DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 9

redballoon_2

hi all i hope i am posting in the right place. i had my telphone call with step to change today and i am currently writing out my letters to my creditors to pay a token £1 until we are in a better position etc...

im guessing i will start to recieve correspondence soon either accepting or declining? the guy on the phone did tell me but was so much to take in

so what happens after i start paying the £1 a month? ive read about dmp ?

we have 7 creditors, eon, hsbc x2 (overdrafts) barclays x2 tesco and virgin.

i have applied for a lloyds tsb current account today and moving all my incomings to there for new direct debits to be set up for the essential payments.

thanks

schmalf

Find_The_Real wrote: »

The co-op is good for a basic account, I would give them a ring today as they need to send the paperwork out in order for you to apply so relying on the post can up the application time a bit.

Sorry a statement of affairs is an SOA, a lot of people add it to a thread they start so it may be worth posting a new thread in DFW if you want people to take a look at yours. However people tend to comment on needs and not wants so they can give advice on where to cut down plus they best way to pay off higher interest. They can also give money saving tips as well and how to get the best deals.

You can find this at as it formats to MSE.

Check back over a few of the more older posts (type SOA into the forum search) and it should give you an idea.

Great I will get searching - thanks for your advice re co-op. I will keep searching around the boards for general advice and check in again when I start gtting sorted - got to go through it all with the OH. Thanks

Mossop01

Hi red balloon and schmalf, welcome and all he best with your journeys, reading through the posts on here gave me advice and support to set up my dmp, first payment has been sent to SC! I didn't experience any nasty phone calls pestering me or particularly horrid letters ( only letters telling me what I already knew) I've had a really quite positive experience string mine up, nothing could be worse than the despair I felt at my lightbulb moment!!!!

I have had some great news, the last of my creditors to accept the dmp have both got in touch freezing interest and accepting the plan!!! Wooohhooo
That's all 10 creditors on board with interest frozen for at least 12months! I'm so happy I think I might pop!!! We might actually stand half a chance at getting this paid off!!!!
Gonna treat myself to a choccy bar! Rock n roll!!!
Hope everyone else is having a good day x

Find_The_Real

redballoon wrote: »

hi all i hope i am posting in the right place. i had my telphone call with step to change today and i am currently writing out my letters to my creditors to pay a token £1 until we are in a better position etc...

im guessing i will start to recieve correspondence soon either accepting or declining? the guy on the phone did tell me but was so much to take in

so what happens after i start paying the £1 a month? ive read about dmp ?

we have 7 creditors, eon, hsbc x2 (overdrafts) barclays x2 tesco and virgin.

i have applied for a lloyds tsb current account today and moving all my incomings to there for new direct debits to be set up for the essential payments.

thanks

Hello Redballoon and welcome.

Well done on taking your first steps and I hope it all goes well for you.

Everyone seems to have a different result with creditors so it is hard to say there is a set process, some have had to battle their way through a DMP others like me haven't heard very much at all but the interest seems to have been stopped.

The best I can advise is have a read around the board to give you an idea of what you may expect, what problems people have had a how it was solved.

Wishing you good luck with everything.

Julie67

Afternoon all,

Great news Mossop:j chocolate would always be first choice to celebrate:D

Welcome RedBalloon and schmalf, as Mossop said this forum is fab, I couldn't have got through setting up the DMP without it. I'm at the same stage as Mossop with our first SC payment going out on 1st March. I've not been quite as successful as Mossop with Creditors, 5 have accepted and froze interest or dramatically reduced it, I've not heard from another two, and Eon have refused to accept it but have told me to keep paying ??
The biggest thing for us has been adjusting to the budget and only spending what we have. I was worried about this but I'm now seeing it as a challenge. Due to meal planning and sticking to a fixed amount from groceries we have actually got a bit in front and thanks to an Aldi voucher I've managed to shop for half our allotted budget this week:D
It is tough when things come around. We are out with our grown up kids for a Birthday meal on Saturday night, but have managed to persuade them to go somewhere I have a voucher for so 20% off the bill, none of them know about our DMP and I didn't want to say no, we're there's a will there's a way.
Good luck with everything, so far I've found it a positive experience.

Find_The_Real

Mossop01 wrote: »

Hi red balloon and schmalf, welcome and all he best with your journeys, reading through the posts on here gave me advice and support to set up my dmp, first payment has been sent to SC! I didn't experience any nasty phone calls pestering me or particularly horrid letters ( only letters telling me what I already knew) I've had a really quite positive experience string mine up, nothing could be worse than the despair I felt at my lightbulb moment!!!!

I have had some great news, the last of my creditors to accept the dmp have both got in touch freezing interest and accepting the plan!!! Wooohhooo
That's all 10 creditors on board with interest frozen for at least 12months! I'm so happy I think I might pop!!! We might actually stand half a chance at getting this paid off!!!!
Gonna treat myself to a choccy bar! Rock n roll!!!
Hope everyone else is having a good day x

Good news Mossop about all your creditors finally accepting the plan, and I hope the choccy bar goes down a treat.

