DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Monkeyballs

Morning all!

Not expecting any huge changes to happen during the course of today so here is my end of year end summary!

1. Thanks to my DMP I've reduced my overall debt by £3240 in just 7 months!

2. Saved up an emergency fund of £300.

3. No outstanding credit agreements at all (excluding DMP), my mobilephone costs have gone from £36pcm on contract to £8pcm on payg.

4. Joined the Sealed Pot Challenge and already have about £2!!! Wahoo!!!

5. Have started comping, wombling (passively and by accident) and general Nectar point hunting and it's paying off I've made almost £3 in Nectar points in about a week...

6. Most important of all, my gambling is under control and (with the exception of a drunken blip while out with friends two months ago) it's been 16 months since I gambled which means I'm more confident and in control of my spending

Happy New Year Everyone!!! Bring on 2014, I'm gonna kick its A$$!!!!!!

MB

dad2one

Morning!

Happy 2014 to all - onwards and upwards.

Ive been on my DMP since March this year. 9 months in. Still roughly 4 1/2 years to go. Not bad! Its all underway. Who'd have thought, not much more than a year ago, even when i was able to 'maintain' my debt mountain, i could never dream of it being gone in 5 years.

All the best to all.

Neil

dad2one

My customary situation update:

Capitol One - on an accepted repayment plan as organised by SC, and ratified by them (CO) in writing.

HSBC - Credit Card. Had final demand , the debt will be handed over to their own DCA they say.

HSBC - Loan. Ditto. Final demand through, will be handed over.

HSBC Overdraft - Nothing really said on this. No interest being charged thus far. Gotta watch it carefully though. This is the debt i expect to start to having to tackle charges etc.

M&S Finance - not much contact from these, as they are underwritten by HSBC I expect a similar approach.

So far so good.

As said I'm watching for HSBC adding interest or something to the overdraft account. The debts they pass to their DCA, may then incur a charge or fee of some sort, so i'll watch for that.

Debt collection agencies and their 'right' to add fees and interest - this is a subject I know nothing about and will have to start the conversation soon, maybe here unless it's already discussed in another MSE thread...

Good luck and good living to all

Time_to_face_the_music

Hello everyone

End of year update from me too:

This day last year we owed £62,469.68, today we owe £43,619.64 so £18,850.04 paid off debt this year :j

This time last year, we had no idea how we were going to deal with our endowment shortfall. In fact, our heads were buried so deep in the sand, we did not even know how much it was likely to be Now we know the worst case scenario is likely to be £9226 and we have £7226 saved towards this :j

On the downside, our beloved car died and had to be replaced but the endowment shortfall savings were available to sort out a cheap and cheerful replacement :j

I also got made redundant ... actually that's officially today! But I managed to get a new job to start next week and the redundancy will sort out the endowment shortfall, including the IOU for the "new" car, plus pay off a chunk of debt. Hopefully another two will bite the dust completely next month :j

All debts currently have interest frozen but defaults are proving difficult to get. When I have paid off the next couple, I am going to start fighting to get the completed debts defaults added and/or backdated to within 6 months of the start of the DMP. If I am not fighting interest and charges, I need something to battle the banks about :rotfl:

I couldn't do any of this stuff without this thread. I didn't even know a DMP existed when I came here just under 2 years ago, now I want to do anything I can to pay back the help, advice, experience and support that was offered to me :T

DMP & Mutual Support Thread :iloveyou:

Happy New Year everyone, I will see you in 2014 for debt busting and everything else!

TTFTM x

Growurown

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Thought I'd get in early and wish you all a very happy new year.

Managed to pay £18 831 off my debt this year and loose 3 stone 7lb. Very pleased.

Happy New Year HH! Great progress, no wonder you are very pleased.:T:T

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Happy New Year Everyone!!! Bring on 2014, I'm gonna kick its A$$!!!!!!

And a Happy New Year to you MB. Great achievements for you as well in 2013, and pleased to hear you are going to kick A$$ in 2014 as long as it's not mine:D

dad2one wrote: »

Morning!

Happy 2014 to all - onwards and upwards.

Ive been on my DMP since March this year. 9 months in. Still roughly 4 1/2 years to go. Not bad! Its all underway. Who'd have thought, not much more than a year ago, even when i was able to 'maintain' my debt mountain, i could never dream of it being gone in 5 years.

All the best to all.

Neil

Happy New Year Neil. Here's to being debt free:beer:

mr.brightside87

Pickle29 wrote: »

Hi
I still have my contract which was taken out before my DMP and I pay it monthly by dd as normal. Don't know what will happen when my contract runs out - probably go to a sim only or stay with what I have! But I got another year to go yet!

Missed this post yesterday!

If you stick with the same company, your loyalty will be seen more than being on a DMP. If you can show you were on the DMP and still managing to pay, the chances are that it will be seen as a good thing and that you can manage your money (even though you are on a DMP). Does that make sense?

Monkeyballs

Hi,

Ok probably going to be my final post of the year on this thread (unless somethng miraculous happens) but after reading through more of this frankly massive thread I've sent Barclaycard a copy of the "stop charging me interest while I'm on a DMP" letter

Honestly I'm not optimistic based on the conversations which I have had with them but it's worth a shot... If anyone has had any positive experiences please do shout up

Thats all folks!!! XXX

MB

debtdawg

Hi all, it's been a long time since I've been on this thread properly

Up to today we've paid £3874 off of our DMP (outstanding balance £27570). Unfortunately about £600 of that has been swallowed in interest, mainly by Lloyds. Out of the £47 a month I pay them, they charge me £40 something in interest, so since starting my DMP I've barely made a dent (actually I've just checked and looks like they've charged even more than my payment in interest this month). I sent the obligatory letter a few months ago and heard nothing from them. I've asked Stepchange what I can do about this, but am awaiting a reply from them also. Considering I was paying £298 a month towards my creditors, £47 is a lot to be going nowhere (paying £310 from Jan) and I'm paying roughly £8 a month in interest to Barclaycard. Our nicest creditors so far have been Nationwide who we owe the most to.

It's our first year on the DMP (starting Nov 2012) and we've definitely tripped up a few times, but are now resolved to try and get rid of this debt once and for all. Unfortunately I had a fresh battle with depression and anxiety, which has always caused spending problems and head burying, but thankfully I'm on the mend.

We're expecting a new mouth to feed next year! I was worried about buying the things that we need for the baby, as we have hardly anything left as most of our baby stuff was sold when we needed money before and didn't have the space to store it. I've had sort out though of old bits and bobs such as clothes and have managed to get a 2nd hand moses basket, crib, some clothes and a chair out of the stuff I've sold this week and Christmas money, which is great. Luckily I breastfeed so costs will be kept down there and I have loads of small reusable nappies left for the first few months. Bigger costs will be bunkbeds, a double pushchair (I've spotted some 2nd hand ones I like though) and a bigger car!

Here's to the next year of DMP. At the moment we won't be debt free until the end of 2021 according to ours, which is such a long time away.

Puzzcat

I just want to wish you all a very happy 2014. I am looking forwards to being able to do a full update this time next year!!


I want to say a big to you all.


Love Puzz. xxx

schmalf

Just wanted to say that my DMP is now set up and ready to start on the 1st Feb, when I have cleared a priority family debt!! Woo hoo I am really looking forward to seeing in 2014 and starting on my official debt free journey. Hope you all have a great night, and thanks to everyone on here for your constant inspiration and help - its really rewarding being part of this community. Happy New Year to you all, love Schmalf xx:j