DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Rainbow8585

Hi I am new to the DMP journey but have been reading for a while. It's so helpful all the stories and advice and has filled us with confidence to know we can get debt free! We are waiting for our last salary payment to go into our old account before changing to new co-op account and then Stepchange contact the creditors. Just want to get started and know it is all in hand! SPoken to a few creditors and they have all been helpful so far - got our budget ready to stick to from pay day so nervous at this as we are terrible normally. Debts are joint with my husband are just under £35k :-O but can't wait to start seeing them go down and make a massive dent in 2014 :-)

Coinmachine

Rainbow8585 wrote: »

Hi I am new to the DMP journey but have been reading for a while. It's so helpful all the stories and advice and has filled us with confidence to know we can get debt free! We are waiting for our last salary payment to go into our old account before changing to new co-op account and then Stepchange contact the creditors. Just want to get started and know it is all in hand! SPoken to a few creditors and they have all been helpful so far - got our budget ready to stick to from pay day so nervous at this as we are terrible normally. Debts are joint with my husband are just under £35k :-O but can't wait to start seeing them go down and make a massive dent in 2014 :-)

Good luck rainbow youre not alone new year new start heres to the journey

Time_to_face_the_music

Coinmachine wrote: »

Got home tonight to very nice letter from one creditor saying they will give me 30 days to send statement of accounts etc its in response to my letter quoting stepchange reference but probably sent before they have heard from stepchange

Also a phone call from one other creditor not sure how they got my number but i have already requested all dealings be in writing - sorry i only saw it the other dsy but where is the template letter re phonecalls? I dont want to be too heavy but just reiterate i had said by writing only and they should hear from stepchange

Try something like:

You
Date:

Them

Re Account/Agreement No: XXXXXXXXXXXX

Dear Sir / Madam

I am writing to ask that you no longer contact me by telephone as you are causing me considerable stress due to the frequency and inappropriate times of the calls. Please remove my telephone number from your database and send all future communication in writing to my home address.

I am setting up a Debt Management Plan with Stepchange and my reference number is XXXXXXXXXXX.

Stepchange are authorised to act on and communicate on my behalf and will provide you with the most recent copy of my income and expenditure to make you aware of my current financial situation. Stepchange will also keep you informed of any changes in my circumstances.

I understand that following this request if you continue to call I can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service to make a formal complaint.

Please confirm in writing that your records have been amended.

Yours faithfully

raspberry22

Hello to the newbies I'm very new too, and am just getting everything set up and our bank accounts moved etc. This is a fab thread, full of lovely people with fab advice, and shows that debt can be sorted.

Growurown wrote: »

Hi Raspberry, there are some useful templates on the National Debtline website. Here's a link. You can adapt this for your own circumstances. I would leave out the bit about your income and expenditure and say you can't pay and please accept this token amount and explain you are in the process of setting up a DMP with SC.

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

Most people send postal orders but a cheque would be OK too if you have your new bank account sorted. I actually paid over the counter in the bank using the counterfoil on the bills and said in my letter that I made a payment of £? on such a date. It seemed to work OK.

Keep your chin up, don't let the barstewards get you down!

Again, thanks everyone. I've not replied sooner as been quite depressed/stressed. I've got notification of the bank charges now - £255.75!!!! I'll contact them, but if they don't relent I'll have to pull anything left in the account just before and try and make sure the tax credits etc are moved to the new account before then as there is no way we can afford to lose that and still eat. It's Santander, so not holding my breath.

Have heard nothing else from Barclaycard, I am just sorting all the letters and token payments out now.

Time_to_face_the_music

raspberry22 wrote: »

Hello to the newbies I'm very new too, and am just getting everything set up and our bank accounts moved etc. This is a fab thread, full of lovely people with fab advice, and shows that debt can be sorted.

Again, thanks everyone. I've not replied sooner as been quite depressed/stressed. I've got notification of the bank charges now - £255.75!!!! I'll contact them, but if they don't relent I'll have to pull anything left in the account just before and try and make sure the tax credits etc are moved to the new account before then as there is no way we can afford to lose that and still eat. It's Santander, so not holding my breath.

