DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

gawebb99

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

Don't worry about the letters - the majority of them are self generated and if you miss payments then the creditors still have to send out late payment/arrears/default letters anyway. If you feel happy to, you could just ring the creditors and confirm they are aware of the DMP with SC and quote your reference number again to them.

The letters will calm down - we hardly get any now. If I do get one through and I'm unsure what to do I either post on here and these lovely folk advise on what to do, or now I am more in control of our debts I feel happy to call the creditor and confirm all is still well with the DMP.

In all the calls I have made I have only ever had one person be a bit difficult and that was a lady at Natwest. The next person I spoke to there about the same issue was lovely and resolved it straight away. At the end of the day they are just doing a job and who knows they may be in a load of debt or on a DMP themselves!!!!

Good luck with the DMP - it's the best decision we ever made!!

BDFSH x

thank you so much! how are you finding your dmp? x

January2015

gawebb99 wrote: »

So today we had confirmation from stepchange that our DMP is set up and will begin in March

We also received five letters from creditors today saying we had missed a payment blah blah blah . I assume within the next week they would've heard direct from stepchsnge but do I need to ring the creditors too and say we are starting a dmp?

I would phone and advise you are entering a DMP with Stepchange because that immediately initiates a 30 day non-contact period during which they hold all interest and charges as well. This gives you breathing space whilst SC set up the DMP and write to the creditors.

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

gawebb99 wrote: »

thank you so much! how are you finding your dmp? x

I love my DMP!! Don't get me wrong, it is tough - really tough - at times having no access to credit. This month is an example of that - I am literally budgeting to the penny until the end of the month. It has made us really aware of our finances, I'm a much more savvy shopper these days too!! I actually enjoy sitting down on payday and working out every bit of our budget and what we're left with for food, petrol etc each week.

The DMP has made us feel in control of our debts whereas pre DMP it was all spiralling desperately out of control. We are much happier, and logging onto our SC account and seeing the debt we have now paid off is so motivating.

You will have tough days, but when you do just post on here and everyone helps you out, whatever the difficulty. It's like a little DMP family - always supportive and never judgemental.

Keep us posted on how you get on

BDFSH x

gawebb99

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

I love my DMP!! Don't get me wrong, it is tough - really tough - at times having no access to credit. This month is an example of that - I am literally budgeting to the penny until the end of the month. It has made us really aware of our finances, I'm a much more savvy shopper these days too!! I actually enjoy sitting down on payday and working out every bit of our budget and what we're left with for food, petrol etc each week.

The DMP has made us feel in control of our debts whereas pre DMP it was all spiralling desperately out of control. We are much happier, and logging onto our SC account and seeing the debt we have now paid off is so motivating.

You will have tough days, but when you do just post on here and everyone helps you out, whatever the difficulty. It's like a little DMP family - always supportive and never judgemental.

Keep us posted on how you get on

BDFSH x

thank you. has your budget worked out ok?
im being very careful so far. saved £40 from our shopping budget this week so have stashed that away. will keep doing this with other parts of our budget too.
plan on walking to work to keep fuel down or will cycle!
have cut sky back to £18 per month from £55 also.

worried a bit about still being able to ;live; as such... ie short breaks and meals out but hopefully with careful budgetting we can have the odd treat.

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

gawebb99 wrote: »

thank you. has your budget worked out ok?
im being very careful so far. saved £40 from our shopping budget this week so have stashed that away. will keep doing this with other parts of our budget too.
plan on walking to work to keep fuel down or will cycle!
have cut sky back to £18 per month from £55 also.

worried a bit about still being able to ;live; as such... ie short breaks and meals out but hopefully with careful budgetting we can have the odd treat.

Sounds like you're doing great already!! :T

Most months are tight for us but I'm managing to get a little overtime in every month that gives us a bit of extra money to maybe treat ourselves to a takeaway or a little treat once a month.

I do the majority of my shopping at Aldi now, shopped online before but writing a list and sticking only to what i need has really helped. Did a weekly shop for a family of 4 for £35 so well chuffed!!

I work out what we have left after every bill has been deducted and divide into an amount for each week. We HAVE to stick to it as there is no overdraft and obviuosly no credit cards to fall back on. What we can't afford we don't have.

Buying everything out of your own money, knowing it's not on credit is a really good feeling
Unfortunately we have little emergency funds now so are working on building that back up again. Just hoping our car passes it's MOT in April - fingers are firmly crossed!!

There is always some kind of expense that crops up - you just learn to prioritise what you need and pay for things one at a time.

I always think if we hadn't decided on a DMP then we would have probably added £10,000 onto our debts rather than pay that amount off them which is what we have managed on our DMP.

I never, ever want credit again!!!

Wishing you all the best

BDFSH x

gawebb99

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

Sounds like you're doing great already!! :T

Most months are tight for us but I'm managing to get a little overtime in every month that gives us a bit of extra money to maybe treat ourselves to a takeaway or a little treat once a month.

I do the majority of my shopping at Aldi now, shopped online before but writing a list and sticking only to what i need has really helped. Did a weekly shop for a family of 4 for £35 so well chuffed!!

I work out what we have left after every bill has been deducted and divide into an amount for each week. We HAVE to stick to it as there is no overdraft and obviuosly no credit cards to fall back on. What we can't afford we don't have.

Buying everything out of your own money, knowing it's not on credit is a really good feeling
Unfortunately we have little emergency funds now so are working on building that back up again. Just hoping our car passes it's MOT in April - fingers are firmly crossed!!

There is always some kind of expense that crops up - you just learn to prioritise what you need and pay for things one at a time.

I always think if we hadn't decided on a DMP then we would have probably added £10,000 onto our debts rather than pay that amount off them which is what we have managed on our DMP.

I never, ever want credit again!!!

Wishing you all the best

BDFSH x

i dont know what we'd have done if we hadnt have decided to start a dmp. kept borrowing off one creditor to pay another, etc etc.

defo the best move for us

hope it goes well

thank you x

Little_Miss_Sunshine

That's me!

sourcrates wrote: »

I think people have two lightbulb
moments.

One when they realise they can't pay there debts,

The other when they wise up to the corrupt system !!

sourcrates

phoenixx wrote: »

Thanks sourcrates - they really are a law unto themselves. One of our current accounts is with Barclays Bank. Are they related?

Yes, Barclays Bank are also Barclaycard.!!!

phoenixx

sourcrates wrote: »

Yes, Barclays Bank are also Barclaycard.!!!

I probably should have asked the better question - do they have a legal right to take money from the current account to use against the Barclaycard debts? Only two of the five Barclaycard debts we have were originally BC. Others were Egg etc. This seems to affect the way they apply interest, though we have never had a straight answer from them as to why this is. Most of our debt is now BC which is why it is our priority to sort out.

rizla_king

phoenixx wrote: »

I probably should have asked the better question - do they have a legal right to take money from the current account to use against the Barclaycard debts?

yes they do