DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

RebelRed

Jubilee14-It just became the norm so we became pro's! Aldi has become our best friend. Sometimes we'd just have 18p noodles for tea so the kids could have proper meals. As long as the kids were being fed and clothed we were more than happy to go without. It was only when we contacted sc we realised how bad our situation was. We spent £80 on Friday and have eaten like kings. I've never felt so good. We are providing for our family with money we have earned without the used of cards!!

jubilee14

Love Aldi too does make a huge help have gone into MR T's and without much in the basket come easilty to £60!! with Aldi its unbelivable what you can get for the week's shopping .

Enjoy the 'royal dining this week..... and next!

runforlife

catandy wrote: »

had the same from them when it had been passed to DCA and could not talk with me regarding my account anymore etc etc - nothing really changed TBH - DC get the same amount that MBNA were and balance reducing as all interest frozen in time. Also had a letter from DCA after 2 or 3 months saying they were 'open for offers' which unfortunately I cant do anything about as don't have enough to make an offer to clear it.


good luck with it

Thats useful to know. Thankyou

runforlife

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hey Schmalf,

Got the usual monthly email saying logon to your account, so I tried again, and there it was as usual....very odd, but least I know where it is:D

Will write another letter about the interest:eek:

Wonder if yours is back too

Thanks for this. I tried to log on a few days ago and got the 'account doesn't exist' message. However it is back now. I thought they had closed it and passed on to a DCA but hey! No.

Fortuneteller

Omg is this stupid or what. Now that I have finally got the ball rolling with a DMP, (got it due to wonga not accepting a repayment offer of £50 a month), wonga have now turned round and emailed me accepting the £50 a month offer!!!! Could this be because the offer with the dmp is £20 less than that a month? I guess I just ignore their email, because now I've got the dmp in the pipeline? HEEEELP:mad:

BlueGarnet

I'm sick with worry right now.. taken my first step yesterday by posting off my StepChange DMP after taking MB's advice. Most of my payday loans are due a week today, my debt total is just over £1.4K through gambling sadly. Now I'm suffering with depression and my doctor has prescribed me antidepressants. I have a feeling I'm going to have a fight on my hands, I'm getting so many spam text messages and junk e-mails.

I know the calls and post will start coming my way next, luckily for me I'm living with my mother so it means I will be able to pay close to £600.00 a month towards my debts so it should take me roughly 3 - 4 months to clear it all if charges & interest can be frozen. I'm just feeling on edge though, my biggest fear is them calling me at work. I worry it could mess things up for me and what my colleagues will think of me.

Think I'm going to phone up StepChange on Friday to double check whether they have received my DMP or not, also I've done a copy in case and I can always e-mail it over as plan B if they don't have it. Better to be safe than sorry. Can I have some advice, I also wrote a covering letter to StepChange to say that for the first month all I can offer is £200.00 because of my job becoming permanent meaning I will now be paid monthly as opposed to weekly. After that I said I would be able to meet the £595.00 monthly payment. I may well be expecting more than £200.00 now as I may be paid for the holiday hours I accrued through the job agency I'm about to terminate from, if this does happen can I offer more by speaking to StepChange? As paying off this debt is now my priority.

How do you go about it if a creditor doesn't accept your DMP? In my mind it would be to keep my stance, you either accept it or you don't. If it ever did go to court which I doubt, it would surely be in my favour right? How have others in this thread dealt with this? Also with token payments, what's the easiest way of doing this, can I do it through online banking? I opened up a new basic bank account with Natwest so I don't want to provide my bank details. Going to visit HSBC tomorrow to discuss possibly closing my account if that's possible which I think is a shame after banking with them for over 8 years. They were very fair to me even when I was in £500.00 debt with themselves.

These are the payday loan companies I owe:

Wonga
QuickQuid
PaydayUK
Payday Express
WageDayAdvance
MyJar
Mr Lender

Already had 1 call off Payday express today making me go on edge. Anyway any advice would be really appreciated.

