DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Sazzie23

idiot84 wrote: »

Thanks very much squirrelnuts!

Yes i believe with the potential of an increase in my spare money in the future that this is one of the better options for myself. I have spoken to my citizens advice and they are getting a pack of information ready for me to help tackle this head on.

That looks like a very useful link thanks!

Hi Id84


Don't beat yourself up about this, many of us struggled on for far too long before admitting defeat. Many, including myself had never missed a payment before the DMP, and it all seems bad now,but it'll get better and you'll learn loads and feel more confident about your budgeting soon.

It will be ok, you are taking the right steps, and on this forum you can get help from others too.

idiot84

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hi Id84


Don't beat yourself up about this, many of us struggled on for far too long before admitting defeat. Many, including myself had never missed a payment before the DMP, and it all seems bad now,but it'll get better and you'll learn loads and feel more confident about your budgeting soon.

It will be ok, you are taking the right steps, and on this forum you can get help from others too.

Thanks sazzie23,

i suppose it has happened to all of us at some point but my wake up call was when i was considering getting a payday loan to help towards paying my next loan payments!!!!

Iv already done the expenditure spreadsheet and its frightening how little i have to live with after essentials!

i have some reservations about the whole thing but i know it needs to be done. Im nervous about the lengh of time to "acheive" a default, as i will eventually need to move out of this flat or remortgage. Im also nervous as i am only going to be paying about £20 per month to my three creditors, this just feels so low and probably wont even cover interest on the accounts!!! add to that if it stayed at that low payment level forever then it would take nearly 42 years to pay back!!!:mad::mad::mad::(:(:mad::mad:

does anyone have any knowledge of NRAM loans/Tesco loans/Bank of Scotland loans???? would be great to hear your experiences.

moneyworrier89

hi everyone gave all my reference numbers to StepChange today so it's all go now. I have seen on here that Natwest have not been very flexible when freezing interest. I currently owe £1000 on one overdraft with them and around £450 on another. Has anyone had any positive experiences with them? Thanks

Puzzcat

moneyworrier89 wrote: »

hi everyone gave all my reference numbers to StepChange today so it's all go now. I have seen on here that Natwest have not been very flexible when freezing interest. I currently owe £1000 on one overdraft with them and around £450 on another. Has anyone had any positive experiences with them? Thanks

All positive here..loan, overdraft and cc with natwest all frozen interest..
Puzz

moneyworrier89

thankyou very much. sorry to keep asking questions im just so worried aout creditors not freezing interest etc.

Sazzie23

Puzzcat wrote: »

All positive here..loan, overdraft and cc with natwest all frozen interest..
Puzz

Me too :Natwest £5000 overdraft interest frozen immediately and no hassle although slightly useless administration system. Was lucky enough to get this paid off with a PPI reclaim so no longer a problem for me.


Id84 - Think positive, the lower your payments are, the more likely you are to get defaulted early on and the more likely the interest will be frozen or drastically reduced.


Yes I also considered PDL for repayments and that's when I started to realise this was a real problem, still took me 2 months to submit though.


Read through the thread, you'll see many successes on here where folk started with massive DFD but circumstances have improved or they've found ways to improve income etc and the DFD has come down.


Always make sure you have done all the ppi/bank charges/anything else you can raise money with to help along the way, there is loads of advice on the forums.


Have we had the emergency fund discussion yet ?

Ellieseleven

Welcome to all the new people on here, it's great to see you all taking your first steps towards debt freedom.

It might be a bit rocky to start with but things do settle down quite quickly. We have been on a DMP for 4 1/2 years and it has been the best thing for us...no more sleepless nights worrying how to pay all the Paul's out there! We have cut our DFD on our way and expect to cut it further along the way, we budget properly and are able to establish an emergency fund.

You have come to the right place for advice and tips and no-one is here to judge you...we have all been in the place that you are now;)

I wish you all well on your journey:)

Take care
Ellie xx

Kate_fixing_it

Hello people new and old :wave:

No new excitement financially here, no further progress with family issues either except that the weekly support group is helping my lots - not just with the problem but in a lot of other aspects of my life. I wonder if SC would consider setting up groups around the country?

For new people: well done on getting here. There are so many things you've said that ring true to all of us. I think every one of us had struggled along for far too long scared of the alternative but as Puzz says creditors aren't going to kidnap your cats or squeeze lemon in your eyes (I absolutely LOVE that analogy Puzz!) all they want is to get paid and be kept informed at this early stage. Some will be fantastic, others will behave like a 3 year old that wants another biscuit, however, the biscuit tin is empty so all the foot-stamping, screaming and threatening in the world isn't going to make biscuits appear. What I'm getting at here is they can't have what you haven't got.

And on a lighter note, because there's nothing funny about debt but together we can have a giggle on the journey, I'd just like to thank January for the below zero degrees last night that made me put on my big fluffy pj's. We needed work done to our crumbling roof and the landlord has arranged the builders (all very efficient) they've just turned up as I was putting the bin out... AN HOUR EARLY!!!! This could have been sooooooooooo much more embarrassing had it not been so cold last night :rotfl:

Kate x

Sazzie23

Ha ha Kate, made me laugh at the thought of it.

System

Just subscribed to this thread after posting on DFW thread that we had finally taken the massive step of contacting Step Change. They emailed the starter pack yesterday within 2 minutes of me submitting details....very impressed!
Now I am looking online to see which is the best bank account to open. I hear that First Direct are good or Co-op. Was a bit worried when I heard people mention Co-op as from what I remember on the news last year, Co-op Bank were on the way down, so wasn't sure if they would be a good one or not. Anyway, I will have a look and see what I can come up with. What we really want is what we have always had in the past, a joint account for DD's to come out of and wages to go into and then another separate account each for our own things...for example I am in charge of food shopping etc whereas hubby would be in charge of car maintenance, insurance, MOT etc. So really want 3 accounts with same bank with good online facility to transfer between accounts......any ideas?

Just a bit of back ground about us, so I can really get into this lovely group:beer:.....I am 57 and hubby is only 45, so at least when I retire he will still have a few years left to work and earn us a bit more money...LOL. Debt piled up over the last few years due to one thing and another and then in 2012 I got made redundant and had to go self employed for a while while I looked for another job, that didn't work out well and as things carried on we just got more and more into debt, so by the time I finally got a job, we were already in big trouble. Ended up robbing Peter to pay Paul...and hubby tends to follow in his family's footsteps of burying his head in the sand and would never discuss it with me. Then last July, when I had only been in my new job a month....hubby was very ill and off work for 8 weeks ( 2 weeks in hospital) and only got 2 weeks sick pay, so again we got more into debt. Been diagnosed with Colitis, which apparently can be brought on by stress so none of our problems were helping his condition.
Anyway, new year and new start and I managed to persuade him to try StepChange. It was a bit of a shock when I added up all the CC's loans and over drafts and realised that we actually had over £56000 of debt. But they calculated that we should be debt free in 6 years and 7 months....so just about 10 months before my 65th birthday, so big holiday that year I think!!!

Anyway, I hope to get to know you all better over the coming months as we take this journey together and thanks to all of you who have so far commented on any of my posts.