DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

Puzzcat

ploppy57 wrote: »

Advice needed....We are 1 year into our DMP with SC and due to losing my job and having to get something else sorted, I asked SC if we could drop to token payments for 3 months until we were sorted again. They said yes, we could go to £5 token payments (wouldn't do £1) and they advised that I write and tell all the preditors....which I did.

With Lloyds we have 2 credit cards and 2 bank accounts that had big OD's and a loan (loan already defaulted) They wrote to us re the bank accs and said token payments were fine and they would be sending the acc's to recoveries dept with a view to default...all fine so far. Then today OH's CC'd statement has arrived showing the £5 payment but they have suddenly started putting on interest again at 24%!!!...:mad:this had all been stopped when we first started the DMP!
I am sure I remember reading somewhere before that if you have more than one account with the same company, they have to treat them all the same? How they think that is helpful to add all that interest is beyond me! I tell them I have no job for a couple of months and they add £65 interest!!!! Ludicrous!

Any advice as to the best course of action

Hi Ploppy,

I had 3 accounts with 1 creditor but they weren't charging interest, 2 had been defaulted and the third was still on AP so I wrote and complained using the ICO guidelines and they did backdate the default on the debt and sent me £50 compensation.. Well worth a letter to your creditors even though slightly different circumstances.

Don'f forget to include the word complaint in your letters and that you will take it to the FOS if not satisfied. You can do that bit online after 6 weeks, obviously no guarantees but anythings worth a shot..!

Puzz.x

sourcrates

muppetscotland wrote: »

Need to add these chaps to my new DMP but a bit scared as they seem particularly harsh when I was 1 day late with a payment they HOUNDED me. Anyone had experience of them in a DMP?

With thanks

Simply block there number on your phone, then they can't hound you anymore.

NewYorkJetsFan1

Hi, I know I don't post very often but I have to have a little rant somewhere.....


I contacted SC a couple of days ago, my car had failed its MOT and had cost £350 to get it back on the road and my washing machine decided it was no more.


The lady at SC made me feel like a criminal because I wanted to pay just less than half of my regular payment for 2 months to enable me to sort out both of these problems. I have been with them 18 months and paid 38% of my debt back. I am thinking it might be time to go self managed and if anything like this crops up again I can definitely handle it myself. She made me feel quite worthless and kept calling me by first name "Now NYJF1" this isn't normal procedure and we do have the right to close your plan down if something like this happens again, "You do understand that don't you NYJF1?"


Sorry rant over. I couldn't do this without the help and advice given on here - I didn't even know I could drop my payments, it felt like they were written in stone....


Thank you.

System

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi Ploppy,

I had 3 accounts with 1 creditor but they weren't charging interest, 2 had been defaulted and the third was still on AP so I wrote and complained using the ICO guidelines and they did backdate the default on the debt and sent me £50 compensation.. Well worth a letter to your creditors even though slightly different circumstances.

Don'f forget to include the word complaint in your letters and that you will take it to the FOS if not satisfied. You can do that bit online after 6 weeks, obviously no guarantees but anythings worth a shot..!

Puzz.x

The stupid thing is that they did agree to stop interest and we haven't paid any at all since we started DMP and then as soon as I write to them and say we need to pay token payments for 3 months until I get sorted with new job, they decide to start adding interest again....and they didn't tell us they were going to do it either! It defies logic....I have told them we have less money at the moment and they add the interest! I will writed to them though definitely.

Scottishmummy

NewYorkJetsFan1 wrote: »

Hi, I know I don't post very often but I have to have a little rant somewhere.....


I contacted SC a couple of days ago, my car had failed its MOT and had cost £350 to get it back on the road and my washing machine decided it was no more.


The lady at SC made me feel like a criminal because I wanted to pay just less than half of my regular payment for 2 months to enable me to sort out both of these problems. I have been with them 18 months and paid 38% of my debt back. I am thinking it might be time to go self managed and if anything like this crops up again I can definitely handle it myself. She made me feel quite worthless and kept calling me by first name "Now NYJF1" this isn't normal procedure and we do have the right to close your plan down if something like this happens again, "You do understand that don't you NYJF1?"


Sorry rant over. I couldn't do this without the help and advice given on here - I didn't even know I could drop my payments, it felt like they were written in stone....


Thank you.

It could be because you are meant to save for that sort of thing in your budget. So they expect you to already have that money.
It very much depends on who you speak to. I have had some extremely nice and sympathetic call handlers and I have had one woman that I got a few times who seemed to find fault with everything. Now I can do it all online it's much easier. Having said that they have been informed we are going self managed so it will be interesting to see how simple it all is.

JCV

Hi

I wondered if someone could assist, I've been in a DMP for a year now, for me it works well, I have a contingency fund for the first time in my life and thanks to not paying off a stupid amount of debt each month, I've just managed to increase my payments on it from £275 to £425. I remain in £25k of debt.

So here's the thing, review with my DMP adviser and they're very strongly advocating an IVA, firstly it's one of the regulated charities so it's not a private or dodgy arrangement, but I feel they're being aggressively encouraging for me to do the IVA. I understand the risk associated with a DMP but my creditors have to date all agreed to freeze interest and accept my payments. One (virgin) however has handed it over to Moorcroft so again I appreciate there's a risk of being taken to court. I'm just very anxious about entering into a much more formal legal agreement, I'm concerned about employment (my contract has a reference along the lines of entering into an IVA means losing employment, these aren't the exact words but my reading of the legal definition of what's written is this). Clearly I cannot risk unemployment.

