DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

danidav88

NewcastlePaul wrote: »

Think there was more stigma back then. Plus it was my dirty secret. No one knew. Now my family know, best friends and even the ex.

I had a good 2014 claiming PPI and relaimed £25k.
That is going to go towards F&F settlements.
Even if no one accepts a reduced settlement my total debt would be 25k. I also have the option to buy the council flat I have lived in with a 70% discount so the plan is to be debt free / rent free by 2020 but I can't even think about that until this is gone so need.

I hit rock bottom in 2005. The journey uphill has been tough but I'm on the last few laps now. Will get there... We all will

Hi Newcastle Paul,

How did you go about claiming PPI, myself and my husband have had loans and credit cards etc but not too sure if we had PPI on them and don't really want to go through a company and lose money to pay off debts if we were successful?

Can't complain at 25k!!

Danidav

danidav88

danidav88 wrote: »

Hi Newcastle Paul,

How did you go about claiming PPI, myself and my husband have had loans and credit cards etc but not too sure if we had PPI on them and don't really want to go through a company and lose money to pay off debts if we were successful?

Can't complain at 25k!!

Danidav

Just carried on reading and saw your post Newcastle Paul, silly me!!

phoenixx

james_joyce wrote: »

Quick random question: when you have multiple debts with the same creditor, do they normally combine them into a single debt including for selling on to a DCA? I have several cards with one creditor and I can see this getting quite complicated if they stay separate. I only wrote one letter to them for my DMP, stating all the account numbers and separate and combined debts and planned payments.

Thanks
James

Hi James Joyce

We have multiple Barclay accounts. We only had 2 to start with but 3 and a half years down the DMP line, other accounts from different creditors seem to have been hoovered up by them (Amex, Egg etc). They are all treated separately and have different rules and interest rates. We have queried this in the past but they say there are different contract terms for each one. Tricky...We are about to fully pay off Santander which is quite an exciting milestone. DMP is hard but worth it. God knows where we'd be without it. I must update the old sig as it's out of date now. Good to see so many posters on this thread - new and old.
PS loving 'The Dubliners' and 'Ulysses'

james_joyce

phoenixx wrote: »

Hi James Joyce

We have multiple Barclay accounts. We only had 2 to start with but 3 and a half years down the DMP line, other accounts from different creditors seem to have been hoovered up by them (Amex, Egg etc). They are all treated separately and have different rules and interest rates. We have queried this in the past but they say there are different contract terms for each one. Tricky...We are about to fully pay off Santander which is quite an exciting milestone. DMP is hard but worth it. God knows where we'd be without it. I must update the old sig as it's out of date now. Good to see so many posters on this thread - new and old.
PS loving 'The Dubliners' and 'Ulysses'

Thanks a lot - even Finnegan's Wake is easier to figure out than some of these creditors...

badgers1975

Evening everyone,

I've kind of sculked around MSE for a few years but having a read through this thread I feel though I really ought to be a little more active around here.

The last couple of days have been a bit of an epiphany for me really. I've been on a DMP for the last few years after getting myself and ultimately my family in a mess with credit cards.

Last December my company got in a life coaching company to run a course on money mastery and debt busting, which due to my work load and meetings I could not attend. Fortunately Mrs badgers decided to attend their goal setting seminar (I should point out that these were free as part of their values is they should give something back to the community) and found out that they were running it in London. We decided it would be good if we both go. As well as running money mastery in the morning, the afternoon offered coaching money mastery more in depth and using it to help others in a similar position. As much as we had to talk/argue about it when it all came to a head when I had to set the DMP up, this was the first time that we had actually done something together about it.

Their approach to debt busting is quite a simple strategy really, but more that was the amount of time spent on getting us to question how we interact with money. I won't go in depth as I've probably rambled enough already. In as much as we both came away with a different understanding of how we look at the money we have, there was more than that. From talking to others in the same position, I appreciate more how she felt and she understands more how it feels from my position having got there.

Every month I've just watched the money leave my account to stepchange as not really thought much more about it other than one day it will stop. Tonight I logged on and actually looked at what I owe. Two and a half years ago I had £23k in credit cards and overdraft. it's now £14.4K and it will be clear in December 2018. I couldn't actually believe how much I've cleared.

Even a month ago I could not have been able to post anything as open as this. But now my head is well and truly out of the sand and more than that I'm going to use what I've learnt and my experience to help others do the same.

So hello I'm badgers pleased to meet you all

spot3

Nice to 'meet' you badgers, it sounds like a very useful experience for you. Well done for clearing so much debt already!

