DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Puzzcat

ploppy57 wrote: »

Well we seem to be having a nightmare setting up a new joint bank account.....Nationwide have said we are accepted but it could take 5-7 days for use to receive the paperwork to sign and then another 10 days for account to be set up. Natwest have said they will let us know if we have been accepted, but they have accepted me for an account of my own, but that is no good for our joint bills.
It just all seems to be taking so long and I have the SC pack here but cant send it back yet without the new bank details....am I just being too anxious about it all?

Yes, in a word!
The problem with not having the safe bank account up an running and wages moved prior to your creditors getting wind of problems is they can take money from your original account if you have debts with them. Any other creditor doesn't matter they can have a £1 token payment. I had to continue to pay my 3 natwest accounts as usual until I had got my joint account closed as other half not on dmp. Can you manage to keep your non safe bank account unalerted for now?

spot3

Puzzcat wrote: »

Yes, in a word!
The problem with not having the safe bank account up an running and wages moved prior to your creditors getting wind of problems is they can take money from your original account if you have debts with them. Any other creditor doesn't matter they can have a £1 token payment. I had to continue to pay my 3 natwest accounts as usual until I had got my joint account closed as other half not on dmp. Can you manage to keep your non safe bank account unalerted for now?

when I sent my pack back to stepchange I didn't have a new bank account yet and they didn't write to my existing bank until I provided new account details, they sent me an email explaining this and reminding me to do it as I was a bit clueless.

Growurown

ploppy57 wrote: »

Well we seem to be having a nightmare setting up a new joint bank account.....Nationwide have said we are accepted but it could take 5-7 days for use to receive the paperwork to sign and then another 10 days for account to be set up. Natwest have said they will let us know if we have been accepted, but they have accepted me for an account of my own, but that is no good for our joint bills.
It just all seems to be taking so long and I have the SC pack here but cant send it back yet without the new bank details....am I just being too anxious about it all?

Hi ploppy, it is an anxious time but it will be sorted eventually. If you are struggling with your bills etc. you can start the DMP before things get up and running with SC by just writing to your creditors saying you can't afford a payment this month and offer a token payment. The problem comes when/if your bank decides to snaffle all your wages to pay off your debt. Will you be able to get the accounts sorted out before your next pay day?

My bank didn't cotton onto the fact that we were entering a DMP. OH's wages got paid into the old bank account because the admin in his work place are useless so I had a massive panic thinking the money would be taken but it wasn't. Hope you get it sorted.

phoenixx

Hi MW89

Have to agree with advice of Squirrelnuts on this one. Don't make DMP too hard by having it going out on 10th Feb. Opt for 1st March to give yourself breathing room and a fighting chance at succeeding with the DMP. Token £1 payments before then if needs be, but aim for 1st March first payment.
Well done for taking the plunge!

Sazzie23

moneyworrier89 wrote: »

Hello all,
Just a quick message to let you know my DMP has now started.
My first payment is due to come out on the 10/02/2014 which is 5 days before payday so not ideal but I will just keep the money aside until a couple of days before.
Stepchange have advised they've let all my creditors know so can anyone please advise what to expect from here?
I thought I'd feel some sort of relief but just feel anxious and worried.
Thankyou x x x

Yeah MW

I'm going to suggest you take earlier advice and go to the 1st as DD date for SC. It will mean token payments for this month and next month as creditors worn get paid by SC til 25th March, but that's ok, and they shouldn't give you a hard time about it.

Remember a DMP is a marathon not a sprint and making good prep early on can save pain a few months in.

I don't know if it would be possible to set yourself a standing order to out your SC payment into a savings account and then transfer it back when the DD is due, just to sve you dipping into it by mistake?

Sazzie23

ploppy57 wrote: »

Well we seem to be having a nightmare setting up a new joint bank account.....Nationwide have said we are accepted but it could take 5-7 days for use to receive the paperwork to sign and then another 10 days for account to be set up. Natwest have said they will let us know if we have been accepted, but they have accepted me for an account of my own, but that is no good for our joint bills.
It just all seems to be taking so long and I have the SC pack here but cant send it back yet without the new bank details....am I just being too anxious about it all?

Yeah send it back with all the details you do have, you can probably email the rest later.

I think we've all had to add or change something SC are used to it.
Anxiety is normal but don't let it take over.

moneyworrier89

Hiya,

I am going to call them today to see if it can be amended to the 1st. I have the money there and can put in a savings account and transfer over but ideally it would be good if it could come out around the 1st!

I don't mind transferring it to a savings account and keeping it there.

Thanks.

Puzzcat

spot3 wrote: »

when I sent my pack back to stepchange I didn't have a new bank account yet and they didn't write to my existing bank until I provided new account details, they sent me an email explaining this and reminding me to do it as I was a bit clueless.

I was probably over cautious as I didn't want N*twest to know anything before I had got the joint account closed and as I was doing token payments for a few months anyway there was no rush to send the paperwork back. I did write every month to my creditors including my token £1 so that I could save up an emergency fund and get some car repairs done.


An emergency fund is an absolute must so anyone who is in the process of setting up now should be thinking token payments if they don't already have some cash stashed... In my first year I had more car repairs.. £600+, vets bills and broken freezer.. no access to credit remember...!


Puzz. x

Karen777

take it from one who did not set up an emergency fund and went straight into flinging everything at dmp and came unstuck quite quickly... it's important to have an emergency fund!!!

Growurown

Quite agree and emergency fund is an absolute necessity. It was scary going into a DMP knowing that all access to credit was going. Where to get the money from when things go wrong? Several times when we had really expensive repairs on the car we had to reduce our payment to SC just to cover the bill. That was OK, the creditors didn't like it much and wrote a few nasty letters, and then we had to set up our payment plans with them again because we had broken the agreement.

I had some good news this week. I was contacted by Equitable Life saying that I may be due some compensation for the pension fund going pear shaped in the nineties. At the time they couldn't tell me how much the compensation might be but I opened a letter yesterday to find a cheque for just over £300. Then I opened a second letter and that contained a cheque for £420!!!

My first thought was use it to reduce the Halifax CC which is still charging me interest, but I am going to put it in my emergency fund. Plus I am not telling OH because he'll want to blow it on some new fancy bit of equipment like a new wire for his stereo:eek: