DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Growurown

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Am feeling very happy today with our latest milestone which has taken us under £5000 of debt. I really can see the light at the end of the tunnel burning very brightly now but I still have a few job issues to sort out so won't get too excited yet!

Karen777 wrote: »

I have got down into the 10s (thousands) today, a month earlier than I thought I would, I'm bouncing!! keep trucking on everyone we're getting there!

Puzzcat wrote: »

As of today I have 90 months left on my dmp if everything stays as it is... so this is what I have based my milestones on.. Now I know life happens and everything rarely goes to plan but it is always good to have something to aim at..


So...


Assuming life stays the same..and I don't up my payments at all to my dmp (which is unlikely..)


November 2013 Starting debt £60062


In January 2015 I have paid off 13.3% and have 90 months left

Fantastic achievements everyone, keeps us focussed and on track!

moneyworrier89

Hi all, just a quick question. I sometimes get overtime in work also but it's not guaranteed so I didn't include it in my DMP. If I do manage to get overtime am I able to make an extra payment to SC and, if so, how would I go about doing this?

Thankyou

Growurown

moneyworrier89 wrote: »

Hi all, just a quick question. I sometimes get overtime in work also but it's not guaranteed so I didn't include it in my DMP. If I do manage to get overtime am I able to make an extra payment to SC and, if so, how would I go about doing this?

Thankyou

Never did it myself tbh. Any extra money we got I put into the emergency fund. I guess if I did want to use the money to pay creditors, I would pay the creditor directly and not tell SC. That way you choose who to pay and you can target the money to where you want it to go. If you give it to SC they will divide it up amongst your creditors, which is fine if that is what you want to do. I would contact SC unless of course any of the other DMPers out there know differently:D

Woodypuddy

Hello all, it's been exactly a year now since I made the call to the debt charity. 55k in debt, husband comoletely oblivious. I was at my very lowest but it was my turning point. DMP set up with step change, supported by my husband and I actually wake up and smile in the morning now and don't dread the phone ringing or the post coming. 1 year in but another 13 to go.
I am hoping someone can maybe help me with a question on full and final settlements. My debts are as follows :-
MBNA - sold to Link - £10797
MBNA - sold to Link - £14754
Barclaycard - £8,000
Barclaycard - £9,400
Debenhams - now sold to another company £1700
Tesco - £8569

My husband is not included on the DMP (all the debts were in my name) but there is a chance he may receive a bonus soon of around £5k. We would ideally like to try and reduce the length of the DMP by looking at full and final settlements. I know that it is nowhere near enough to sort them all (if only) but maybe the smallest 1 or 2 or is that frowned upon (I am with Step change) by doing this it would then give me more money each month to pay the others? Where would I start if so , is there a 'usual' percentage?
Thanks in advance anyone who can offer any advice.

minkeymootoyou

had a letter from natwest about my missed loan payment, says i must pay it now or they will try and get all the money from me.

My dmp doesnt start til 10th feb, have they had notification from step change already?
I cant call them, i work all through their telephone hours, theres a email system but it says for general enquiries only, or the chat system. I have no printer at home, so cant post either. how should i contact them ?

Sazzie23

minkeymootoyou wrote: »

had a letter from natwest about my missed loan payment, says i must pay it now or they will try and get all the money from me.

My dmp doesnt start til 10th feb, have they had notification from step change already?
I cant call them, i work all through their telephone hours, theres a email system but it says for general enquiries only, or the chat system. I have no printer at home, so cant post either. how should i contact them ?

Sounds like the standard letter of pay us or we'll put you in the poorhouse sort of thing, probably computer generated. Wouldn't be especially worried, but if you can get the message to them that you are going in a SC DMP and your ref no is xxxxx it'll probably save you a bit of grief and worry. Despite current normal use it is actually possible and acceptable to hand write a letter (not trying to be clever a--- here), as long as you can be legible it doesn't have to be very neat.
Alternatively I'd assume you do get a break at work? I often have to step out at break time to make a call, no one seems bothered as long as I get back to work on time.

Woodypuddy wrote: »

Hello all, it's been exactly a year now since I made the call to the debt charity. 55k in debt, husband comoletely oblivious. I was at my very lowest but it was my turning point. DMP set up with step change, supported by my husband and I actually wake up and smile in the morning now and don't dread the phone ringing or the post coming. 1 year in but another 13 to go.
I am hoping someone can maybe help me with a question on full and final settlements. My debts are as follows :-
MBNA - sold to Link - £10797
MBNA - sold to Link - £14754
Barclaycard - £8,000
Barclaycard - £9,400
Debenhams - now sold to another company £1700
Tesco - £8569

My husband is not included on the DMP (all the debts were in my name) but there is a chance he may receive a bonus soon of around £5k. We would ideally like to try and reduce the length of the DMP by looking at full and final settlements. I know that it is nowhere near enough to sort them all (if only) but maybe the smallest 1 or 2 or is that frowned upon (I am with Step change) by doing this it would then give me more money each month to pay the others? Where would I start if so , is there a 'usual' percentage?
Thanks in advance anyone who can offer any advice.

