DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Time_to_face_the_music

phoenixx wrote: »

Another hour and a half to Barclays with the following 'grand' advice. The only way they will stop their punitive interest is if we reduce payments to next to nothing and get defaulted...I can barely believe this is their attitude. Said I'd have to leave SC if that were the case and they said: 'That may be the best thing to do'. Unbelievable! So much for the 'special relationship' SC supposedly have with BC...Oh and yes it is fair (their words) for people in our situation to pay off debt indefinitely! If it is in the interests of their business!!

You really need to take this debt out of your DMP and reduce the payment to token payments, I would suggest £1 per month, until they default you.

Is anyone else charging you interest or just BC? You could try taking it to the FOS but when M&S offered to stop interest if we reduced our payment, the FOS could not defend the case. You are probably best going self managed as Stepchange will not support you reducing/stopping payment to any creditor.

The NED CAB self managed DMP is brilliant, I really can't praise it highly enough, I just wish I had known about it at the start of our DMP. If you haven't already, please check it out:

https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/dmp.asp

TTFTM x

Lighthelamp

KrazyKel wrote: »

Hi Everyone
Happy New Year

I have a quick question, I am contacting Stepchange next week looking into a DMP
Im looking for a basic banc account, I've been looking at Co-Operatvie Bank.
I know I need a basic with no overdraft but is it the Basic Current Account or the Cashminder account that I need....?

(Have debts with Barclaycard, Asda CC, Virgin, MBNA and Nationwide)

Thanks

KK I opened a Coop normal current account (& managed to get £100 bonus from them!) a few weeks before I started my DMP. I have a cheque book with it & there have been no issues so far. I don't think it matters to them if your in a DMP (an IVA would be different) but you don't need to mention it anyway when opening the account.

Lighthelamp

phoenixx wrote: »

Another hour and a half to Barclays with the following 'grand' advice. The only way they will stop their punitive interest is if we reduce payments to next to nothing and get defaulted...I can barely believe this is their attitude. Said I'd have to leave SC if that were the case and they said: 'That may be the best thing to do'. Unbelievable! So much for the 'special relationship' SC supposedly have with BC...Oh and yes it is fair (their words) for people in our situation to pay off debt indefinitely! If it is in the interests of their business!!

I finally managed to get a reply from BC today via email, they accepted my SC payment although no mention of reducing interest etc, I think I will send them a written letter asking specifically for reduction of interest and see how it goes.

sickasachip13

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

You really need to take this debt out of your DMP and reduce the payment to token payments, I would suggest £1 per month, until they default you.

Is anyone else charging you interest or just BC? You could try taking it to the FOS but when M&S offered to stop interest if we reduced our payment, the FOS could not defend the case. You are probably best going self managed as Stepchange will not support you reducing/stopping payment to any creditor.

The NED CAB self managed DMP is brilliant, I really can't praise it highly enough, I just wish I had known about it at the start of our DMP. If you haven't already, please check it out:

https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/dmp.asp

TTFTM x

TTFTM, thanks for the link; I've had a look and wondered what you felt was the main benefit? I'm looking to start playing hardball with our creditors - starting with CCA requests and am wondering whether I'd be better off going self-managed (currently with Stepchange, who've been brilliant) as it could give us more flexibility. Also, we *may* have had a change in circumstances which *may* have altered our household income and I'd like the flexibility to manage this as we see fit.

Any thoughts gratefully received (feel free to pm if it would be better)

SAAC

Growurown

Hi SAAC, I have just been waving at you on the 'how much have we paid off in 2014' thread:D

I've gone self managed now. SC were great as you said - but Halifax are still charging us interest, and we had a big loan with Nat West that we were paying off at around £280 per month which finished in September. I wanted to throw all that money at the Halifax to pay them off quicker. I finished with SC because I knew they would want to spread it out amongst all my creditors. It does give me more flexibility, but Halifax only want a minimum payment of £50 a month to keep them happy, so there is a lot of temptation to use the money for other things.

Christmas was a problem as the usual overtime OH does to pay for it all didn't happen as he wasn't well. We spoke to the family and did a cheaper Christmas but it certainly helped to have that extra cash available. Just got to get back on track now and rein in the spending!

Time_to_face_the_music

sickasachip13 wrote: »

TTFTM, thanks for the link; I've had a look and wondered what you felt was the main benefit? I'm looking to start playing hardball with our creditors - starting with CCA requests and am wondering whether I'd be better off going self-managed (currently with Stepchange, who've been brilliant) as it could give us more flexibility. Also, we *may* have had a change in circumstances which *may* have altered our household income and I'd like the flexibility to manage this as we see fit.

