Tiny DMP Wobble

FuzzyDF

Well my DMP is due to start in a few weeks. First payment on 1st July.

Following my LBM a few weeks ago I finally slept last night, 10 hours!!!!

Had a bit of a wobble this morning and was wondering if anybody could help me.

What if (worst case scenario) none of my creditors froze interest?

Would I have to pay the entire loan off not over 5 years but double or treble that?

Growurown

Don't think that is very likely Fuzzy. Out of all my creditors only one, the Halifax, haven't frozen interest but they have reduced it so the debt is going down albeit a bit slower. There are things you can do, complain, go to the FOS etc. We were successful getting the Halifax to refund us over a £1,000 worth of charges after a complaint to the FOS.

FuzzyDF

I have a card, current account, loan and O/D with Halifax. Oh dear.

Growurown

Yes I did too. OH and I both had a CC each and two bank accounts and a loan.

My CC because there wasn't a large amount on it was passed to a DCA pretty quickly and interest stopped. OH's CC had a much larger amount on it but they have dropped the interest so the debt is coming down. With the two overdrafts we are still being charged for them too, a £1 a day. The loan was actually with Intelligent Finance which is part of the Halifax group but they stopped interest and we have paid it off now.

A lot depends on how much you owe and how much you can afford to pay. You have got the DMP under way which is a massive achievement. Now it is a waiting game to see what they will do. If they are still charging interest you do have options. One of those is to do a self managed DMP like TTFTM where you can reduce your payments to a level where they will stop interest, or pay them a bigger share to pay it off more quickly. One step at a time Fuzzy!

Suseka

I started my DMP 1 July 2013 and over the months that followed, like GUO, only Halifax have kept up with interest charges. I've sent letters and did put a complaint into the FOS resulting in a small refund, with the 'promise' from Halifax that my account will soon be defaulted (then no interest will be charged).

I'm about to go into round 2 with them and push for the default and I'll let you now how I get on. The thing to do is to keep pushing creditors, don't expect SC (or whomever you are with) to do it for you. If you persist then eventually you'll get interest frozen or reduced which will help keep the DFD to a reasonable timeframe.

The great thing is that you are doing something about your debts, so get the DMP up and running and then deal with one thing at a time

FuzzyDF

Thank you both for your advice. I feel I am going to have to develop a rhino skin and get as much advice from the DMP mutual support thread when I get up and running.

I could declare myself BR but I actually WANT to pay my debts off. I might mention this when they start hounding me on the phone.

blisteringblue

Hi Fuzzy, they won't hound you that is for certain. We've had 2 calls from a sainsbury's machine asking us to ring them and we've 60k to pay off.

I've 8 debts and 6 have frozen instantly, 1 reduced to 0.5% a month and one to 1% a month (smallest debt so not really an issue).

It's resulted on our monthly interest on the cards reducing from a ridiculous £800 (yes £800 a month) down to £30. I will work on the £30 over time but that saving has covered my wife's wage from the job she had a give up at Xmas for various reasons. Hence our DMP.

Remember a DMP is there to help you not to stress and worry about. The fact you are on a DMP you are very unlikely to get taken to court, or hassled. Just be brave, speak to your creditors and tell them "I'm dealing with my debts with Stepchange".

Growurown

FuzzyDF wrote: »

Thank you both for your advice. I feel I am going to have to develop a rhino skin and get as much advice from the DMP mutual support thread when I get up and running.

I could declare myself BR but I actually WANT to pay my debts off. I might mention this when they start hounding me on the phone.

Yes when you read through the various threads you see this is a common theme, people do want to pay off their debts. Of course when we signed up for the credit we agreed to pay the price but things change, people get ill, lose their jobs etc. or like us are just complete numpties when it comes to managing their finances:rotfl:

As to the phone, we had very few calls. I was very surprised actually at how many of our creditors didn't contact us at all, either by phone or post. The first we knew of their acceptance of the DMP was when we received our statement!

FuzzyDF

You are all lovely life savers. I am a worrier. I tend to catastrophise years ahead!

I'm even feeling guilty about not making any payments to my creditors this month for the first time in over 10 years even though it left me in financial distress.

Puzzcat

You will soon get over the guilt and realise like the rest of us you are just a number to them. Like you and many others I want to pay back all I borrowed but no longer with the addition of the massive interest charged.. I must have paid off what I originally borrowed at least 10 times already so enough was enough...


Out of my 9 debts, 3 with the same creditor - cc, od and loan. I only have 1 that still charges a small interest after a mini battle with the fos's assistance.


My dmp is currently set to run until 2022.. I am hoping over the years to reduce the term by increasing the monthly payments.


Good luck, I'm sure all will be fine.
Puzz. x

FuzzyDF

Another question (sorry as all of this is new to me).

Can Halifax or any other of my creditors demand a SOA from me personally or do they have to stick with SC's one?

I need to be prepared for the calls.