I've asked for time to think about it and that's been agreed but I still don't feel they're listening to me when I say 'let me understand the risks AND half the risks I've found out via other websites', I was not told about them all). Without knowing all my details I appreciate advice can only go so far but can anyone offer any thoughts, advice or experience with an IVA and why a DMP is so bad that my advisors are almost wetting themselves with anxiety - or should I say they've made me as anxious as I was when I was in debt and had no actual plan of getting out of it. Thank you in advance

sourcrates

JCV wrote: »

Hi

I wondered if someone could assist, I've been in a DMP for a year now, for me it works well, I have a contingency fund for the first time in my life and thanks to not paying off a stupid amount of debt each month, I've just managed to increase my payments on it from £275 to £425. I remain in £25k of debt.

So here's the thing, review with my DMP adviser and they're very strongly advocating an IVA, firstly it's one of the regulated charities so it's not a private or dodgy arrangement, but I feel they're being aggressively encouraging for me to do the IVA. I understand the risk associated with a DMP but my creditors have to date all agreed to freeze interest and accept my payments. One (virgin) however has handed it over to Moorcroft so again I appreciate there's a risk of being taken to court. I'm just very anxious about entering into a much more formal legal agreement, I'm concerned about employment (my contract has a reference along the lines of entering into an IVA means losing employment, these aren't the exact words but my reading of the legal definition of what's written is this). Clearly I cannot risk unemployment.

I've asked for time to think about it and that's been agreed but I still don't feel they're listening to me when I say 'let me understand the risks AND half the risks I've found out via other websites', I was not told about them all). Without knowing all my details I appreciate advice can only go so far but can anyone offer any thoughts, advice or experience with an IVA and why a DMP is so bad that my advisors are almost wetting themselves with anxiety - or should I say they've made me as anxious as I was when I was in debt and had no actual plan of getting out of it. Thank you in advance

Let me guess 🤔 Payplan by any chance ?

I can see no benefit to an IVA for you, as things stand, you will pay off your debts in full in just over 5 years, if you entered an IVA now, you could pay for up to 6 years, you would have legal protection from your creditors, but do you need that ?

Also the fees associated with IVA's are Hugh, the only winner here would be your IP.

I'd stick to the DMP if I were you.

January2015

ploppy57 wrote: »

Advice needed....We are 1 year into our DMP with SC and due to losing my job and having to get something else sorted, I asked SC if we could drop to token payments for 3 months until we were sorted again. They said yes, we could go to £5 token payments (wouldn't do £1) and they advised that I write and tell all the preditors....which I did.

With Lloyds we have 2 credit cards and 2 bank accounts that had big OD's and a loan (loan already defaulted) They wrote to us re the bank accs and said token payments were fine and they would be sending the acc's to recoveries dept with a view to default...all fine so far. Then today OH's CC'd statement has arrived showing the £5 payment but they have suddenly started putting on interest again at 24%!!!...:mad:this had all been stopped when we first started the DMP!
I am sure I remember reading somewhere before that if you have more than one account with the same company, they have to treat them all the same? How they think that is helpful to add all that interest is beyond me! I tell them I have no job for a couple of months and they add £65 interest!!!! Ludicrous!

Any advice as to the best course of action

Hi Ploppy

Definitely challenge the interest....the bit about more than one account with the same company and them treating accounts the same is from The Lending Code - quote it in your letter.

Section 227 states:

• Where possible, subscribers should have consistent policies for customers holding more than one product type in terms of charges and interest concessions.

2spicy

sourcrates wrote: »

Let me guess 🤔 Payplan by any chance ?

I can see no benefit to an IVA for you, as things stand, you will pay off your debts in full in just over 5 years, if you entered an IVA now, you could pay for up to 6 years, you would have legal protection from your creditors, but do you need that ?

Also the fees associated with IVA's are Hugh, the only winner here would be your IP.

I'd stick to the DMP if I were you.

We were with Payplan and they tried the IVA route with us. even at the last and final review they still said as part of their patter "to check to see if a DMP is still the right option for you, as an IVA may be more suitable" ..
at that point I laughed .. with 8 months left on the plan at that time I somehow doubt the remaining £4k debt would warrant an IVA when we'd been on a DMP and had paid off over £70k !

that said, we still found PayPlan far easier than CCC (StepChange) to deal with

sourcrates

2spicy wrote: »

We were with Payplan and they tried the IVA route with us. even at the last and final review they still said as part of their patter "to check to see if a DMP is still the right option for you, as an IVA may be more suitable" ..
at that point I laughed .. with 8 months left on the plan at that time I somehow doubt the remaining £4k debt would warrant an IVA when we'd been on a DMP and had paid off over £70k !

that said, we still found PayPlan far easier than CCC (StepChange) to deal with

Don't get me wrong, if you have a lot of debt, 30-60k plus, then an IVA may work well for you, did for me.
But with smaller debts, the fees associated with the plans are crippling, that's why these companies try to push them, for the IP, they are very profitable.