DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

dmb_2

Well done for taking this step. It's a massive one but so so worth it. You will find most of your creditors will accept your offer of payment however small. Things will start to settle down after the first few weeks.


Good luck with it all. All of us on here have been through what you going through now. There will always be tons of advice and support

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Woodypuddy wrote: »

Hi,

I have been watching the forum for a couple of days now and found it a great source of information. I realised about a week or so ago that I had reached saturation point. I was getting credit to pay credit, maxed out all my cards and then that moment came when I had no money left and another huge payment was looming. I am £55,000 in debt and that was really difficult to face. I saw National Debtline on TV and after lots of failed attempts to phone I emailed them and poured my heart out. They were great and went through lots of options. For the first time in I can't remember how long I felt there was a light.

I also made another decision, probably a even harder one, and that was to tell my husband of over 20 years what mess I had managed to get into. He was completely oblivious to it as I had always done the money. Lots of tears, lots of questions, lots of guilt - he swung between feeling really sorry for the stress I must have been under, to not being able to understand I could have lied, to blaming himself for continuing to spend. Anyway, we are coming out the other side and he is right there next to me now supporting me all the way. I can't believe how relieved I feel. I can't believe I didn't tell him earlier. I am still really worried and really scared but I now feel just a little bit positive.

I have decided on a DMP and have done all the budget calculations. I have to send everything off to debt helpline and they then refer me to one of 2 DMP's that they use - both free but not sure if it will be SC like everyone refers to on here? Just sorting out opening an independent account away from Barclays (have a Barclaycard debt). Really scared as MBNA will be finding out next week that I have only made a token payment, letter to them that I am trying to sort is going in the post on Monday

My biggest worry now is that no one will accept the payments as they seem so small! I was previously paying around £1200 to meet minimum payments and realistically on my not overly generous budget I can afford £340 - I am really scared they won't accept. I know I am not going to be debt free on this amount for around 14 years - will they see this as too long?

Any advice from anyone will be great.

Sorry for rambling on

Morning and welcome.


Sounds like you have been under tremendous stress, little wonder you are looking forward to the future.


Thanks for sharing your story about telling your partner. This is a cause of concern for people so you sharing the story will help others.


I know this is easy to say but try not to worry about acceptance. They have no choice but to accept your payment; not all of them and in some cases none of them will write to formally accept the plan as such but they really have no choice. BTW the significantly reduced payment will increase the chances of you having interest frozen.


Recommend you breaking targets down rather than worry for 14 years at this stage.


Don't worry about rambling, just fire away with questions or concerns, we are stronger together.


HHx

Murphy2011

Hi WoodyPuddy, glad you have taken your first step to get everything sorted, I wish I had done it years ago but at least now we are over a year into an 8 year plan! I wanted to reassure you that it is very unlikely that anyone will turn down your offers. My husband and I were paying about £2500 per month before our DMP with SC & everyone now seems to be quite happy splitting £700 so I'm sure it will all be fine! As loads of people here say, they can't have what you haven't got!!! Good luck for the future, it will be the best thing you've done in a long time!

Monkeyballs

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Woohoo MB:beer: fabbie news
I'd never even heard of an F&f before coming to MSE. Just remind me what percentage did they accept?

Morning Sazzie it was about 25%

So, the history of my Cheque Centre loan and DMP repayments are;

I entered into the DMP back in June last year with a balance of £1285(ish) and have been making repayments since then of just under £24.

About three months after entering into the DMP I was contacted by them to offer a settlement of £450(ish) which I had to say no to - they told me to call them when I was in a better position.

Mid December (thanks to my big bro!) I found myself in a position of making an offer but much lower than the £450 they offered to me

I offered £230 which was around the 25% mark and they quickly contacted me to accept and waffle on about how I had been a good customer previously, etc etc..

The guy was actually really nice and seemed genuine - even after I spoke to him on Saturday he said "good luck with sorting out the rest of your finances" which I didn't expect LOL.

I have to admit that despite everything which has been posted on various forum threads all of the PDL's which I have dealt with have been really good and were quick to cooperate with my DMP, it was only when I was struggling and was trying to work with the people in branch that I had any problems re. organising a repayment plan.

