DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

nextyeartina

I'm sorry to hear your bad news earthmother. If I'm right, as long as you can pay £5 per creditor per month you'll be ok. I'm sure others will be along to correct me if I'm wrong.


Tina xxx

blisteringblue

larnier wrote: »

No but it's another charity. I am so paranoid I don't want to say who as I am afraid someone from there will see me on here - they have made me feel like all I do is complain and say I should trust them.:sad: I am finding it hard to trust them as I am worried it was the initial mistakes in the budgets they made that have got us in this mess.

Hi Larnier, I wouldn't worry about naming and shaming them, sounds like they are not doing their job. Are you paying for this DMP though? You never mentioned this in your posts. If you are drop them immediately and with go it alone or use one of the free DMPs

We've just started with Stepchange, but I also contact the creditors directly, I figure if they hear it from me and stepchange direct it can't do any harm. Any letters I get I simply scan and post them up to Stepchange just so they know what is going on too.

I'm leaning to run it myself eventually because I think in a years time come review I will be paying too much to keep all the interest frozen. But will cross that bridge as and when it happens.

Puzzcat

Quick update from Puzz..

Thanks to the refund of interest from creation I can report I have now paid off 3.9%…reduced dfd by a month and I'm in the 57k's. :T

Kate_fixing_it

Puzzcat wrote: »

Quick update from Puzz..

Thanks to the refund of interest from creation I can report I have now paid off 3.9%…reduced dfd by a month and I'm in the 57k's. :T

Fantastic news Puzzcat! :beer: you are always here supporting everyone, its brilliant to hear such good news

Kate x

Kate_fixing_it

Oh and good news of my own... car is fixed! I'm over the moon.

With hindsight it was actually a good thing - I wouldn't have been able to afford the petrol for the three and a half weeks it's been off the road, it forced me into accepting I needed the DMP and if I had to have a crisis I'm glad it was this and not something much worse.

I'm on the up!

Kate x

Time_to_face_the_music

dini wrote: »

I have over the past 7 years, paid off £50k of debt.
No good reason for it. Nothing to show for it. Just ostrich mentality, store cards, and credit cards.
I still have another 19k to go according to my statements.
Am on a DMP with payplan, (they have my balance at 15k.)
According to them I have 2 years to go.
I am now paying off 700 per month. It has been really hard work, all those payrises have gone nowhere. I am still angry at myself for frittering so much away.
Sometimes I think I have done really well, other times I think another 2-3 years of this is impossible. I live in rented accommodation, and will never own my own home. I am 47 this year, have no savings, and no chance of ever getting to the point of getting a mortgage so my home will always be at the whim of a landlord and whether or not they want to sell.
My credit rating is shot to hell. Some of my debts defaulted at the beginning so have dropped off my credit report, but 2 are still there, wont be off til 2017, and 2 more kindly did not actually default and are still sitting there saying DM. So I will have another 6 years of them blinking on my credit report from when they are paid off.
Its just depressing.
Eventually I wont have debt, and I cant wait for that date, but in the meanwhile is is hard work.

Hi dini :hello:

I assume from the discrepancies in yours and Payplan's figures that some creditors are/have been still charging you interest? Have you fought it and/or tried to claim it back?

I think DM and AP markers are incredibly unfair as they damage your credit rating more than a default. Some people have had success fighting them and have managed to get the defaults back dated. It may be worth giving it a go.

Yes I agree fighting debt can be very hard work and a depressing business but I spend my "down" time updating my spreadsheet, fighting any creditor who is playing unfair and trying to help anyone who needs some help. The experience, help, advice and, above all, support here is incredible. Why not stick around and join us and see if we can do anything to help your situation.

TTFTM x

Time_to_face_the_music

larnier wrote: »

Just wanted to thank those who have responded to my messages today. Having discovered this group for the first time in years I don't feel alone. I have a much better idea of what to expect from this process and that there is somewhere I can go to get tips and offload which I thought the DMC might have provided but hasn't. Thank you - suspect I will be spending a bit of time here!

