January 2015 is the beginning

January2015

Hi all

Well - having read lots of diaries on here I can see why they help you on the road to becoming debt free, and how they inspire others. So I thought I would start my own diary.

A little bit of history - which if I say it fast enough may just slip by you We've have had large debts before and consolidated it into a secured loan. Huge mistake, but we are where we are and can only move forward.

With just under £94k of unsecured debt the only way forward for us is a DMP with StepChange. For months and months and months we've borrowed from Peter (aka credit card A) to pay Paul (aka Credit card B, C, D, E, or F) :eek: Stupid (I know that now). Having borrowed like this we are up to date with all payments, but we just can't continue. Seriously, I would literally take money out of an ATM on one credit card to walk into the bank and pay money off another.

I've completed the StepChange debt remedy which advises me we could potentially be debt free in 9 years 4 months :T I know this is subject to creditors agreeing to freeze interest and may therefore be longer. To be honest I don't care how long it takes as long as we are paying off the debt and we have enough money to live on each month.

So having had our LBM last week this is my first diary entry of what we have done so far:

• Opened 2 new basic bank accounts (1 for me and 1 for DH). These accounts are with a bank not associated with any of our debts (amazingly there was one :rotfl:). We plan to use one account for mortgage and bills. The other account will be used for our living money, eg. food, fuel etc.
• Both of us have advised our payroll departments of the new bank details.
• Cancelled all credit card direct debits and made a token payment to each of them this month
• Contacted insurance providers, mortgage, secured loan etc for new DD forms - I know when opening new accounts the banks can sort out DD transfers, but I was worried about only transferring some and not others and just wanted to do this all myself so I know what's going across (probably daft but it is what it is in my brain:o)
• Completed the StepChange debt remedy and applied for a pack to start the ball rolling
• Taken a one month payment holiday on both our loans (approx £660 in total per month). This was done to allow time for the StepChange process to start and contact to be made with our bank before they start chasing us for money. Technically it does add interest to the loans, but hopefully they will agree to freeze the interest anyway...eventually.
• Contacted our broadband/tv/phone provider and reduced our package by over £40 per month.
• Logged onto all credit card and bank accounts and changed contact phone numbers so that only our home phone number is listed, i.e. no work contact numbers.
• Sorted out some items to put on ebay - but decided to wait until end Jan to do that based on my theory that sale prices are likely to be low as folks will have little spare cash following Christmas and may need to wait until payday at the end of Jan.

So now just to wait for the StepChange pack and get the ball rolling. We are very nervous about the setup and acceptance period for the DMP - the period of time when creditors realise we are not paying the required amount, but only paying token amounts for now and then when they get the StepChange info. DH definitely worried they will contact him at work. Hopefully it won't happen but I've told him just to be polite and explain this is a personal matter and he will be happy to speak to them if they phone him at home after 6pm. When (if) they phone us at home we will just advise that we are working with StepChange to resolve our debt issues and will take their (StepChange) advice from this point on. Strangely, for the first time in what seems forever, I am not worried about talking to our creditors as I feel I am not floundering with how to move forward but have found a way and made a decision to move forward with a plan which will eventually result in clearing all the debts

Sorry for such a long first diary entry. We are looking forward to the beginning of the rest of our lives, and I'm looking forward to getting to know my fellow DFWs along our journey :beer:

January2015

Hi everyone

Having spent the last week finally facing up to the debt and starting the ball rolling to deal with it, I felt strangely 'flat' today. I felt I should be doing something but am in limbo waiting for the StepChange pack to arrive.

I was good and had a NSD - it felt great to walk round the shops during lunch break with some colleagues and despite sales galore I didn't even feel tempted to buy anything. Spoke to DH when he got home and he also had a NSD. Let's hope (know) this is the first of many NSDs for us both.

I need to work out how to sort out a signature on this forum. I've gone from not being able to face the amounts to determined to see them reduce and can't wait for the DMP to start. I spoke with DH last night and said I thought the debts will increase to start with because it may take a while to organise freezing of interest and some, or all, of our creditors may refuse to freeze the interest.

