DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Time_to_face_the_music

Nellie1331 wrote: »

Thank you Sazzie, I have found such comfort and strength through reading diaries and posts put up by others ,My husband knew we had debt ,but I had kept the fact we were struggling to pay the debt away from him, my thoughts were no point 2 of us worrying ,and I felt like I had let him down ,how was I going to tell him we were going to have to do a dmp? ,but through reading other peoples experiences and speaking to Stepchange, I told him phew what a relief ,he was fine ,and even though I am the one dealing with everything at least I know he is aware of the situation ,no worrying when the postman comes ,and through everyone's experience's and the fact that its documented on here, it has given me the reassurance that everything will be fine ,so a massive thanks to everyone who has had the courage to post their thoughts and situations Nellie xx

I know for many people it's a really difficult thing to do but it must be such a massive relief to have this out in the open and know you can work together on reducing your debt :T

Welcome to Nellie and other new DMPers :hello:

When we started out, this thread, actually 3 or 4 back but they all serve the same purpose, offered me all the help, advice, experience and support I needed and I will be eternally grateful. I hope it does the same for you.

Hope everyone is well, totally germ ridden here and sick of headache, sore throat and cough. Oh well, always look on the Brightside, it's cheaper on food and getting me out of weekend housework :rotfl:

TTFTM x

Nellie1331

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I know for many people it's a really difficult thing to do but it must be such a massive relief to have this out in the open and know you can work together on reducing your debt :T

Welcome to Nellie and other new DMPers :hello:

When we started out, this thread, actually 3 or 4 back but they all serve the same purpose, offered me all the help, advice, experience and support I needed and I will be eternally grateful. I hope it does the same for you.

Hope everyone is well, totally germ ridden here and sick of headache, sore throat and cough. Oh well, always look on the Brightside, it's cheaper on food and getting me out of weekend housework :rotfl:

TTFTM x

Yes ttftm its a massive relief sorry you are all not well hope you all get better soon thank you for the welcome and thank you for taking time to comment Nellie xx

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

Just after a bit of advice - I have sent the letters out to my creditors informing them of the DMP and asked for communication by letter or email only. The Co-operative Bank who I have a loan with (est. £6000 remaining) left a message on my home phone asking me to ring them as a matter of urgency.

Do I call them back to hear what they have to say, is the phone call likely to be them trying to get me to pay more?? Could it be possible that I could get them to freeze interest/charges if I speak to them?

What do you all think - should I call them or not?

Thanks,

BDFSH x

sunnyskies2

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

Just after a bit of advice - I have sent the letters out to my creditors informing them of the DMP and asked for communication by letter or email only. The Co-operative Bank who I have a loan with (est. £6000 remaining) left a message on my home phone asking me to ring them as a matter of urgency.

Do I call them back to hear what they have to say, is the phone call likely to be them trying to get me to pay more?? Could it be possible that I could get them to freeze interest/charges if I speak to them?

What do you all think - should I call them or not?

Thanks,

BDFSH x

Hi BDFSH if you feel brave enough I would phone them.

Yesterday I received a letter from B/card saying due to terms of plan with SC not being met they have cancelled the arrangement and interest and fees being started again. (N.b letters sent from SC in June that DMP payments would start Sept). I did send £1 token payment end of Aug for Sept but as SC don't pay till 25th of month this is why they sent me the letter. Anyway...I rang them - explained what had happened, quoted FOS stuff that they have to be helpful to me cos I'm in debt etc - the very helpful lady put a one month freeze of interest/fees back on my account and asked me to get SC to write to them to set up plan again. I've emailed SC but guess cos now they've took my first payment all will fall back into place BUT with no fees/interest. After all that...the point is phoning was fine and it's good to feel confident in dealing with the creditors and hopefully get the positive outcomes:)

Hi nellie and welcome:hello:

Hope you all had a super weekend...I'm absolutely beat - new job is heavy duty at the moment!

Sarah x

Brogden

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

Just after a bit of advice - I have sent the letters out to my creditors informing them of the DMP and asked for communication by letter or email only. The Co-operative Bank who I have a loan with (est. £6000 remaining) left a message on my home phone asking me to ring them as a matter of urgency.

Do I call them back to hear what they have to say, is the phone call likely to be them trying to get me to pay more?? Could it be possible that I could get them to freeze interest/charges if I speak to them?

