DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

neiljmuk

Ali80 wrote: »

Feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall at the moment:mad:! Thought it was a good idea to delay my first SC payment til April, (which I guess it is, otherwise I would have no money in my pocket!) but I am getting truly sick and tired of the letters and late payment charges despite being in touch and sending £1 token payments.

Just logged on to Noddle and it says "late payment" and "early arrears" for 4 of my accounts, despite them knowing I'm with SC. So shouldn't it be an AP instead? Does it even matter at the moment?

I've no motivation whatsoever to ring these companies any more, think I will just plod along and wait until my first payment is made.

Does anyone think it's worth chasing every creditor up re late fees etc. or is it best to just wait and let it all settle down?

Have you set up with SC yet. As in, will they have written to your creditors? If you've not given them the details to get things rolling do so. You can tell them not to start the payment until next month or even the month after! If you have I'm surprised most (not all) of the charges have not dried up. Once SC get their claws in it calms down fast but with challenges battling some creditors which you can then focus on.

SquirrelNuts

daisy8786 wrote: »

Hello There All,

Just a quick thanks to Puzz who directed me here from the debt free wannabe forum.

Long story short I have just started a DMP with Stepchange for £10,539 held across 10 creditors with an end date of around 6 years at current payments.

The letters have been sent out and I have had once creditor respond so far (Halifax Loan), however, they stated they will accept a lower payment but keep adding interest at the usual rate.

I do know DMP's are informal and no interest freezes are promised, but I am curious, is this just an initial strong arm attempt to get me to increase payments or will companies possible stop adding interest over time?

I am also slightly concerened about a CCJ should a creditor not accept, though I don't have a huge amount with any one company (highest creditor owed: Natwest: £3,000). I have accepted my credit file will take one hell of a slump for the next few years but could anyone else in a DMP please share experiences with interest and possibility of CCJ? I would be very grateful to know.

Thank you all

Daisy

Hi Daisy,

Welcome to team debt busters!!!

Just picking up on the interest question, you should be able to challenge this and ask for interest and fees to be frozen (it is part of banks commitment to 'treat customers fairly').

Of course, sometimes easier said than done, but worth writing them a letter saying you have just started a DMP with stepchange ref xyz and asking them to consider stopping interest and charges.

There is a letter template around somewhere on this thread - i've shared it a few times...

Squiz

edit: here you go :-)
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/67416198#Comment_67416198

Ali80

neiljmuk wrote: »

Have you set up with SC yet. As in, will they have written to your creditors? If you've not given them the details to get things rolling do so. You can tell them not to start the payment until next month or even the month after! If you have I'm surprised most (not all) of the charges have not dried up. Once SC get their claws in it calms down fast but with challenges battling some creditors which you can then focus on.

Thanks neil,

Yes I set up with SC end of January and creditors have nearly all acknowledged my plan. I deliberately deferred til April to get some cash together to fix my car etc. and have paid 2 lots of token payments. I got a round of late payment fees last month so rang around, made sure they knew about SC and got them all reversed and this month charges are popping up again!

I'm up for challenging creditors but kind of just want it to all kick in now so I know wherer I am!

SquirrelNuts

carlyfarley wrote: »

I've done it!!! I've read the entire thread and feel so much more informed as a result.
It's funny how you think you know people now. TTFTM is like a mummy, Puzz and Sazzie are like supportive aunties, Monkey balls is a crazy uncle (where is he by the way???), kate is like a motivating best friend, Karen and HH are old friends, popping up every now and then, oh and I like Brogdens style! These are the people that have stood out in this thread. Although, the last 30 or so pages are full of lots of new names. Anyway, hi, I'm in the present day now, up to date with the thread and am off to work x

Love the thread review Carly! LOL

neiljmuk

Ali80 wrote: »

Thanks neil,

Yes I set up with SC end of January and creditors have nearly all acknowledged my plan. I deliberately deferred til April to get some cash together to fix my car etc. and have paid 2 lots of token payments. I got a round of late payment fees last month so rang around, made sure they knew about SC and got them all reversed and this month charges are popping up again!

I'm up for challenging creditors but kind of just want it to all kick in now so I know wherer I am!

I'd send a round of letters reitteratting SC proposal then just wait for SC payment and see where you are. The odd £12 here and there forget for now then try getting back later but the debt will drop. Most say it goes up to start with. Will make little difference in grand duration of paying back via DMP.

Sazzie23

Karen777 wrote: »

rang today - no record of them receiving my letter.... went through I&E with very nice man... and all interest and charges stopped from today, default very soon.. I think I need a lie down in a dark room.

Am now trying to get interest refunded..... am feeling mighty (but not overly optimistic!) with my DFW sword!!

seriously can't believe it... this will make a huge huge difference... just goes to show we should never give up!

