DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

sourcrates

ICantPayYou wrote: »

Also what do you mean by endless mither? I'm really scared of people knocking at the door for money, even more scared that people could contact my work.

I think the best way to achieve a defaulted account is to stop all payments completely, but to do this you must prepare in advance.

Have letters printed up ready to send to creditors, stating your current financial position, and that as a consequence of this, you are unable, for the time being, to pay anything.

State all contact must be in writing only, and that under no circumstances are they to contact your employer, they very rarely knock on doors, but if they ever did, you can just ignore them, or tell them to "go away", politely of course.

I prefer to operate from the position of been in control, as much as is possible, of how these situations pan out, dont let them call the shots, you tell them how its going to be, you may be surprised at the reaction you will get.

Then, once accounts are defaulted, that is the time to bring stepchange on board, if everyone followed these rules, a lot less problems would rear up where interest charges, AP markers etc are concerned.

You may think, if i stop paying, wont they take me to court ?

No, they wont, never happens, because 99% of the time, creditors wash there hands of unpaid debt, and farm it out to debt collection agencies to deal with, legal action is normally a long way down the list, as the process of debt collection, is a long and windy road, and its important to understand how the process works.

SquirrelNuts

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Good morning DMPers old and new :hello:

I want to scream from the roof tops that our debt is down to 3 figures! We only owe hundreds, rather than thousands, or tens of thousands or our original £82,344 which is pretty close to one hundred thousand!

Can't sleep for excitement :rotfl:

We would never be in this position now if it wasn't for the help, advice, experience and support from this thread :T

TTFTM x

:T :T :T :T :T

Get in there TTFTM!

Puzzcat

ICantPayYou wrote: »

So, correct me if I'm wrong, does this mean that if I owe mint say £1000 and Halifax £10000, obviously monthly repayments would be different for me but step change would pay example £50 to each therefore mint being repaid in full before Halifax??????? Just trying get my head round things

No they would pay a higher proportion to the larger debt as in this case the minimum payment would be bigger.
Puzz.x

Sazzie23

ICantPayYou wrote: »

Also what do you mean by endless mither? I'm really scared of people knocking at the door for money, even more scared that people could contact my work.

Don't be worried about this, knocking on the door, very, very ,very unlikely, phoning work, only likely if you leave a work contact number on any of your contact details. If they did ring, have a plausible story ready for colleagues like ' there has been a suspicious transaction on my account' and tell however is ringing you that you are at work and will call them back, then hang up.

ICantPayYou wrote: »

So, correct me if I'm wrong, does this mean that if I owe mint say £1000 and Halifax £10000, obviously monthly repayments would be different for me but step change would pay example £50 to each therefore mint being repaid in full before Halifax??????? Just trying get my head round things

Ok think like this, your minimum payment to mint is £10 but your balance is £500 and your minimum to Halifax is £100 and your balance is £3000 -
SC might work out that mint get £5 and Halifax £50 rather than £5 and £30 does that make any sense? My figures are very rough so for example only as they say.

My newbie post a few pages back might help - here's the link
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/68005761#Comment_68005761

Sazzie23

blisteringblue wrote: »

Yes that is correct, I paid £1 for a month at the start while we got things together with stepchange. You ring the creditor and they normally freeze the account for a month until Stepchange contact them.

The dark days of horror stories from debt collectors is pretty much over. As long as you remain in good contact with them and make some kind of monthly payment most are quite pleasant to deal with.

I watch too much TV, but one of the programmes I like is border control in Aussie, they train their investigators in the same style as the new DcA's and collections people, engage in cheerful conversation, ask relevant questions but be polite - they have found they get more info and cooperation that way.

If you do have anything you'd rather they didn't know, be careful. If like me you've gone down the pretty much sick of hiding stuff route - it's way too exhausting for me - I find no problems, in fact the only problem I have now is that when they are nice (as people have been due to my fairly recent blues), I cry:o

dmb_2

Congratulations! I've always read your posts - lots of good advice.


