DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Suseka

Sazzie23 wrote: »

.....

Just though it might be a good time to reminder DMPers new and old that DMP providers like SC may manage your debt repayments, but the debt still belongs to you (insert your name here) and you (yes the one reading this) should make sure you check your balances with creditors and make every effort too get interest reduced as SC won't do this for you. The balances shown in SC (not sure about other DMP groups) are what your balance would be if interest is frozen, so the DFD (where we all want to be) will be incorrect if interest is still being applied...

Thanks Sazzie a useful reminder. Fortunately all bar one (Halifax) have frozen interest for now so my balances are not too far off what is recorded on my SC account, but I do check everytime I receive a creditor statement.

I watching my OH's two Barclays Credit Card accounts, because in the last month or two his Noddle report shows those accounts with 'up-to-date' markers', which is odd because they are not. So I'm keeping a close eye on those statements incase they reinstate full interest charges.

Other than that my DMP is running along smoothly and I'm up for an annual review next month (June). Not much has changed, so bills have gone down and others have gone up, I also have just had a very small (1%) payrise so I guess our monthly payment will rise albeit marginally.

I will post up the revised position once I reach my review time and hope it give inspiration to others considering whether to take the leap to a DMP, that the sooner you start the sooner your debts will reduce.

jamapo

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.

Went to court today, was horrifed to see it was an open court. One judge, loads of barristers', rows of defendants!!! All called out one by one, loads of people didn't even turn up!. But of course each case had to be heard. Guess who was the very last to be heard? Yep, it was me. What a complete waste of time. Of course the barrister knew nothing about anything, just read from time to pay application. Which was wrong! Judge couldn't understand why my DMP had been accepted for 12 months, yet I was in court. Got to go back in 2 weeks with evidence they've accepted 12 month DMP. Judge didn't even know it was an unsecured loan, thought it was secured on my house. I tried to explain I thought I was there for inhibition hearing, but no response. Don't think I can go through this again, have contacted stepchange, going to speak to them about a DAS I think.

Growurown

jamapo wrote: »

Went to court today, was horrifed to see it was an open court. One judge, loads of barristers', rows of defendants!!! All called out one by one, loads of people didn't even turn up!. But of course each case had to be heard. Guess who was the very last to be heard? Yep, it was me. What a complete waste of time. Of course the barrister knew nothing about anything, just read from time to pay application. Which was wrong! Judge couldn't understand why my DMP had been accepted for 12 months, yet I was in court. Got to go back in 2 weeks with evidence they've accepted 12 month DMP. Judge didn't even know it was an unsecured loan, thought it was secured on my house. I tried to explain I thought I was there for inhibition hearing, but no response. Don't think I can go through this again, have contacted stepchange, going to speak to them about a DAS I think.

Hi Jamapo,

Sounds like a nightmare! Hope you get it sorted.

jubilee14

jamapo wrote: »

Went to court today, was horrifed to see it was an open court. One judge, loads of barristers', rows of defendants!!! All called out one by one, loads of people didn't even turn up!. But of course each case had to be heard. Guess who was the very last to be heard? Yep, it was me. What a complete waste of time. Of course the barrister knew nothing about anything, just read from time to pay application. Which was wrong! Judge couldn't understand why my DMP had been accepted for 12 months, yet I was in court. Got to go back in 2 weeks with evidence they've accepted 12 month DMP. Judge didn't even know it was an unsecured loan, thought it was secured on my house. I tried to explain I thought I was there for inhibition hearing, but no response. Don't think I can go through this again, have contacted stepchange, going to speak to them about a DAS I think.

Jampo well done on your attempts to get this sorted. please keep us posted how next visit goes. must be so frustrating.

Time_to_face_the_music

jamapo wrote: »

Went to court today, was horrifed to see it was an open court. One judge, loads of barristers', rows of defendants!!! All called out one by one, loads of people didn't even turn up!. But of course each case had to be heard. Guess who was the very last to be heard? Yep, it was me. What a complete waste of time. Of course the barrister knew nothing about anything, just read from time to pay application. Which was wrong! Judge couldn't understand why my DMP had been accepted for 12 months, yet I was in court. Got to go back in 2 weeks with evidence they've accepted 12 month DMP. Judge didn't even know it was an unsecured loan, thought it was secured on my house. I tried to explain I thought I was there for inhibition hearing, but no response. Don't think I can go through this again, have contacted stepchange, going to speak to them about a DAS I think.

I hope you get it sorted jamapo, you really don't need this stress

I think speaking to Stepchange about a DAS is a good idea. It's formal rather than the informal DMP and creditors have to stop interest. There should be something similar in the rest of the UK too!

