DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

tayajade

Growurown wrote: »

We wanted to change provider and they turned us down on the basis of the credit check. However we were several years into our DMP and you are just starting out so hopefully you won't have a problem being accepted. It won't jeopardise your DMP. We are allowed to have things on monthly payments like broadband, insurance, mobile phones etc. Although it looks like credit it is essential stuff that creditors accept people need.

Thank you very much, I will give it a go then and if we don't get accepted then we will have to stick with sky

sunnyskies2

Hi all ad for worried newbies

Just to reiterate what tayajade said - I'd made all payments on time and had never missed one so stopping and sending a token payment seemed really scary - but do you know - the moment I sent the letter and payments I had a wonderful feeling of 'I'm in control now' - even though the whole starting a DMP thing was still rather overwhelming I trusted what I had read so many times from different people on thus thread - and it has all shown itself to be true:) no hassle from creditors, acceptance of payment arrangements, interest frozen. It is so worth biting the bullet - a fantastic feeling soon takes over of liberty from the unaffordable monthly loan/cc payments. FYI we have about £36k of debt and it will take about 9 years to pay - but all good - it will be paid before then;)

Sarah

kb_soma

sunnyskies2 wrote: »

Hi all ad for worried newbies

Just to reiterate what tayajade said - I'd made all payments on time and had never missed one so stopping and sending a token payment seemed really scary - but do you know - the moment I sent the letter and payments I had a wonderful feeling of 'I'm in control now' - even though the whole starting a DMP thing was still rather overwhelming I trusted what I had read so many times from different people on thus thread - and it has all shown itself to be true:) no hassle from creditors, acceptance of payment arrangements, interest frozen. It is so worth biting the bullet - a fantastic feeling soon takes over of liberty from the unaffordable monthly loan/cc payments. FYI we have about £36k of debt and it will take about 9 years to pay - but all good - it will be paid before then;)

Sarah

Completely agreeing with the feeling of control. Well said Sarah, and we'll done for taking control.

I did feel better at that point too, just knowing it's in hand is a wonderful feeling. Xxx

Kate_fixing_it

Good morning lovely people Another beautiful day and woken up refreshed and happy. SC have been paid today so payments made have popped up a bit higher and I'm 4 months down Updated my signature and it's mounting up FAST.

Bank is still looking okay. It's only just (18 days after payday) dropped below a 3 figure sum. Everything is paid, there's still a little to come in and 11 days until it's payday again and I can get shot of those pesky little non-DMP debts oh and it's then dinosaur day too

No word from HSBC yet. They'd responded with their s*d off letter by now with the initial complaint so looks like this one is being taken a little more seriously. If nothing else comes of it at least I've only lost the price of two stamps and they've had the cost of looking into this.

Today we're off uniform shopping before the real craziness hits the shops and best of all it's coming from boosted clubcard vouchers so won't actually cost me anything

All quiet on the debt front for now. No response from creation about halting interest yet but I didn't expect anything yet and I suspect I'm onto a losing battle there even though I'm only clearing £1 off the balance each month. I will continue to fight though!

Hope you all have a good day

Kate x

in_a_noodle

Morning all I'm just about to write my first letters to creditors asking to freeze action for 30 days whilst I'm in contact with Stepchange and am hoping someone could help with the following questions I have?

I have three accounts (loan, OD & CC) with HSBC, do I need a separate letter for each or will one combined be ok? Should I include token payments with this letter? And finally to whom should I post it to (branch or main office)?

I've just cancelled the direct debit for my other creditor (MBNA) as payment was due Thursday, so will fire them a letter at the same time.

Sorry for all the basic questions

Hopelessly_Hopeful

in_a_noodle wrote: »

Morning all I'm just about to write my first letters to creditors asking to freeze action for 30 days whilst I'm in contact with Stepchange and am hoping someone could help with the following questions I have?

I have three accounts (loan, OD & CC) with HSBC, do I need a separate letter for each or will one combined be ok? Should I include token payments with this letter? And finally to whom should I post it to (branch or main office)?

I've just cancelled the direct debit for my other creditor (MBNA) as payment was due Thursday, so will fire them a letter at the same time.

