DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

blisteringblue

phoenixx wrote: »

I have reached the conclusion that max number of jobs at any one time is 3 - one full time and 2 part time/temporary. At the height of my efforts I was running 5 or 6.

Debt update: Barclaycard are still dragging their feet over interest. How I have come to loathe them! M&S come second - they reduce for a few months after we contact them and then revert to interest again! Is grinding...Hope you are all enjoying the better weather and knocking off those debts. Xxx

Wow Phoenixx that is amazing you are even functioning !!

Get yourself self managed, then token pay anybody still charging you interest. I had 3 of my 8 still charging interest (2 being Barclaycard of course) so enough was enough. Left Stepchange and went it alone using the CAB templates and it's been brilliant. All 3 have now defaulted us and all my debts are now interest free. Took about 4 months of token payments.

Had a couple of phone calls. Barclaycard actually said while officially they cannot tell me I'm doing the right thing, it is the only way they will default quickly. The other tinpot debt kept asking me to fill in a new statement to prove I can only afford £1 a month before they would accept it. I refused and just said I'm doing it till you default me. They have now defaulted me

Flumpybutton

Hi Sazzie thanks for reply. It has been a bit of a shock getting a date after waiting so long and am now hoping for a positive outcome so I can get my life back to normal and increase hours back at work.

My reason for going self managed is that I have been with SC for nearly 3 years and whilst they have been fantastic , especially in the early days I now want to take some control over my debts and have been on the NEDCAB website and am using their template letters.

I think I will write to them before op and then deal with paperwork whilst recovering as I will be resting a lot something which I am not very good at so will keep me sat down if nothing else!!!

2spicy

Wow, I work away for 6 months with minimal Internet access, and return to find another new thread.!

Just catching up with the progress of everything, were into our last 12 months now, and below £10k debt remaining.

Weve been naughty recently and have ordered new sofa's, new beds, new carpets and a new conservatory, all on 0% interest free for 24 months, or low rate finance for 5 years, but as the end is most certainly in sight, interest rates are still forecast to be 0.5% for the next 12 months, were crossing our fingers for a smooth 10 months.

Sazzie23

2spicy wrote: »

Wow, I work away for 6 months with minimal Internet access, and return to find another new thread.!

Just catching up with the progress of everything, were into our last 12 months now, and below £10k debt remaining.

Weve been naughty recently and have ordered new sofa's, new beds, new carpets and a new conservatory, all on 0% interest free for 24 months, or low rate finance for 5 years, but as the end is most certainly in sight, interest rates are still forecast to be 0.5% for the next 12 months, were crossing our fingers for a smooth 10 months.

Hi Spicy, last 12 months, how I wish I could say that - jealous but inspired to keep going, my DMP should work out abou the same length as yours eventually.

Interesting to note you were able to get the finance, I'm worrying about changing broadband suppliers in case I fail the credit check:eek:

For anyone on here worried their creditors won't accept their SC plan, I had another example of a creditor thinking my budget was too harsh. I have a small outstanding amount for a secured loan where I missed a payment earlier this year due to my life going t***s up.

They have been great about it and clearly aren't bothered about getting the money back, but they are concerned I'm paying extra interest so they contact me every couple of months and we talk about it.
As it happens, since OH is no longer keeping the heating at 25degrees, and I have repaid the outstanding on the gas bill, i have a few quid spare in the budget so I offered to start paying them at £30 per month which will clear the outstanding amount in about 7 months. They were reluctant to do this as it only gives me about £9 a month spare, but as I told them I've been managing on my latest SC budget for a few months they ok'd it and said I can review it anytime. They made me laugh a bit when they told me I could end up with a default (actually they told me they won't as the amount is less than one full payment), I told them I really wasn't worried about getting a default, as long as they didn't plan to repossess the house (they don't).:D

I'm aware as its a secured loan SC would let me prioritise it but I don't really want to mess with the budget for a while so I'm not putting the new gas bill into the SC budget until this is paid off, and then I'll consider what to do. At the same time my income is going up a little due to me managing evening and weekends. my plan is to review in about Jan and maybe increase my payments, but I'm likely to go self managed so BC don't apply interest as they still haven't actually issued default or handed me to DCA. :mad:

Anyway better get up now for work, Phoenix, glad you're realising its too much and unsustainable. Admirable the work you put into getting debt free, but don't do yourself damage getting there. Remember the adage a DMP is a marathon not a sprint:)

phoenixx

blisteringblue wrote: »

Wow Phoenixx that is amazing you are even functioning !!

Get yourself self managed, then token pay anybody still charging you interest. I had 3 of my 8 still charging interest (2 being Barclaycard of course) so enough was enough. Left Stepchange and went it alone using the CAB templates and it's been brilliant. All 3 have now defaulted us and all my debts are now interest free. Took about 4 months of token payments.

