DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Jon81

Ali80 wrote: »

Hi,
As long as they have heard from SC regarding your payment plan I wouldn't worry. I had something similar last week from Natwest demanding that I pay my full oustanding debt within 3 days (od and loan totalling nealy £27k :eek:). I had already received default notices and letters threatening further action. So I rang them and quoted SC number, they were already aware of this and just advised me to stick to my payment plan. Interest and charges frozen and debt passed to recoveries team. Might be worth a phone call or letter if you're concerned.

Thanks Ali80 good to hear a similar experience, quite a roller coaster this dfw life, it's frustraing to feel like you're making progress only to feel like the creditors would rather you continue in your predicament

phoenixx

AnotherDad wrote: »

Hi all,

Another potential DMP'r... Ive just had an assessment with the CAB and it looks like a DMP is the best option. I have 34k of debt, most my lovely ex wife ran up before we split and ive spent the last 3.5 years keeping it afloat but something has to change and im making moves... Initial thought is do i go self or through a DMP specialist like stepchange?

Lots of researching, just hope i get through this!

Cheers,

Hi Anotherdad

DMP sounds like a plan. We started with step change but about to go self-managed as is the only way we can stop Barclays and M&S racking up the interest. All other creditors have frozen interest. I feel we know enough now to self manage so we are using NEDCAB templates to cross over. SC are great but their rules about applying payments mean that effectively we pay BC and M&S too much per month so every time our DMP payment goes up so does our interest. We shall be going to token payments with them. Self managed requires a bit more legwork setting up but gives you greater control. TTFM and sourcrates gave me great advice on this. There are lots of knowledgeable people on here who will answer specific questions you have. Sazzie23 and puzzcat have mopped me up when I've been very down. Can't name all the lovely virtual friends I have on this thread.

On another note, you talk about your ex wife running up debt. My ex husband was a master at this also. Left me with a near repossession and bills to just about everyone. When we took the house back, me and my dad found huge black bags full of unopened mail in the house. I cannot blame him for my own later idiocies or those of my DH. Student loans and the recession played their parts along with NRAM but we have had to fundamentally change our attitudes to money to make the changes we have. It's hard but worth it. Good luck as you go forward.

phoenixx

phoenixx

Hi all

Just checking in. Has anyone else found themselves blanked by 'friends' who don't understand their situation? I have one friend who is basically blanking me...I suspect she and her family are in similar situation to us with money but where we trudge along they do their best to cover it all up and avoid. She is not replying to texts or phone calls; ignoring invites for coffee etc. i can't afford to do much but coffee round ours is one of few social things I can do. I am trying so hard to understand but is really troubling me at the moment. I have told her some of our situation in the past but when I have left opportunity open for her to say something she has breezed over it. I just wonder how much a friendship needs openness about money. Any views welcome.

Phoenixx

Puzzcat

phoenixx wrote: »

Hi all

Just checking in. Has anyone else found themselves blanked by 'friends' who don't understand their situation? I have one friend who is basically blanking me...I suspect she and her family are in similar situation to us with money but where we trudge along they do their best to cover it all up and avoid. She is not replying to texts or phone calls; ignoring invites for coffee etc. i can't afford to do much but coffee round ours is one of few social things I can do. I am trying so hard to understand but is really troubling me at the moment. I have told her some of our situation in the past but when I have left opportunity open for her to say something she has breezed over it. I just wonder how much a friendship needs openness about money. Any views welcome.

Phoenixx

Hi Phoenixx,


Can't really empathise as none of my friends know about my debts.. although saying that.. last week I went out to dinner, lunch and coffee and each time my companions paid.. maybe they know more than I think....!!!


I think debt is such a personal subject and not many people who aren't on our journey due to either not needing to be/or not yet had their lightbulb moment would want to talk about it. If the friendship is worth keeping then keep perservering, maybe they are embarrassed by their situation?


Puzz. x

Karen777

welcome new people! not got time for a long post other than to say welcome! and hello to everyone!

phoenixx

Thanks puzz, you are right of course. Sometimes I just need a reality check!

Most of the time I cope with it but it does smart sometimes. X

Sazzie23

phoenixx wrote: »

Hi all

Just checking in. Has anyone else found themselves blanked by 'friends' who don't understand their situation? I have one friend who is basically blanking me...I suspect she and her family are in similar situation to us with money but where we trudge along they do their best to cover it all up and avoid. She is not replying to texts or phone calls; ignoring invites for coffee etc. i can't afford to do much but coffee round ours is one of few social things I can do. I am trying so hard to understand but is really troubling me at the moment. I have told her some of our situation in the past but when I have left opportunity open for her to say something she has breezed over it. I just wonder how much a friendship needs openness about money. Any views welcome.

