January 2015 is the beginning

so_very_confused

Hi January 2015
Glad things are finally getting sorted.
Good luck on your DMP journey, it becomes easier with time.:)
svc

January2015

Well it's been a good day, so far , for moneysaving. I phoned our broadband/tv/phone provider and asked to cancel the contract as I had found a deal elsewhere significantly cheaper than they currently charge me. The discussed the package I was thinking of moving to and whilst they didn't price match they did reduce my existing package (no change in any of our services) by over half:j. This is only an introductory offer for 6 months, but even after that it only increases from the intro price by £8 per month.

I'm absolutely delighted with the saving, but also feel a bit of a mug for having been paying so much for so long

Also I organised some more direct debits to be paid from the new bank account this morning. Only one left to sort out now and just trying to get DH to find the information for the account (it's his mobile phone).

All in all I'm feeling very positive about moving ahead with the DMP today :j

Puzzcat

Hi January,


Well done on the savings, we love any reductions us mse'ers...!


This is one area which I have left alone as I have seperate providers for internet/phone and tv.. I pay (well from the bills account) for the internet and phone and OH pays for the silly priced tv package.. I keep telling him to call them and threaten etc but he won't.. up to him..... I wouldn't have it if I was paying...


Sounds like the dmp set up is going well, do shout up if you need any help..


Puzz. x

HarrysMummy

Hello

Just thought I'd stop by and say well done for the LBM and good luck on your journey.

I'll subscribe to keep following how you're doing...

System

Like the idea of changing broadband suppliers etc, we are possibly looking to do that.

AleMrsT

Hi January, I had my LBM in November, and the first Stepchange payment went to the creditors yesterday!! I want to increase my DD payment to cover 1% of the total debt owed each month, so every month I pay it means i'll have paid off 1%.

I feel so much better knowing my finances are getting on track, for the first time in a long time, I still have money in my account, on the Monday before payday Friday, AND it's January!! I have subscribed but didnt have the notifications set to 'instant' so I have only just caught up.
I'll be following your journey as its all fairly new to me too

January2015

AleMrsT wrote: »

Hi January, I had my LBM in November, and the first Stepchange payment went to the creditors yesterday!! I want to increase my DD payment to cover 1% of the total debt owed each month, so every month I pay it means i'll have paid off 1%.

I feel so much better knowing my finances are getting on track, for the first time in a long time, I still have money in my account, on the Monday before payday Friday, AND it's January!! I have subscribed but didnt have the notifications set to 'instant' so I have only just caught up.
I'll be following your journey as its all fairly new to me too

LBM November, first StepChange payment to creditors yesterday :eek: Did you get lots of nasty phone calls from creditors between November and today?

I think I could cope with calls, but DH is going to be a nightmare. I've given him a very polite speech to say if they phone him at work - something along the lines of "Oh thank you so much for phoning me, saves me phoning you - however I am at work so could you please phone me back at home after 5pm" :rotfl: They can then phone us at home and he can authorise them to speak to me. I'm not worried about speaking to any of them - what can they do to me over a phone :rotfl:

I think we will be paying 0.87% each month. However, I am still not convinced I have calculated DH salary correctly and think he takes home £100 more per month than I declared to SC (it was confusing over November (expenses reimbursed) and December (small amount of additional hours - which is really unusual). If we can pay £100 more per month then we will hopefully achieve 1% ;)per month once it's all under way.

On a positive note, if it does take a while to set up the SC payments then I will have a bit of time to squirrel away more emergency fund money

I can't remember when I last felt so positive about our future:D

AleMrsT

January2015 wrote: »

LBM November, first StepChange payment to creditors yesterday :eek: Did you get lots of nasty phone calls from creditors between November and today?

