DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Ali80

January2015 wrote: »

Thanks for this info Ploppy:beer: I'm still worried now, because we have 3 MBNA accounts, 1 Halifax OD and 2 Halifax loans and we haven't heard anything yet. I phoned the Halifax financial support line number today and they haven't heard from SC yet. First they knew of our situation was my phone call today, and yet everything with SC was finalised last Tuesday. I still worry somethings gone wrong because everything else on our DMP set up journey has had a hiccup so working on s0ds law I think this final set up bit is bound to go wrong

Oh flip:cool::cool:

Have you contaced your creditors (secure message or letter) quoting your SC ref number? I used a letter template from this thread. Just a thought as often they seem to put accounts on hold until they get the details through from SC.

Ali80

james_joyce wrote: »

Hi all

Another acceptance today so I've now got nearly £40k covered with a total of £10 monthly interest, within payments of about £160.

Thanks a lot to everyone on this thread - both for your advice and for just being there!

Regards
James

Great news James, I admire you for your perseverance in going it alone! Onwards and upwards :beer:

January2015

Ali80 wrote: »

Have you contaced your creditors (secure message or letter) quoting your SC ref number? I used a letter template from this thread. Just a thought as often they seem to put accounts on hold until they get the details through from SC.

Hi Ali

Yes, we contacted all creditors through the secure online message system for each account - except Halifax. They all responded and put fees, charges and contact on hold for 30 days pending contact from SC. We only contacted Halifax today because we left them until we were confident salary went into new account (which it did on Friday).

However, that's all we have heard to date. No contact regarding accepting the SC offer - I know it will come and I'm just being daft/impatient.

NewcastlePaul

Hello and welcome to anyone new.
Setting up a DMP can be a stressful, frightening time.

I set mine up with Stepchange nearly 10 years ago (Still on it) and at the time I had told no one and was bottling everything up.

I switched accounts (to the Natwest) as I didn't owe them anything and got loads of letters from Creditors saying default and they would be passing them over to the collection department.

It was actually a lovely lady on the phone from Lloyds who reassured me. Said not to worry. 99.9% of the time they knew that Stepchange had agreed budget and that it would be fair.

However even if SC send budget sheets to creditors it is still a long journey from the postroom at the bank getting it and opening it to the relevant departments getting the data, inputting it and enough time kicking in for the computer to realise that a plan of action is in place.

She said that she had a put a note on the account that I was now on a DMP but that letters would still automatically be generated and sent out but to ignore them as it was protocol and it would continue until the following month when the first payment eventually received.

After a few months it gets easier. The calls slow down and the letters get less frequent. After a few years you barely hear from them apart from updated statements.

Don't hide anything away or bottle stuff up.
Tell someone if no one knows.
It's not as much stigma as you think and the process is in place to help you. Stepchange will help you set up a DMP that you can afford and mostly the banks will work with that because they realise they are not going to get what you haven't got.

Take a deep breath. If you get any letters keep in contact and inform them that you are setting up a DMP . Mostly they will put notes on the account.

It does get easier

Sazzie23

snpjaw wrote: »

Good Evening All

I have had an active DMP since 2012 and should be DF by early 2017. My biggest outstanding amount is to Halifax on a credit card approx 5k at present so they have been receiving the biggest payment on the DMP, having been able to jiggle my budget around over the last couple of years I am now paying them more than my original contractual payment (so far they have not defaulted me on the DMP). They have noticed that I am now overpaying and have put interest back up to original rate of 29.95% :eek:, (they did write to me regarding this and I got in touch to say this may put me back into financial difficulty) obviously this is going to prolong things DMP wise but I'm reluctant to stamp my feet too much as I'm trying to be responsible about all of my debt and also hold a mortgage with them but just wondered if anyone else has experienced this?

