DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Time_to_face_the_music

Monkeyballs wrote: »

I need new glasses, I've had my current ones for about 6 years and need a new prescription but I need thinned lenses as I have really bad eye sight so as I know they will last me for ages and I wear them all the time I'm looking at about £300.

Last time I got new glasses, I got a very pleasant surprise as they had actually come down in price considerably since the last pair. If you are on ESA you may be eligible for a NHS voucher, if not you should be able to get a complex prescription voucher. Check out:

http://www.specsavers.co.uk/glasses/nhs-optical-voucher

Powered_By_Pies

Growurown wrote: »

Perhaps we should start a 'I hate my car' thread:D

Hope it's not too painful PBP.

Haha, thanks!

I'm at a loss as to what it actially is. Tried to have a look underneath but couldn't find anything ominous and everything up top in the engine bay seems ok. I think it's either the bushes or one of the brake calipers knocking, or maybe even an engine mount working its' way loose - hopefully I'll find out on Thursday.

Oh by the way MB, congrats on the victory

Monkeyballs

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Last time I got new glasses, I got a very pleasant surprise as they had actually come down in price considerably since the last pair. If you are on ESA you may be eligible for a NHS voucher, if not you should be able to get a complex prescription voucher. Check out:

http://www.specsavers.co.uk/glasses/nhs-optical-voucher

Really? Cool! That's even better news Today is most definitely my day!

I've just clicked the link and I can't get an NHS voucher as I'm NI contributions based ESA or a voucher for complex lenses as my eyes are bad... But not that bad *phew, small mercy*.

That said, I just looked at high index lenses and it says £40? Really??? The pair I have cost me about £350(ish) and the frames were only cheapy ones LOL... Maybe £35 or so

If I'm reading this right then I may be able to save another £100-150 :j

MB of G x

sunnyskies2

mbI've heard there are some proper money saving ways to get decent specs, I think you get the prescription then go to a private specs/lens (ortho???something) person -maybe someone knows more about this (luckily I havn't had the need yet):)

On another note, I signed myself and OH up for a Noddle account, great freebie:) no defaults yet, I know a bit hopeful, just one lonely late payment - those creditors are sooo patient!... Did see that a loan I thought was £15k is about £13.7k so I quickly went to SC account to make adjustment and it brought DFD forward by 3 months

Sarah

emskyxx

Hi everybody, I'm new to this thread.

I wrote a great big post about my current situation the other day and was pointed in this direction so I'll try and keep it a bit more brief this time.

I'm 26, unemployed due to illness and debt has been mounting up since 2009, I now owe just short of £15,000 to 5 different creditors. Credit cards, an overdraft and loan.

I signed up with SC last Thursday, also went to Halifax to apply for an easycash account to move all my DDs etc.

I have a couple of questions.

When I (hopefully) get confirmation of my easycash account and have sent all the relevant documentation to SC, how long will it take for the DMP to be up and running and my first payment to go to them? I was under the impression they could take the first payment on 10th July, however reading through old threads it seems it could take much longer?

I've never missed a payment with my creditors, however this month I simply won't be able to make all the credit card payments. The first payment this month is due 23rd June and last one 8th July. I'm going to make sure my bank gets what they're owed as I don't want them freezing my account but I'm sinking at the moment and they'll probably be the only ones I'll be able to pay. If I miss the payment to the other CC companies, how long will it take for them to start hassling me? Will the DMP be set up before then?

I did have other questions but my head is a bit full at the moment and I can't remember them.

Thank you for any help! It's been great to read so many success stories on here!

Time_to_face_the_music

emskyxx wrote: »

Hi everybody, I'm new to this thread.

I wrote a great big post about my current situation the other day and was pointed in this direction so I'll try and keep it a bit more brief this time.

I'm 26, unemployed due to illness and debt has been mounting up since 2009, I now owe just short of £15,000 to 5 different creditors. Credit cards, an overdraft and loan.

I signed up with SC last Thursday, also went to Halifax to apply for an easycash account to move all my DDs etc.

I have a couple of questions.

When I (hopefully) get confirmation of my easycash account and have sent all the relevant documentation to SC, how long will it take for the DMP to be up and running and my first payment to go to them? I was under the impression they could take the first payment on 10th July, however reading through old threads it seems it could take much longer?

I've never missed a payment with my creditors, however this month I simply won't be able to make all the credit card payments. The first payment this month is due 23rd June and last one 8th July. I'm going to make sure my bank gets what they're owed as I don't want them freezing my account but I'm sinking at the moment and they'll probably be the only ones I'll be able to pay. If I miss the payment to the other CC companies, how long will it take for them to start hassling me? Will the DMP be set up before then?

