DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

[Deleted User]

Spoonhead88 wrote: »

Hello fellow DMP people.

I'm just in the process of setting up a DMP through SC, I have three debts owed to two creditors Santander and Lloyds.

I owe about £4700 and with the budget i did with SC i can pay £145 which is great.

I was just curiouse to see how other people have found Santander and Lloyds when it comes to dmps? Do they freeze the interest?

:hello: Spoonhead and welcome to the thread, Anything you want to know please ask as someone (probably not me:o) will have come across the problem or situation before and will be able to give you some very valuable advice.

Two of my creditors are Santander and Lloyds and I have a credit card and small overdraft with both of them. Both of them froze interest immediately on the credit cards which had largish balances (£15,000 with the Lloyds one and about £7,000 on the Santander) and Santander has never bothered me since by mail or phone. Lloyds haven't been so easy to deal with as they seem to send all sorts of letters. I have ignored most of them as advised on here as SC are dealing with them and everything is going well payment-wise. On the couple of occasions I was tempted to phone them I was handed from one department to another but nothing seemed to change with the payments they were requesting and getting so I don't speak to them now;)

As for the overdrafts, again Santander have been more willing to play ball and froze interest immediately. They have never written to me about it since, it's just working fine. Lloyds, on the other hand, did not freeze interest and my debt was going down very slowly as a result. They have only frozen the interest since December despite my DMP having run since April 2013. StepChange just told me that banks etc don't have to freeze interest and some creditors just won't! She mentioned Lloyds as being one of the less-amenable ones.

Good Luck:beer:. Let us know how you get on.

KID77

Welcome Spoonhead,

Just a thought, as your monthly payment is quite high in relation to debt and I imagine close to minimum if not more so creditors may not freeze interest. I am no expert but just wanted to mention it incase it does happen.

KID

Sazzie23

Spoonhead88 wrote: »

Hello fellow DMP people.

I'm just in the process of setting up a DMP through SC, I have three debts owed to two creditors Santander and Lloyds.

I owe about £4700 and with the budget i did with SC i can pay £145 which is great.

I was just curiouse to see how other people have found Santander and Lloyds when it comes to dmps? Do they freeze the interest?

Hi Spoonhead,

I don't have any experience with either of these companies but I think your payment to debt ratio seems quite high, are you sure you're budget is manageable, I suspect your creditors might be more likely to reduce interest if you were paying them less?

January2015

First response from letters to predators advising we are moving to self-managed DMP.

Offer not accepted as it is less than was offered by SC and SC had assessed we could pay more Account on hold for 30 days to allow us to seek advice from a 'certified debt management company'.

NEDCAB figures calculate differently to SC, and NEDCAB have more reasonable allowances for living costs.

We asked for details to set up a standing order. They haven't provided those details, so we cannot pay. I will write back and advise NEDCAB is recognised source of debt advice and management and uses recognised calculations for allocation of available funds to predators.

The fun begins

[Deleted User]

That's a shame, January, but knowing you it's just the first small hurdle and you'll get it sorted before too long;)

I'm sure a lot of us who are still wary about starting down the self-managed route ourselves will be following your progress with great interest:T

Good Luck:beer:

Brogden

January2015 wrote: »

First response from letters to predators advising we are moving to self-managed DMP.

Offer not accepted as it is less than was offered by SC and SC had assessed we could pay more Account on hold for 30 days to allow us to seek advice from a 'certified debt management company'.

NEDCAB figures calculate differently to SC, and NEDCAB have more reasonable allowances for living costs.

We asked for details to set up a standing order. They haven't provided those details, so we cannot pay. I will write back and advise NEDCAB is recognised source of debt advice and management and uses recognised calculations for allocation of available funds to predators.

The fun begins

Hi Jan,

I haven't used NEDCAB or any other thingy that sets allowances. I just print off my own Excel spreadsheet and the figures are completely my own in my own format.

This predator needs to be told that things can 'change' and just because you were paying an affordable amount through SC does not mean that you could guarantee to pay that amount each month for the life of the debt.

I am sorry you are having this aggravation. Remember the ability you have to include significant 'new,' or 'increased' items of expenditure. The point about the 'certified debt management company' is just words in the air.....total nonsense and you are under no such obligation.

Better luck going forward and I dobt you will have a similar experience elsewhere !!

Brogden.

January2015

Brogden wrote: »

Hi Jan,

I haven't used NEDCAB or any other thingy that sets allowances. I just print off my own Excel spreadsheet and the figures are completely my own in my own format.

This predator needs to be told that things can 'change' and just because you were paying an affordable amount through SC does not mean that you could guarantee to pay that amount each month for the life of the debt.

I am sorry you are having this aggravation. Remember the ability you have to include significant 'new,' or 'increased' items of expenditure. The point about the 'certified debt management company' is just words in the air.....total nonsense and you are under no such obligation.

Better luck going forward and I dobt you will have a similar experience elsewhere !!

Brogden.

Thanks Broggers

I have promptly written back and said I've sent I&E, it's realistic, take the offer, or I will save it for you until you want it. I pointed out what had changed in the last 11 months. They can read and digest or not. Their choice.

I'm not worried:beer:

Boldhoof

Hello everyone,

Hope things are going okay.
We might be in a situation where we can make a Full and Final Settlement to the 2 biggest debts we have, this is on offer from family if we can get a reasonable offer accepted. The 2 we are looking at one is wtih PRA Group the other still with Llyods credit Card. Given they are both around £11,000 each how much should we offer, and is their a template letter? Has anyone had any success in getting a Full and Final Settlement from either or both of these?

Any help and advice gratefully received.

Thanks

sourcrates

Boldhoof wrote: »

Hello everyone,

Hope things are going okay.
We might be in a situation where we can make a Full and Final Settlement to the 2 biggest debts we have, this is on offer from family if we can get a reasonable offer accepted. The 2 we are looking at one is wtih PRA Group the other still with Llyods credit Card. Given they are both around £11,000 each how much should we offer, and is their a template letter? Has anyone had any success in getting a Full and Final Settlement from either or both of these?

Any help and advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Hi,

First thing, CCA the accounts you wish to settle, a better deal can be obtained if paperwork is iffy.
As for what to offer, depends on outcome of CCA request really, if they are able to comply, then start around 40%, you can always negotiate upwards.

Template letter here :

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Full-and-final-settlement-offers-%28sole-name%29.aspx

sullino

Hi, I have now read through the Full & Final thread and created another as well as doing some research too over the past few days. This forum is so helpful. So just a thanks to everyone for sharing their stories and to everyone that helps

I've learned that a F&F is more likely when
- unsecured debt
- no assests
- original lender sells debt to debt collection agency (they buy the debt at a fraction of the price)
- the longer you are on a DMP
- reduce to token payments per month (£1-£5)

Important points
- Always negotiate in writing
- third party to pay settlement
- never tell them how much you have available
- start off at 10-15% with a DCA and work your way up
- original lenders tend to not accept that much of a discount
- ask for a CCA and account statement prior to making offer
- there isn't much difference in a settled or satisfied default
- defaults drop off your credit report after 6 years regardless
- nationaldebtline has a full section on F&F

I will now sort out my default first before sending out CCA's and then F&F offers. Thanks to everyone that helped and hope this post can help others