Sazzie23

spendaholic wrote: »

My fee-paying DMP company closed my account last June, apparently, but they forgot to mention that to me until November. I was unable to meet monthly payments for several months, and then when I could make a payment, they declined it. Twice.

If they closed the account, does that mean I'm no longer tied to them? Step Change are currently looking at things for me, but they need information that Valour Financial are being funny about releasing. You know, like my account numbers and stuff ...

I've had to write a proper letter to VF, which they won't get or act on for a few days, but they did say once they'd received the letter they could email the information to me.

Is this usual when trying to leave a DMP fee-paying company? Is there anything else I need to be doing? Thanks for any help and advice.

They closed your account and didn't tell you...presume its because you stopped paying...where did your money for those weeks go??? I'd say if they closed the account then you are not tied to them, and please don't pay them any more money! But of course may be a silver lining if you are moving to fee-free DMP.
Howver these firms have T&C which never cease to surprise us.

I would write a standard letter to all creditors explaining situation, making a token payment if you can, and telling them you are moving to SC with account ref etc. I think SC are quite harsh if you don't pay them unless you get a reduce payment pre-authorised, so making sure your budget is accurate is probably worthwhile.

Hope this helps

Come back for more advice on getting interest cut etc (once the initial situation is sorted out).

Sazzie23

Niccired15 wrote: »

It's just really scary! Until I spoke to Stepchange I had no idea what the lenders could and could not do, because I was so caught up in paying them each month I fell behind with council tax and gas/electric. Thankfully I have got back on track with those as sc told me they were priority. I'm looking forward to the day I know most/all of my creditors have agreed to the dmp, I already feel better because I'm actually dealing with it rather than pretending everything is ok

Hi Niccired - well done for taking action in dealing with debts and hopefully the DMP will get you back on track. It is tough especially at the start and we've all felt guilty/stupid/sorry/inadequate (delete as applicable). I cried for days at the start of the DMP, I still cant talk to SC because I just well up.

Sorry to hear in your previous post about troubles with Very & co, I have heard similar stories from others on the forums, must be their current tactics. I would say that you have every right to inform them that all contact must be in writing due to their unpleasantness when trying to discuss the matter by phone. Write to them giving your account number, your SC ref and a token payment if you need to, stating phone calls will not be answered, please communicate in writing.
Can't tell you how much a relief it was when I finally stopped getting calls (took about 3 months as HBOS & Barclays claimed not to have got the SC info).

If you read back through a few pages on the thread you will probably discover that sometimes creditors don't contact you to confirm acceptance of the DMP, they just deactivate the account or cut the interest on the statement, so its just a heads up not to worry too much if you don't hear anything. SC will tell you to ignore any creditors that say they don't accept anyway and just keep paying to SC.

I'd recommend taking a deep breath and trying to get a good nights sleep, once the first payment to SC is paid to creditors (about 25th of the month) you should have a better idea of what is going where.

Good luck, and keep sharing, its what keeps these forums alive

Sazzie23

BlueGarnet wrote: »

I'm sick with worry right now.. taken my first step yesterday by posting off my StepChange DMP after taking MB's advice.

I know the calls and post will start coming my way next, luckily for me I'm living with my mother so it means I will be able to pay close to £600.00 a month towards my debts so it should take me roughly 3 - 4 months to clear it all if charges & interest can be frozen. I'm just feeling on edge though, my biggest fear is them calling me at work. I worry it could mess things up for me and what my colleagues will think of me.

Think I'm going to phone up StepChange on Friday to double check whether they have received my DMP or not, also I've done a copy in case and I can always e-mail it over as plan B if they don't have it. Better to be safe than sorry. Can I have some advice, I also wrote a covering letter to StepChange to say that for the first month all I can offer is £200.00 because of my job becoming permanent meaning I will now be paid monthly as opposed to weekly. After that I said I would be able to meet the £595.00 monthly payment. I may well be expecting more than £200.00 now as I may be paid for the holiday hours I accrued through the job agency I'm about to terminate from, if this does happen can I offer more by speaking to StepChange? As paying off this debt is now my priority.

