DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Meatloaf1981 wrote: »

I’m hoping that my own DMP will improve substantially as and when I can afford to increase my payments. My DMP is somewhat different to most in that it is not centrally managed. I am not making a single DMP payment but have had individual payments negotiated and agreed with 5 out of 6 of my creditors. The 6th is a credit union and I have negotiated down a payment to them from £213 to £150 a month, leaving me a mere £75 more to spread across my other creditors. Until that loan is paid off in 4 years time, my current repayment schedule means I’ll be paying my DMP for 40 years unless I can spread any extra money I earn across the other creditors to bring that down! Needless to say, I am relying on pay rises and being able to pay off my credit union loan faster than 4 years to ensure I can then commit myself to higher repayments on my remaining creditors. Any chance I get, I’ll be dropping in lump sums from overtime and increased payments from pay rises to make sure it comes down a hell of a lot quicker than 40 years!

Well done of the self managed. Think most of us felt nothing would change but its surprising how often we find new solutions. Hope things go smoothly for you.


HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

fermi wrote: »

Worth reading for anyone who has years of AP markers that should have been defaults that would be off your credit report or not long to go.

---> barcleycard AP removal

Successfully removed there.

Perfect. Thanks


HHx

Sazzie23

Fed_up_and_forty wrote: »

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone on this forum and especially to the first person who posted the template letter to send to creditors who don't stop interest.
After years and years of over spending on credit I hit a brick wall at 80mph, suddenly realizing i couldn't keep up with the minimum payments, scared to answer the constant phone calls, telling the kids not to answer the phone.. i eventually got the courage to start my DMP in December 2013. My debt totalled a massive £63500.. initially the DMP was great mainly because all the phonecalls stopped, no one was hassling me for money, it was like a huge weight was lifted and i wanted to wake up in the morning. After month 2 i started to check the balances and realised that most of the creditors had stopped the majority of the interest that was being added to my account, EXCEPT, halifax and Tesco's... so i found the template letter on the forum and sent it off to both creditors. To my surprise, after only 6 weeks, Tesco's stopped all my interest and credited my account with a £30 goodwill gesture. Yesterday i got a letter from Halifax stating that they did nothing wrong by charging interest but as a goodwill gesture and to assist me paying off my debt they will credit my account with £937.00 (which is all the over limit charges and additioanal interest). They haven't stopped my interest but they have lowered it.So i have now paid off 5% of my debt and am feeling hopeful that i can pay the rest off.
Thank you for all the help and support.

If you are still be charging interest then send the template letter and see what happens, its worth a try.

That's what it's all about, helping each other to achieve results, fab news and well done, taking action and making progress towards that DFD - great feeling :j

Sazzie23

:mad: :mad:

I have a loan which I repay outside the DMP - won't bore you with why - I make the repayments on 1st of month by standing order every month and have never missed. I have made a couple of overpayments lately as my council tax is on a 10month plan.

Pretty annoyed to get a letter stating my account was overdue, rang up- could only get them on the 0845 number :mad:, spent 12 mins for them to tell me it was my fault as they had taken my first payment this month as an overpayment on last month and then my overpayment as the regular payment.....why ????!!!

Apparently they will correct it and correct the credit file, but suffice to say I'm pretty naffed off, the one account I'm more than up to date with gives me an overdue account reminder :mad: can't win:(

Sazzie23

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Perfect. Thanks


HHx

HH that DFD is looking very good, happy for you :T

Sazzie23

Constantinople wrote: »

Hi,

I made my first payment to Payplan last month which has now been distributed to my creditors. Looking in my PayplanPlus creditor section, it looks like the plan has been 'accepted' for all but one of my accounts.

My question is, if the plan has been 'accepted', does this mean interest/charges will be frozen? I checked a couple of my accounts today and I can see that I'm still being charged interest/charges which are more than my 'accepted' payment. For example, Santander accepted a payment of around £18 a month which I can see on my account, but then two weeks later they have charged £100 in charges. I'll never clear my debt if this happens.. or does it just take a while for them to freeze charges?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Hi Constantinople

Well done for making a start at dealing with debts, as others DMPers have reported the debt does tend to creep up a bit at the start, but I can't see why you couldn't write to them and complain about the charges, pointing out the obvious, as you stated if they keep on like that you will never pay it off. I'd probably save the ' I'm going to complain to the FoS letter ' for a bit later, but I'm generally of the opinion the sooner you complain about something, the stronger your case is.

