DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

January2015

DH and I are thinking of moving to self-managed DMP in the new year. The decision will mainly be driven by the outcome of a CCA request to one of our largest debts - which we are really hoping is unenforceable.

It sort of feels wrong to hope we don't have to pay it (I know if we succeed the debt still stands, but cannot be enforced so we don't have to pay - but really ought to ). At this point I will do what I can to move forward our DFD and if that means using a legal loophole or whatever folks want to call it, then I will. I know not everyone will agree.

Anyway, I get sidetracked - sorry.

If we are successful with this unenforceability claim, we will remove the debt from our DMP. I am not sure SC will be happy to do this and if they are not then we must move to self managed. I will talk to SC and see if they will, but if not hey ho let's move on.

My reason for posting is to ask any of my fellow DFWs on this thread who are already self-managed - What information/documents did you have to send to creditors? Do they need to see bank statements/payslips/anything else? Or do they just need an income/expenditure statement?

I want to start preparing, and feel at a loss because SC did everything for us.

Thanks for any help :beer:

sourcrates

Hi January,

Don't you feel bad about it if it does turn out to unenforcable, the CCA rules are there for your protection, as well as the creditors, if they don't follow the rules, and they don't, a lot of the time, I have no problem with it whatsoever.

I once felt like you, that debt should be repaid, can't miss payments blah blah blah, then I felt the full force of the debt collection industry, when I couldn't pay, and believe me, they are !!!!!s now compared to there behaviour 10 years ago.

I won't go into all the details again, but I "wised up" pretty quickly, I suspect you will too.

Good luck with it !!

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi January,

Don't you feel bad about it if it does turn out to unenforcable, the CCA rules are there for your protection, as well as the creditors, if they don't follow the rules, and they don't, a lot of the time, I have no problem with it whatsoever.

I once felt like you, that debt should be repaid, can't miss payments blah blah blah, then I felt the full force of the debt collection industry, when I couldn't pay, and believe me, they are !!!!!s now compared to there behaviour 10 years ago.

I won't go into all the details again, but I "wised up" pretty quickly, I suspect you will too.

Good luck with it !!

Hi Sourcrates

I don't feel bad - uncomfortable, yes, bad, no

However, for over £11k....I'll learn to live with uncomfortable :rotfl:

Thanks for your kind words and support :beer:

Brogden

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi Sazzie,

It was actually RBS and Natwest who had amended the figures ! The SC lady told me about PRAT as I hadn't noticed the debt had gone down... She also told me the creditors regularly do this, although N.West said they only do it occasionally.. probably when they are bored :rotfl: i shouldn't think they can see the other creditors just there own.

Puzz. x

The Gnat's Vest is the most boring old bank and now my biggest predator. I agree.....they very rarely sell debts and even verbally guaranteed to me that they wouldn't, provided I stuck to the agreed payment plan. The lady was trying to be nice :mad: !!

There can be no way the banks will be able to see your other predator accounts through SC. That would be a massive scandal :eek: !!

However, something else the Gnat's Vest do when they are bored is to look over your credit files and they can see the other predators and amounts owed there. It was for me a distinctly uncomfortable experience for a Gnat's Vest collection agent to start going through that with me on the phone. This is the only time I have ever experienced that - the collection agents at my other predators obviously didn't have that access and didn't have a clue about other predators and that's the position I prefer :rotfl:!!:cool:!!

Brogden

January2015 wrote: »

DH and I are thinking of moving to self-managed DMP in the new year. The decision will mainly be driven by the outcome of a CCA request to one of our largest debts - which we are really hoping is unenforceable.

It sort of feels wrong to hope we don't have to pay it (I know if we succeed the debt still stands, but cannot be enforced so we don't have to pay - but really ought to ). At this point I will do what I can to move forward our DFD and if that means using a legal loophole or whatever folks want to call it, then I will. I know not everyone will agree.

Anyway, I get sidetracked - sorry.

If we are successful with this unenforceability claim, we will remove the debt from our DMP. I am not sure SC will be happy to do this and if they are not then we must move to self managed. I will talk to SC and see if they will, but if not hey ho let's move on.

My reason for posting is to ask any of my fellow DFWs on this thread who are already self-managed - What information/documents did you have to send to creditors? Do they need to see bank statements/payslips/anything else? Or do they just need an income/expenditure statement?

I want to start preparing, and feel at a loss because SC did everything for us.

Thanks for any help :beer:

Jan,

I didn't join Step Change to then leave but was self-managed from day one (if 'managed' is a suitable word - chaos morelike :eek: and as Sourcrates says 'full weight of the debt collection industry' )

Do not be put off......you have been through the initial stages and this will now be a breeze.

Anyway.....I produced no documents other than I&E statements and agreed payment plans generally for periods of 6 months which then would be reviewed.

Remember as you produce your I&E's to make sure they give to the predators the message that suits you, your preferences, prejudices the ones you want to pay more to or less to. Pro-rata-ing is out of the window if you want it to be !! You may find, as I did that the predators do not care about pro-rata-ing and may not even understand the concept. However......take care with the Gnat's if you have any business there - see my previous post here.