Please let us know how you get on.

TTFTM x

Powered_By_Pies

First contact made with one of my creditors today! :O

I knew they'd been trying to get hold of me but they tried the tactic of getting me to call them on some horrible premium 08 number, which I ignored. They finally used a human to call me, who was...... totally fine. In fact she seemed to know straight away what I was about to say, I confirmed my name and details and she mentioned a payment in arrears, I said I couldn't pay today but requested to leave a note on the account, and her actual response was "Would I be right in assuming this would be a note to say you've entered a DMP?" ....er, yes, so it happens! So she made a note of the DMP reference number and the contact for GP, said no problem, they'd await contact from them, and to have a nice day.

I hope they're all like that when I hear from them! I just doubt they will be

Kate_fixing_it

Powered_By_Pies wrote: »

First contact made with one of my creditors today! :O

I knew they'd been trying to get hold of me but they tried the tactic of getting me to call them on some horrible premium 08 number, which I ignored. They finally used a human to call me, who was...... totally fine. In fact she seemed to know straight away what I was about to say, I confirmed my name and details and she mentioned a payment in arrears, I said I couldn't pay today but requested to leave a note on the account, and her actual response was "Would I be right in assuming this would be a note to say you've entered a DMP?" ....er, yes, so it happens! So she made a note of the DMP reference number and the contact for GP, said no problem, they'd await contact from them, and to have a nice day.

I hope they're all like that when I hear from them! I just doubt they will be

I've been very surprised at how "nice" creditors have been. I had a couple of less pleasant calls straight away - both can be put down to poorly trained staff (I had to explain what a DMP was). Yesterday one had the misfortune to call me in the hour before painkiller top up (BAD IDEA) and was blatantly reading from a script and not listening to my explanations. I'd already spoken to someone else from that creditor and they've had correspondence from me AND SC so I simply refused to answer security questions, gave the SC reference and hung up.

At the end of the day I try to remember that the person calling is potentially in the same position as me financially and they are probably getting paid minimum wage to make calls we don't want to receive. With that in mind I'm (usually) quite polite and they generally react the same way.

I also keep a record of the time and date of the call, the name of the caller and company they are calling from. No one has called more than three times.

The first one was definitely the worst (fear of the unknown?) but this thread has definitely given me the confidence to deal with it. Plus it's worth remembering if you don't answer the security questions they can't discuss the account - their own rules

Kate x

Powered_By_Pies

Kate_fixing_it wrote: »

I've been very surprised at how "nice" creditors have been. I had a couple of less pleasant calls straight away - both can be put down to poorly trained staff (I had to explain what a DMP was). Yesterday one had the misfortune to call me in the hour before painkiller top up (BAD IDEA) and was blatantly reading from a script and not listening to my explanations. I'd already spoken to someone else from that creditor and they've had correspondence from me AND SC so I simply refused to answer security questions, gave the SC reference and hung up.

At the end of the day I try to remember that the person calling is potentially in the same position as me financially and they are probably getting paid minimum wage to make calls we don't want to receive. With that in mind I'm (usually) quite polite and they generally react the same way.

I also keep a record of the time and date of the call, the name of the caller and company they are calling from. No one has called more than three times.

The first one was definitely the worst (fear of the unknown?) but this thread has definitely given me the confidence to deal with it. Plus it's worth remembering if you don't answer the security questions they can't discuss the account - their own rules

Kate x

I'm waiting for Natwest to rear their ugly heads and get in touch - to be honest I'm surprised they've stayed this quiet for this long, when I've missed a payment by as much as 24 hours before, they've shot right up my trumpet with phone calls and letters galore. This time, eerie silence. Almost makes me more scared than if they were barraging me with calls, actually....

In fact none of the others have got in touch at all, every day I come home expecting a letter or two, but so far, zilch. Not even a snotty automated text message, apart from the one that called today.

I'm just wondering if some of them have just instantly given up and assigned their portion of my debt to a DCA, or whether they're skipping the stage of contact and I'll have about 5 CCJ's sat on my doormat in a couple if weeks before GP can complete the repayment procedures with them :eek:

Kate_fixing_it

Powered_By_Pies wrote: »

I'm waiting for Natwest to rear their ugly heads and get in touch - to be honest I'm surprised they've stayed this quiet for this long, when I've missed a payment by as much as 24 hours before, they've shot right up my trumpet with phone calls and letters galore. This time, eerie silence. Almost makes me more scared than if they were barraging me with calls, actually....

In fact none of the others have got in touch at all, every day I come home expecting a letter or two, but so far, zilch. Not even a snotty automated text message, apart from the one that called today.