How do you go about it if a creditor doesn't accept your DMP? In my mind it would be to keep my stance, you either accept it or you don't. If it ever did go to court which I doubt, it would surely be in my favour right? How have others in this thread dealt with this? Also with token payments, what's the easiest way of doing this, can I do it through online banking? I opened up a new basic bank account with Natwest so I don't want to provide my bank details. Going to visit HSBC tomorrow to discuss possibly closing my account if that's possible which I think is a shame after banking with them for over 8 years. They were very fair to me even when I was in £500.00 debt with themselves.

These are the payday loan companies I owe:

Wonga
QuickQuid
PaydayUK
Payday Express
WageDayAdvance
MyJar
Mr Lender

Already had 1 call off Payday express today making me go on edge. Anyway any advice would be really appreciated.

Hi BlueGarnet

Alot of questions here,

I'll do my best to help but I only have limited experience with PDL, however some of the PDL deal very fairly with people on this forum.

First, either get tough and ignore any calls from numbers you don't recognise or answer them with your SC reference ready and just say, I am in financial difficulty, SC are dealing with my case the reference is --account number -- and hang up.

Second - if there is a chance family or friends/colleagues will get caught up, being upfront is alot less embarrassing and will give you more support from them. Something like, I've been having some financial troubles and a couple of firms have been chasing me for money, i am paying them off but they are being impatient, if they call please ignore them, might work. Be surprised how many people have financial troubles of their own that they don't advertise.

Reduced payment : most people going into DMP make token payments for the first month or 2 whilst the DMP is being set up - this would probably be enough time for you to get back onto your feet with the monthly pay. Token payments start at £1. Then when DMP is in action you can make the full payment. Your debt free date is very short compared to many of the DMPers on this thread, so you can be debt free before the end of the year, even if you put back the start of the DMP for one month.

Payments : some pay by cheque, bank transfers, debit cards, or even postal orders. If your account with HSBC is Ok, could you put money for token payments through there before you close it ? I think there can be issues with 'enthusiastic' PDL collecting continuous authority payments and clearing bank accounts out which is one of the reasons the advice is to get a new bank account. (also for off-setting if you have debts in the same bank group where you bank).

Probably enough from me tonight, but hope this helps a bit
Well done for facing up and dealing with your debts. Good luck

2spicy

BlueGarnet wrote: »

....."Stuff" ..

Yes, your going to have a fight on your hands, The best way is to confront them. Ignore the texts and call them, tell them you only wish to be contacted via letter, draft a letter to them also saying the same. (there are plenty of templates on here if you search though the previous threads).

Whatever you do, DONOT IGNORE THEM. < this is important. (it illustrates you are taking the debts seriously).

Don't stretch yourself too much to pay them back, keep a little back to allow you to life and not have to survive like a church mouse.

Make sure you donot give them your works contact details.. they dont need to know that, and tell them if they do contact you, you will be reporting them for harassment.
Dont worry about your colleagues, you are No.1, not them. Weve kept out DMP secret from our friends, family and work for the last 5 years with no issues, mainly because of what I have said above.

Yes, call StepChange, they understand people are anxious about debts. Regarding yoru letter to SC about only affording £200... I think the best advice is to only make minimum payments to all your creditors (£1 minimum (Seriously)) Until your DMP is setup. Use the cash you have saved to have a "Buffer" for eventualities etc.

If a Creditor doesnt accept the DMP, let SC handle it. they will advise. at the end of the day, your making the effort to pay the creditors... they can either accept or reject. and if they reject, they have to give a valid reason... let SC worry about that. (We owed over £73000, and some of our repayments were only £1 over the minimum payment for some creditors and have never had an issue.. all they want to see if their money back)

Token Payments .. Send a Cheque or Postal Order. That way they donot need to know your bank details. WHy are you closing yoru HSBC account? are any of your debts with associated companies ?
Why dont you try talking HSBC first .. tell them the situation, tell them you dont want a loan, you just want a basic account with no Overdraft