DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

Mossop01

Thanks HH I've been keeping a log of letters and dates, I'm being abit anal about it! My OH laughs he says I'm contacting them more than they are contacting us! I'm a woman obsessed! Haha

Growurown

Mossop01 wrote: »

Thanks HH I've been keeping a log of letters and dates, I'm being abit anal about it! My OH laughs he says I'm contacting them more than they are contacting us! I'm a woman obsessed! Haha

You sound like a good bet to join the spreadsheet geek club. Better to keep on top of things rather than just ambling along not knowing what is going on. That way trouble lies:cool:

Mossop01

Abit surprised by my own dedication, I've got from years burying my head in the sand to chasing creditors wanting to know as much info as possible and I want that information yesterday! This is such a great opportunity for us to finally straighten things out and who knows when we get his noose from round our necks we maybe be able to us the extra funds to pay off our mortgage early! A long way off I know and one day at a time but that's our long term (very long term) goal

Growurown

Mossop01 wrote: »

Abit surprised by my own dedication, I've got from years burying my head in the sand

Ah ostrich syndrome rears its ugly head again:eek: I think we have all been guilty of burying our heads in the sand!

Mossop01 wrote: »

chasing creditors wanting to know as much info as possible

I felt so much better when I faced up to the debts. Originally I didn't want to know because it was too hard, but now I know exactly where I am with my debts I feel in control. They don't rule my life any more and I know I have enough to buy food, petrol etc. without having to cross my fingers when putting in my pin number!

Time_to_face_the_music

Growurown wrote: »

Ah ostrich syndrome rears its ugly head again:eek: I think we have all been guilty of burying our heads in the sand!



I felt so much better when I faced up to the debts. Originally I didn't want to know because it was too hard, but now I know exactly where I am with my debts I feel in control. They don't rule my life any more and I know I have enough to buy food, petrol etc. without having to cross my fingers when putting in my pin number!

I think we all know the ostrich syndrome very well and I can't tell you how many times I have beaten myself up over my LBM moment not coming earlier

My problem was that I didn't know there was any such thing as a DMP, and it was only when I started trawling MSE forums last January, in desperation after Christmas, that I found out about them.

When we struggle on, month after month, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, to make minimum payments, no-one knows we are in trouble. We only get offered suggestions of help when we can't make the payments. I was going through a load of bank/CC stuff yesterday because one of my storage boxes fell apart, and I noticed time and time again, the statement about "If you only make minimum payments" blah blah. I think it would be more useful if banks changed this to "If you are struggling to make minimum payments, you can seek help here .....".

If people sought help earlier, it's got to be a good thing for them. Not sure the banks would like it though, less time for them to get their full pound of flesh :mad:

Today's piece of advice for our newer members: Buy a cheap filing box and label a section for each of your creditors. Keep EVERYTHING that they send you. You never know when you will need it. Also keep everything from CCCS/Payplan/CAB and the FOS etc.

We are on box 3 now and will be keeping it all until we are debt free, then having a huge bonfire :j

GibbsRule_No3

Sound advice HH. I also think credit card companies should not be able to automatically increase what they let you have without you asking for more. I think my first card that came when I opened my bank account was a limit of £1000, seemed the nearer I got to spending that amount the more they gave me. I think it was a limit of £12000 by the time of my LBM. Agreed 40 years apart from start to finish and my pay had gone up in that time by not by that degree.

Julie67

Morning all,

Some great posts. Thank you growyourown and mossop
Great idea to list your responses.
Mine so far are
Asda CC agreed payment plan reduced interest to 0.254%
Tesco CC agreed pp 0 interest
Nationwide CC agreed pp 0 interest
Barclaycard CC agreed pp 0 interest
Eon threatened court action don't agree pp but told to continue paying!
HSBC managed loan and OD, no response now on 3rd letter:mad:
Barclaycard partner finance no response yet
Blair Oliver Scott, no response yet

So quite different responses but the CC companies seem to be very on the ball. Will just keep pushing on.
Tough week ahead for us, dh has no work booked in, the joys of being self employed.
TTFTM I have a filing cabinet with a dedicated drawer:D

Mossop01

Hi julie i spoke to barclays partner finance they said its not their policy to inform in writing acceptance of dmp but she confirmed that interest had been frozen for 12 months then would be reviewed, i too am stil waiting for hsbc, although got bank statements and no interest added so far!

Time_to_face_the_music

Good idea about the lists of creditors and actions, so here goes with ours:

After 13 months, all of our debts are with original creditors

Lloyds TSB OD - charged interest/OD fee for 4 months, got FOS on the case, froze for 8 months then restarted. have just managed to persuade them to default
Lloyds TSB CC - reduced interest to 6% until we reached minimum payment, then reintroduced full interest. In middle of hopefully sorting out a default
NatWest OD - charged full interest for 10 months, FOS finally managed to get it stopped and refunded, now defaulted
NatWest CC - frozen interest from month 3, not defaulted
M&S Personal Reserve - maintained full interest at 24.9%, FOS took on the case but we lost, not defaulted. This is our priority debt and the one we hit with everything we have got!
M&S CC - frozen interest from month 3, not defaulted, threatening to reintroduce full interest as soon as we reach minimum payment
MBNA CC - reduced interest to 0.3% from month 2, not defaulted
Marbles CC - frozen interest from month 2, not defaulted
Opus CC - reduced interest to 1.5% from first month, not defaulted
BOS Preference Account - frozen interest from month 3, not defaulted

Mossop01

Thats interesting TTFTM that it took 3 months for most to take action on the interest makes me feel maybe im being a bit impatient and there is hope, thanks