DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Sazzie23

lumpyspaceprincess wrote: »

Received a letter from stepchange this morning, saying I've taken credit without asking them and to get in touch. I used my existing overdraft (which I feel bad about, and want to repay when I can), but haven't done anything else, so I'm confused. Will have to wait until Monday I suppose

Hi lumpy, why do these letters always arrive on a Sat!

we don't hear so much about this happening, but I have heard it before. I guess one of the creditors must have reported it?
Maybe it's just a mix up with dates or something if you haven't taken credit. I'm interested as I have an overdraft facility with my existing coop account, which I took out months before the DMP to separate off from the current account I had with the ex. and although I haven't used overdraft this since the DMP started, I've been close a couple of times, it didn't cross my mind that it would create an issue if I did:T

So please do let us know, and I hope it's sorted out ok for you.

Sazzie23

Powered_By_Pies wrote: »

Well, I did it, I lasted the month on not much more than a few pounds and didn't cave in to the dreaded PDL for a few extra quid until payday! Would never have been able to do that before. Steadfast budgeting and the bonus of a rebate cheque helped.

Just shows you CAN beat the PDL trap - I might have had to take extreme measures in putting them into a DMP but I did it!

Only question mark I currently have is my car finance. The final payment was made on the 5th but I've had no confirmation of completion. I've cancelled the DD and had no letter from them about that either. As far as I'm concerned it's all paid off. Guess I'll find out if I get a shirty letter from them after the 5th of August!

I think they get notified if you cancel the DD, so if it was a problem sure they'd be in touch. Be nice for you to get that letter though

Well done on the budgeting and making it through, can't beat beans on ryvita followed by jelly for making it through to the end of the month:rotfl:

ldhme

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Welcome idheme

So happy it's starting to work out for you, being a regular readers expect you know about the roller coaster of starting the DMP, but some folk seem to sail right through without a problem so I'll send positive thoughts this will happen for you too.

I'd recommend a spreadsheet as great motivation to see how the debts are going down.

Good night, sleep well again

Thanks.
MBNA were great, 2 days after SC spoke to them I got a letter saying default notice etc but they accept my repayment plan and are freezing interest and charges. Was actually a really nicely worded letter, made me feel good.
Tesco Bank I recieved a letter today regarding my credit card, defaulted and to the point but its been passed on to in house debt collection and they accepted the repayments (for 6 months until they review anyway), so no fees there. Just hope they do the same for my loan with them.

My other 2 creditors are HSBC (3 accounts) and Barclaycard (just the one), not heard much good about either.
Barclaycard actually recommend SC on there help page and from what I have read HSBC are a pain until they pass it onto their in house collection department, who accept straight away.
We shall see how this plays out.

Anyway...
So far so good and feeling positive.


Although I logged onto my new Halifax account a few minutes ago and got greeted by a message saying I had a guaranteed Credit card facility available for me.
Obviously I didn't accept.

Hopelessly_Hopeful

toots82 wrote: »

Hi all,

time to jump on the bandwagon I guess :rotfl:

Hubby & I have had a DAS going since January, through Think Link (I know I know but it works for us). The issue for us wasn't so much the amount of debt (well it was but not in comparison to income) but the amount of creditors, each with relatively high interest. Total was 35k debt (all in) with income of around 47k, but we could just never get out of the hole.

So, I looked into and got started with this DAS which has taken the pressure off hugely, it is over 5 years. But, kids are getting up a bit now which allows me to put in more hours at work, DH has a promotion in the pipe line and by this time next year we should be in a very different place.

I'm hoping to get our heads down and double payments and shift it in two years (from when financial changes take effect) I want to make the bigger payments but will they question it? Obviously I have no issues and will update them on circumstance changes but will that change DAS or will it be ok to just make large over payments every month?