Any advice appreciated, many thanks

Not quite the same but I am overpaying, thing is we all will be as the debt goes down,so,does the minimum payment obviously, so in reality they are just being cheeky. Are you with SC or self managed, ? I'd consider taking the repayment down again - few posts back TTfTm gives some good advice in this sort of think, and saving the cash to repay lump sum at the end?

cydney11

snpjaw wrote: »

Good Evening All

I have had an active DMP since 2012 and should be DF by early 2017. My biggest outstanding amount is to Halifax on a credit card approx 5k at present so they have been receiving the biggest payment on the DMP, having been able to jiggle my budget around over the last couple of years I am now paying them more than my original contractual payment (so far they have not defaulted me on the DMP). They have noticed that I am now overpaying and have put interest back up to original rate of 29.95% :eek:, (they did write to me regarding this and I got in touch to say this may put me back into financial difficulty) obviously this is going to prolong things DMP wise but I'm reluctant to stamp my feet too much as I'm trying to be responsible about all of my debt and also hold a mortgage with them but just wondered if anyone else has experienced this?

Any advice appreciated, many thanks

Hi Snpjaw

I have been on DMP since 2011. Halifax until recently were my worst dept in terms of unpredictable interest. They were also one of my largest debts. I had not been good at challenging interest i.e.Barclay 6.9%, but that has remained the same over life of DMP. Halifax froze interest to start then added again. I called and they took it off then on again stating I was no longer over limit or similar. Then around a year ago they wacked on the full 28%. I finally wrote a letter.
they called me and initially said there was no option to remove interest as I was paying over minimum. I explained inevitable as debt decreased. I did then stamp a bit and said would go to FOS. I accepted to myself however that was probably that. A bit later they called to say:

they should have defaulted me right at the start, but couldn't now as paying over the minimum. They returned all interest ( over £1000), closed the account with no markers on c file. And gave me £70 apology. It is now decreasing nicely. I don't know if FOS mentioned made them change their mind?

Definitely a letter got a very different response to my earlier calls. Good luck.

Bw Cyd.

Lighthelamp

Hey guys, I haven't posted in a while but my DMP through SC seems to be going ok since I started it last November. My main issue is I was on half pay when I started it & I am now on benefits so I've been doing the repayments even though its a major struggle, as my income as changed. I didn't want to inform SC in case they stopped the agreement & I ended up in worse trouble. Then I got a phone call this morning from Barclaycard, have to say the lady was so nice she made me cry lol! (Have to say its the first time I've spoken in person to any of my creditors and I really wasn't expecting someone so nice & helpful!)


She was actually ringing to say they hadn't received their February payment from SC (I have no idea why as I have paid them) but she was able to confirm that from my SC account. She has advised me to go back to SC and tell them that my circumstances have changed again, but im not sure. Is there a possibility they will pull out of the agreement altogether?

Puzzcat

Lighthelamp wrote: »

Hey guys, I haven't posted in a while but my DMP through SC seems to be going ok since I started it last November. My main issue is I was on half pay when I started it & I am now on benefits so I've been doing the repayments even though its a major struggle, as my income as changed. I didn't want to inform SC in case they stopped the agreement & I ended up in worse trouble. Then I got a phone call this morning from Barclaycard, have to say the lady was so nice she made me cry lol! (Have to say its the first time I've spoken in person to any of my creditors and I really wasn't expecting someone so nice & helpful!)


She was actually ringing to say they hadn't received their February payment from SC (I have no idea why as I have paid them) but she was able to confirm that from my SC account. She has advised me to go back to SC and tell them that my circumstances have changed again, but im not sure. Is there a possibility they will pull out of the agreement altogether?

Hi,
I seem to recall previous chats about a minimum payment of £5 a creditor for sc to manage the dmp. Best idea is give them a call, you can't carry on struggling and they can advise you.
Take care.
Puzz.x

cydney11

Lighthelamp wrote: »

Hey guys, I haven't posted in a while but my DMP through SC seems to be going ok since I started it last November. My main issue is I was on half pay when I started it & I am now on benefits so I've been doing the repayments even though its a major struggle, as my income as changed. I didn't want to inform SC in case they stopped the agreement & I ended up in worse trouble. Then I got a phone call this morning from Barclaycard, have to say the lady was so nice she made me cry lol! (Have to say its the first time I've spoken in person to any of my creditors and I really wasn't expecting someone so nice & helpful!)