Sorry for all the basic questions

Morning

This is an interesting question. Because they come separately some will say go separate. To save cost Id be tempted to address all three in same letter. A few of us have had experiences that same creditor treats separate accounts differently. Ms TTFTM was told that FOS take a dim view on that practise. There is no one right way, would be very advantageous but could also work the other way. Be interesting to see how it turns out.

Good luck with it

HHx

igaveupnowimback

Hi all, first payment due to SC Sept. 2 creditors acknowledged plan, Cap One defaulted immediately although gave option to prevent this, a catalogue said agreed payment every 28 days and suspended interest/fees etc BUT obv payment won't be every 28 days therefore a seeming acceptance is actually not so.
Missed payments this month and not sent token payments/letters yet. Confused as to best way forward, esp seeing that creditors won't receive first payment from SC until Sept 25 now. Guess send off token payments to all tomorrow and contact SC re the 28 day catalogue 'agreement'.
I should probably SAR all catalogues re late fees and charges, which amount to a lot over the years.

ps sorry for long name, MSE won't let me change it ...

kb_soma

in_a_noodle wrote: »

Morning all I'm just about to write my first letters to creditors asking to freeze action for 30 days whilst I'm in contact with Stepchange and am hoping someone could help with the following questions I have?

I have three accounts (loan, OD & CC) with HSBC, do I need a separate letter for each or will one combined be ok? Should I include token payments with this letter? And finally to whom should I post it to (branch or main office)?

I've just cancelled the direct debit for my other creditor (MBNA) as payment was due Thursday, so will fire them a letter at the same time.

Sorry for all the basic questions

My experience of HSBC was that they treated each one differently, look into their postal addresses, if they all have the same one put all the letters into the same envelope to save postage.

Kate_fixing_it

kb_soma wrote: »

My experience of HSBC was that they treated each one differently, look into their postal addresses, if they all have the same one put all the letters into the same envelope to save postage.

Same here - to the point that I had four calls regarding the three accounts in two days! They don't communicate between departments but they have also been very slow to respond to me or take action. Personally I'd pop all three letters in individual envelopes addressed to each department and then put the three into a big envelope to send to them at their PO box. My letters are yet to be received (alledgedly)

They'll be in touch soon enough when a payment is overdue at which point you give your DMP reference (in my case they ignored that) and you tell them to correspond in writing ONLY. If they continue to call you can remind them that they have ignored that request and you believe they are harassing you.

I'd strongly recommend that you keep a record of the time, date, name of caller and brief description of the call. Having those details to hand to recite back to them saved me a lot of arguments.

You'll be paying them soon enough. I was assured of a 90 day hold on the accounts while my DMP was set up. I still got all the gumpf through the post but they stopped calling after that 4th call.

Kate x

Kate_fixing_it

igaveupnowimback wrote: »

Hi all, first payment due to SC Sept. 2 creditors acknowledged plan, Cap One defaulted immediately although gave option to prevent this, a catalogue said agreed payment every 28 days and suspended interest/fees etc BUT obv payment won't be every 28 days therefore a seeming acceptance is actually not so.
Missed payments this month and not sent token payments/letters yet. Confused as to best way forward, esp seeing that creditors won't receive first payment from SC until Sept 25 now. Guess send off token payments to all tomorrow and contact SC re the 28 day catalogue 'agreement'.
I should probably SAR all catalogues re late fees and charges, which amount to a lot over the years.

ps sorry for long name, MSE won't let me change it ...

They can demand whatever payment terms they want but it doesn't mean they'll get it! One of my creditors will only stop interest is I pay by 23rd. I get the same line in bold every single month on my statement. They don't charge interest.

Cap One have been fab with me, default in month one, halted interest and report regularly and accurately on my credit report.

I'd send them a token payment for August, it shows you are committed to paying and enclose a note that the next payment will be made on 25th September by Stepchange. That way you have been 100% clear.

Catalogues seem to be particularly awkward to deal with from the masses and masses of posts that appear about them on this part of the forum. The facts are simple: you are offering all you can. You are getting help to pay them regularly. No amount of snotty letters can change that. They are still an unsecured debt and you are trying to pay.

You're in charge now. Take the hard line with them now. Believe me, there's no point trying to compromise - that will only result in them receiving preferential treatment which isn't part of the DMP "way". The worst they can do is sell it on to a DCA which would actually be the best thing for you.

Get those token payments sent off and relax safe in the knowledge that you are taking action, following procedure and one day it'll all be gone.

Kate x