Any thoughts gratefully received (feel free to pm if it would be better)

SAAC

Hi again SAAC

Our problems with Stepchange (then CCCS) arose around distribution of payments and their system for allocation, this meant that right at the start of the DMP, we were above or very close to previous minimum payments for 2 creditors and both refused to stop interest and also piled on charges. We tried getting CCCS to fight it but got nowhere, so with help and support from some amazing people here, we took both to the FOS. In the meantime we had hit minimum payment on another debt and they reintroduced interest too, so we threw that onto the FOS too.

We won 2 of the 3 cases, though one Natwest account took a long time to be sorted. The third was M&S who were really piling on interest at around 27%. M&S were very open with us and told us we were paying them too much and if we lowered the payment, they would stop interest. We put this to Stepchange and even forwarded them the M&S letter but they said they couldn't do anything about it due to the need for "fair" distribution to all creditors, and the FOS said they couldn't do anything because M&S had offered us a solution :mad:

Around this time, we needed some roof repairs so I decided to tell Stepchange that this meant we needed to go down to token payments for 3 months. I was already thinking about moving to self managed DMP, so thought I would use this as an opportunity to see how the creditors reacted. I have to confess that I massively exaggerated the cost of the repairs to ensure there was no money available for normal DMP payments. I know this isn't playing nicely but by this time I was really peed off both with creditors and Stepchange and the constant fight

Creditors were incredibly non-responsive to the drop in payment, I wrote to them all and explained the circumstances and I don't think I even got one answer but I did start to get the stopped interest I had been begging for. I even got some refunds of interest too but not from M&S, so I used all the saved up DMP money for those 3 months towards pay off one M&S account. With the fantastic help of Alice in Welfareland from this thread and a couple of other people from main DFW boards, I then moved over everything to self managed via NED CAB and told creditors, who again did not turn a hair.

A couple of other creditors have tried reintroducing interest since but I have managed to fight them and get it stopped and being self managed means we have been able to pick off debts one by one. We are still very low on defaults and transfer to DCAs, so I was always aware anyone could start charging again at any time. I know self managed DMPs aren't for everyone but it's been great having the control back and starting off using the NED CAB site made it so easy.

Our circumstances could be very different to yours but if there is anything else you need to know, please let me know and I will be happy to help.

TTFTM x

sunnyskies2

Hi, just popped on to see how things are going - since getting new job I don't sit down till 9.00 then bed at 10 and so not much time to get on the thread...but hope all is well?

Funny I rang Barclays earlier today complaining about late payment charge and interest - apparently they have not received new info from SC I requested be sent in Sept...cut to the chase the lady agreed to refund charges and put account on hold pending corres from SC. ( I owe about £600 to them and SC pay them £5 pm) but she too suggested I could make an independent arrangement with them.

I'm intending to to independent in the summer (on my first anniversary) - think I'll be ready for it then.

Happy New Year to all and good luck with the debt busting

Sarah x

Kate_fixing_it

Just popped in to say hi and spotted your signature TTFTM! :T Congratulations! Every time I see it I smile (and get a little envious ) I bet you can smell the finish line line now!

Kate x

so_very_confused

Thanks TTFTM for the very helpful post. You answered many of my questions re going self managed and how to use token payments to best effect! I'm with SC but looking to self manage after change of job hopefully in April.

Back_on_budget

Hi all.

It's been a while since I've been on here, so thought I would update on things.

My father in law passed away suddenly in October, after a short illness.
Whilst he had very little in life, his employer provided a death In service policy, which was paid out to my wife, and has enabled us to clear our DMP.

Whilst I feel that we have cheated a little and been let off the hook, it is great to be able to say that we are now debt free.

Whilst it in no way detracts from the loss of a loved one, I believe he would be glad to know he has helped to get fully in control of our finances.

The two years we spent on a DMP were tough, but it is a process that I am glad we went though. It has changed our attitudes to money, and made us learn to properly budget. (especially the wife!). We are now in a position where we can save every month, safe in the knowledge that we are only spending the money we have earned, rather than using credit cards, loans and overdrafts.

This forum was a great resource for me, and helped me stay positive. The knowledge available here from people who have 'been there' is huge. It helped me to realise I could fight for a fairer deal from our creditors, which lead to the refund of a number of unfair charges.

I was also able to get f&f payment reductions on our 2 largest debts, saving £5k.

I would like to thank everyone who directly or indirectly helped me through my DMP, and hope that I have been able to help others along the way.

Anyone just starting out, or part way though - keep on going, keep on fighting. You are in control.