Hope this helps? If not just ask

MB

Monkeyballs

Morning WoodyPuddy,

Welcome!

I just want to echo everything that Hopelessly Hopeful and Murphy2011 say

The key thing is to be realistic with yourself and not beat yourself up and sabotage your repayments by overcommiting and struggling...

You are planning to repay your debts - that's not a bad thing as for how long it will take, I'm constantly reading about people being a year or two into an 8+ year plan so it's not uncommon - don't worry about that.

The good thing is that along the way you will likely have a few little victories (such as getting full & final settlement offers) along the way which will help bring the life span down too

Also, a debt being passed to a debt collector isn't a bad thing as they are often easier to work with than the original creditor

I know that there are a lot of people on this thread who sing the praises of debt charities (I myself am with SC and they are brilliant) but there are others who extol the virtues of going it alone but the choice is yours but considering your post I'd probably suggest one of the charities to get you going... You can always change afterwards when you have a bit more confidence?

Either way, Welcome! Well done! and post frequently

MB

antonic

Morning WoodyPuddy,

When I started my DMP it was for 7 years (then got extended to 7 1/2) and I coped with the long term thought of paying off my debts by breaking it down into years.

So after the first year I thought to myself "thats 1 year gone , lets crack on with the coming year", then before you know it , I had done 7 years and had 6 months to go.

You have done the two hardest things, which was to realise you had problems AND to reveal all to your OH, which I congratulate you on.

Good luck on your path to being DF, and please post here if you have any questions !

nextyeartina

I'm looking for a letter template to inform 1st Credit that SC are dealing with the debt. It was Aqua but they've now passed it on to 1st Credit who keep phoning, writing & emailing me. I have passed all the new details on to SC but wanted to write to 1st Credit too. Could somebody please point me in the right direction. Thanks

Tina x

debtdawg

I actually confided in someone about our DMP today, it was a mum from the school at a children's party. She said that they had to go bankrupt a few years ago and we were talking about budgeting, the pressure on parents to 'keep up with the Joneses' when it came to presents, cheap days out etc. It was really refreshing! Especially meeting someone else who meal plans and budgets. She's one of those 'wouldn't know it to look at her types', so it was quite a surprise to meet someone so honest about it

Time_to_face_the_music

nextyeartina wrote: »

I'm looking for a letter template to inform 1st Credit that SC are dealing with the debt. It was Aqua but they've now passed it on to 1st Credit who keep phoning, writing & emailing me. I have passed all the new details on to SC but wanted to write to 1st Credit too. Could somebody please point me in the right direction. Thanks

Tina x

Try something like this:

You


Date

Them

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: Account/Reference Number XXXXXXXXXXX

We are writing to inform you that we are in a Debt Management Plan with Stepchange and our reference number is XXXXXXX. Stepchange are authorised to act on our behalf and have been notified that this debt has been transferred to you.

To this end, we would appreciate if you could hold any action on the above account for a period of at least 28 days until Stepchange have contacted you.

Also, during this period, could you ensure that all communication regarding this debt is with Stepchange and communication with me should only be made in writing. Please remove my email address and telephone number(s) from your database and confirm in writing that this action has been completed

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

You

markwoods10

markwoods10 wrote: »

hi
and thanks
had a letter from Vanquis today
they accepted offer, froze interest whoo hoo
also same with pounds to pocket and quickquid and another one
need to check argos as they said that they blocked my account which is expected, so not sure if that means they accepted or not
just halifax CC and OD ( fingers crossed)
feeling a bit happpier as was really panicked
and only took 5 days for the above
good luck all here
will keep posting
mark

Barclaycard comfirmed acceptance for one year (interest reduced to 3%) will challange , also halifax cc said they accepted but also declined as the figurs show proposed offer more than standard min payment, I think sc set standard payment at 3% of balance but hx say 1% advised them I would revise figure and continue with plan , they seemed ok with than , wil not hold interest as not in
arrears .
Hx bank Accounts
tried to put me through to their money maanagement team.
Just concerened about mmpl as they accuse me of fraud as went on dmp before first payment ,and just after I took loan but its 360 pounds nt sure how to deal with this . Thanks for all help on hear and good luck to all