Ultimately I want our feet clear so we can think about moving, just dared to ask about DAS implications on a larger mortgage in a separate thread but got told to "figure out why this happened & adjust your lifestyle"...didn't realise that this situation means we're not allowed a life in the future.....I'm only 32!!!:o

Hi and welcome


It can be hard to hear what you don't want to but there will be a way around things. I think many of us had flickers of the lightbulb before it properly shone! Lots of us have high salaries too but it is immaterial if the size of the debt is a significant proportion of it. It's just the same place as someone who owes 10k but only earns 12k. Some of the really great things about this place is that debt has been a great leveller, the thread doesn't judge anyone and there's always support and advice around.


Everything is doable. In the past year I was offered a new mortgage to move and decided to take a remortgage instead. In terms of context is 47k gross or after tax value? How many creditors do you have and have they defaulted you or added APs to your file?


HHx

Time_to_face_the_music

Just popping in to say hi and welcome to Idhme and toots82 :hello:

Please stick around for help, advice and support in bucketloads.

TTFTM x

toots82

Hopelessly_Hopeful wrote: »

Hi and welcome


It can be hard to hear what you don't want to but there will be a way around things. I think many of us had flickers of the lightbulb before it properly shone! Lots of us have high salaries too but it is immaterial if the size of the debt is a significant proportion of it. It's just the same place as someone who owes 10k but only earns 12k. Some of the really great things about this place is that debt has been a great leveller, the thread doesn't judge anyone and there's always support and advice around.


Everything is doable. In the past year I was offered a new mortgage to move and decided to take a remortgage instead. In terms of context is 47k gross or after tax value? How many creditors do you have and have they defaulted you or added APs to your file?


HHx

Morning

The 47k salary is gross but "should" be going up in the next year to joint 75k gross (nothing guaranteed until signed and sealed but looking pretty certain). Obviously that frees up a significant extra sum each month which I would rather use to get rid of DAS asap, which lead to me thinking about the future.

I signed up to Noddle last night to face the music and keep an eye on things, its not good!!!

Defaults: HSBC (current acc) , Vanquis, MBNA, Capital one, and default with HSBC for a flexi loan

RBS personal loan showing as late payment as is hsbc cc

others are showing as up to date on front page but as green arrangement to pay in additional info, so up to date but on AP.

Next account has DM under it one month, then ok, now AP again.

I believe these AP's may be more of an issue in the future?

I understand the situation we are in and I have no intentions whatsoever of even attempting to move in this state, but if we could be debt free in 2 and a half years, it would be nice to hope that we could move on. I know that interest rates would be higher and deposit would have to be higher (already have around 35k collateral in this house)

I would rather think about this now and do anything that needs done than turn around in 3 years and be declined because barclaycard didn't change our AP to a default.

My thread of hope is that I hear halifax can be flexible in lending to those with issues, we have been with them for 10 years and never missed a mortgage payment, I hope in time they may look favourably on us.

Or is it all just hopeless and we should resign ourselves to this fact?

Surely given the amount of people in this situation, things must be able to be done, we want to pay our debt back and accept it has to be done and is nobody's fault but ours, but it would be nice to not be punished for this so far into the future. Not that I ever ever want another cc again.....I don't, just a nice house in a better area for my kids while they are still kids.

What a mess

ETA - the reason I mentioned income wasn't a "oh we get this much" its more that the reason we are in this mess is that DH was self emp, hit recession, income more than halved but now employed, as am I and income has increased so we want to look at shifting this ASAP, our situation has improved since the debt spiraled, we were treading water really and the interest was the bit that sank us

toots82

ldhme wrote: »

I kept up for a long time, then just couldn't any more.
5 years ago we had a joint income of 40k.
After my youngest was born, my partner reduced hours, then 3 years ago was made redundant. Then straight after we found out our second was on the way hehe.
Last year I made a choice to move off weekends and lost the premiums to spend more time with my family when my lad started full time school. Missus found a part time job to fill the gap.

