Going insane with DMP

Iwanttobefree

I have just sent them a message cancelling my DMP and my appointment and told them I have made other arrangements.

We have now gone with stepchange and in one phone call did it all with the forms being emailed in the next 24hrs and me being called back Friday morning to check I've filled them in OK

One thing that concerns me about this (DMPs in general) is the misinformation I seem to be given, both telling me completely different things with regards to expenditure.

For example, Payplan suggested £50 a month for hobbies/leisure, stepchange tell me creditors wont be happy if it's over £27

Payplan were happy to let me keep my overdraft with my bank and gradually reduce it, stepchange said I wasn't allowed to, I must open a basic bank account and include the OD in the DMP

etc etc

Part of me wonders whether if I went elsewhere I'd be told something different

seanavfc92

Iwanttobefree wrote: »

For example, Payplan suggested £50 a month for hobbies/leisure, stepchange tell me creditors wont be happy if it's over £27

Normally, Debt Management Companies work to budget guidelines set out by the banks as to what they would deem "acceptable" to spend whilst on a repayment plan. I can only assume Payplan didn't get the memo!

Iwanttobefree wrote: »

Payplan were happy to let me keep my overdraft with my bank and gradually reduce it, stepchange said I wasn't allowed to, I must open a basic bank account and include the OD in the DMP

Payplan must not have got this memo either, because not including all debts on the plan would be deemed "preferrential treatment" by the creditors. For example, you have a £1000 debt with Santander. By paying it through the plan, they may get £20 per month. By you making direct payments to them, they may be getting £40 per month.

Any unsecured debt is classed as a 'non-priority', therefore no-one should get more than they're entitled to on a repayment plan.

In terms of convenience, making one payment per month to ALL of your creditors would be easier than making three or four payments to different companies. After all, that's what a DMP is designed for.

Hope your experience with SC is better than it has been with PP!

glentoran99

I didnt include my overdraft in my DMP and had absolutely no problems, means im almost clear of the DMP and i still have the same bank account

glentoran99

seanavfc92 wrote: »

In terms of convenience, making one payment per month to ALL of your creditors would be easier than making three or four payments to different companies. After all, that's what a DMP is designed for.
!

No its not a DMP is to make payments affordable to all your creditors, whether this is one payments or seperate payments on self managed DMP,

seanavfc92

glentoran99 wrote: »

No its not a DMP is to make payments affordable to all your creditors, whether this is one payments or seperate payments on self managed DMP,

StepChange don't budget for seperate payments. It's all of your debts or none, really. Like I said before, why would you show preference to one over another?

National_Debtline

glentoran99 wrote: »

I didnt include my overdraft in my DMP and had absolutely no problems, means im almost clear of the DMP and i still have the same bank account

Hi glentoran

I'm pleased to hear your DMP is almost clear, well done.

Strictly speaking we would normally advise folk that they include any outstanding overdraft in their DMP, as it is just another debt when all is said and done.

Debt management companies - fee and free alike - will normally insist on the overdraft facility itself being removed from the debtor's main bank account, or at least not being used. Otherwise, the debtor is effectively using further credit during the DMP.

Regards

Dennis
Twitter: @natdebtline

Sazzie23

I think this thread is a good example of why the DMP system might need some sort regulation, how can it be fair that one DMPer can use their OD and another cannot. Bad enough when one creditor treats 2 accounts with the same person differently.


I wanttobe free - hope it works out for you with SC, to my knowledge they have never tried to sell me anything, I get the occasional email with suggestions on budgets, moneysaving tips etc, but that's all. Do have to remember that their totals assume interest is frozen, remember to update online regularly to avoid any nasty surprises.


I know it all seems a bit much at the moment, but if things settle down at all in the future, maybe consider going self managed, then you can set your own rules. Good luck

Iwanttobefree

I now loath Payplan.

I cancelled on the 27 Aug after they phoned me up last week trying to hard sell me life insurance.

They emailed me to ask why I had left on Thu 28th Aug, and I sent them the following reply that day

Dear xxxxx

I can confirm we no longer wish for you to conduct our DMP for us and you can close the file.

No offence to you personally, but I feel there is a conflict of interest in your financial division and you helping us to solve our debt problems.

I feel like you are more interested in trying to sell me insurance, trying to get me to use your products rather than really interested in helping me with my debts.

On the one hand we are told we mustn't take out any more credit, then on the other, your site is advertising that you can get us a TV on something like 3 years credit.

I feel the selling of life insurance and what was implied was a little misleading in that words to the effect of "if you die, xxx won't have to worry about your debts", looking into it, as each of our debts are in one name only, I can't be liable for her debts and she can't be libel for mine, so it was a little naughty what was implied. Plus if one of us dies, our mortgage is paid off so the debts wouldn't be a problem (especially to xxx).

I see two lots of life insurance was taken out for each of us by yourselves this month meaning £20 was taken out.

Almost every month we have had to contact one of our creditors about something, and we feel that while the info you gave us was factually correct, it didn't come across really sympathetic. I have the ability to contact and argue my case if needed, but many people that use your services will not.

We reached a brick wall with K and Co having spoken to them numerous times, each time them contradicting what they said before, we had a letter from NCO saying they were handling the account which we passed onto you, this month we still get charges from Kays and we are pulling our hair out in frustration and see that while NCO say we owe them £1503 in April when the account was handed over to them, Kays in August are saying we owe them £1657.