She was actually ringing to say they hadn't received their February payment from SC (I have no idea why as I have paid them) but she was able to confirm that from my SC account. She has advised me to go back to SC and tell them that my circumstances have changed again, but im not sure. Is there a possibility they will pull out of the agreement altogether?

Hi

Sorry to hear you have been struggling more than you should be this year. SC will be supportive and encourage us to contact with change of circumstance. You need to contact and go through your expenses/ income again with them if you haven't already. As others have said on here it is quite common for newbies to cut their cloth too fine. I had to reduce payments on 2 occasions 1 for a whole year due to damp in my house, and once for a month due to big car bill. On both occasions SC were really helpful. Creditors might be prompted to pass to DCA if they havent already, and default is considered a good thing if happens early. Being on a DMP is meant to be less not more of a struggle than before. hope you get this sorted soon.

carlyfarley

Boarder wrote: »

I just wanted to share my DMP experience – sorry this is long-winded, but I’ve found so much support on these forums that I wanted to share.

The downward spiral began for me when I began university, back in the Autumn of 1996: I ran up loads of debt as a student; banks were throwing money at us in the mid 90’s and at 18 I suddenly had a fresh overdraft and 2 credit cards with my new HSBC student account…

As a student I was always on the brink of my overdraft and cc limits, but these limits were regularly increased and I just kept on building up more debt. After a couple of years it became the norm for having zero money to actually meaning “I’m at my limit” (ie. £2k or so in the hole). As other credit was readily available I opened another a/c and cc with Cahoot, with the premise of using that as my every day account and sorting out my HSBC debts. That never happened, and after leaving Uni it wasn’t long before the new accounts were also at their limits – I wasn’t earning very much, and just about made all the minimum payments each month while continuing to build more debt through limit increases.

That was when free balance transfer cards started: “why pay interest? I can just cut the other one up and start reducing the debt…”, didn’t happen. 3 credit cards soon became 4, then 5. Add 2 loans to that and things were getting out of hand. I was withdrawing £10 here to pay it in there. Go over limit. £30 fee. Repeat.

I still wasn’t earning enough and something had to give; it was hugely stressful as I was practically living one day to the next, but keeping a lid on it so as not to lose face in front of family, friends and colleagues. Eventually the interest, overlimit and late payment charges spiralled out of control, and then the letters got more serious. I didn’t even have enough income to service the minimum monthly payments, let alone reduce any debt. Could I have asked parents or friends? I really didn’t want to, and they probably couldn’t have helped… Eventually it dawned on me that I was in big trouble and it couldn’t go on any longer.

Including Student Loans I was about £30k in debt: 2 overdrafts, 5 credit cards and several loans. Plus a mobile phone contract.

The clear up began in June 2007. I spoke to DebtFreeDirect who suggested I apply for an IVA, however my application was rejected by HSBC, as they felt that they had more to lose than the other creditors as they were owed the most significant proportion. DebtFreeDirect then put me in touch with Payplan and I begand discussing a DMP.

At this stage an IVA would’ve been preferable – a % of the debt is wiped out instantly, and my credit was wrecked anyway as I had defaults on most of my accounts.

Payplan were very helpful, and it was a huge relief to finally be tackling the problem. Things took a while to set up, but my first DMP payment was made in October 2007 with the plan expected to run for 6 years (which seemed like a lifetime). Creditors did keep hassling and phoning for a long, long time, and eventually some of my balances were sold to recovery companies and I began receiving letters and calls quite frequently. It was reassuring to be able to quote my reference number and tell them that PayPlan were dealing with all of my agreed repayments. I never missed a single payment to PayPlan.

But, towards the end of the plan I checked my credit file….