Phoenixx

Sometimes people act like this when they don't know what to say to you, and they'd rather not talk about it. Perhaps your 'friend' is scared of what might come out if you started a conversation about debt. Maybe next time you see her talk about something else, weather, kids, work, show biz gossip or whatever, if you find the conversation flows, you'll know it's your situation and not you that she has a problem with. What you choose to do then is up to you?

In general, I think friendships need to have some element of honesty about money, otherwise there are issues of, shall we do xxxx and one person says, well I can't because yyyy but really they mean because ££££.

Sorry I'm not around much at the moment folks, back is giving me gyp and I can't get comfy for long. Hope all is well with everyone.

phoenixx

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Sometimes people act like this when they don't know what to say to you, and they'd rather not talk about it. Perhaps your 'friend' is scared of what might come out if you started a conversation about debt. Maybe next time you see her talk about something else, weather, kids, work, show biz gossip or whatever, if you find the conversation flows, you'll know it's your situation and not you that she has a problem with. What you choose to do then is up to you?

In general, I think friendships need to have some element of honesty about money, otherwise there are issues of, shall we do xxxx and one person says, well I can't because yyyy but really they mean because ££££.

Sorry I'm not around much at the moment folks, back is giving me gyp and I can't get comfy for long. Hope all is well with everyone.

Hi Sazzie - thanks for the advice - will give it a go. I have some friends who openly say "I can't afford it' and I can say the same to them. With others it can be an elaborate dance of avoidance. Sometimes people say 'Oh just stick it on a credit card'. This makes me go cold...but I have a stock answer now: 'No, that doesn't work for me'. Bland but purposeful.

Hope your back gets better soon xx

fermi

January2015 wrote: »

Sorry - should have thought of doing that when I originally posted.

Lending Code Section 224 states:

• Subscribers should consider reducing or stopping interest and charges when a customer evidences that they are in financial difficulties. Such reduction/suspension decision should be based upon an income and expenditure statement indicating that they are unable to make repayments sufficient to meet contractual terms. Where a customer is able to make only token payments, their debt should not increase as a result of interest and charges levied. The assessment should reflect the customer’s lack of ability to pay rather than the stage an account has reached in the arrears cycle or whether they are using free sources of debt advice. Where a firm declines to allow concessions, they should be prepared to explain why to the customer or their adviser if requested to do so.

The Lending Code states a token payment is "An offer of payment of a small amount, e.g. £1, made by a customer who has no surplus income available for their ‘non-priority’ creditors and whose circumstances have a realistic prospect of improving so that they will be able to resume full or increased payments".


My argument on this one has been that our DMP sees us through to retirement age and whilst we are making more than token £1 payments our payments are still not equivalent to the required amount for the account to be in order and therefore our payments still constitute a token payment (my logic being that anything less than the required minimum payment must be a token payment).

Section 225 states:

• It is inappropriate for interest and charges to continue to be taken where the result would be that the repayment period for the customer becomes excessive. In forming a judgement on what might be excessive, a subscriber should take into account the type of product and the individual circumstances of the borrower.

My argument on this one (the Hellifax OD) was that it was going to take more than 30 years to clear based on our token payments if they kept charging their daily fee. With no fees we could clear the debt by retirement age. I'm working on developing this argument into my complaint with BC re. interest charges. I need to be more awake when I do the figures, but if their interest is going to take us over the DMP period and into retirement then I think I would argue that makes the repayment period excessive - thinking cap needs to be firmly in place when I word my next missive to BC.

Section 227 states:

• Where possible, subscribers should have consistent policies for customers holding more than one product type in terms of charges and interest concessions.

My argument on this one was how can you agree our relationship has broken down and agree to default our OD but not our loans - you need to treat us consistently.

Edit: I should have said these were just the arguments I used based on my interpretation of bits of the Lending Code I thought applied to our individual circumstances and I do realise the arguments I made may not work for everyone (and indeed may not work for me with all of our creditors - but it did feel good to quote the code verbatim when some of them phoned us following our complaint letters - because different departments deal with complaints about different products even though it can be the same bank/creditor). I felt I knew more about it than the poor so and so's phoning me

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littlesprinkles

So NW have been extremely nice to me, given that we have a DMP. Their letters to me were courteous and actually slightly apologetic (very large student overdraft) and that they hope I am back on my feet soon and that they are stopping all charges etc. We have heard nothing from M&S, Barclaycard or HSBC though.