Growurown

Sazzie23 wrote: »

:mad: :mad:

I have a loan which I repay outside the DMP - won't bore you with why - I make the repayments on 1st of month by standing order every month and have never missed. I have made a couple of overpayments lately as my council tax is on a 10month plan.

Pretty annoyed to get a letter stating my account was overdue, rang up- could only get them on the 0845 number :mad:, spent 12 mins for them to tell me it was my fault as they had taken my first payment this month as an overpayment on last month and then my overpayment as the regular payment.....why ????!!!

Apparently they will correct it and correct the credit file, but suffice to say I'm pretty naffed off, the one account I'm more than up to date with gives me an overdue account reminder :mad: can't win:(

Hi Sazzie, how infuriating! Hope it gets sorted for you.

rubyinthesky

Hi been reading through this thread slowly and you know so much, I thought I'd ask your advice. Not sure whether to phone StepChange back or if you can help put my mind at rest?

I've got most of my debt on credit cards with reputable banks, and have contacted most of them, even though StepChange said I didn't have to. I have just phoned Very catalogue though, who say that they don't deal with this and it will go to NCO Europe but that I'll be charged late payment fees. Have quickly Googled NCO Europe and not sounding great. This is just going to mean that this debt will grow and grow isn't it? I'm thinking of paying it with one of the cards that I've still not advised yet about the debt management plan but feel that this would be underhand. I don't want to spend when I know for sure that I can't afford to pay it, but it's just under £380 that I owe on Very, so seems such a little amount, but don't want this escalating out of all control.

Also still a bit worried about my business bank account with Santander too, as I have a credit card with them. Step Change said that as I get documentation in my business name for statements, they can't touch that, but I'm feeling uneasy and wondering whether to move it, but really don't want to have to do that.

I can't wait for a couple of months down the line when this might settle down.

Puzzcat

rubyinthesky wrote: »

Hi been reading through this thread slowly and you know so much, I thought I'd ask your advice. Not sure whether to phone StepChange back or if you can help put my mind at rest?

I've got most of my debt on credit cards with reputable banks, and have contacted most of them, even though StepChange said I didn't have to. I have just phoned Very catalogue though, who say that they don't deal with this and it will go to NCO Europe but that I'll be charged late payment fees. Have quickly Googled NCO Europe and not sounding great. This is just going to mean that this debt will grow and grow isn't it? I'm thinking of paying it with one of the cards that I've still not advised yet about the debt management plan but feel that this would be underhand. I don't want to spend when I know for sure that I can't afford to pay it, but it's just under £380 that I owe on Very, so seems such a little amount, but don't want this escalating out of all control.

Also still a bit worried about my business bank account with Santander too, as I have a credit card with them. Step Change said that as I get documentation in my business name for statements, they can't touch that, but I'm feeling uneasy and wondering whether to move it, but really don't want to have to do that.

I can't wait for a couple of months down the line when this might settle down.

Hi Ruby,


Sorry I don't have an answer for you with regards to the business account, I expect someone else will pop up shortly with the knowledge!
I don't think it would be a good idea to use a cc to pay the catalogue as the cc creditor could then reject your dmp on the basis of recent activity or refuse to freeze interest add charges etc.. But I can see where your coming from!


Puzz

Pickle29

Pickle29 wrote: »

Hi
Just giving you an update, rang Sc today and they said not to worry (famous words!!!), they will write to GE again stressing the DMP etc, they said not to wring them, it sounds like a standard type of letter to get us to panic and pay up! If we hear from them again to let sc know! I also rang FOS but left a message and no-one has rang me back, so will try again tomorrow.
Thank you for all your support, let's see what happens next!

Hi
Just giving you another update ... The saga continues!
Got a letter from GE saying taking no further action- we rang to check exactly what this meant, they confirmed not taking legal action as long as we continue with DMP and they are only charging a minimum amount of interest , I asked for this in writing, and today received a statement! The statement said they had charged £44 pm interest , whilst we were paying £32.30 DMP! Yes, we are paying more in interest than our monthly payment so our debt is going up! We rang them and they said interest would be frozen from 1 st April (statements are one month in Arrears), it appears the whole loan was front loaded with interest so that although we had been paying for 4 years, it had mostly been interest! What a fool have we been! We took this loan out through british gas for a new boiler - if we had taken a personal loan it would have been well paid off by now!

Glad they have now frozen interest, but what idiots we have been not to have read small print 4 years ago when we took out the loan! :mad:

Glad we contacted FOS because as least we can begin to make progress on the debt now!