Sazzie23

badgers1975 wrote: »

Evening everyone,

I've kind of sculked around MSE for a few years but having a read through this thread I feel though I really ought to be a little more active around here.

The last couple of days have been a bit of an epiphany for me really. I've been on a DMP for the last few years after getting myself and ultimately my family in a mess with credit cards.

Last December my company got in a life coaching company to run a course on money mastery and debt busting, which due to my work load and meetings I could not attend. Fortunately Mrs badgers decided to attend their goal setting seminar (I should point out that these were free as part of their values is they should give something back to the community) and found out that they were running it in London. We decided it would be good if we both go. As well as running money mastery in the morning, the afternoon offered coaching money mastery more in depth and using it to help others in a similar position. As much as we had to talk/argue about it when it all came to a head when I had to set the DMP up, this was the first time that we had actually done something together about it.

Their approach to debt busting is quite a simple strategy really, but more that was the amount of time spent on getting us to question how we interact with money. I won't go in depth as I've probably rambled enough already. In as much as we both came away with a different understanding of how we look at the money we have, there was more than that. From talking to others in the same position, I appreciate more how she felt and she understands more how it feels from my position having got there.

Every month I've just watched the money leave my account to stepchange as not really thought much more about it other than one day it will stop. Tonight I logged on and actually looked at what I owe. Two and a half years ago I had £23k in credit cards and overdraft. it's now £14.4K and it will be clear in December 2018. I couldn't actually believe how much I've cleared.

Even a month ago I could not have been able to post anything as open as this. But now my head is well and truly out of the sand and more than that I'm going to use what I've learnt and my experience to help others do the same.

So hello I'm badgers pleased to meet you all

Hello Badgers:hello: and welcome to the gang.

I think what you've said about changing attitude to money and finance is so important and that is why many people on the forums - not just this thread - talk about more than one LBM. (Light bulb moment). The first comes when you realise you re in a right fix and need to do something, the second is when you start realising why this has happened and what you need to change. Now many folk will be here because they had significant circumstance change, divorce, redundancies, bereavements, illness etc and maybe the second LBM isn't as relevant. For me though, the amount of money I've frittered:mad: over the last 10-15 years on stuff I didn't even really want never mind actually need, could have kept me out of debt and even had some savings for when that significant circumstance hit. I can't change what's done, I can only look to improve my current circumstance and find ways to not return to that previous lifestyle.

Welcome to all the newbies :wave:- support is our middle name - literally, and thanks to everyone for nominations and congratulations on my shiny badge for January . I'm really pleased it was helpful to anyone.

Quick useful abbreviations for anyone new,

DMP - debt management plan
LBM - light bulb moment
DcA - Debt collection agency
IVA - individual voluntary arrangement (more formal than a DMP)

SC - Stepchange
PP - Pay Plan
NEDCAB - North East Debt Citizens Advice Bureau (useful site for self managed)

General forum stuff,
NSD - No spend days,
DD - Dearest Daughter
DH - Dearest Husband
OH - significant other
DM - Dearest Mother

Sure there's loads more I can't think of as it's late.

And yes Puzz, I though scary too, but useful :eek:

badgers1975

Thanks Spot, it really was. I felt really good to be able to be so open and honest about it especially in front of my wife.

It's been hard graft but I genuinely feel like I've turned a corner. It doesn't feel like the elephant in the room any more just a challenge that needs to be beaten.

Our and it is now our approach rather than mine alone, is to get it clear, adjust a little to be a little more comfortable and start on clearing the mortgage. The goal we were given to aim at, is not to be a millionaire but a "zeronaire" in that you don't owe anyone anything.

so_very_confused

Congrats :j:j:j:j Sazzie on your badge:T:T:T

spot3

ooh Sazzie, nice badge!

That must be great to be working together badgers, I'm kind of grateful that i'm on my own through this process as I think it must be very hard if partners don't have the same outlook, but 2 working together will make things so much easier for you I'm sure.

In my DMP world, my last full payment to Stepchange has left my bank account, just one more partial payment and I'm done. Barclaycard has now been interest free for 6 months but I have absolutely no idea why, they said they were freezing interest for 30 days while waiting for an updated agreement from SC but didn't start charging again as it turns out.

The letters back from creditors as I've paid them off and said that my debt will be marked as 'satisfied' on my credit report, not that I actually care much for my credit report at the moment, is 'satisfied' normal or is it a bad marker?