What do you all think - should I call them or not?

Good Morning Sarah,

You're making nice progress

If you can then call the Co-op. The conversation will not be difficult - remember it is only an ordinary person doing their job who has heard it all a thousand times! If I am sometimes feeling a little lacking in confidence when I call a creditor, I immediately apologise for the problems and advise them that I really had no choice and want to find a solution for us. Almost all people will say something like 'that's allright' or 'that's life' or whatever and I have found 99% of my conversations are no stress at all. I know for a fact if I didn't speak to the creditors that domestic stress in the home would be greater than it is. I don't understand the army of people on the site who refuse to speak.....if you can then do - its worth it.

On the subject of the loan......freezing interest is generally not applicable. All of the interest will almost certainly have been added to the loan on day one which unfortunately then immediately increased the amount you owe. The interest will stay there to be paid off along with the capital during the loan term. Generally the only way to obtain a reduction in that loan interest is to pay the loan off early when the bank will 'rebate' interest back hence reducing the amount you owe. In the future, a 'Full & Final Settlement' may reduce the O/S amount even further as and when you are able to consider these. At the outset it is just a case of getting the bank to agree to the monthly amount proposed to them by Step Change and they will...without any doubt at all.

Have a lovely Monday! Its my first day at work after holiday!!

Brogden.

Brogden

Sorry my post should have been addressed to BDFSH but if its any use to anybody great.

Brogden

kb_soma

Good morning all, just catching up on the Tues. Glad to see everyone doing so well.

Welcome to all the new comers.

Sazzie23

Morning everyone,

TTFTM hope today finds an improvement in health,

Sarah, it took SC three tries to get Barclays to recognise my DMP although like yourself they were happy enough to keep putting it on hold until it got sorted.

Nellie - I think the greatest part of the DMP is that worry removal, priceless in fact.

Yesterday I was discussing aspects of money with a close friend and I realised that although my life could be better financially, I am lucky, I know I have enough to pay my essential bills, can put food on the table and have a small stash to cover bills like insurance etc. I am therefore much better off than many people at the moment and I am a very grateful for that. Also as Nellie says, I no longer worry about every letter and phone call, I prefer my DMP life to my non DMP life.

Riverview8

Hi Everyone. Kate thanks a lot for your comments, made me feel much better. I have all forms ready for SC for the DMP but will hold off to see if I get much better paid job this week!
One quick question I would appreciate any advice on. I have a loan that is to be included with DMP payable on 19th. The loan is with Smile who are also my bank. I am going to struggle to pay this month due to some domestic emergencies. I get paid on 28th if I call smile & ask for payment date to be changed to 28th when I can pay in full would that be the best option? Have asked in the past as 19th is a inconvenient time anyway but get told original agreed date was 19th although I never recall any discussion. The standing order is set up on my account could I just change date & phone to explain or would they just change it back & take money resulting in overdrawn fees? Any advice most welcome! Best wishes to everyone!

ailz95

After a couple of years of not being on here very much - father dying, mother clinging - I am now back to, hopefully, giving the encouragement and support to others that I received.

We are living with my m-i-l, which reduces our outgoings - or at least will when we sell our house, which has stood empty 3 weeks in 4 for the last year while we paid gas, electricity, mortgage etc.

Our DMP has now been paid off but I thought I would explain how we got in a mess. I'd been quite happily taking our ccs, loans etc for several years and then I took a mobile phone offer from Virgin for my stepson. He was to pay £10 per month. The problem was that because it was in my name every time he tried to pay it the bounced it back to him - and he didn't notice. After 4 months they defaulted me and then the whole house of cards came tumbling down - all for £51.

Suddenly everyone I owed wanted their money back - about £16000 worth. I fell apart. I did the only thing I could think of: I googled debt repayment. The first company I went with charged me £28 per month - on £100 payment. I was speaking to someone from MBNA for some reason and they suggested Payplan or CCCS rather than paying - Payplan apparently are funded by the cc/loan companies. So we moved to Payplan and it all became very straightforward and I found sleeping at nights much easier. We are now waiting for them to confirm that they have paid off all my creditors with my lump sum pension.

Well that's my twopenneth for today. The thing to remember is (as someone's signature says) being in debt is not a crime - in fact dealing with it makes us the good guys

Have a good one
Ailz