I'm just wondering if some of them have just instantly given up and assigned their portion of my debt to a DCA, or whether they're skipping the stage of contact and I'll have about 5 CCJ's sat on my doormat in a couple if weeks before GP can complete the repayment procedures with them :eek:

I don't mean to belittle the debt in any way but (in the words of the lady who called me from Asda) they've got bigger fish to fry. To me my debts are huge, they consume a lot of my waking thoughts but split over 7 individual debts there's nothing over £2.8k.

To give you a little insight, I once worked in a corporate debt collection department, the first focus is the largest figures, the next focus is the oldest debt.i may be wrong but I think you're in a similar place to me - not large (to them) and not really that old (in terms of how long since last "full" payment was made). This way of working has been determined through years of experience and various attempts to collect debts and is the most effective.

CCJ action is waaaaaaaayyyy off yet and a last resort. As an example we were always told it was call, letter, call, stronger letter, call, legal letter, call and pass to legal department. However, we only moved onto the next step if the previous step failed to get either a payment in full, repayment plan or further discussion. From being 30 days overdue to being sent to the legal department was a 3-4 month process without involving a DCA. Admittedly that was different as it was one company talking to another but it gives you an idea of the process the creditor has to go through before court action begins. I have a friend that still works there and in the last five years between us we've never seen a CCJ.

You have actually cut them off at the first call by entering the DMP and answering the call and telling them.

I hope that puts your mind at rest a little. And I have to say, I hated the short time I worked in that role! I was literally handed a list of debts and told call up and get the money in and told the above process - hence I have a little understanding for those who call me from collection departments.

Kate x

Powered_By_Pies

Kate_fixing_it wrote: »

I don't mean to belittle the debt in any way but (in the words of the lady who called me from Asda) they've got bigger fish to fry. To me my debts are huge, they consume a lot of my waking thoughts but split over 7 individual debts there's nothing over £2.8k.

To give you a little insight, I once worked in a corporate debt collection department, the first focus is the largest figures, the next focus is the oldest debt.i may be wrong but I think you're in a similar place to me - not large (to them) and not really that old (in terms of how long since last "full" payment was made). This way of working has been determined through years of experience and various attempts to collect debts and is the most effective.

CCJ action is waaaaaaaayyyy off yet and a last resort. As an example we were always told it was call, letter, call, stronger letter, call, legal letter, call and pass to legal department. However, we only moved onto the next step if the previous step failed to get either a payment in full, repayment plan or further discussion. From being 30 days overdue to being sent to the legal department was a 3-4 month process without involving a DCA. Admittedly that was different as it was one company talking to another but it gives you an idea of the process the creditor has to go through before court action begins. I have a friend that still works there and in the last five years between us we've never seen a CCJ.

You have actually cut them off at the first call by entering the DMP and answering the call and telling them.

I hope that puts your mind at rest a little. And I have to say, I hated the short time I worked in that role! I was literally handed a list of debts and told call up and get the money in and told the above process - hence I have a little understanding for those who call me from collection departments.

Kate x

To be honest from some of the threads I've read on here my debt total is a long way off what other poor unfortunates have to pay back - my issue and the reason I decided to go into dmp was the continual use of payday loans as a method of living, and they finally caught up with each other making me realise that no matter how hard I wanted to get out of the debt I'd put myself in, I wasn't going to do it the way I was. Plus by that point my credit rating was/is so trashed that it didn't make sense for me to try and salvage it whilst staying in debt - I know it'll get worse before it gets better what with the defaults I'll be getting, but I'm thinking of them more as a line in the sand and onwards and upwards, etc.

Split over my creditors I probably owe on-the-dot or slightly under 1000 each, minus one Natwest CC and one Natwest overdraft, and even those are both under 2k. I'd managed to chip one of them down to about 1100 from the 1800-odd it had started the year as.

I guess because I've always found it so awkward dealing with Natwest - you're never sure if you're talking with general customer services or 7 Brindley place, birth-place of Satan himself - none of them ever seem to know what they're doing, they're slow/ponderous to respond and when they do it's nothing more than a vague musing - that I thought it'd be impossible to set-up a rigid, structure repayment plan that would be to my benefit in terms of not paying an uncomfortable amount a month and not poking a stick in a hornets' nest by offering peanuts.

Anyway, it's being dealt with now, and I've already decided what I'm going to save any extra cash I have at the end of each month for - come the time of my DFD, I want to have enough money to be able to go over to 'Murica and ride a Harley on as much of route 66 as possible. Call me a dreamer, but it's a goal and something on my bucket list