DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Murphy2011

Hi LID, welcome! I would suggest you put any spare into your emergency pot. Cars, boilers, pets....they all have a habit of not working properly when you are on a DMP & you don't have credit to fall back onto. If you manage to build up a nice pot then talk to SC about making the odd one off payment!

Monkeyballs

livingindreamland wrote: »

Very new to all this, my first payment went to Stepchange yesterday, so I still have no idea who has accepted my DMP yet. Silly question, but If I find myself with a few extra pounds at the end of the month, is it OK to use it to pay off a bit of one of the debts? (As you can probably guess I'm not sleeping well hence posting at 5:30 in the morning)

Hi LiD,

Welcome to the family!

As Murphy has suggested you could put any extra in a pot for emergencies but yes, you can throw a few pounds extra at one (or more of the debts) as a DMP is an informal agreement.

What I do is twice a week I round down my balance so I only have what I can withdraw at a cash machine so on Wednesday if my balance is £147.20 then I'll pay £1.20 to Barclaycard and on Sunday if my balance is £137.58 then I might pay £2.58 and so on on occasion (I.e. if it's a few days from payday) I round down to the nearest £10 if funds allow so if I'm getting paid on Tuesday and on the Sunday I have £27.80 I might pay £7.80...

It's all up to you but in the past couple of months I must have paid about £50 extra doing this alone!

I should add that I only pay it off my Barclaycard because they are the only creditor still charging interest

Check out the Payment a Day thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4629473

MB

Coinmachine

Thanks MB but does this not risk your other creditors kicking up a fuss re not being treated fairly, enough though the sums are very small?

Sazzie23

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Very inspiring post gettingbackontrack, thanks for sharing :T

I hope you stick around now you have come out of lurkdom, your experience and support would be much appreciated by many here.

TTFTM x

I second that getting backontrack, thanks for joining us, glad you are doing so well, awesome progress made so far, and end in sight but a new way of living without credit already gained.

Sazzie23

Coinmachine wrote: »

Thanks MB but does this not risk your other creditors kicking up a fuss re not being treated fairly, enough though the sums are very small?

It's possibly a risk,but I doubt if they even realise and Barclaycard will be happy to be getting their money. As long as you continue to pay the others the agreed amount I'd expect no bother.

Sure some of the others will have experience of this

Sazzie23

livingindreamland wrote: »

Very new to all this, my first payment went to Stepchange yesterday, so I still have no idea who has accepted my DMP yet. Silly question, but If I find myself with a few extra pounds at the end of the month, is it OK to use it to pay off a bit of one of the debts? (As you can probably guess I'm not sleeping well hence posting at 5:30 in the morning)

Welcome. LiD

Congratulations on starting your DMP journey. It can be a long or short road but the folk on here have done it before or are joining you in finding the way forward.

As my oven blew up last week and I'm struggling a bit to find the cash to replace it, I'd suggest you stashed the extra, whether it's a budget underspend or extra earnings, until you've at least been on the plan for a few months.

But as I replied to coin machine if you did find some extra money to make a payment here and there, don't really think anyone would notice - but I've been wrong before :rotfl:

2spicy

Happy New Year DMP's ... Sorry weve been quiet recently ... its been a rollercoaster over the last few months, and weve hit some un-expected financial challenges, but were though and steaming onto what we hope will be the home run to debt freedom, a new car and a well needed family holiday somewhere HOT !!

LMJ10

Hi there - just about to go into my DMP with stepchange

Just waiting on my basic account to set up and then will be sending back all info to SC

I'm reading a lot about Barclaycard not stopping interest worrying a little as a big chunk of my debt is with Barclaycard!??

Anyone got any Barclaycard stories?

Puzzcat

LMJ10 wrote: »

Hi there - just about to go into my DMP with stepchange

Just waiting on my basic account to set up and then will be sending back all info to SC

I'm reading a lot about Barclaycard not stopping interest worrying a little as a big chunk of my debt is with Barclaycard!??

Anyone got any Barclaycard stories?

Hi,


BC were one of the first to stop interest for me.. I just hope it stays that way... Not sure whether they work it out on the percentage your paying/size of debt/original minimum payments or what colour your hair is... seems all a little random to me...

Puzzcat

livingindreamland wrote: »

Very new to all this, my first payment went to Stepchange yesterday, so I still have no idea who has accepted my DMP yet. Silly question, but If I find myself with a few extra pounds at the end of the month, is it OK to use it to pay off a bit of one of the debts? (As you can probably guess I'm not sleeping well hence posting at 5:30 in the morning)

Hi and welcome,


I would opt to save any extra pennies for an emergency fund or to use for a full and final at a later date. I would be concerned myself that if a creditor noticed I was paying more each month then they would assume I could afford it and then refuse to play ball with freezing interest etc.


Having been on a dmp for only 4 months, I have twice had to dip into my emergency fund.


Love Puzz.