That sounds so much more positive, well done larnier :T
We hope to see lots more of you and anything you need to know, just ask. Someone here will always try to help you.

TTFTM x

Time_to_face_the_music

Puzzcat wrote: »

Quick update from Puzz..

Thanks to the refund of interest from creation I can report I have now paid off 3.9%…reduced dfd by a month and I'm in the 57k's. :T

Kate_fixing_it wrote: »

Oh and good news of my own... car is fixed! I'm over the moon.

With hindsight it was actually a good thing - I wouldn't have been able to afford the petrol for the three and a half weeks it's been off the road, it forced me into accepting I needed the DMP and if I had to have a crisis I'm glad it was this and not something much worse.

I'm on the up!

Kate x

Great news from Puzz and Kate :j

Time_to_face_the_music

Earthmother wrote: »

Hi all,
I've not posted for a while, things were trundling along nicely and we have paid off over £8k off our debts, but this week DH's work dropped a bombshell. They are making his post redundant and his having to reapply for the new positions they are making. So, he won't get any redundancy, just a new contract and big pay drop. We don't know an exact figure yet but they have said it may be a £5K drop.

We worked it out that we will be about £300 - to £400 worse off a month. We pay Stepchange £370. So we will have enough to live on but no money to pay our debts off, so what will happen?

Obviously I am looking for part time work to make up the deficit and fingers crossed I get a job, but what if I can't get one soon? We be able to make token payments of about £50 I think, but the creditors aren't going to like that drop are they?

We still owe Lloyds just over £15,000 for a loan and Moorcrooft (Lloyds credit card) £10,700.

I haven't phoned stepchange yet as we don't know how much the drop is definitely going to be. Our debt free date was march 2020, but at the moment there is no end in sight, will we get chucked off our DMP if I don't find work soon?

Hi Earthmother :hello:

Am sorry to hear about the situation with your DH's job. Is there a union involved in the redundancy negotiations and has there been group/individual consultancy? If not, it may be worth your DH getting some advice because an offer of suitable alternative employment is not always done correctly. If there is no union involvement, I would suggest he speaks to ACAS and asks them for their opinion.

jamapo

Hi everyone, Would be grateful for any advice. I have debts totalling just under £30k. The main one is an unsecured personal loan with Nationwide which is £23k. I have been on a DMP with stepchange since Feb 2013 and am paying them £283 a month. The loan gets £173 of this and the rest is shared between my other 4 creditors. Other creditors been very helpful and are happy with what I'm paying. Nationwide completely different, firstly they passed debt to debt collection agency, then onto solicitors. Sheriff Officers arrived at my door few weeks ago, had no warning, was mortified! With the help of stepchange I managed to fill in the 'time to pay order', and submitted it to the court. Contacted solicitors involved and asked why they had done this, as when I contacted them earlier they said they had accepted my payments for 12 months! Said they were wanting £388 a month off me! Original loan with Nationwide only cost me £408 a month, so they weren't being reasonable at all! Anyway on friday, I got reply from Solicitors rejecting my time to pay order, and their reasons why. I then got recorded delivery letter from court. Solicitors rejected my 'time to pay' order and a hearing date is set for 7th May. I have read the solicitors 'reasons' and firstly they state that I have only made 1 payment of £173.37 when in fact I have made 13. Secondly they state it will take me 11 years to pay back the debt, when in fact, as my other bills get paid off, nationwide will get more, it will take 8 years to clear the debt. I emailed solicitors to correct this information, as I felt it made what is already a bad situation seem even worse. I have a mortgage on my house, and a lot of equity in it. From what I can gather they are taking me to court to try and turn my unsecured loan into a secured one. I have never missed a payment on either my mortgage or my DMP but I'm still unsure as to what the hearing can do? Can the court tell nationwide to accept my payments and leave me alone, or is it just for the solicitors benefit, and is it a foregone conclusion that my loan will become a secured one? Sorry for the long post, but I didn't know how else to explain it. PS. I'm in Scotland and know the rules are a bit different here.