Have heard nothing else from Barclaycard, I am just sorting all the letters and token payments out now.

Does the Santander account have an overdraft and is this going to be included in your DMP? If so, I would empty the account of any amount available and try and get anything and everything transferred to your new account ASAP.


If it is in the DMP you can adjust the balance owed to include the account charges, just tell Stepchange that the balance has increased due to unreasonable charges from the bank. Then once the DMP is set up try to get the charges refunded.

dmb_2

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Good morning DMPers new and old



So just a couple of weeks short of our 2 year DFW/DMP anniversary, we now owe £34,142.84 and have paid off £48,201.16 or 58.54% of our debt


Well done you!

dmb_2

ianmak wrote: »

Hey all, hope you are doing well.


Well as of yesterday, I am technically debt free...


Fantastic news!

Equilibrium13

Hi all and welcome to new members

I haven't logged on here for a while and thought I'd check in with a bit of an update now I'm 3 months into my DMP

All of my creditors apart from the Moneyshop have accepted the payment plan.

The Moneyshop keeps calling me numerous times a day from different numbers and send text messages stating that my account is in arrears and that they need to speak to me about "my paperwork." They have not acknowledged correspondence or that they are receiving the payment offer monthly. I have also received a default notice from them demanding the full original outstanding payment even though by the date of the letter they should have received 2 payments from StepChange. I would rather no speak to them on the phone to be honest. Looks like the template posted above by Time to face the music is a good one for this! Thank you Anyone have experience of dealing with them or other payday loan companies?

Santander cards (Dorothy Perkins) Next Directory and Vanquis cards have all accepted the payment plan and have not charged me interest since November's statement

Barclaycard (2 cards) have reduced the interest from 29.9% to 12.9% from December's statement. Does anyone know if it's worth writing to them to request that they suspend interest, or is this what they usually offer customers on a DMP?

Barclays (overdraft/personal reserve debt) wrote to confirm that they are in receipt of payments from StepChange on my behalf and that an arrangement has been agreed. However as the account no longer shows in my online banking and I have not received any statements, I'm not sure if they are applying any charges or interest. Plan to call them to find out.

Aquacard have accepted the payment plan, but are still charging interest, although it looks less than before, the statement is not very clear. I'm going to write to them to request that they suspend it.

Anyone who set up a basic Barclays bank account through StepChange know if it is safe to put any money into my savings account with Barclays? Or can they still transfer money from there to the Barclays debts even with a payment plan in place?

Finally, my salary will be cut at the end of February so I will have to ask StepChange to reduce the payments, which I'm dreading and am so worried it will have a detrimental effect on the arrangements with my creditors. Has anyone had to do this? I've seen comments about people making a reduced payment for a short period of time, but this will be until (if!) I get a better paid job The other thing is that due to the paycuts, I will get a one off payment/compensation. Am I obliged to let StepChange/creditors know about this and the money being divided between creditors?

Thanks again to everyone here for the helpful and supportive messages, I would never have found the courage to start my DMP process without you!!

Baked_Beans_Babe.

I have noticed from this thread that you have opened up a cash minder account with the Coop Bank. Can you tell me how long it took you to receive your debit card and pin numbers. We opened an account with them on Monday in branch but not received anything yet.

Thanks :beer: x

debtdawg

Barclaycard (2 cards) have reduced the interest from 29.9% to 12.9% from December's statement. Does anyone know if it's worth writing to them to request that they suspend interest, or is this what they usually offer customers on a DMP?

Barclaycard are charging us 3% interest a year on a nearly £7k credit card debt, we pay them approx £90 a month. They've said the interest charged is linked to the payment amount they receive each month and as ours is between a certain percentage, they will not freeze interest. However it is greatly reduced. I am just worried that once our balance is below a certain level and our payments have increased due to small debtors being settled, that they'll whack up the interest again!