stepchange

shoemaker1948

had 45minute talk with stepchange told to contact all creditors to explain our position .well i rang my credit card people they were not happy but ok they explained that they will be sending a default notice to me its causing me to have sleepless nights but stepchange were fantastic telling me not to worry they were reasuring my wife is sending out letters to all the other people now that is clubs etc etc

Monkeyballs

Hi Shoemaker,

Well done on taking the first step

I went through the same thing, funnily enough the people I was worried about (PDL's) were all brilliant while the folk I was less worried about (Credit Cards, Catalogues) were kinda dicks about it

Fact is that SC will be dealing with their Head Office which frankly outrank the people you've probably been speaking to so while those converstaions weren't comforting they don't mean too much...

What I would do if I was you though is keep a list of creditor contacted, date & time, who you spoke to, note worthy comments, anything of interest that you feel might come in handy.

You may not need them but it's comforting to have

Good luck and all the best!

MB

shoemaker1948

thankyou for you support the 1 thing that worries me is the letter they are sending me saying about debt default i know credit card people told me several times to ignore the letter it is still worrying me i rang stepchange and told them of my concerns they told me not to worry when they have all the facts they will send a budget plan.afraid its making me feel ill but got to keep going for my wifes sake like others have said this should be a warning on using credit cards

Monkeyballs

Hi,

Ok so SC and the creditors have both told you not to worry... Now I am aswell!

You've broken a credit agreement as you are not paying it back as per what you agreed.

In my experience what will happen is you'll possibly get a second letter but once an agreement is in place with each creditor they will stop and so long as you maintain your DMP payments then nothing more will happen.

In some cases what will happen is you may receive a letter from a debt collection agency (DCA) advising that creditor X has passed the debt to them for collection and you need to pay ASAP.

What you need to do here is call the DCA giving them the ref. off the letter and confirm that you are on a DMP with Step Change, give them the DMP ref. and then advise that you will pass their details to Step Change so payments will go to them instead of the original creditor.

The DCA will then freeze the account for 30 days pending contact from SC.

In the meantime contact SC and pass all the details for the DCA (I.e. the DCA ref, the old creditor ref. and balance) and SC will do the rest.

I understand what you're going through as I was in your shoes just a few months back it's scary but it's happening thousands of times a day so it will run smoothly and if you have any problems contact SC and post something on here for a bit of a pick me up

There is also a DMP & Mutual Support Thread on the DFW forum which you can use

Chill out, enjoy the last night of the year and get ready for a new beginning!

Happy New Year!!!

MB

Sazzie23

Hi all

Happy New Year

Great advice from MB - I still dread receiving the default notice though - it feels like I am in the sinbin!:eek: I NOW know actually getting the default is a good thing, because the sooner you have it the faster it will clear (6 years) - and in the end its only a bit of paper - I can't pay them any extra as I don't have it, I wish I did but I don't.

SHoemaker, sounds like you are making a great start - and if it makes you/wife feel any better - this time last year i cried from the moment i woke up to the moment i went to sleep for days and days. I couldn't talk to SC because i cried all the time.... :(it does get better..and i know it will for you too. There are usual teething problems and hiccups along the way...come back here or join us on the DMP support thread for more help. :T

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4437925 link for the DMP support thread

You are doing a fantastic thing by facing your problems head on. Happy New Year:beer:

shoemaker1948

thank-you for your encouragement it has been so stressful this last week or so stepchage told me not to worry i know but until the budget plan is in place its causing me a lot of stress.also im afraid they will take posestions away from us

fatbelly

shoemaker1948 wrote: »

.also im afraid they will take posestions away from us

It's not going to happen. I'm not even going to list all the stages this would have to go through before it got anywhere near a bailiff. Only a bailiff with an appropriate warrant would have any legal rights over your property. So stop stressing. Most dmps work well so make that assumption your starting point.

If anything doesn't go straightforward you have Stepchange and us for backup.

shoemaker1948

so grateful for your post such good advice thank-you

shoemaker1948

have now given stepchange all the information they needed to send the budget plan we have agreed to everything they have been through .it will be on the budget plan they will be sending to us . which we will and then send the documents back stepchange told me they will deal with the creditors take the strain away from us if the creditors contact us stepchange told me to tell them to ring stepchange and they will deal with them stepchange have been so good ive nothing but praise for them we still have a long way to go still concerned about the letter i will get from credit card people

Monkeyballs

Afternoon Shoemaker,

Reality is that it won't feel right until after maybe a couple of months to be honest.

Then what you will see so long as you stick to your DMP is your payment coming out to SC on the agreed date and nothing really else

In the short term you will get a couple of letters, fairly inevitable but unless it is a CCJ then it's not worth stressing over - even if you do get a CCJ then just get in touch with SC and they'll go through what needs to happen next (I've not received one but they assure me that they take care of it anyway).

Consider that the letters are probably auto-generated and are nothing personal...

Keep us posted on how you get on but I really can't stress how important it is to speak to someone if you have ANY questions at all LOL in the first month I must have called SC about 20 times and they were brilliant EVERY time

All the best,

MB