Jaks DFW Diary attempting a self managed DMP

Jaks

I have been reading these forums for the last 2 months which spurned me into having my LBM. Me and my Dh have got £30,797.00 of unsecured debts between us. Before my LBM it was around £32,000.00.

I have just recently redone my budget for until the end of the year and discovered a shortfall after paying for all the housekeeping and creditor payments. I went on the cccs website and filled a questionaire for a DMP, while I was doing that I found a few things that I had missed of my housekeeping budget and that made the shortfall go up to £400 a month under.

My dh and I have made a decision to do a self DMP for the next 6 months as we would like to carry on making the normal payments to Greenwoods and Provident. Greenwoods payment ends 4th December 2007 giving us £100 extra a month to divide between our creditors and one of the Provident loans finishes 4th June 2008 giving us a further £150 to divide between the creditors.

I have used the template letters from National Debtline to send to my creditors. I will give them a housekeeping budget laid out by the cccs that is suitable for a family of my size (6). I will also be giving them a current creditors budget showing the £400 odd overspend and a revised creditors budget which does not exceed our income (will be left with 24p after revised creditor payments and normal housekeeping payments). I have stated that I haven't favoured Greenwoods and Provident, just explained that I wanted to pay them as normal as they soon finish and that they money I use to pay them will be devided between the other creditors.

We have already opened another current account with Nationwide as my current bank is Lloyds TSB and they are also my creditors ( 2 Loans and a credit card) - I am expecting a little trouble with Lloyds as I have read some posts from a few of you that are having problems with them. I have decided to transfer my direct debits to my Nationwide account one at the time just after they have been paid out of our Lloyds account this month. I will also do the same with payments going into the account. We get child benefit payments on a tuesday so next Tuesday (providing our new bank card has come through) I will phone the child benefit office and give them my new account details, I will do the same for my dh's DLA (this is paid this wednesday, and he gets that every 4 weeks), and also our Income Support.

I will write to Lloyds tsb and tell them I want to close the current account and sent them the bank card and cheque book back whe everything is sorted with the new account. I want to do this so they don't try and recover any of their money from our empty bank account. I need to do this by 22nd August as this is when my loan payment is next due. I am hoping to set up S/O payments to my creditors for the 1st of September.

Here is a brief reason as to why we have got ourselves into this trouble: We were informed by our former landlord that he had to sell all his properties due to ill health at the end of March. We have 2 months notice and had to be out by early June. We had been renting the property for 11 years. I went to the housing people and was told that there was no chance for a council house, if we were made homeless we would be put in a B&B - that wasn't an option as there were 6 of us (including a 3 year old and a 6 month old baby). We had to find some where quick. I found somewhere within 24 hours but we had to find £600 deposit and the first months rent in advance. We also had to pay a firm to get rid of a lot of our old rubbish and a firm to move us. The house we are now renting in more suitable for our family needs - 3 seperate bedrooms - the last house had to 2 goodsize bedrooms and a small box room leading off 1 of the other bedrooms. My children are 14 (boy), 12 (girl), 3 (girl), 10 months (girl).

Tracey x

Jaks

After reading that lots of you are having trouble with creditors calling at all hours of the day, several times a day I am going to keep a diary of who is calling and what company they are from and how many times that I have been contacted. I can't remeber how many of our creditors know my new home phone number as I am pretty sure that when I contacted them to let them know that we were moving I didn't know my phone number then ,so fingers crossed that they will only be able to contacted us by post.

Tracey x

Gemmzie

I have stated that I haven't favoured Greenwoods and Provident, just explained that I wanted to pay them as normal as they soon finish and that they money I use to pay them will be devided between the other creditors.

They will probably see this as favouritism and it gives them a good reason not to freeze interest.

Best of luck though, it might be worth popping your budget up on here too. There's a few of us doing self-DMPs so we might be able to help

Jaks

Monthly Incomings:

Income Support - £1122.52
Child Benefit - £217.60
Disability Living Allowance - £180-00

Total - £1520-12


Monthly Outgoings:

Rent - £38.18
Electric - £74.00
Water - £47.86
T.V. License - £11.37
Home Contents Insurance - £11.64
Sky - £18.00
Food/ Toiletries/Cleaning - £300.00
Phone/Internet - £29.99
Mobile Phone - £25.00
School Trips - £20.00
Clothing/Shoes - £55.00
Medicines - £10.00
Sports/Hobbies/Entertainment - £20.00
Children’s Pocket Money - £32.00
Emergencies/Birthdays/Christmas - £30.00
Sky Repair Cover - £5.00
Haircuts - £22.00