I think I could cope with calls, but DH is going to be a nightmare. I've given him a very polite speech to say if they phone him at work - something along the lines of "Oh thank you so much for phoning me, saves me phoning you - however I am at work so could you please phone me back at home after 5pm" :rotfl: They can then phone us at home and he can authorise them to speak to me. I'm not worried about speaking to any of them - what can they do to me over a phone :rotfl:

I think we will be paying 0.87% each month. However, I am still not convinced I have calculated DH salary correctly and think he takes home £100 more per month than I declared to SC (it was confusing over November (expenses reimbursed) and December (small amount of additional hours - which is really unusual). If we can pay £100 more per month then we will hopefully achieve 1% ;)per month once it's all under way.

On a positive note, if it does take a while to set up the SC payments then I will have a bit of time to squirrel away more emergency fund money

I can't remember when I last felt so positive about our future:D

I made small token payments (£10) to each of my two credit cards, and my overdraft and loan in December, and cancelled the DD's. I set up my new bank account etc then the first payment actually went to Stepchange on 1st Jan, which Stepchange then sends to creditors on 25th each month.
It wasn't so bad, I've managed to build up a mini savings fund. I also changed my mobile number, which Stepchange have, but the creditors don't (I didn't do it deliberately, OH was upgrading). I'm glad I did, I had 14 voicemails from halifax when i switched on my old phone. They were the only ones to reject the original payment plan from Stepchange, so I called them back and said that I have already written to them, they have rejected my payment offer, but that is all I can afford so that is what I'm going to be paying them anyway. They then said to get Stepchange to re-send the payment plan and it will be reviewed, then they also agreed to freeze interest and accept the payment proposal from Stepchange, so all of my debts are now 0% (from 28.9% in the case of my Halifax CC!)
I've had default notices from Nationwide for my CC and Loan, which is a good thing because then the 6 year blip on the credit file starts straight away, so this will be cleared at the same time my debt does.
I don't stress about getting the letters, they mainly say (from Nationwide anyway) 'we know you're on a debt plan and have an arrangement with us, but we have to send out default notices according to the terms of the credit agreement, we will not pursue this further as there is a 12 month agreement in place' etc. Halifax are not so good with knowing who has previously sent what correspondence, so I just file them. I did write back to Halifax the first time saying that I am on a DMP, they should contact stepchange, and I will not be calling them on a premium rate number to discuss it further.

All fine so far. We'll see how it goes.

The default letters are far less scary than the credit card bills ever were, I never used to open them, and rarely checked my bank, whereas I check online at least once a week now to see where I'm at.

System

I agree with feeling positive about our future, just wish we were another week or so further along and past all the hassle that the beginning of the journey brings.

January2015

AleMrsT wrote: »

...... I had 14 voicemails from halifax when i switched on my old phone. They were the only ones to reject the original payment plan from Stepchange, so I called them back and said that I have already written to them, they have rejected my payment offer, but that is all I can afford so that is what I'm going to be paying them anyway. They then said to get Stepchange to re-send the payment plan and it will be reviewed, then they also agreed to freeze interest and accept the payment proposal from Stepchange, so all of my debts are now 0% (from 28.9% in the case of my Halifax CC!)
............... Halifax are not so good with knowing who has previously sent what correspondence, so I just file them. I did write back to Halifax the first time saying that I am on a DMP, they should contact stepchange, and I will not be calling them on a premium rate number to discuss it further.

Gulp !!!! Our bank account overdraft and 2 large loans are with Halif@x :eek: Sounds like we may be in for a rough ride for a while.

What will be will be and I've decided they can't have what we don't have. To be honest this bank accounts for almost a third of our huge debt and whilst I know we borrowed it and probably shouldn't have, over the years we've borrowed to pay credit cards and consolidate etc etc. I was really ill a few years ago and couldn't work for almost 2 and half years and if I'm honest we were in too deep then but that just compounded the problems and took us to the point of no return.

So, based on your information, if our first payment to SC goes on 1st March our creditors will not see a payment from them until 25th March. That does sound a long way off but I expect it will fly by.