Had a couple of phone calls. Barclaycard actually said while officially they cannot tell me I'm doing the right thing, it is the only way they will default quickly. The other tinpot debt kept asking me to fill in a new statement to prove I can only afford £1 a month before they would accept it. I refused and just said I'm doing it till you default me. They have now defaulted me

Thanks blisteringblue - looks like it's the way to go. Well done for holding firm and getting defaulted. BC policy sucks. We once got a £50 compensation sum for the amount of time we'd had to spend on the phone to them but still wouldn't freeze interest. Were BC and the tinpot debt the only ones who gave you any hassle when you went self managed?
Phoe x

fermi

blisteringblue wrote: »

Wow Phoenixx that is amazing you are even functioning !!

Get yourself self managed, then token pay anybody still charging you interest. I had 3 of my 8 still charging interest (2 being Barclaycard of course) so enough was enough. Left Stepchange and went it alone using the CAB templates and it's been brilliant. All 3 have now defaulted us and all my debts are now interest free. Took about 4 months of token payments.

Had a couple of phone calls. Barclaycard actually said while officially they cannot tell me I'm doing the right thing, it is the only way they will default quickly. The other tinpot debt kept asking me to fill in a new statement to prove I can only afford £1 a month before they would accept it. I refused and just said I'm doing it till you default me. They have now defaulted me

Well Done. Stupid people have to do that but, needs must.

blisteringblue

phoenixx wrote: »

Thanks blisteringblue - looks like it's the way to go. Well done for holding firm and getting defaulted. BC policy sucks. We once got a £50 compensation sum for the amount of time we'd had to spend on the phone to them but still wouldn't freeze interest. Were BC and the tinpot debt the only ones who gave you any hassle when you went self managed?
Phoe x

Yes, what I actually did was wait until I did my 1st review with Stepchange, the new letters had gone out with my breakdown and I then wrote to say I was running my own DMP and they payments would remain the same. I then wrote to Barclaycard and the tinpot and said while you should be getting this, I'm only paying you £1 until you stop charging me interest or default me, whichever is easiest.

Not a single phone call from the non-interest charging ones, they just carried on but me paying them direct.

Barclaycard phoned me almost right away, and said they cannot put me a an official plan, but will accept my payment and cancel interest but it will go to default, which it has just done.

Tin Pot rang me a few times and I ignored just to be awkward. Eventually answered and had the conversation where they wanted a new breakdown to prove I could only afford £1. I refused saying I can afford more, but I'm not paying you more until you stop the interest. They never rang back and have had a default notice in the past week, and they are selling it on.

All took 4 token payments, and pretty much zero hassle.

As much as Stepchange are doing a great job, sometimes paying less to awkward creditors should be a good bargaining tool to remove interest. They are just too regimented for me.

2spicy

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hi Spicy, last 12 months, how I wish I could say that - jealous but inspired to keep going, my DMP should work out abou the same length as yours eventually.

Interesting to note you were able to get the finance, I'm worrying about changing broadband suppliers in case I fail the credit check:eek:

We were suprised too, but, we checked our credit file and to our suprise our credit score was bordering on Excellent!
Ok, weve been taking out the prepay credit cards over the last 5 years and opting for the "creditbuilder loans" every 12 months.

Weve added comments to our credit file to explain the missed payments and the fact the DMP is in force. This seems to have gone in our favour.

As for finance, weve always changed our mobiles every 24 months, keeping the repayments the same but upgrading the hand sets.

Everything weve "bought" recently has been secured on the goods, so no actual cash loans, so in essence, if we dont keep up the repayments, they take the goods back. ... but thats not going to happen. Lessons learnt, older, wiser and more savvy these days

Sazzie23

2spicy wrote: »

We were suprised too, but, we checked our credit file and to our suprise our credit score was bordering on Excellent!
Ok, weve been taking out the prepay credit cards over the last 5 years and opting for the "creditbuilder loans" every 12 months.

Weve added comments to our credit file to explain the missed payments and the fact the DMP is in force. This seems to have gone in our favour.

As for finance, weve always changed our mobiles every 24 months, keeping the repayments the same but upgrading the hand sets.

Everything weve "bought" recently has been secured on the goods, so no actual cash loans, so in essence, if we dont keep up the repayments, they take the goods back. ... but thats not going to happen. Lessons learnt, older, wiser and more savvy these days

Thanks that's really useful.,whilst I'm hoping I won't need any finance in the future, in reality I have a number of areas that will need major spends at some point, and just knowing it might be possible helps me get through a bit (credit rating still 1/5 and got refused for a credit builder card, probably a good thing though)..

Sazzie23

fermi wrote: »

Well Done. Stupid people have to do that but, needs must.

I think sometimes DMPers feel guilty about forcing the companies to go 0%. But what about all their 'good' customers who are on 0% they don't feel guilty about us paying interest for them.