DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Suseka

Hi Spiffy and welcome,

I'm with SC and coming up to my first annual review in a couple of months time. It's all gone relatively smoothly up until now, most creditors have frozen interest (all bar one) and only one debt has been sold on to a DCA who has already accepted the same payment arrangement.

I'm not sure what you mean about the plan including the mortgage. If you mean is your mortgage included in the payment plan, then no, not as such - only unsecured loans, credit cards that sort of thing are. But when setting up the arrangement they'll take your mortgage payment into consideration when working out how much you can afford to repay into the plan each month. Hope that helps and good luck with it.

Murphy2011

Hello all, just wanted to pop my head in for a little bit of a "yay" moment, I've just updated our signature as latest SC statement done and realised that I think we have actually paid off nearly 22% of our debt!!! OMG, someone check my figures and tell me I'm not dreaming please!!!(Trust me, it's been one of those weeks where I DEFINITELY need people to double check my maths hee hee!)

City1

Hi,

Your situation seems to be the same as mine level of debt. I am speaking with sc in the morning. Can I ask what your experience has been like as I am very worried.

Also how are you make such good progress.

Cheers

City1

Sorry sent message from phone, hence the bad wording

Time_to_face_the_music

Murphy2011 wrote: »

Hello all, just wanted to pop my head in for a little bit of a "yay" moment, I've just updated our signature as latest SC statement done and realised that I think we have actually paid off nearly 22% of our debt!!! OMG, someone check my figures and tell me I'm not dreaming please!!!(Trust me, it's been one of those weeks where I DEFINITELY need people to double check my maths hee hee!)

Brilliant news Murphy! :j

We have just got down to under £24K remaining and am hoping to hit 71% paid off by the end of this month. I just keep thinking how I never believed our mess was solvable and those 26 months seems to have just flown past

It's all down to the help and support from this thread and its predecessors :T

Time_to_face_the_music

spiffyiffy wrote: »

Thanks Time to Face the Music. A lot to think about there.

Step Change does sound good actually and I've already used their Debt Remedy tool and have an action plan thing sorted.

Could other members of the board who have used Step Change already let me know how they have got on with their plans? and also if these plans have also included their mortgage?

Thanks


Iftakhar

We started off with Stepchange (then CCCS) but moved to self managed after about 10 months. Had I known I could do it alone from the start, I would have done so.

I would say it depends on how much you owe, how much you can pay and how close your payments would be to previous minimum payments. If any debt comes out that you would be above or very close to previous minimum, you are better off self managed.

Other advice is to delay DMP for a couple of months and make token payments to creditors:
1) It allows you to practice your budget
2) It allows you to save an emergency fund
3) It encourages early defaults

Your mortgage is a priority debt and will always be considered as critical to pay back before unsecured debts, this would be taken into account in any DMP. If you have mortgage arrears, you would be allowed to take necessary payments for this into your budget.

Any more questions you think of, just ask away.

TTFTM x

Murphy2011

Hi City1 & welcome. First of all I would say don't worry, speaking to SC was the best thing my OH & I ever did and I bet it will be for you as well. I thought we were the only people in the world with that level of debt and it was terrifying but the person I spoke to was incredibly reassuring and helpful. We have been quite lucky in a way in that all of our creditors defaulted us pretty quickly which means that we haven't had any problems with additional charges and interest, I think quite a few others on hee have had to fight for the same. I don't know but it may be the level of debt that has caused them to do that or as I said just luck but it has definitely helped. I would say allow yourself some wriggle room in your budget, you won't have access to credit anymore and what can go wrong will go wrong,cars, washing machines, boilers...you name it and we have had it! My OH has taken up smoking again (Ahem) and we have all maximised most of our budget allowances when discussing with SC. Make sure after you talk to them that if you do decide to go he DMP route that you open your basic bank account with an unlinked bank before you tell your existing one and get all wages etc transferred over as well, I know some people have had problems with this initially but again, we were lucky. Finally, best of luck, it was definitely the right choice for us and has taken so much of the worry away from us I cannot possibly describe it.

Kate_fixing_it

Hi all :waves:

I'm back and didn't succumb to Ostrich Syndrome, just a kidney infection and hospital stay. Debt hasn't really crossed my mind this week (understandably).

The last creditor to get in touch called 3 times in 2 hours on Tuesday while my mum was waiting with the kids to hear from the hospital. She told them to stop calling and get off the line though I doubt it was as polite as that

I'm still feeling pretty awful but I've had a "nice" letter today (nice for the DMP) Tesco bank have accepted the repayment plan for 6 months and defaulted Not something most people would smile at but I'm pleased. It'll be off my credit file before the DMP is set to finish It also means that the other creditors are likely to have received the details and are hopefully going to follow suit. No mention of interest but I have never had any added to this card (was 12 months interest free purchases) so I'll keep an eye on it.

Big hello to new DMP-ers, best decision you'll ever make and huge congratulations to everyone paying those debts down (I'm still full of painkillers and can't remember who wrote what - sorry!)

Kate x

City1

Just spoken to SC, on the phone for about 1hour. There advice to me was do an IVA and not a DMP. I would be still paying the same amount per month, with the DMP it would take 13 years to get out of the mess I am (we are)in. But with the IVA it would probably take 6 years, as I don't think we would be able to re-mortgage (would I be correct in thinking that).


On the face of it the IVA seems like the easier option (well get out of the debt in half the time), whilst paying the same amount per month. As recommended by SC, although I am certain that it is not as easy that! Can anyone please advise of negatives and positives of both.


Can anybody offer any advice of the two, I am really struggling.


If this isn't the correct forum can you point me in the right direction.

blisteringblue

City1 wrote: »

On the face of it the IVA seems like the easier option (well get out of the debt in half the time), whilst paying the same amount per month. As recommended by SC, although I am certain that it is not as easy that! Can anyone please advise of negatives and positives of both.

Hi City, an IVA is a formal agreement (DMP is very informal) although both will probably prevent a remorgage on good rates for a while. This is a specific forum for IVA and DRO where you will get better advice.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=159