DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Sazzie23

jamapo wrote: »

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.

Hi jamapo

Sounds like you are having a tough time, well done for keeping on fighting, it's a really difficult position to be in and you must be so worried. I'm sorry I don't know much about the financial laws relating to Scotland. What I do know is that any court will find it difficult to reject compelling evidence that refutes one sides argument.

I'm guessing they want to put some sort of charge on your house so if it's sold they will get the moment without you manage to skip away? I'm not up on the law about this type of thing, but in essence you can't afford to pay any more than you do, so it may not be the end of the world if it happens as long as your repayments don't go up.

Get your statements together which show exactly what you paid and when and to who. What arrangements you made and with who and what responses you received. Make sure all this paperwork is copied and organised, with your statements in reverse time order, newest first, same with all other paperwork. Also get your SC budgets printed out for when you started the DMP and your reviews. Get it all copied twice keep receipts of how much this has cost you in copying charges, paperwork and time.

I don't know what the next move is, I.e. Whether you an submit this to the court now, or if you have to wait to appearance, but in the meantime send one copy of all this evidence to the solicitors who are taking you to court with a very polite covering letter explaining why they are mistaken and inviting them to consider withdrawing their application.

Keep a copy of this letter and their response too. Make sure you send all letters recorded delivery and keep the costs recorded. If you do have to go court, take all this documentation, be polite and pleasant, but do not be afraid to explain about how all this is making you feel and how much you have tried to pay off. Most times self representated cases who present them selves clean (but obviously not in a designer suit:o) are viewed in a fair manner.

I hope this helps, I'm sure you must be having a mega panic over this, but keep a clear head, you have tried and are trying your best to pay.

Please let us know how you are getting on, your experience might be able to help others.

Sazzie23

larnier wrote: »

I have just posted about our difficult experience with DMP. Then saw this thread which has been quite eye opening - I wish I had seen it before as it would have prepared me for a lot of what has happened as our DMC was so optimistic at the outset and did not prepare us for the approach the banks have taken. Anyway, I see that a lot of you have had success writing to / talking to creditors. Our DMC have told me NOT to do this under any circumstances and if I do this I will make things worse as they are the experts. I have had similar experiences of letters saying completely different things to what the DMC say. Lots of threats of legal action and very little in the way of reducing interest - the "concessions" that we are getting are in the main giving us time to pay off arrears which only accrued due to the 2 month lag between us starting to pay the DMC and the DMC paying the creditors - we still get penalties for not paying the minimum amount - even though we are paying more than the old minimum amount (before DMP) they add the arrears to the new min amount therefore the now bigger payment is not enough! The money for these arrears is there - its sitting in the DMC's account in what they call the creditors pot, but they can't pay the arrears off as this is not what the DMP is about. Do you think we should try talking to the banks as so far we have refused to do so as we were advised ?

Hi Larnier,

Welcome to the DMP thread, it's great here :T I couldn't have got through the last 12 months without MSE and this thread.

I read you posts following the first one quoted, my suggestions are

1. Name the DMC, it helps get an idea what their motivation is, if they read it, so what ? They might set you free which could be useful.

2. Write to each creditor explaining you have been working with xxx DMC and you are now taking further financial advice as you don't feel the debts are being managed in the best interest of the creditors or yourself.

3. Go self managed, with NEDCAB or if you don't feel confident enough for this try Stepchange if you haven't been with them already you get the confidence to go it alone.

4. Write to your DMC saying you no longer wish to continue, and you are not sending them any more money as they are not working in your best interests. If a payment to creditors is due, go for token payments with covering letter saying you are working towards a new DMP.

5. Set yourself up with a file if you haven't already collating all paperwork for each creditor and a spreadsheet if you have the know how and try to figure out how much you owe now so you can do a new budget.