It feels like we owe just as much after paying in 466 a month for 5 to 6 months as we did in the beginning and when we ask you for help, we simply get told they are not obliged to freeze interest. We know that, but we wanted to know what to do. When we contacted yourselves about KandCo's letters a couple of weeks ago as we are completely stressed out by them, your response was, quote

---

I have attached your Document on file for your records, in this circumstances K & Co are part of the shop direct group, Payplan deal with NCO who are part of the Shop direct group that deal with Debt Management Companies, NCO do not normally apply any interest and charges to your account. In this circumstance you would need to call K & Co to explain that you are currently paying the debt through Payplan to NCO reference xxxxxx, this should resolve your issue at this time I would suggest to see if the charges could be removed.

---

We know that, we have phoned and got no where which is why we asked you for help.

We also realised we completely messed up xxx self employed earnings and had to borrow a further £2000 off of a family member over the coarse of this year in order to survive. We explained this to yourselves, hence it's obvious we needed an urgent review, the response, quote

---

Just to make you aware a debt management plan is a flexible informal arrangement where you pay your creditors back on an affordable monthly amount until you have paid all your debts back in full, we revise your income and expenditure on a yearly basis during your Annual review to ensure your monthly payments are affordable and realistic, at this time we would send your creditors an up to date financial statement to try and put your arrangements in place for a following 6 - 12 months.

We do request for interest and charges to be frozen however this is nothing that we can ever guarantee as it is within your creditors discretion.

At any time in your debt management plan if you are struggling and are having to borrow money from family or friends we can go through income and expenditure to reduce your monthly payments. As we would never want to put you in any further financial difficulty at this we would also see if there are any other plans that would be more suitable for your circumstances.

If you feel you would benefit from a telephone appointment please call Payplan on 0844 855 2163 to book a suitable time and day, our opening hours are Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm and Saturday 9am - 1pm.

---

I appreciate the above is correct, but personally I didn't find it that sympathetic, we explained we messed up, we explained we had to borrow to survive, the tone sort of made us feel guilty for dare trying to get a review sooner than 12 months, ending with if we feel we could benefit from a review, again without wanting to sound rude, of course we needed a review and to be honest, anyone reading our situation should have been able to see that a mile away.

In frustration, at that point I sent you a PM cancelling our DMP and cancelling our cover my life insurance with you.

I got a phonecall from yourselves (or received an email asking to phone, cant remember, too stressed) I was stressed when I spoke, I didn't go into too much detail about why I cancelled, just that everything has got on top of me. They talked me into reviewing the plan, I asked if it could be done that day (last Friday, 22nd), they said the earliest was this Friday at 1pm, but they would put me down for any cancellations.

So the phone rings I miss answering it, see it's payplan and phone yourselves up thinking I had got a cancellation for my review.

But no, they want to know who our £36 life insurance is with, My own words, but conversation was along the lines of,

I tell you it's with Zurich but we are happy and don't want to change.

You tell me you also use Zurich and maybe you could get us a better deal with more money.

You ask if it's to pay off our mortgage and I say yes and am hapy leaving it as it is.

You continue to try to get me to change my mind.

I explain what a hassle it was for me to get life insurance due to my health, how it took months, with the doctors letters, medicals etc and how that was too stressful to go through again.

You say words along the lines that you will get your team to phone me to see if you can do anything for me.

(note using the term "you" in general, cant remember who I spoke to)

and I had to firmly say again I wasn't interested. I felt just as pressured as I do if a cold caller calls and tries to sell me something I'm not interested in, and my debt is stressful enough without this sort of thing.

I came off the phone fuming, I had a look on the web and saw others had commented on the selling of insurance and many people recommended stepchange as the best free DMP

I filled in their online form, was required to phone for one of my outgoings, they answered straight away, went through the whole thing with me, emailed the documents I need to sign while I was on the phone and said I could have a call back today or tomorrow to check I've understood and filled in the forms correctly. I chose tomorrow and straight away sent you the message asking to cancel.

You did ask

Thanks for your help

And they responded with

Thank you for your message.

I will ensure that your plan is closed today for you.

Please accept my apologies for the way you feel about our services, I have also informed my Team Leader about what has happened during time on your plan.

I wish you all the best for your future.

Kind regards,

So when the phone goes Wednesday and its Payplan, I think it's a follow-up to my email, maybe an apology.

I answer. My own words, but along the lines of,

Them: "I see you have some life insurance policies totalling £36 a month."

Me: "You do realise we cancelled our DMP with you last week don't you?"

Them "yes, I can see it's cancelled, but we can save you money on your life insurance"

Me "You phoned me last week about this and I told you then I'm, not interested and I'm still not interested"

Them "Last week?"

me "yes, I am not interested"

Them "OK I will make a note on your file"

So do I take it that by using Payplan, I'm now another customer for them to continue to cold call.

I remained polite to the lady (after all she's only doing what she's paid to do, not her personal fault) but it was a struggle.

Absolutely not amused and I strongly do not recommend them to anyone.

They have caused me nearly as much stress as my debts.

dancingfairy

I would write to them and ask that your name and number is removed from their database and you do not wish to be contacted by them. If they do not do this then you can report them to the ombudsman.
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sourcrates

The problem is DMP`s are non regulated agreements, that means any tom, !!!!!!, or harry can set him/her self up as a provider, and they can all follow different rules.


Payplan wont charge you a fee to run your DMP, but will bombard you with sales calls, as that is how they make there money.


Stepchange will insist all your debts are included in your DMP, this seems a better option in my opinion, they are funded by the creditors themselves, by way of charitable contributions, so are obligated to treat all creditors fairly.
But again, they will charge you no fees.


National debt line are another free provider, again funded by banks, water companies, and government. They insist all debts are included within your DMP, which, in my opinion, is a good thing.


Other fee charging companies, don't ever agree to use these type of provider, as they are only interested in making money from you.