Yo woody .., doing great and getting that DFD down.
Re F&f, the word on the DFW board is start at 20/25% and negotiate from there. More likely to have success with DcA's from what I read. SC probably would prefer you to go thru them so perhaps need to tread carefully as they tend to go down the 'treat them all the same route'. However if you were to say 'person xx has given me some money specifically to pay off xxx creditor ' perhaps they might be ok with it. I have heard of SC doing F&f negotiations but I'm not sure if that's something they still do.

I seem to recall Kate fixing it and MB doing something similar, hopefully someone with experience of this will be along soon with relevant advice.

Kate_fixing_it

Sazzie is right, I achieved an F&F last month.

I had 6 creditors, I wrote to them all offering a very low amount. Mine were/are all with the original creditors and I only have 2 defaults. Nobody responded. I eventually called the one still charging interest. They eventually offered to settle for 70% of the balance at that time, as I was still fighting them over the interest I didn't pay it (and co-incidentally the interest complaint was settled a week later ). I followed up the letter to BC with a call (they were marking with AP). As I was paying they wouldn't settle so I complained, within an hour I'd agreed on a 60% settlement provided the cash was received before the end of the month.

My settlement cash came from "a relative" who "transferred the cash to me". I think the time of the month affects the success of F&Fs too. Collection teams have targets to hit each month so towards the end of the month (particularly Dec, Jan, and holiday months when spare cash is sparse) when the target is looming it's easier to get them to agree IMHO.

You have nothing to lose by asking. They aren't going to reverse the DMP and you might get a nice surprise when they accept.

keep us posted about how you get on.

Kate x

System

Kate_fixing_it wrote: »

Sazzie is right, I achieved an F&F last month.

I had 6 creditors, I wrote to them all offering a very low amount. Mine were/are all with the original creditors and I only have 2 defaults. Nobody responded. I eventually called the one still charging interest. They eventually offered to settle for 70% of the balance at that time, as I was still fighting them over the interest I didn't pay it (and co-incidentally the interest complaint was settled a week later ). I followed up the letter to BC with a call (they were marking with AP). As I was paying they wouldn't settle so I complained, within an hour I'd agreed on a 60% settlement provided the cash was received before the end of the month.

My settlement cash came from "a relative" who "transferred the cash to me". I think the time of the month affects the success of F&Fs too. Collection teams have targets to hit each month so towards the end of the month (particularly Dec, Jan, and holiday months when spare cash is sparse) when the target is looming it's easier to get them to agree IMHO.

You have nothing to lose by asking. They aren't going to reverse the DMP and you might get a nice surprise when they accept.

keep us posted about how you get on.

Kate x

This is all very interesting. We are only just setting out on our journey but it is good to know that there may be a possibility of doing something like this, should the occasion arise.

tequilabird

Newbie alert!!

Have posted on the Debt Free Wannabe thread, but thought I'd post here too! Have recently admitted to myself that yes, you guessed it, I AM IN DEBT! Roughly £36K Added to that, I've just had to quit my job due to a horrible bully of a boss and I'm now stuck with £0 income per month!!

Picked up the phone to Step Change and spoke to an advisor about everything. Have bee advised to send a letter to all of my cc companies offering a token payment of £1. I'm scared! I've never missed a payment and surely they aren't going to be happy with this! If I do this, what happens next? I don't even know what a Debt Management Plan is - is that the next step? Aargh! Someone who knows something, please tell me what I'm getting myself into!

Thanks

Puzzcat

tequilabird wrote: »

Newbie alert!!

Have posted on the Debt Free Wannabe thread, but thought I'd post here too! Have recently admitted to myself that yes, you guessed it, I AM IN DEBT! Roughly £36K Added to that, I've just had to quit my job due to a horrible bully of a boss and I'm now stuck with £0 income per month!!

Picked up the phone to Step Change and spoke to an advisor about everything. Have bee advised to send a letter to all of my cc companies offering a token payment of £1. I'm scared! I've never missed a payment and surely they aren't going to be happy with this! If I do this, what happens next? I don't even know what a Debt Management Plan is - is that the next step? Aargh! Someone who knows something, please tell me what I'm getting myself into!

Thanks

Welcome !
I would suggest that you start by reading up about dmp's on stepchange website and then make yourself a cuppa and start this thread from the beginning... Tons of information on here and come back with specific questions, there is always someone around to help.
Puzz.x