I did have other questions but my head is a bit full at the moment and I can't remember them.

Thank you for any help! It's been great to read so many success stories on here!

Hi emskyxx and welcome :hello:

You sound like you are on good track to get started but it may be worth considering a couple of months of token payments to your creditors before you start your DMP. This gives you a chance to practice your budget and also to save a bit of an emergency fund, sometimes it also has the advantage of bringing on early defaults.

If you decide to do this, you can write to your creditors and tell them you are setting up your DMP with SC but here is a token payment in the meantime, £1 each is enough for this. If you need a template letter for this, check out the National Debtline website, they have some great information there:

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/default.aspx

I agree 100% with your approach to your current bank, keep this going until you have everything transferred to your new account. Make sure you change over all your direct debits for mortgage, rent, gas, electric, insurance etc but cancel any debt payments that come out automatically.

Any more questions please just ask, someone here will always try to help you and the support here is invaluable.

TTFTM x

sunnyskies2

Hi emsky I have to be quick as off to work...

..but welcome to the thread. From my experience (and others) very soon you will feel a lot more confident and relaxed about your debt - so many supportive and helpful and funny people on here:)

I set up my DMP about 10 days ago, it only took about a week for SC to set up but I am making £1 token payments to creditors until September to get a buffer behind me (no more credit for emergencies) so you should seriously think about this, SC are fine with this. I made token payments for May/June -using template letter to send off with) I've had no hassle - only understanding phone calls with creditors .. It is early days but I'm chilled about the future- thanks to the thread:)... Sorry can't give more info right now - but hope this helps for now, try not to stress:) others will be along to give you more advice soon:)

Sarah

Puzzcat

Hi emsky,
Glad you found your way to the best thread on mse. I agree entirely with the previous posters and would also add try and read back over thread 9, this will answer many questions you didn't know you wanted to ask!!!
Good luck and keep posting.
Puzz.x

Boarder

I just wanted to share my DMP experience – sorry this is long-winded, but I’ve found so much support on these forums that I wanted to share.

The downward spiral began for me when I began university, back in the Autumn of 1996: I ran up loads of debt as a student; banks were throwing money at us in the mid 90’s and at 18 I suddenly had a fresh overdraft and 2 credit cards with my new HSBC student account…

As a student I was always on the brink of my overdraft and cc limits, but these limits were regularly increased and I just kept on building up more debt. After a couple of years it became the norm for having zero money to actually meaning “I’m at my limit” (ie. £2k or so in the hole). As other credit was readily available I opened another a/c and cc with Cahoot, with the premise of using that as my every day account and sorting out my HSBC debts. That never happened, and after leaving Uni it wasn’t long before the new accounts were also at their limits – I wasn’t earning very much, and just about made all the minimum payments each month while continuing to build more debt through limit increases.

That was when free balance transfer cards started: “why pay interest? I can just cut the other one up and start reducing the debt…”, didn’t happen. 3 credit cards soon became 4, then 5. Add 2 loans to that and things were getting out of hand. I was withdrawing £10 here to pay it in there. Go over limit. £30 fee. Repeat.

I still wasn’t earning enough and something had to give; it was hugely stressful as I was practically living one day to the next, but keeping a lid on it so as not to lose face in front of family, friends and colleagues. Eventually the interest, overlimit and late payment charges spiralled out of control, and then the letters got more serious. I didn’t even have enough income to service the minimum monthly payments, let alone reduce any debt. Could I have asked parents or friends? I really didn’t want to, and they probably couldn’t have helped… Eventually it dawned on me that I was in big trouble and it couldn’t go on any longer.

Including Student Loans I was about £30k in debt: 2 overdrafts, 5 credit cards and several loans. Plus a mobile phone contract.

The clear up began in June 2007. I spoke to DebtFreeDirect who suggested I apply for an IVA, however my application was rejected by HSBC, as they felt that they had more to lose than the other creditors as they were owed the most significant proportion. DebtFreeDirect then put me in touch with Payplan and I begand discussing a DMP.

At this stage an IVA would’ve been preferable – a % of the debt is wiped out instantly, and my credit was wrecked anyway as I had defaults on most of my accounts.

Payplan were very helpful, and it was a huge relief to finally be tackling the problem. Things took a while to set up, but my first DMP payment was made in October 2007 with the plan expected to run for 6 years (which seemed like a lifetime). Creditors did keep hassling and phoning for a long, long time, and eventually some of my balances were sold to recovery companies and I began receiving letters and calls quite frequently. It was reassuring to be able to quote my reference number and tell them that PayPlan were dealing with all of my agreed repayments. I never missed a single payment to PayPlan.

