DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

cmcavon

Emergency fund is definitely a must! We got some ppi refunded which was a big help with ours.

I like to have a minimum of £1000 but had to dip into ours last week. Gutted but that's what it's there for.

Sazzie23

Growurown wrote: »

Quite agree and emergency fund is an absolute neccessity. 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:

Hi Guo

That's great news, happy dance :j:j
And don't worry, the OH won't hear it here

Sazzie23

cmcavon wrote: »

Emergency fund is definitely a must! We got some ppi refunded which was a big help with ours.

I like to have a minimum of £1000 but had to dip into ours last week. Gutted but that's what it's there for.

It is, and at least it was there to dip into, hope it's all going ok, saw you have gone onto maternity early. Feet up gel:D

jubilee14

Hi all hope all is going well see there are a few new friends. Great to see you all and taking those creditors and the stress by the horns.

Going to be changing jobs soon which will be pretty much same money but less stress.... i hope. Not had a very good send off by my current employer dont want to say too muchbut safe to say they havent appreciated the work i have put in and continue to do so right up until my notice am torn between not doing anything but hate leaving things in a bad way... though i owe them nothing... however have decided not to be too resentful as its not good for your own well being and i will just end up grumpy to those who dont deserve it.

Also Boiler went and other appliances and my emergency fund is empty. still waiting on parts coming... at least i didnt receive a big cc bill post xmas :j

Puzzcat

jubilee14 wrote: »

Hi all hope all is going well see there are a few new friends. Great to see you all and taking those creditors and the stress by the horns.

Going to be changing jobs soon which will be pretty much same money but less stress.... i hope. Not had a very good send off by my current employer dont want to say too muchbut safe to say they havent appreciated the work i have put in and continue to do so right up until my notice am torn between not doing anything but hate leaving things in a bad way... though i owe them nothing... however have decided not to be too resentful as its not good for your own well being and i will just end up grumpy to those who dont deserve it.

Also Boiler went and other appliances and my emergency fund is empty. still waiting on parts coming... at least i didnt receive a big cc bill post xmas :j

Well done on the new job Jubilee, sounds like it can't come to soon !!


And :T to no cc bill post xmas, I've just done my second christmas with no cc's to fall back on and it is lovely in January when you know you haven't got into any more debt for it.


Shame about the boiler but at least the emergency fund was there to pay for it..!


Love Puzz. x

System

I think we are going to get the DMP started on March and not rush it for Feb as that will give us time to save the emergency fund. When you just make token payments, do you tell the CC companies etc that you are going to be starting the DMP or do you just pay the money? Some of our debts are on overdraft but if we clear out the account (living on overdraft anyway) I suppose I will have to leave enough money in to cover the overdraft fees for that month?

System

Growurown wrote: »

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.

Yes, I have got my account set up now and hope to have joint account set up in the next couple of days. Spoke to a lovely man in branch at Natwest today and both going in tomorrow with ID and he says should only take a couple of days for joint account set up. Hubby gets paid weekly so is going to take all his wages out tomorrow and put them in my account for time being and I don't get paid till end of month so hope I can get details to payroll in time.

cmcavon

Sazzie23 wrote: »

It is, and at least it was there to dip into, hope it's all going ok, saw you have gone onto maternity early. Feet up gel:D

Oh yes four weeks earlier than planned but I am HUGE and so uncomfortable. Feet are up as much as humanly possible with two other children to look after.

Puzzcat

ploppy57 wrote: »

I think we are going to get the DMP started on March and not rush it for Feb as that will give us time to save the emergency fund. When you just make token payments, do you tell the CC companies etc that you are going to be starting the DMP or do you just pay the money? Some of our debts are on overdraft but if we clear out the account (living on overdraft anyway) I suppose I will have to leave enough money in to cover the overdraft fees for that month?

Hi,
There is a template letter around that you can send with your token payment. If some kind soul finds it for you, otherwise I will pop up a copy tomorrow.
I would withdraw the maximum you can, don't worry about leaving enough to pay fees as they will all get added on and into your dmp. Good move to delay start up and give yourself some breathing space.
The debts will go up, but they will soon start to tumble the right way.
Puzz.x

SquirrelNuts

ploppy57 wrote: »

I think we are going to get the DMP started on March and not rush it for Feb as that will give us time to save the emergency fund. When you just make token payments, do you tell the CC companies etc that you are going to be starting the DMP or do you just pay the money? Some of our debts are on overdraft but if we clear out the account (living on overdraft anyway) I suppose I will have to leave enough money in to cover the overdraft fees for that month?

Here you go...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67416198#Comment_67416198

Squiz