Brilliant news, and what a reward for persistence :beer:

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

That really made me smile carlyfarley

I haven't seen MB or Kate for ages, I am wondering if he bought her a Haribo ring and they ran off together :rotfl:

By the way, HH is my twin so if I am Mummy, she needs to be Aunty HH

Love Mummy aka TTFTM x

Kept up with MB on his diary but not heard of since Christmas, unless he's been posting in the main thread.

Hopefully. Kate got the new job and is debt busting out there somewhere. Miss you both but it is wonderful how much there is going on the thread at the moment.

Karen777

carlyfarley wrote: »

I've done it!!! I've read the entire thread and feel so much more informed as a result.
It's funny how you think you know people now. TTFTM is like a mummy, Puzz and Sazzie are like supportive aunties, Monkey balls is a crazy uncle (where is he by the way???), kate is like a motivating best friend, Karen and HH are old friends, popping up every now and then, oh and I like Brogdens style! These are the people that have stood out in this thread. Although, the last 30 or so pages are full of lots of new names. Anyway, hi, I'm in the present day now, up to date with the thread and am off to work x

This made me laugh a lot too. Well done for reading the whole lot!! Seriously the people on here - everyone - help people in such an amazing way that no organisation or paid for service can or does (not to play down the amazing work dmp charities do). People arrive here in crisis, get a helping hand and a sympathetic shoulder as well as a constructive challenge and then most stick around to help others out of the same crater they themselves were in not ten minutes ago. You can't put a value on this and I've not seen anything like it anywhere else (I'm not on the internet much though so maybe there are other places such as our this sunny villa dfw). None of us know each other or very much about each other in the 'real' world sense, but there is a sense of community and kindness on here that is humbling.

*pauses to wipe Gwyneth style tears from face*

In case I haven't said it clearly enough, I am very grateful to all of you. My life has changed through sorting my debts out and I now feel I have a future. And that's in no small part because of y'all.

Off now to top up my caffeine and cynicism levels.

Karen777

Ali80 wrote: »

Feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall at the moment:mad:! Thought it was a good idea to delay my first SC payment til April, (which I guess it is, otherwise I would have no money in my pocket!) but I am getting truly sick and tired of the letters and late payment charges despite being in touch and sending £1 token payments.

Just logged on to Noddle and it says "late payment" and "early arrears" for 4 of my accounts, despite them knowing I'm with SC. So shouldn't it be an AP instead? Does it even matter at the moment?

I've no motivation whatsoever to ring these companies any more, think I will just plod along and wait until my first payment is made.

Does anyone think it's worth chasing every creditor up re late fees etc. or is it best to just wait and let it all settle down?

I guess you have a couple of options - you could just let it settle down, as it surely will over the next few months. You are making token payments which is the important thing.

You could contact Stepchange and let them know about the late fees etc and see if they can help

You could write to your creditors, which takes less energy than ringing them, reminding them you are in a dmp and asking them to hold charges and fees.

Depends how much energy you have for this at the moment. It will settle down. You can always ask for fees etc to be refunded once you feel a bit more up to it.

Also get a file or something and store all your letters. Then when you are having a good strong moment, you can deal with them then.

It will settle though.

blisteringblue

Ali80 wrote: »

Feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall at the moment:mad:! Thought it was a good idea to delay my first SC payment til April, (which I guess it is, otherwise I would have no money in my pocket!) but I am getting truly sick and tired of the letters and late payment charges despite being in touch and sending £1 token payments.

Just logged on to Noddle and it says "late payment" and "early arrears" for 4 of my accounts, despite them knowing I'm with SC. So shouldn't it be an AP instead? Does it even matter at the moment?

I've no motivation whatsoever to ring these companies any more, think I will just plod along and wait until my first payment is made.

Does anyone think it's worth chasing every creditor up re late fees etc. or is it best to just wait and let it all settle down?

I echo what Karen says, it will settle.

Don't be so fixated about the credit files though, you are now on a DMP, your credit is knackered for the best part of a decade. It's 6 years if they all default you now, but with AP markers and the like I've resigned myself to 10 years, but my credit days are over so no big deal.

So really don't worry if they come up with late payments now, I'd be more worried that they have frozen the accounts while you get up and running, so there aren't the horrid £12 fees going on each month.

blisteringblue

Grrrr anyway, daily phone calls now from *swearword* Barclaycard and now Sainsburys Credit Card. They have instructions not to ring me so I just ignore. It's a fun game to me anyway.

I faxed BC back just because I wasn't paying for a stamp again telling them to stop ringing me, but this is still the calm before the storm.

I've logged in online and my account still says 0% and they have run my statement for this month so cannot work out what they are doing.

Anyway if I get a letter about interest soon (I am expecting it) then it's self managed and £1 a month until they sell it on. Shame it has to come to this and there will be lots of phone calls whether I like it or not, but I've sneakily changed our mobile numbers to old ones we had (now dead) and to be honest the mobile calls have finished, it's only the house that rings, and we just ignore those.