Thanks to you I went on a self-managed DMP with NEDCAB and found it much more flexible. Couple of questions. Did you pay smaller or bigger debts off first? Did you pay them off in full or negotiate full and final settlements? Also if you partially settle does this stay on your credit files for ever or for 6 years not that I want credit again.


Your finishing post is in sight - yay!:T

Growurown

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Good morning DMPers old and new :hello:

I want to scream from the roof tops that our debt is down to 3 figures! We only owe hundreds, rather than thousands, or tens of thousands or our original £82,344 which is pretty close to one hundred thousand!

Can't sleep for excitement :rotfl:

We would never be in this position now if it wasn't for the help, advice, experience and support from this thread :T

TTFTM x

Wow TTFTM, what an achievement, and done in just over three years! Already mortgage free and now almost debt free, what will you do with all that dosh!

Time_to_face_the_music

dmb wrote: »

Congratulations! I've always read your posts - lots of good advice.

Thanks to you I went on a self-managed DMP with NEDCAB and found it much more flexible. Couple of questions. Did you pay smaller or bigger debts off first? Did you pay them off in full or negotiate full and final settlements? Also if you partially settle does this stay on your credit files for ever or for 6 years not that I want credit again.

Your finishing post is in sight - yay!:T

We paid off Mr TTFTM's debts first, just for the satisfaction of knowing one of us was debt free. Then paid off mine in order of size ...... except for LLoyds TSB who have peed me off so much that they were always going to be last!

No F&Fs, no CCA requests, we wanted to pay back every penny we owed. Interest was another matter, that we fought tooth and nail and I love the control that being self managed gives when the creditors want to play silly beggars

Growurown wrote: »

Wow TTFTM, what an achievement, and done in just over three years! Already mortgage free and now almost debt free, what will you do with all that dosh!

We will finish the work on our house that kicked off this debt situation, it still looks like a building site

TTFTM x

neiljmuk

If you recall, Lloyds won't freeze interest on the loan and had a crazy 1 hour phone call to them etc etc..... sent the letter I've been waiting a month for a response to, now to summarise, the letter was a formal complaint about being asked to call them and the subsequent distress after asking them originally to correspond only in writing, as well as the request again to freeze interest.

They replied. With a carbon copy of the previous letter, ASKING ME TO CALL THEM. Absolute helmets!! Are they even real???

Now I'm letting rip. Formal complaint, lending code quotes, you name it, and if they respond again with what had to be a joke or dare by some spotty gimp to another spotty gimp, they are not even getting token payments until a complaint to FOS is sent and responded to.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

Karen777

Powered_By_Pies wrote: »

Well stone the crows, I'm back!

To be honest I have nothing to report from my previous message either, whenever that was! DMP is fine, I'm keeping tabs on it but largely letting it run its' course. About 11 months to go until the big DF day by my calculations!

Natwest and Capital One still send statements for my credit cards. I would complain but each statement is helping me confirm that the amounts are going to them and the total is dropping. I've not heard a peep from anyone else - Wonga wrote off my debt to them, pounds to pocket, lending stream and quickquid have all gone silent, and nothing at all from Westcot who took on the Naetwest debts. Now the only annoying calls I get are from Mr. robotic voice man telling me I can claim PPI.... WRONG! DMP provider checked into that already and told me I didn't have anything I can claim!

I've re-budgeted and can now keep my hand in my pocket when I see something I want, but don't necessarily need. I still treat myself on occasion - next up is a new pair of shoes as mine have finally worn out! - but nowhere near as lavishly as I used to.

I think the big second wind was this past month - I managed to squeeze a 4-day long weekend to Bath, with all the trimmings, and two new tyres for the car out of one month's pay, and still have plenty left spare to go through the rest of the month without a hitch - this time last year there'd have been no way on the lords' green terrain I could have done that!

Just goes to show DF wanabee's, if you want it badly enough, you'll make it happen!

Keep going!

well done and nice to hear from you - sounds like you are doing great!