DMP - OK to pay off one creditor??

misterbarlow

We are just over 30 months into a 9yr DMP..

Most of our cards and loans are in region of 6-10k, but we had a next account which was only on about £400 at the start...

Latest statement came today and balance is now down to £80..
I think if I shave a bit off the food shop every week, we can pay this off at the end of the month, and then their monthly payment will get split across the other lenders.....

Is this ok to do, or will the others get funny about it if I pay a large one off payment to Next??

Monkeyballs

Hi Mr B

Yeah, I'd say if you are sure you can afford it and you think it's worthwhile then go for it

The only thing I would say is to give Step Change (I'm assuming it's SC even though you've not mentioned) a quick call to let them know but word it like you've come into a little money as opposed to having been able to scrape something together and make sure you zero out the balance on your 'My Debts' section on the website

I know it's a little white lie but you obviously know this isn't what you're supposed to do so I wouldn't feel too guilty about it

I'd normally suggest trying to make an F&F offer but it'd only save you at best (assuming they accepted) maybe £20 or so but I think for the sake of giving yourself a little victory on the way to becoming debt free... What the hell

BUT remember, only do it if you are 110% sure it won't put you into any kind of hardship in the coming month

MB

yamsteroo

I did this when I got a PPI refund from MBNA. For some reason they didn't offset the refund against my debt with them so I did that manually which left an extra £100 pm to go towards my other creditors.


I just changed the balance to zero on my StepChange account and it was all fine.


I know, technically you aren't supposed to favour one creditor above another but I worked on the basis they could have done it themselves except someone sent me the cheque without exercising their right to offset.


For £80 settlement I don't think anyone is going to kick up a fuss and suggest you should have split that across X amount of creditors

Deep_In_Debt

Yep, pay it off - I paid lots of small debts along the way on my dmp - it just meant that the other creditors got more money each month as they money that was being used to pay off that debt will be re-distributed amongst the other creditors so they get more and everyone happy.

Just update it on their website.

misterbarlow

ok thanks guys think i'll go for it...