Happy debt busting everyone

nbinblack

I don't post very often, I am very much a lurker but just wanted to wish you the best with your journey

January2015

nbinblack wrote: »

I don't post very often, I am very much a lurker but just wanted to wish you the best with your journey

I've been a long time lurker, but decided I needed to be committed to deal with this debt mountain we have.

Having lurked and read loads of DWF diaries I've come to realise how they help keep folks focussed on achieving their goal, but also how wonderful it must be as the journey progresses and hopefully the debt reduces to be able to go back and read old posts in your diary and see how far along the journey you've come.

I've never kept a diary or a blog or anything like that but am finding it strangely addictive to log into this forum, read diaries of total strangers and then update my own.

AleMrsT

Hi January. Good luck on your journey, I had my LBM in November, and the first payment on my DMP was 1st January, so I'm very early in to my DFW journey.
For the signature, if you go to 'USER CP' on the green bar across the top of the screen, this is where you edit your profile and can add a signature on.
I will be subscribing.

danidav88

Hi January,

We started a DMP just over 16 months ago and have never felt so good. We still have the odd moment where something unexpected happens but it is so much better than waiting till midnight for pay day to pay off a payday loan and get another to pay off another loan, crazy how things get!! We started with a debt over 54000!!! Luckily it is now down to just over 38000. Finally feel like we are getting somewhere. Sorry for the ramble but just thought I would say keep your chin up and it does start to get a lot easier!!

Hope this helps

Danidav88

January2015

danidav88 wrote: »

Hi January,

We started a DMP just over 16 months ago and have never felt so good. We still have the odd moment where something unexpected happens but it is so much better than waiting till midnight for pay day to pay off a payday loan and get another to pay off another loan, crazy how things get!! We started with a debt over 54000!!! Luckily it is now down to just over 38000. Finally feel like we are getting somewhere. Sorry for the ramble but just thought I would say keep your chin up and it does start to get a lot easier!!

Hope this helps

Danidav88

Wow - what a massive reduction in your debt:T I only hope in 16 months I can post something similar on another new DFWer's shiny new diary;) Posts like yours are what inspired me to deal with the debt and start my diary. Definitely not a ramble

judi24

Well done for starting a diary and getting going with your DFW journey - here to cheer you on :T:T:T

danidav88

January2015 wrote: »

Wow - what a massive reduction in your debt:T I only hope in 16 months I can post something similar on another new DFWer's shiny new diary;) Posts like yours are what inspired me to deal with the debt and start my diary. Definitely not a ramble

Thanks January 2015, Luckily we have quite a good monthly payment, makes you think how you get yourself into these situations but we can definitely see the end of the road finally

:j

January2015

I seem to have acquired an obsessive compulsion to check and recheck figures I haven't been able to bear to look at for oh I don't know how long.

On the positive side I calculated all the debts correctly. Also on the positive side I input DH's salary into the StepChange debt remedy by £100 per month, i.e. he brings home £100 per month more than I wrote down. A bit embarrassing have to tell StepChange I got it wrong. I don't want them to think I was trying to mislead them or anything. I am really hopeful that when this extra £100 is added to the DMP payment (when eventually set up) it will have a significant impact on the length of time it will take to become debt free.

I tried logging back into my debt remedy form on StepChange but it now states that as we have chosen a debt solution we need to contact them if our situation has changed. So DFW task for tomorrow (oops today now) is to phone StepChange after work tomorrow and update DH salary figure.

Edit: Just done a quick Excel calculation and I think the extra £100 per month will reduce the debt payment timescale by 1 year 1 month Will have to wait for StepChange to confirm my calculations but I can now go to bed with a smile on my face

Sazzie23

Great news January, a reducing DFD already.

I know what you mean about looking at the figures, I can easily spend an hour looking at the spreadsheets to see if I'm missing something.

I wouldn't worry too much about this 'gap' time from deciding to go with a DMP and payments actually starting. Are you sending token payments to covers the period to 25thFeb when the SC payments will actually roll in. You might get a few calls, but mainly they will be positive rather than problematic.


Before you call SC I'd just like you to take a moment to think about building your emergency fund, you know the 'boiler gives up/car breaks down' problem. Making sure the budget has some built in savings can make a big difference a couple of years into the DMP.

Great diary posts btw, useful to direct newbies to from the support thread. Congratulations on making life changing financial decisions.