I was amazed to find that the amounts listed on the file against each creditor were wildly different to those that Payplan had on record, meaning my end date was much further out than I’d hoped. I’d assumed all interest had been stopped (this is what I’d been told by Payplan, though I never had it in writing from the creditors), and therefore the original debt total would be reduced every month by my payment total, giving a clear picture of my status. Wrong. Several companies had continued to levy late payment fees and interest after the plan has started. There was no order to this – some did, some didn’t. Some started half way through, some stopped suddenly.

Also, defaults were placed on most accounts within 6 months of the DMP starting – fair enough. However, several creditors took up to 5 years before a default was placed on the account (meaning I still had 6 years from that date before it would be removed, further extending the credit file penalty). I know they’re within their rights to do this, but it seems terribly unfair that they can choose to record a default at any time, even when regular payments are being made as agreed.

At this point I decided to speak to my creditors again. It had been several years since I’d spoken to the ‘dark forces’ behind all of those charges and nasty letters, but it actually wasn’t too bad – though by that stage they’d been receiving regular payments for 6 years. Many couldn’t find me on their systems, and the info they had was so old I once failed the security questions. Updating their records so they could actually start to contact me again was great – I complained about the excess late fees, interest and default dates….and most of these were hugely successful!

In all my letters I quoted ICO guidelines, referencing guidelines from ‘filing defaults with credit reference agencies’ articles etc.

• Capital One agreed to backdate a default notice so this was wiped off immediately. They also closed the account simultaneously as they applied a PPI rebate, and sent me a cheque for the remainder.
• I received compensation for an ‘admin’ error from Santander, which had meant they’d kept charging fees and interest even though I was making the regular payments as agreed. They also agreed to backdate the default notice so that it was within 6 months of the start of my DMP (and therefore only had a couple of months left). This complaint is still ongoing, as they have still not actioned this as per a letter they sent back in November ’13. How they manage to operate when there is such a clear left hand/right hand issue is beyond me – awful.
• HSBC, my old foes, had sold on their debts long ago, but the recovery agencies were actually more straightforward to deal with: most of these quickly levied defaults from the outset (meaning these were now removed), and all stopped applying interest and charges.
• I also had a couple of other PPI complaints upheld, which came straight off the balances.

My credit file is now getting better….slowly. Aside from the ongoing issue with Santander, one of the recovery agencies did not levy a default notice, but recorded the account as ‘arrangement to pay’ (DMP). Whilst this isn’t a bad as a default, it is recorded as a black mark on my file, and will remain on there for 6 years from the date of my last payment…..until 2020! I am now in touch with the recovery agency to query this, as that will mean I am disadvantaged for a total period of 13 years from the start of my DMP. Credit files are definitely worth checking/

Would I have done things differently? Yes…go direct to the creditors! Talk to them. Communicate. This might be easier said than done depending on the level of debt, but I think if I’d played a straight bat and worked out a minimum payment plan from the outset, things wouldn’t have taken so long to resolve….and I probably needn’t have had all those defaults.

I think Payplan is a great service, and it is free, of course. Payplan are great, but don’t expect them to go the extra mile and do your dirty work, that’s up to you. I wouldn’t class them as an advisory service, more of an administration service: I had so many different case officers over the years, and each one would simply respond to queries with standard response emails. However, I am eternally grateful to them for getting everything moving in the first place.

Setting up a DMP doesn’t happen overnight, and in hindsight it makes things so much easier in the long term if you keep in touch with creditors and continue make nominal payments, however small. It also makes sense to advise them of any address changes during your plan, as PayPlan don’t do this for you and it can make things easier if you need to get in touch.

I found the ICO documentation really interesting – they shouldn’t disadvantage you if you’re clearly trying to make amends, but if you’re running away and not making any payments, they can go for you (which is fair enough, really).

It took me 75 monthly payments, plus a final one-off payment….and whilst I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, there is help out there and there is always a way. I don’t expect anyone to ready all of this, but it feels really good to put it on (virtual) paper.

This is just my experience – good luck to anyone who is going through something similar. 6 years is not a long time.

Thank you for sharing. It sounds pretty scary and invloves a lot of chasing. With hindsight, do you think an IVA would have been the better option?