Then in December of all months I got demoted, 2 months ago my missus got her notice of redundancy from this job (again).
We now have a household income of 17k, topped up with benefits.

40k to 17k in 5 years lol.
Crap hit the fan and couldn't pay everyone any more.

Anyway my youngest starts her free nursery in September so my OH is more available for work and I'm nearing the end of management training with the company I work for, just awaiting a placement.

In short, my situation should be wildly different this time next year and instead of my DMP taking 7.5 years I could do it in half that if things continue to go right for me.

After 5 years of things going tits up, it's a welcome change.

Sounds a familiar story, dh was self employed tradesman, good money, I worked part time too so paying the bills was never an issue. We never saw the recession coming, down from over 1k a week income to £400 (plus another baby) Just couldn't keep up anymore. Too many c/c's with high interest was our main issue. Plus overdrafts, bank charges etc. Stuck in a horrible cycle of barely breaking even.

Now things are looking up (to the point where I kinda wish we hadn't started the DAS, although that's easy to say now, 6 months ago, not so much) DH went on books with a company he subcontracted to for years, now looking at hefty promotion & I have a job where I can mostly work from home. Doing some much needed decorating this year, enjoying xmas then all going well our income should be better and we can get rid of this noose in 3 years instead of the 4 we would have left (5 in total)

Then to deal with the aftermath I guess

Good luck,

toots82

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hi toots

I think sometimes the posters in other threads can come across a bit harsh although having followed quite a few I think they are basically going for the 'tough love' stance so don't be too put off. We're not like that over here though, no judgements or looking down on folk allowed:cool:

So welcome over to the lighter side of DMPs, I'm a bit tired but I think you are asking will you be able to get a larger mortgage in the future?
I don't think I can answer that easily as it depends on a lot of factors, but folk here including me have managed to remortgage on a DMP, some have moved house with transfer mortgage on a DMP so I think once you are debt free you should have reasonable opportunities for mortgages. I've heard the new rules are different, but I thin the budgeting you learn while on a DMP must be invaluable for the future.

Probably someone else had a better answer, but my main point is don't give up hope:j

Hiya,

and thank you. Felt a bit like I was getting a ticking off on other thread but I guess maybe its coming across like I want a bigger mortgage now, not at all, I want DAS all paid back, every penny and then to think about the possibility of moving. I ran up this debt and will pay for it. It wasn't all (although some was) frivilous spending, it was keeping us eating etc when we had a tiny income for a while. But those companies deserve to be paid and will be. Guess I just took offence to being told I had to adjust my lifestyle without the poster having a clue why we are where we are.

Anyhoo onwards we go. Its getting managed and it is what it is

antonic

Hi Toots,

You have made a judgment call and are now dealing with your debts.

Congratulations on making that hard decision ( I know the feeling myself), but at least your now in charge .

It will be tough going for you (it was for me), but when I got DF last year, the feeling was amazing.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your lot in life, but I think the unkind remarks you got on the other thread were because they thought "You already are in trouble with a DAS and want to take on more debt !.

Good luck for the future !

toots82

antonic wrote: »

Hi Toots,

You have made a judgment call and are now dealing with your debts.

Congratulations on making that hard decision ( I know the feeling myself), but at least your now in charge .

It will be tough going for you (it was for me), but when I got DF last year, the feeling was amazing.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your lot in life, but I think the unkind remarks you got on the other thread were because they thought "You already are in trouble with a DAS and want to take on more debt !.

Good luck for the future !

Hiya,

yeah that makes sense, but we're not going anywhere until every penny is paid back. I just mean if we are paid off in 3 years (from when DAS started), an extra 3 or 3 and a half given how long it took some to put a default on is an awful long time!!

I guess things change a lot in 3 years though, and may be me being daft but given how many people are in this situation, mortgage companies will have to look at things on a personal level sometimes, or they'll lose out on a huge amount of business I guess!!!

Huge well done on getting DF!!! how good did that feel???