Total - £749.88

Jaks

Current Creditor Outgoings

Capital One - Balance £976 (£1,000 Limit) 34.9 % APR. Approx. £55 a month
Capital One - Balance £574 (£600 Limit) 34.9 % APR. Approx. £30 a month
LTSB Loan - Balance Approx £4,750 16.9% APR. £161.41 a month
LTSB Loan - Balance Approx £12,000 15.7 % APR £239. £85 a month
Argos - Balance Approx £730 (Limit £750) 25.9 % APR £45 a month
LTSB CC - Balance £1472 (Limit £1,500) APR. £40 a month
Littlewoods Catalogue - Balance £1,920 ( Limit £2,00) 29.9% APR. £60 a month

LPF Littlewoods - Balance £1700 (Limit £1,750) 37.9 % APR. £85 a month
Moorcroft - Balance £1,100. £40 a month]
Studio - £294 (Limit £700). £20 a month
Greenwoods - £425. £100 a month (ends 4th December 2007)
Provident - £1,613. £150 a month (ends 4th June 2008)
Provident - £3,151. £150 a month (ends 9th April 2009)

Total Outgoings - £1261.26

This covers Debts and payments made by me and my dh

Household Budget - £749.88
Creditor Payments - £1261.26

Total Incomings - £1,520.12
Total Outgoings - £2,011.14
-£481.02 Over Budget each month

As you can see we have an big overspend in our budget every month and to reduce this we need to reduce our payments to our creditors for 6 months. I maybe able to reduce food/cleaning/toiletries budget for a family of6.

Jaks

Revised Creditor Outgoings

Capital One - £15 a month
Capital One - £25 a month
Argos - £30 a month
Studio - £20 a month
LTSB Bank Loan - £60 a month
LTSB Bank Loan - £60 a month
Littlewoods Catalogue - £60 a month
LPF Littlewoods - £40 a month
LTSB Credit Card - £20 a month
Moorcroft - £40 a month
Greenwoods - £100 a month (ends 4th December 2007)
Provident - £150 a month (ends 4th June 2008)
Provident - £150 a month (ends 9th April 2009)

Total Outgoings - £770.00
Total Incomings - £1520.12
Total Household Outgoings - £749.88
Total Revised Creditor Outgoings - £770.00
Total Outgoings - £1519.88
Total Leftover - 24p

Please note that we are not favouring Greenwoods and Provident. They are doorstep collectors and have to paid each week. When the payments to Greenwoods and Provident have ended we will be in a position to increase payments to our creditors

Jaks

Gemmzie

Thank you for your advice. I can see what you mean. But I am hoping they will accept my budget as it will be in their best interest in the long term as they probably would get that much more then what I have budgeted for if I used a DMP. We have £770 a month available to devide between our creditors. If they think that seperating Greenwoods and Provident is a problem then I will have a rethink.

Please excuse my big text on a couple of my posts - I copied and pasted the info from my documents as was.

Tracey x

Gemmzie

Are those payments pro-rata? Your DMP has a much higher chance of being accepted if it is.

Ah I see, I wasn't aware they were doorstep loans. I'm not sure how this affects a DMP

Jaks

What does pro rota mean? I have read a lot of post with that word in it but was insure what it meant. I am hoping that if I manage to save any money from food/cleaning/toilteries I could get enough to pay of Studio as I only owe £294 - I think I will make that my personal challenge.

Tracey x

Gemmzie

It means that you pay each of the creditors a percentage of the total that you owe based on the percentage that they are.
I.E. 40% of your debt was ABC Card, you'd pay ABC Card 40% of how much you are repaying.

I'm just looking at your repayments to help work this out

Gemmzie

Capital One £976.00 // £15.00 // £14.15
Capital One (2) £574.00 // £25.00 // £8.32
Argos £730.00 // £30.00 // £10.59
Studio £294.00 // £20.00 // £4.26
LTSB Bank Loan £4,750.00 // £60.00 // £68.88
LTSB Bank Loan (2) £12,000.00 // £60.00 // £174.01
Littlewoods Catalogue £1,920.00 // £60.00 // £27.84
LPF Littlewoods £1,700.00 // £40.00 // £24.65
LTSB Credit Card £1,472.00 // £20.00 // £21.35
Moorcroft £1,100.00 // £40.00 // £15.95

The three amounts are the debt total // your estimated payment // the pro-rata payment.