grateful for that early lifeline.


As you know but for the benefit of others I completely agree with the post. Whilst I didn't employ the strategy as early as I'd like to have - going self managed has enabled me to snow ball and get rid of the 30% interest from two accounts.


In 28 days time I will have paid back the amount of money I entered the DMP with. I will still have another 6-8 months to go on DMP to pay back the £5854 interest that was applied. Had I fought back more earlier I'm sure I could have knocked this down. Always easy to say in hindsight, if we knew then what we now know!


HHx