Experiences please....

panicsetin

Hi everyone

I have been "lurking" here for about a week now since I had a real LB moment last weekend which resulted in me not being able to eat/sleep with worry about my situation. I have decided that I am going to do a DMP with payplan as I cannot even afford my minimum payments anymore and its going to get worse not better. I have so far set up a new bank account (just waiting for the debit card/cheque book to come through) away from my creditors. I have a couple of small debts (under £200) that I am going to pay off when I am paid and close the accounts. Once I have done this i am going to ring payplan back and go full steam ahead with setting up a DMP. My main concern, and where i would like to hear your experiences, is regarding how much contact/hassle i can expect to get from my creditors and/or DCA's. My partner knows nothing about any of this and i want to keep it from him as i really believe he would leave me if he knew and that would destroy me. I wish i could tell him but i know him well and know what his reaction would be. Anyway, sorry to ramble, but i would love to hear your experiences on how much hassle (letters, calls etc) i can expect to get - and if there is anyone else out there trying to do this by themselves it would be great to know I am not alone.

p00pieb0tt0m

Welcome!!

First off can you afford to pay off the 'couple of small debts' and still survive the month?

I started my DMP just over 3 years ago and had a little contact from creditors, but not much. I had been robbing Peter to pay Paul, so none of them were bothering me beforehand. If they did ring I told them to contact CCCS and reiterated my CCCS account number and that I had given CCCS permission to speak to them.

I told my partner about my debts, I wasn't going to but he could tell my mind was on something else. When I had told him, it helped me to have some-one behind me, proud that I was actively changing my spending habits and getting myself debt-free.

panicsetin

Hi p00pieb0tt0m, Thanks for your post.... No, sorry, i didnt explain that very well - I definately cant afford to pay those small debts off and still survive the month (currently dont have enough income to cover my debt expenditure never mind anything else). I have based this on the fact that i have sold a number of things on ebay over the past couple of weeks. That combined with about £40 from my wages will clear the two small debts. In addition I have been advised that once I have spoken to payplan to set up my DMP that they will advise me to make token payments to my creditors and at the same time advise them of my payplan details. Hence I thought clearing these two small debts would be a good idea (theory being that two less creditors can only be a good thing?).