But, towards the end of the plan I checked my credit file….

I was amazed to find that the amounts listed on the file against each creditor were wildly different to those that Payplan had on record, meaning my end date was much further out than I’d hoped. I’d assumed all interest had been stopped (this is what I’d been told by Payplan, though I never had it in writing from the creditors), and therefore the original debt total would be reduced every month by my payment total, giving a clear picture of my status. Wrong. Several companies had continued to levy late payment fees and interest after the plan has started. There was no order to this – some did, some didn’t. Some started half way through, some stopped suddenly.

Also, defaults were placed on most accounts within 6 months of the DMP starting – fair enough. However, several creditors took up to 5 years before a default was placed on the account (meaning I still had 6 years from that date before it would be removed, further extending the credit file penalty). I know they’re within their rights to do this, but it seems terribly unfair that they can choose to record a default at any time, even when regular payments are being made as agreed.

At this point I decided to speak to my creditors again. It had been several years since I’d spoken to the ‘dark forces’ behind all of those charges and nasty letters, but it actually wasn’t too bad – though by that stage they’d been receiving regular payments for 6 years. Many couldn’t find me on their systems, and the info they had was so old I once failed the security questions. Updating their records so they could actually start to contact me again was great – I complained about the excess late fees, interest and default dates….and most of these were hugely successful!

In all my letters I quoted ICO guidelines, referencing guidelines from ‘filing defaults with credit reference agencies’ articles etc.

• Capital One agreed to backdate a default notice so this was wiped off immediately. They also closed the account simultaneously as they applied a PPI rebate, and sent me a cheque for the remainder.
• I received compensation for an ‘admin’ error from Santander, which had meant they’d kept charging fees and interest even though I was making the regular payments as agreed. They also agreed to backdate the default notice so that it was within 6 months of the start of my DMP (and therefore only had a couple of months left). This complaint is still ongoing, as they have still not actioned this as per a letter they sent back in November ’13. How they manage to operate when there is such a clear left hand/right hand issue is beyond me – awful.
• HSBC, my old foes, had sold on their debts long ago, but the recovery agencies were actually more straightforward to deal with: most of these quickly levied defaults from the outset (meaning these were now removed), and all stopped applying interest and charges.
• I also had a couple of other PPI complaints upheld, which came straight off the balances.

My credit file is now getting better….slowly. Aside from the ongoing issue with Santander, one of the recovery agencies did not levy a default notice, but recorded the account as ‘arrangement to pay’ (DMP). Whilst this isn’t a bad as a default, it is recorded as a black mark on my file, and will remain on there for 6 years from the date of my last payment…..until 2020! I am now in touch with the recovery agency to query this, as that will mean I am disadvantaged for a total period of 13 years from the start of my DMP. Credit files are definitely worth checking/

Would I have done things differently? Yes…go direct to the creditors! Talk to them. Communicate. This might be easier said than done depending on the level of debt, but I think if I’d played a straight bat and worked out a minimum payment plan from the outset, things wouldn’t have taken so long to resolve….and I probably needn’t have had all those defaults.

I think Payplan is a great service, and it is free, of course. Payplan are great, but don’t expect them to go the extra mile and do your dirty work, that’s up to you. I wouldn’t class them as an advisory service, more of an administration service: I had so many different case officers over the years, and each one would simply respond to queries with standard response emails. However, I am eternally grateful to them for getting everything moving in the first place.

Setting up a DMP doesn’t happen overnight, and in hindsight it makes things so much easier in the long term if you keep in touch with creditors and continue make nominal payments, however small. It also makes sense to advise them of any address changes during your plan, as PayPlan don’t do this for you and it can make things easier if you need to get in touch.

I found the ICO documentation really interesting – they shouldn’t disadvantage you if you’re clearly trying to make amends, but if you’re running away and not making any payments, they can go for you (which is fair enough, really).

It took me 75 monthly payments, plus a final one-off payment….and whilst I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, there is help out there and there is always a way. I don’t expect anyone to ready all of this, but it feels really good to put it on (virtual) paper.

This is just my experience – good luck to anyone who is going through something similar. 6 years is not a long time.

FuzzyDF

As you lovely people will know I've just started on the DMP road.

BOS card have rejected SC's offer.

Vanquis have accepted an 'arrangement to pay' for 12 months, they will freeze interest but does that mean that I won't get a default?

Halifax loan will accept the reduced payment for 6 months but after that date will start the interest again and expect the 'normal' full payments after that.

Tad confused.