The fear of court action is not be there if there is an agreed payment plan, no matter how miserly and you have the banks letter confirming the arrangement just in case they act stupidly - then, if you need to you can swot them like a fly .

You may also want to take one or more down to 'grass roots' with very small payments and build an emergency / F&F fund. If it were me I would do this and return to those poor deprived predators in a few months with offers.

I thought that depriving a predator for a year or so may make them more willing to accept a very low F&F. They will all 'wheel and deal' but I found that it didn't make any difference whether I had been paying a predator £100 or £1 a month. Some of the best deals were from those I had been more generous to and vice versa.

All the best with it.

January2015

Brogden wrote: »

There can be no way the banks will be able to see your other predator accounts through SC. That would be a massive scandal :eek: !!

In a way, I think both Puzz and Brodgen may be right about creditors accessing debt account information on SC.

I phoned Arrow Global about a missing payment and they said 'what's your SC reference....ah thank you.....let me just log in to Stepchange and check'

Now I took that to mean each creditor has an account with SC (and it would have hundreds, nay thousands, of account numbers to sort through). Perhaps they can see and adjust balances that way rather than log in to individual DMPers accounts, and somehow SC links the information from the creditor account to our (the debtors) accounts.

That makes sense when I think about it, but when I type it, it has probably come across as double dutch

January2015

Brogden wrote: »

The Gnat's Vest is the most boring old bank and now my biggest predator. I agree.....they very rarely sell debts and even verbally guaranteed to me that they wouldn't, provided I stuck to the agreed payment plan. The lady was trying to be nice :mad: !!

There can be no way the banks will be able to see your other predator accounts through SC. That would be a massive scandal :eek: !!

However, something else the Gnat's Vest do when they are bored is to look over your credit files and they can see the other predators and amounts owed there. It was for me a distinctly uncomfortable experience for a Gnat's Vest collection agent to start going through that with me on the phone. This is the only time I have ever experienced that - the collection agents at my other predators obviously didn't have that access and didn't have a clue about other predators and that's the position I prefer :rotfl:!!:cool:!!

We have a debt with the Gnats Vest However, thank you for the warning. I will insist all communications are in writing from them :beer:

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

Hi all,

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas

Just having a bit of a low day today after going to the supermarket and analysing every pound I spend whilst watching people load their trolleys with food, drink and goodies for the New Year. The shops were heaving with people treating themselves to lovely new clothes, shoes, perfumes etc and I just felt a bit down trying to manage groceries, bus fares, petrol, dinner money on such a tight budget. We have done well with a strict budget for Christmas and I am proud of the bargains we managed to get for kids pressies. We now have both of their birthdays in January before my next pay packet so it is going to be a tough month!
I often feel so guilty that our kids lose out on a meal out at a restaurant, a nice pair of new sparkly shoes, some lovely new clothes or a great birthday party, just because my hubby and I got ourselves into such a mess wth our debts. Sometimes I wish for a second that we could just go out and buy some treats for us all on a credit card but I know deep down that I would regret this 100%. We haven't got the facility to do that anyway!!
I know that there would have been no way that we would have reduced our debts by over £7000 in 12 months had we not decided on a DMP - we probably would have added that onto our debt instead!!!

Sorry to have a bit of a whinge but I know you guys are in the same boat and will understand where I am coming from.

I do love our DMP and am so glad we made the decision to set it up. Here's to another year of reducing that debt even further

Happy New Year everyone!!

BDFSH x

Ellieseleven

...and many of them are probably funding all those new clothes, perfumes, shoes etc. on credit.

Take comfort from your fantastic achievement of £7000 in 12 months and just remember you will be debt-free in no time;)

Take care and Happy New Year:beer:

Ellie xx

[Deleted User]

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

Sorry to have a bit of a whinge but I know you guys are in the same boat and will understand where I am coming from.

I do love our DMP and am so glad we made the decision to set it up. Here's to another year of reducing that debt even further

Happy New Year everyone!!

BDFSH x

You're so right, BDFSH, we know exactly where you're coming from:T. I bet a lot of us have felt exactly the same. And you weren't whinging so please don't apologise. You were just letting off steam among like-minded people. It's often impossible to express our feelings and frustrations about our debts in real life;)


You've done so well to have paid off all that money in one year especially with young children who seem to eat money:eek:. Feel really proud of yourself for that:T


I had similar feelings as you describe when I saw TV footage of the sales on Black Friday and other manic days. People in shopping malls laden with carrier bags from posh shops containing goodness knows how much expensive stuff. One woman, not much out of her teens by the look of her, said she couldn't find much of interest and so only bought 3 designer handbags:eek:. I'm ashamed to say I felt so envious of their spending power and almost cried at my own ineptness in getting myself to this debt-ridden state.


But on reflection, we don't know what the state of these big spenders' finances are like. They may have mountainous debts themselves and be maxed out on their credit cards. They may be living for today, keeping up with the Joneses , but secretly dreading the CC bills coming in in January. At least all us DMPers knew when enough was enough and started to put things right:j


Now for a brand new year with the promise of being so much less in debt at the end of it:j. Have a wonderful 2016 everyone. Together we can do it:beer: