DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Sazzie23

Aphidgirl wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd swing by this forum and say hello as I've been reading for a while and have been on a DMP for just over a year now.

At its highest point the debt was around 10K but I've got it down to just over 7K now and have paid off 3 credit cards completely :j, hoping to be debt-free by xmas 2015 if I snowball correctly.

Quite pleased with myself as I was with a fee-charging debt management company for the first year (Baines and Ernst) but rang them at the weekend and cancelled, saving myself £41 a month in management charges! Will go self-managed now as I have fewer creditors to deal with. I rang them all to arrange payment plans and found them all to be quite nice and helpful! So far so good!

Good luck to everyone else and stay positive, you've all been great inspiration

Hi Aphidgirl

Good move to ditch the fee-taking DMP managers, you sound confident and organised, it'll work out well and that that estimated DFD will be round so quick it'll catch you out with surprise :T

maganan

blisteringblue wrote: »

Anybody any experience of how Santander handle an overdraft in a DMP.

I've effectively cancelled all payments, cut up the cards etc and included it in the DMP. Stepchange will have written to them with budget etc, I've just done the same but telling them I won't be paying salary into it anymore meaning I will no longer qualify for the authorised overdraft. So the daily fees will start?

Do they just transfer it into a simple debt rather than an overdraft from a current account?

Personally I found them very difficult (obtuse even) despite recording calls etc no knew what anyone else had said! Initially they were getting £25/mth (od was < 500) and charging the same for unauthorised od and interest! After wishing I'd cleared the od with a credit card at the start I used my meagre emergency fund to clear it

Sorry that's not very positive I know others have better experiences! Whatever always try and speak to the highest person available they always seemed more pleasant

blisteringblue

maganan wrote: »

Personally I found them very difficult (obtuse even) despite recording calls etc no knew what anyone else had said! Initially they were getting £25/mth (od was < 500) and charging the same for unauthorised od and interest! After wishing I'd cleared the od with a credit card at the start I used my meagre emergency fund to clear it

Sorry that's not very positive I know others have better experiences! Whatever always try and speak to the highest person available they always seemed more pleasant

That's not good, my OD is 3K so could get interesting. I've sent them a recorded letter yesterday so will see what happens.

Update

Do you think Santander knew I was talking about them? Got a letter from them this morning, acknowledging the SC DMP, effectively closing the account, but freezing interest and charges as long as we pay the payment plan amounts.

Result, thats another one ticked off. Just Barclaycard and HBOS left really, and they have both frozen for 28 days ok, so just have to see what they think of the payment plan details.

Enough_Now

Hi fellow DMPers

A bit of an update from me following the complaint letters sent to the only three creditors still charging interest.

B'card have refunded one year's worth of interest, as a goodwill gesture but will not reduce the APR any further than they already have (good news is that this account is showing as up-to-date, so will hopefully help me rebuild my credit score eventually!) Also my smallest debt, so should be gone relatively quickly.

Sainsburys froze interest for a year initially bit now want to re-introduce full interest as I am above minimum payment. They have said if I don't pay them for three months they will default me and then freeze interest (not an option with SC DMP) or they can close my account and reduce the APR to 19.9% until it is paid off. I don't really want to go self-managed, as the rest of the DMP is going well, so it looks like I will be adding any spare money to this repayment to clear quicker.

Do you think that I could initially accept the account closure and interest reduction, whilst proceeding with a complaint to the FOS? Or will my acceptance look like I agree with their decision?

Still waiting to hear from MBNA, have only received letter to acknowledge complaint. This is my biggest debt and they have applied reduced interest since the start of my DMP.

Any advice or prior dealings with this type of situation would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading

EN x

Puzzcat

blisteringblue wrote: »

That's not good, my OD is 3K so could get interesting. I've sent them a recorded letter yesterday so will see what happens.

Update

Do you think Santander knew I was talking about them? Got a letter from them this morning, acknowledging the SC DMP, effectively closing the account, but freezing interest and charges as long as we pay the payment plan amounts.

Result, thats another one ticked off. Just Barclaycard and HBOS left really, and they have both frozen for 28 days ok, so just have to see what they think of the payment plan details.

Great news bb. :T

maganan

blisteringblue wrote: »

That's not good, my OD is 3K so could get interesting. I've sent them a recorded letter yesterday so will see what happens.

Update

Do you think Santander knew I was talking about them? Got a letter from them this morning, acknowledging the SC DMP, effectively closing the account, but freezing interest and charges as long as we pay the payment plan amounts.

Result, thats another one ticked off. Just Barclaycard and HBOS left really, and they have both frozen for 28 days ok, so just have to see what they think of the payment plan details.

Excellent news well done and good luck

Kate x

Sazzie23

Morning everyone,

Just popped in to say Hi, Great news BB, and a relief, just shows creditors often aren't consistent.

NewcastlePaul

Morning all.
Rang up and had my year 9th annual review with S/C yesterday. Payment going from £463 to £475 a month so DFD changed from 11 years to 10.5

Obviously that will change when I start making F&F settlement offers once PPI claims all done. Would kind of like to be debt free by 2020.

Posted on my PPI thread and will say it here.
Am so glad I joined this forum in January. The support and info is invaluable. Was wary of joining at first as my debt was caused by me being stupid and irresponsible and was worried that I might get shot down in flames.

I want to pay back every penny (subject to F&F offers) but £50k paid back so far and hopefully the rest goes down in time.

Thank you guys, Thank you MSE and thank you Martin Lewis :beer:

Suseka

Well done NcP... impressive reduction in your debts so far and great to hear such positivity. Fingers crossed your PPI claims allow you to reach your target DFD :T

Sazzie23

NewcastlePaul wrote: »

Morning all.
Rang up and had my year 9th annual review with S/C yesterday. Payment going from £463 to £475 a month so DFD changed from 11 years to 10.5

Obviously that will change when I start making F&F settlement offers once PPI claims all done. Would kind of like to be debt free by 2020.

Posted on my PPI thread and will say it here.
Am so glad I joined this forum in January. The support and info is invaluable. Was wary of joining at first as my debt was caused by me being stupid and irresponsible and was worried that I might get shot down in flames.

I want to pay back every penny (subject to F&F offers) but £50k paid back so far and hopefully the rest goes down in time.

Thank you guys, Thank you MSE and thank you Martin Lewis :beer:

That DFD is coming down steadily :j, thanks for joining us, your insights and inputs are very important. Everybody has a different journey, how we got here, how we get through it and how we get to that all important DFD, but by doing it together, its much more manageable :beer: and yeah thanks MSE:money: