DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Monkeyballs

7839matth wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I will contact StepChange on Monday as soon as i get the opportunity and inform them about the rejection, i only found out yesterday and i have been epically busy at work today.

Should i be worried about the companies that have yet to acknowledge the DMP?

They will have payments due in within the next few days.

I just need to sort out this wage issue that could cause some dramas, which can be read about on my other post, (Cant post links yet)

Again, thanks for the advice and support!

Hi,

I can't see a reply to this so...

You're DMP is on your terms, if any reject then let SC know (email will do if you're busy but they are too and it may take a couple of days) the response will likely be something along the lines of "thanks, they can reject but we'll keep paying them..." basically they do this because for some creditors they have to do this in the run up to passing it to a DCA and defaulting the debt, them passing it to a DCA and defaulting you is a good thing

As for companies not acknowledging, nothing to worry about as plenty seem to not do this. It doesn't necessarily mean they've not accepted - just keep an eye on the following statement as some add a comment on there about agreeing to the reduced payments but any who don't and continue to charge interest and charges (be very wary of Barclaycard if you have one) then you need to update the debt balance online and then contact the creditor to confirm they have your DMP details

I always say speak to your creditors regularly to make sure your balances are correct with your DMP to avoid any surprises btw.

Hope this helps?

MB of G

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Morning all

Apologies for going AWOL. Been busy with DIY and tried to take a step back with online stuff. Have been having a read of the thread but not posting. Great to see it so busy with growing numbers of people contributing and supporting each other. For a while it was just really Ms TTFTM, GUO and me; whilst I was in good company it's fabulous to see the thread getting more and more sustainable again .

Have a great weekend everyone.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Growurown wrote: »

Really MB, what you should be saying is 'mas cerveza por favor':beer:

Welcome to all the newbies, it is very heart warming to see all the support on this thread.

Just updated the spreadsheets with the new totals. We are now under the £18,000 mark, still got a year and a half to go until we are debt free but getting there.

Great news GUO.

HHx

Hopelessly_Hopeful

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

I love these milestones! :T

We are hoping to hit 4 big targets by the end of next month:

Reach 75% paid off
Get below £20,000 of debt
Pay off next full debt, leaving 3 to go
Become mortgage free

Not sure of the order but watch this space ....... :j

Go smash em twin

HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

ghostmadlittlemiss wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd pop in and say hello as I've been lurking on here for a little while. I've just started my DMP with StepChange, my first payment went out earlier this month and my God, is it quiet! After a year of phone calls off my various creditors (I had a nervous breakdown and disappeared off the map for awhile. I've been better for a while but have only recently started tackling my debts), the phone has barely rung at all since I started. It's bliss.

I've also recently started working for myself and am loving the freedom. I sell cleaning products to businesses so I have some admin work at home and some appointments with businesses to give them samples of the products. So it's a nice mix of both worlds. The only problem at the moment is that I don't have a car so I'm having to do all the sample deliveries by bus. I live in Bath though which has quite a regular bus service to most places so it could be worse.

Anyway, sorry for the marathon post, just thought I'd join the thread as it looks like it'll be quite useful.
Kayleigh

Hi Kayleigh and welcome :hello:

Now you are out of lurkdom, hope you stick around for the advice, help and support.

TTFTM x

sunnyskies2

Hi to all:)

Wow, it's been so busy over the last couple of days! - loads of positive news :T and newbies starting the journey :beer:

wolves69 wrote: »

Hi peeps long time lurker just setting up my dmp with a local charity in my area,ive got 4 creditors Lloyd's loan £ 10,000,Lloyd's cc £ 1900 Barclaycard £2700 and littlewoods £320 im just switching dd to my new account with natwest i haven't defaulted on my payments yet and by the way my debts ar due to gambling, any advice would be much appreciated thnx:(

Hi wolves I'm just starting my DMP and most of my debt is with Lloyds (they were so generous with their lending:(). I have received acceptance letters for o/d and cc only, nothing about the loans. Also unlike others in the thread cough MB cough Barclaycard have been very good with me and stopped fees and interest.

Hi Matt, I spoke with SC about correspondence and they said creditors either write to us or to them and SC don't write to us to let us know about responses unless it is a rejection letter - so don't feel you need to 'know' about acceptances.

Hi Kayleigh and welcome:) - loads of friendly advice here if your DMP starts getting 'noisy' :rotfl: but still a good read and support if it stays quiet:)

Sarah

Killick

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Hi,

they can reject but we'll keep paying them..." basically they do this because for some creditors they have to do this in the run up to passing it to a DCA and defaulting the debt, them passing it to a DCA and defaulting you is a good thing

An interesting comment about DCA's and defaulting being a "good thing". I've read this before in other forum posts and I didn't really get it so I ignored it but now I'm curious and more than a bit pee'd off.
I've been paying my DMP via Stepchange for a while and I was quite pleased with myself for doing "the right thing", I knew my credit rating would be shot to hell because of defaults but that was no real worry but now I discover that I will be penalised further at the end of all this because I most likely wont be defaulted because I'm paying too much. !!!!!! is going on and can I do anything about it now? Shall I dump mu DMP, default everyone then start again ? It seems like a plan......

Monkeyballs

Hi,

Sorry yeah I should add that my love for Barclaycard stems from them denying ever being told about my DMP despite being contacted by both myself and Step Change and continuing to charge me interest and fees while not telling me about it...

It was early days and I'd not checked my account online, since I opted out of paper statements I was none the wiser

Once I did check and phoned them they denied being contacted, refused to refund the £150 or so in interest in charges but did agree to reduce my interest moving forward but not freeze it so out of the £30 they got each month they took £11 in interest they're also completely unwilling to default my account instead insisting that marking my credit file as AP* for the duration of the DMP is beneficial to me... I've since complained, had a final response and escalated to the FOS so time will tell

In the meantime my income has dropped and they're now only getting £15 pcm so they've agreed to freeze interest which is funny since in real terms it means my balance is only coming down £4 pcm less than when I was paying £30!

*AP = Arrangement to Pay, the FOS insist that any debtor repaying a debt should not be worse off than someone who doesn't pay... But if someone stops paying the account defaults which will not be shown on your credit file after 6 years of it being applied, the same is for AP's but this means that if they're applied for 6 years then it's 6 years from the last one being applied (so 12 years in total) even though any future creditors will look on them negatively DESPITE Barclaycard telling you otherwise...

Some folk however just get defaulted straight away, other have their interest stopped... It apparently boils down to the payments you make to them. If you pay more than 1% of the balance then they'll charge interest while anything below and they reduce or stop it.

Hope that helps to clear things up

MB of G x

P.S I was just walking through town and heard two Geordie old girls talking... One asked "Ehh Gladys, waars thee Shambles pet?" Gladys replied "Goon doon toon thar thon pet"... Now that's a foreign language for you! LOL

Monkeyballs

Killick wrote: »

An interesting comment about DCA's and defaulting being a "good thing". I've read this before in other forum posts and I didn't really get it so I ignored it but now I'm curious and more than a bit pee'd off.
I've been paying my DMP via Stepchange for a while and I was quite pleased with myself for doing "the right thing", I knew my credit rating would be shot to hell because of defaults but that was no real worry but now I discover that I will be penalised further at the end of all this because I most likely wont be defaulted because I'm paying too much. !!!!!! is going on and can I do anything about it now? Shall I dump mu DMP, default everyone then start again ? It seems like a plan......

Yeah, annoying aint it? See my comment above too

You'll likely be on your DMP for a while so you could make a complaint and put across your argument (like I have) and then escalate to FOS if you need to.

Or, you could go self managed and reduce your payments to them to force their hand (save any difference you're not paying) because SC have their own formula which gives %age payments to creditors based on balance and won't change it for anyone (which is fair enough).

If you argue then you should be able to get the default backdated

MB of G x

Killick

wolves69 wrote: »

Hi peeps long time lurker just setting up my dmp with a local charity in my area,ive got 4 creditors Lloyd's loan £ 10,000,Lloyd's cc £ 1900 Barclaycard £2700 and littlewoods £320 im just switching dd to my new account with natwest i haven't defaulted on my payments yet and by the way my debts ar due to gambling, any advice would be much appreciated thnx:(

Hi Wolves


Welcome to the madhouse!
I ran up a massive debt of £180000 and quite a lot of it was through gambling so I have plenty of experiences in this area, many of which I wish I hadn't had.
Don't take offence at what I say now because it's well meant and it helped me enormously which is why I'm suggesting it here: Try and get in touch with Gamblers Anonymous UK. they are an amazing organisation and can help you even if you are not a gambling addict. As your username is Wolves69, I assume you are in the Midlands and there is a branch there. Look them up on Google and do contact them