Come back here and get more help and support of you need it

jamapo

Hi Sazzie 23, thankyou so much for taking the time to respond. yes I am panicking big time, but also feel I'm doing everything I can to get myself out of this mess, even though it is self-inflicted! My husband and I seperated, and I just wouldn't accept that I couldn't carry on living as I had done before he went. I have looked into selling my house to pay off all the debt, but to be honest with you, I have such a small mortgage, that even with the debt paid off I couldn't possibly afford to pay the rent landlords are charging these days! My situation is also compounded by the fact that I have an adult son with cerebral palsy and severe learning difficulties and the problems I would encounter moving him elsewhere to live. I fully intend to represent myself in court, but am petrified, never been in a police station in my life, let alone a court house. Have emailed stepchange (scotland) with all my queries and will let you know their response, also hopefully solicitors will respond with regard to mistakes they have made. Will keep you posted. Once again many thanks for consideration shown Sazzie.

Sazzie23

Hi Jamapo


Please don't beat yourself up about how you got to this place your life, we all got here through different circumstances, relationship issues, job changes or just letting things get out of control. Its about getting up and getting out now. You sound pretty much in control of things, but I'd really recommend presenting your case as I describe, I have union repd for a fair few cases (not court room stuff though) and it really does help if you turn up organised and equipped with easily displayed facts. And many people on the forums here will suggest you get it all sent recorded delivery.


Like I say I'm no expert, but please make sure the solicitors, as well as the court, are fully aware you are caring for an adult disabled child, maybe you feel you don't want to involve him in this, but really its very significant to your case.


I know what you mean about renting, same position here in terms of selling it would just about clear all my debts with nothing left over, however I care for my expartner who now lodges with me and I can't see how we would manage to find somewhere to rent for the similar costs to mortgage (even if he would survive a move).


Loads of support on here as you've realised, keep fighting

Time_to_face_the_music

jamapo wrote: »

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.

Hi and welcome jamapo :hello:

I really do not know the answer to this issue and think you may get more expert help on the main DFW forum re the Nationwide court problem. I will also ask one of the forum guides if they can ask for help for you.

Hope you get this sorted out.

TTFTM x

fermi

Thanks TTFTM.

Posts copied to a new thread here ---> On DMP & still being taken to court - Scotland

Time_to_face_the_music

fermi wrote: »

Thanks TTFTM.

Posts copied to a new thread here ---> On DMP & still being taken to court - Scotland

Thanks very much Fermi :T

ANewLeaf

Hi can anyone help please.

This month I may be short for 1 day making my dmp payment so I might have to call stepchange to pay over the phone if my direct debit is not paid.

I know that this would normally be ok but I had to pay December and January's payments over the phone due to problems with stepchange setting up my direct debit at Christmas time.

is there a limit to how many times they will let me pay by card or will they cancel my dmp? I can afford the payment just had a bigger bill this month.

Sazzie23

ANewLeaf wrote: »

Hi can anyone help please.

This month I may be short for 1 day making my dmp payment so I might have to call stepchange to pay over the phone if my direct debit is not paid.

I know that this would normally be ok but I had to pay December and January's payments over the phone due to problems with stepchange setting up my direct debit at Christmas time.

is there a limit to how many times they will let me pay by card or will they cancel my dmp? I can afford the payment just had a bigger bill this month.

Hi anew leaf

I know of you miss the payment date of the 1st by direct debit they will reapply for the later one (the '8th or the 10th) of the month. How many times they will do this though, I don't know. Maybe they might want you to consider if your budget is quite right if it's pushing you to the edge of your budget already?

I would give them a call and discuss it. Good luck

Kate_fixing_it

ANewLeaf wrote: »

Hi can anyone help please.

This month I may be short for 1 day making my dmp payment so I might have to call stepchange to pay over the phone if my direct debit is not paid.

I know that this would normally be ok but I had to pay December and January's payments over the phone due to problems with stepchange setting up my direct debit at Christmas time.

is there a limit to how many times they will let me pay by card or will they cancel my dmp? I can afford the payment just had a bigger bill this month.

Is it just a timing issue? I'm wondering if you are in a similar situation to me, salary is paid 25th of each month, child benefit is 4 weekly and tax credits are every Monday. It means I know when it all comes in but as my bills all go out on 28th my salary disappears immediately and then I'm playing catch up. It does mean once a year I get two child benefit payments in a calendar month but the SC budget is based on 12 months which means a fair bit of juggling.

Could you alter some DD dates to make this easier for you? I've moved my TV licence to 15th (under £13 but made life easier in theory)? Some won't be able to change but just shifting a few little bits could make things a lot less stressful for you.

Kate x