DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Puzzcat

cookie79 wrote: »

Thanks for this. No, there's no chance of getting the money out because the payments are due on my paydate. So money in and money out. Well hopefully not. I've spent the last couple of hours on the phone contacting creditors and most have been really helpful. The rep at Pounds to Pocket on the other hand was not!! Initially insisting the payment would have to go through until they had an agreement with SC but I stood my ground and hopefully it has been cancelled. SC are still working through my paperwork but all is looking brighter for now. Except i've managed to lose a filling today and am not looking forward to (paying) the bloomin' dentist!
I have taken notes of the times i spoke with everyone and the names of the reps i spoke with and plan to follow up with letters. Not typed on my home PC though because, as you can see by my shoddy typing, my keyboard sticks.
Can I ask whether the payment SC suggest at the beginning is likely to change once they've reviewed my budget? I filled this in on line and made some amendments where they suggested (suh as cutting down pocket money and reducing the Sky package which i was intending on doing anyway). I don't smoke and don't really drink (maybe a bottle of wine at the weekend if I find one I like on offer) and we hardly live in luxury.
Thanks for everyone who has taken the time to read and comments. Thanks for the support! :T

Hi cookie, and welcome from me.. I did the online budget and my monthly payment is what was quoted. I would just add make sure your budget has wiggle room, its amazing the amount of dmp'ers that smoke for example... Depending on the length of your dmp you don't want to be scrimping for years.. best to live a little as well.


Good luck with your journey..
Love Puzz. x

cookie79_2

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi cookie, and welcome from me.. I did the online budget and my monthly payment is what was quoted. I would just add make sure your budget has wiggle room, its amazing the amount of dmp'ers that smoke for example... Depending on the length of your dmp you don't want to be scrimping for years.. best to live a little as well.


Good luck with your journey..
Love Puzz. x

Thanks Puzz. I think we would have a little 'wiggle room' should SC stick with the original amount, but not much. It's quoting 3 years to be debt-free which sounds amazing. I honestly could not see an end in sight before this! I'm more than happy to tighten the belts a bit more if I can see an end date.

Monkeyballs

Puzzcat wrote: »

I did the online budget and my monthly payment is what was quoted. I would just add make sure your budget has wiggle room, its amazing the amount of dmp'ers that smoke for example... Depending on the length of your dmp you don't want to be scrimping for years.. best to live a little as well.

Hi Cookie,

Puzzcat is spot on here (as ever ) as well as smoking I also get a haircut every month, buy clothing every month, use public transport, etc... Remember, you're not entering into a DMP to punish yourself just get your finances in order and live a normal life!

As for Pounds to Pocket, they can't stop you from cancelling your CPA but even if they don't play ball then it's cancelled with the bank anyway

MB

Growurown

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi cookie, and welcome from me.. I did the online budget and my monthly payment is what was quoted. I would just add make sure your budget has wiggle room, its amazing the amount of dmp'ers that smoke for example... Depending on the length of your dmp you don't want to be scrimping for years.. best to live a little as well.


Good luck with your journey..
Love Puzz. x

Totally agree with this. Some people are very focused and push every available penny towards their debt, but I knew this wouldn't work for us. So we smoke, buy lunches from work, have dry cleaning etc. to put a little more wiggle room into the budget. If creditors stop all interest and charges then it won't cost you more to pay off your debt in three years than it would in two. However if you have a creditor still charging then it pays to get rid of that debt asap. So do what is best for you really, but you have to be realistic about your budget and what you can live with.

Puzzcat

And my dmp is at the moment 9 years so I do need to wriggle a little!!!

raspberry22

Sorry to hear about your bonus, Monkey. That's really not good, always seem the rich get richer.

Still struggling on here, had a problem getting the new bank account open (their incompetence), so not getting done now until next week. Until that's done I can't get anything else sorted. So feeling a bit :eek: tbh.

I still need to contact my bank about the charges too, been putting it off which is not good. I need a kick I think.

Monkeyballs

raspberry22 wrote: »

Sorry to hear about your bonus, Monkey. That's really not good, always seem the rich get richer

Hi Raz,

Thanks

But my new motto in life is "Silver linings" which is a little like 'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade' LOL

I was annoyed but now I'm thinking that I can reduce my payments but not as much as I could because I'll use some of the wriggle room I gave myself to fill the gap (not so much as to ruin me though) and in a years time when my debt should be down to around £8-9k I should have a lump sum of around £1.5k which will probably do F&F's on a couple of debts this way I don't have to save as work is doing it for me so no risk of spending it! LOL

I'm reckoning that the £1.5k annual bonus will pay off my Barclaycard and possibly one of the debts passed to a DCA... I may be able to use that £1.5k to pay of a couple of grand!!!

Silver linings... Silver linings... Silver linings...

MB

raspberry22

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Hi Raz,

Thanks

But my new motto in life is "Silver linings" which is a little like 'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade' LOL

I was annoyed but now I'm thinking that I can reduce my payments but not as much as I could because I'll use some of the wriggle room I gave myself to fill the gap (not so much as to ruin me though) and in a years time when my debt should be down to around £8-9k I should have a lump sum of around £1.5k which will probably do F&F's on a couple of debts this way I don't have to save as work is doing it for me so no risk of spending it! LOL

I'm reckoning that the £1.5k annual bonus will pay off my Barclaycard and possibly one of the debts passed to a DCA... I may be able to use that £1.5k to pay of a couple of grand!!!

Silver linings... Silver linings... Silver linings...

MB

Silver linings as you say. And good for you for staying positive. Getting those paid off would be great.

I'm going to look at our budget again, as I've been quite tight with it, and give us a little more wriggle room before it's all confirmed with SC.

I gave myself a kick and sent the bank a message - all charges have been waived! So relieved and it also gives us more time to get the new account set up.

Monkeyballs

raspberry22 wrote: »

Silver linings as you say. And good for you for staying positive. Getting those paid off would be great.

I'm going to look at our budget again, as I've been quite tight with it, and give us a little more wriggle room before it's all confirmed with SC.

I gave myself a kick and sent the bank a message - all charges have been waived! So relieved and it also gives us more time to get the new account set up.

Thanks for the moral support :beer:

Yeah, you need to be careful with your budgets because if it's too tight then you'll resent it! I've seen folk on here struggle and then make poor decisions...

I think you'll be surprised how much your confidence builds over quite a short period of time because entering into a DMP gives you a lot of experience in a short period of time! Then the more you read about it and join in on these forums and take control of your DMP the more you will be speaking to and contacting your creditors

It's actually kinda fun if you roll with it and not get bogged down by the odd hiccup

MB

LadBroke

Hello again !

CCCS/StepChange have suspended my DMP and I am now paying creditors directly (again). It's all going well with standing orders but one of my creditors is the "Natwest" with whom I have outstanding debt for a loan and an account overdraft.
I have written to Natwest, asking them to provide their account details so that I can set up a standing order. They have written back to me and rather than provide their account details they have referred me to online facilities on their website where I can make the respective payment by card each month.

Now I am wondering whether that's a safe thing to do as I've always been told not to provide my card details, creditors would use that to take as much money as they can in an instant. Is that true or false or can I trust "Natwest" ?