I suppose I should really write to the other 2 to see if they are accepting the DMP but as they are crediting the money I shall wait as see if I get anything this month first.

My only news today is that I am no longer officially an owner of a house as the bailiffs should have gone in today after what has seemed like an epic battle to get it repossessed. So let the fun begin now.

I hope everyone else has had a good day.

Mossop01

Hi Julie, excellent news on the grocery shop! Wish I could be so good, tried to limit us to £60 instead of £80 but I just pushed it too far and had to spend another £35 to see us through the week! I need to befriend the slow cooker again and be much more organised!! It can be done I just let it slip this week. Keep plodding on with the creditors, I've been ringing them most days pestering them and the letters finally came through today, I think they got fed up of me!!

Hi find the real, good news on the repossession after much battling, maybe u can put it to bed now and move forward. All creditors seem to apply different rules but I found it was much better to talk to someone as my letters seemed to get lost in backlogs or passed around but rarely acted upon, when I rang they gave me updates and I asked for the info they gave me in writing which they finally did today, just an idea but it worked for me.

redballoon_2

Thank you for all the messages of welcome


hi so how do you go about setting up a dmp? as the teleohone call today didnt mention anything just to pay the token £1 to all creditors? is this something that gets looked at further down the line?

we have nothing left once essentials have gone out apart from £7 to pay 7 creditors. i have paid one £1 to barclays today and sent the letters out.

ive not sent the letters to overdraft yet as awaiting to hear if i have got current acc with lloyds tsb first then i will send those out.

weve got debts of £17k ish dont have exact figure to hand
Does anyone know how long i can pay this £1 for? im guessing it wont be forever.

Also step to change put our food at £300 a month and i dont spend anywhere near that (2 adults and 2 children) so im hoping i can "save" here and actually have some funds the end of the month to save/for a buffer etc

Time_to_face_the_music

schmalf wrote: »

Hi all - I'm brand new on here, but been reading this forum for a while and it has really given me some hope in sorting out my debt problems - i'd never heard of a DMP before and was terrified that my only options were IVA, bankrupt or years and years of forever debt.:(
Went on SC website and did the debt remedy tool - recomended a DMP. I haven't signed up for it yet though. My questions are:
1) when you do the debt remedy tool, does the figure it comes out with have to be the figure you go with or can you adjust it lower - i was concerned that the figure was not practical as it would leave only a tiny amount left over each month, certainly not enough for any kind of emergency, car repairs etc or even simple things like for instance this month, mothers day gift and a birthday. Obviously when on the DMP you have no other froms of credit so that was a big concern for me.
2) if you input a higher amount then they recomend for certain things, will this get frowned on? My pet figure should be so much higher than their recomended one, as ive got 2 old horses which i have had since way before any of my debt issues, both of which are worth nothing to sell and anyway as you can imagine i woudlnt consider selling my pets, plus a dog. They are all kept as frugally as possible (the horses in a friends field for a bargain rent), but obviously this makes my pet cost really high. Its just a fact of my life and my horses and dog are some of my only pleasures in life at the moment.
3) wha do those of you who are already on a DMP feel is a reasonable left over amout per month to put into the emergency pot? Over the years i have treid to get my debts paid off by overstretching on what i thought i could pay off and then ending up borrowing again as ive not left myself enough to cover unforseen costs - i'm terrifed and determined not to do this again.

Thanks and your views will be greatly appreciated. Schmalf xx

Hi Schmalf and welcome :hello:

Check out the debt remedy tool and carefully look at all the categories for spending. Do you smoke? If you don't and you need to adjust your budget a little, you can say that you do. Do you have expensive dentists, opticians and prescription costs? if you don't, you can add something to those categories.

I am not saying to massively exaggerate every spend but many people say that they do adjust some categories to have a little more to spend on others. It's all about a balance in paying off your debt and making your life bearable. A DMP is generally a long term and it needs to be acceptable rather than a punishment.

Go back to the Debt Remedy and have a little tweak, if you need to know what the maximum limits are for any category, let us know and we can help you with that

Time_to_face_the_music

redballoon wrote: »

hi all i hope i am posting in the right place. i had my telphone call with step to change today and i am currently writing out my letters to my creditors to pay a token £1 until we are in a better position etc...

im guessing i will start to recieve correspondence soon either accepting or declining? the guy on the phone did tell me but was so much to take in

so what happens after i start paying the £1 a month? ive read about dmp ?

we have 7 creditors, eon, hsbc x2 (overdrafts) barclays x2 tesco and virgin.

i have applied for a lloyds tsb current account today and moving all my incomings to there for new direct debits to be set up for the essential payments.

thanks

Hi redballoon and welcome :hello:

Sometimes your creditors get in touch to accept and other times you don't hear a thing. If you do get any hassle by phone call, tell them you will only deal with them in writing.

I assume StepChange don't think you have enough available for a DMP at the moment and have suggested token payments instead. If your circumstances change for the better, you can always move to a DMP in the future.

I set up each new DD on my new bank account then cancelled it on my old account to make sure I didn't miss any but it sounds like you know what you are doing with your new Lloyds TSB account