DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

catandy

and another update from me I suppose really just to point out that things to change/ get better and to stick with it / hold on in there.


At the beginning of my DMP I was making token payments to 9 creditors and owed 23k+ which would have given me a DFD of when I was 118 or something completely stupid. I had 1 company continue piling the interest and charges on so my amount owing was going up and not down... lots of angst, calls, letters and complaints later and they were reversed. I also had an eviction notice served by my landlord, they were amongst all the others that I was in arrears with and I ended up going to court to get a suspended eviction notice...


fast forward to now - (about 15 or 16 months since proper LBM) I'm about to take an improved employed job (I gave up self employment due to the rollercoaster of an income it provided) which will give me £800 pm that I could throw at my debts or I can improve mine and my kids lives a bit by keeping some back and paying a fair whack of it off each month. Interest is now frozen on all accounts, balances are dropping, I've negotiated 2 settlement fees and cleared the bills completely, am in the process of doing a 3rd, me and my kids are eating properly cos we can afford to and there's money in the electric meter so we can afford to have the lights and TV on (yep things got that bad).. Oh and I kicked the useless other half to the kerb en route as he did absolutely nothing to help and it was him that had got things to be as bad as they were ...


wish I had contacted Stepchange months earlier than I did and saved myself the stress and hassle but I think I like doing things the hard way


moral of the story - stick with it, the worst creditors can do is say they want more ££ well tough you pay them what you can afford, interest fees being added on - don't just accept it fight it. and finally don't feel guilty/ ashamed for being in this position or that you owe any of these creditors anything - they show absolutely no loyalty to their customers so they don't deserve it back and life happens,, none of us went out with the express idea to get ourselves in debt then be in a position that we were going to struggle paying it back - at least we're doing something about it!


best thing I ever did - starting a DMP and admitting I couldn't just carry on as I was


onwards and downwards!

RebelRed

I spent yesterday printing letters (which I got off here) to send to my creditors with a token payment and telling them to only contact me via mail. My dmp has been set up very quickly so I had already paid a lot of my creditors at the beginning of the month so that was lucky.
I'm trying to relax a little bit now as I've done all I can for now but I seem to constanlty worry. We have however realised that we are in a good position as we are able to pay a decent chunk to them all each month. I just hope they're understanding

NewcastlePaul

NewcastlePaul wrote: »

Hello everyone.
I joined forum tonight as originally was seeking advice about reclaiming PPI (9 creditors have verified that I had it on account)

When saying my hello's I was said this is a good place to be if you have a DMP so here I am.

Original debt due to a dodgy break up, consolidation, flat move and refurnishing and a rather horrid gambling addiction that I'm not particularly proud of was just under £109,000

That was 8 years ago and I have hit my lowest point and now am getting back to where I want to be. Got a long long way to go but on the right track. Next month my debt will be under 60k and estimated Debt free date of late 2025.

I live in a council flat and have no assets but didn't consider Bankruptcy as I got myself into this mess and want to do the right thing plus I wouldn't want to go public with friends and work.


Hopefully this will be reduced by
a) a PPI refund
b) pay going up and bills going down (ok maybe not)

Long way down, longer to go but Im comfortable with my life.
Ok so I'm single again and don't have lavish nights out or a car but plenty of people without debt struggle to run both.

Close family know of my situation as do a couple of ex girlfriends.
Dating I find is the hardest. Can't do the couples holidays or weekends away and decided to come clean.

Anyways I'm going off track.
Approaching my 9th year on a DMP and its totally hassle free.
Was terrifying at first but if you're new to it I promise it gets easier.

I don't even talk to creditors.
They accepted the DMP and payments are made and they are happy. If I get a letter to say someone has sold or transferred a debt I email Stepchange and they do the admin.
I just do my annual review every March and thats pretty much it.

I hope to be around here a bit more nowadays.
After all it costs nothing to type and the support can be invaluable.

Paul

ps if anyone has had an experience of claiming PPI whilst on a DMP then please feel free to check my post on other forum. Cheers

Hiya everyone. Feeling a lot better about it all since last months post. Massively starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
As I said above I was looking into PPI refund.
With my biggest creditor still to respond I have so far been refunded a massive £16,681 and have in effect just reduced by DMP by 3 years !!!!

Full details of PPI journey HERE but if you think you ever had it then please claim. Whats the worst than can happen

:j:j:j:j:j

nextyeartina

Hi. I've just phoned Tesco after receiving a letter asking me to phone them. It was about my letter asking them to consider refunding the charges & interest still charged after starting the dmp. They said they charged in accordance with the contract and won't be refunding. Is there anything else I can do? They defaulted & stopped charging me in May 2013. They were probably made aware of the dmp in February 2013.


Tina xxx

Alchemist207

Wow, I am always so inspired when I come to this web-site, and I pretty much visit daily!

Not much has changed in my journey: I made the first payment to Stepchange on Feb 1st, so I am now waiting for the 25th in order for them to pay out my creditors for the first time. Wonga seems to have accepted the deal and have reduced the interest (although they did not freeze it completely), and so have Pounds to Pocket.

I also owe Aqua some money. Stepchange contacted them, just like the others, and I, too, sent them a letter with recorded delivery. (to make thing worse: I lost the receipt showing the tracking code. And I keep ALL receipts!!) Now they sent me a letter saying 'you haven't made your payment' as it would appear that they did not receive any of this communication. I will send them another letter, but they keep calling me and I feel too scared to answer....

nextyeartina

Alchemist207 - when you write to them again, tell them you only want communication via post. They will eventually stop. Just hang on in there


Tina xxx

Puzzcat

nextyeartina wrote: »

Hi. I've just phoned Tesco after receiving a letter asking me to phone them. It was about my letter asking them to consider refunding the charges & interest still charged after starting the dmp. They said they charged in accordance with the contract and won't be refunding. Is there anything else I can do? They defaulted & stopped charging me in May 2013. They were probably made aware of the dmp in February 2013.


Tina xxx

Hi Tina,


Is this to do with charges and interest whilst the dmp was being set up? I inccured about 1% increase of my debt during this time, but was expecting this as I had read it on here previously.


I guess you could complain to the FOS, after all it doesn't cost anything but you may get the same answer as they are not charging you now.. Do let us know what you decide to do and what the outcome is.


Puzz.

Time_to_face_the_music

nextyeartina wrote: »

Hi. I've just phoned Tesco after receiving a letter asking me to phone them. It was about my letter asking them to consider refunding the charges & interest still charged after starting the dmp. They said they charged in accordance with the contract and won't be refunding. Is there anything else I can do? They defaulted & stopped charging me in May 2013. They were probably made aware of the dmp in February 2013.

Tina xxx

I assume you are paying no interest now but were between February and May 2013?

You could try the FOS:

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

They may say a 3 month default time is reasonable but it's worth a try.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

Time_to_face_the_music

Puzz - we must have posted almost the same thing at the same time!

Great minds think alike? :rotfl:

Time_to_face_the_music

NewcastlePaul wrote: »

Hiya everyone. Feeling a lot better about it all since last months post. Massively starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
As I said above I was looking into PPI refund.
With my biggest creditor still to respond I have so far been refunded a massive £16,681 and have in effect just reduced by DMP by 3 years !!!!

Full details of PPI journey HERE but if you think you ever had it then please claim. Whats the worst than can happen

:j:j:j:j:j

Brilliant news Paul! :T