DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

make_the_change

blisteringblue wrote: »

Irrelevant, it's a self help website, you don't speak to them ever

Thanks.

Would you recommend self managing or using SC first?

DG1976

Hi, a little milestone for my wife and I! I just checked my payplan plus and once I pay off a stupidly small creditor this evening (£9) our DMP will be under £5000. Still a fair sum of money I know but a hell of a lot better that the £45,000 we started with! I reckon we have paid around £3000 in interest overall as some creditors were gits at the beginning but it was definatly the right thing to do. Still know lots of people who juggle card and loan payments every month just to get by , been there, done that and I won't do it again! Looking to be debt free (other than the mortgage) by August and it will actually be quite surreal not paying out vast sums of money to face less creditors anymore but I cannot wait ! I am going to book a late summer family holiday and pay it for it there and then as I think we deserve it!

To those just starting out it may seem a lifetime away but please persevere as you will get there eventually however far away it seems!

Next up for us is either rebuild credit and look to buy a bigger house for our growing family or sell up and emigrate to Oz for a completely new start! Big decisions ahead but ether way no more unmanageable debt!

gilmum

bsclp118 wrote: »

I think from what I've read on here it's out of your hands unless you stop paying gilmum. If you are paying a lot less than the minimum then I think some companies will default you - but I *think* that is up to each creditor and obviously depends on what income you have available.

I'm sure someone else will be able to advise if there are any other ways to do so.

After attempting to administer my own DMP I decided that I don't really have time to do it and I like the idea of a single payment so I have sent the paperwork back to stepchange. They seem really busy at the moment though as I submitted everything via email early last week and I still haven't heard back from them. Obviously not a major problem, I'm just a bit impatient and want to get thing set up.

However, I was wondering if anyone can give me advice. I have made minimum payments to 3 of my credit cards this month (Tesco, Lloyds and MBNA). The rest I have not payed and the money is going in an emergency fund as I will be paying through stepchange from the 1st of April.

The reason I paid those credit cards was that they are very low interest, or still have a significant 0 % interest rate left on them. My DMP repayments will also be very slightly above the minimum repayments (though significantly lower than the minimums on some of my other debts). So I thought it was worth paying what I could and keeping these accounts up to date so that they don't have grounds to revoke the special interest rate deals even whilst on the DMP? Is this a silly thing to do?

Also will the creditors consider my future ability to pay? I have told them I will be being made redundant in August/September (which I will as my contract is ending). It is likely I will be dropping from ~£35k to ~£25k income. This is obviously going to reduce the money I have towards the DMP. Does anyone know if they are they likely to consider this when deciding whether to freeze interest payments/default my account?

CAP told me that if things change like a change in salary that I should tell them and they would adjust the budget and payment to creditors accordingly. Whenever CAP change payments I get a flurry of letters about not paying what was agreed but then it settles down when they realise that is what they are getting.

Puzzcat

tequilabird wrote: »

Back in the UK temporarily and managed to check my Noddle report. All of my creditors have defaulted me now apart from Creation which shows as 'arrangement to pay' from March to July when I was making token payments and then 'DMP' from August until now BUT the account is marked as up-to-date. Is this ok? They are never going to default me!

Hi tequilabird,

I never thought they would default me either but 2 years in and I've just found out they have passed me to a dca so I'm hopeful of a default soon....

Puzz.x

Puzzcat

bsclp118 wrote: »

I think from what I've read on here it's out of your hands unless you stop paying gilmum. If you are paying a lot less than the minimum then I think some companies will default you - but I *think* that is up to each creditor and obviously depends on what income you have available.

I'm sure someone else will be able to advise if there are any other ways to do so.

After attempting to administer my own DMP I decided that I don't really have time to do it and I like the idea of a single payment so I have sent the paperwork back to stepchange. They seem really busy at the moment though as I submitted everything via email early last week and I still haven't heard back from them. Obviously not a major problem, I'm just a bit impatient and want to get thing set up.

However, I was wondering if anyone can give me advice. I have made minimum payments to 3 of my credit cards this month (Tesco, Lloyds and MBNA). The rest I have not payed and the money is going in an emergency fund as I will be paying through stepchange from the 1st of April.

The reason I paid those credit cards was that they are very low interest, or still have a significant 0 % interest rate left on them. My DMP repayments will also be very slightly above the minimum repayments (though significantly lower than the minimums on some of my other debts). So I thought it was worth paying what I could and keeping these accounts up to date so that they don't have grounds to revoke the special interest rate deals even whilst on the DMP? Is this a silly thing to do?

Also will the creditors consider my future ability to pay? I have told them I will be being made redundant in August/September (which I will as my contract is ending). It is likely I will be dropping from ~£35k to ~£25k income. This is obviously going to reduce the money I have towards the DMP. Does anyone know if they are they likely to consider this when deciding whether to freeze interest payments/default my account?

Hi,

Unfortunately as soon as you enter a dmp the previous interest/deals etc are no longer relevant. Hopefully you will be lucky and they will all freeze/reduce interest anyway and if they don't then come back on here for the template letter to fight them.

I don't think creditors actually read the letters we send so it is unlikely they will take into account future salary change, I think you just need to tackle this when it happens.

Puzz. x

Coinmachine

Coinmachine wrote: »

Bit of an update, long post but thought I would throw it out there for anyway going through similar:


having received a letter from Natwest in response to my complaint about them not defaulting me, and them stating that they will now default me plus £75 for not responding to my earlier correspondence, I then the very next day received a letter stating that as I am paying the minimum amount they dont need to register a default!

I am pretty sure the second letter is just computer generated but makes them look like they dont know what they are doing so I have responded back to the complaint to have a bit of a moan.

On a separate matter, I used to have a joint account with my wife which was overdrawn and is now in the DMP however I was careful beforehand to remove her name from the account in Jan 14 before entering into the DMP, or so I thought...Anyway checking on Noddle my wife was showing as a connection last checked March 14.

I spoke to Nationwide who firstly said that according to their records she had deceased! Then upon looking into this further they have now apologised and told me she should have been removed from the account on in Jan 14. Nationwide have now removed the name from their systems so it will not continue to report and will request that her name be removed as the second account holder as of Jan 14 which will remove the default only for her.

I have gone back to Nationwide suggesting that they might like to offer something for the inconveniance of all this as it suggests to me my wifes credit rating will have taken more of a hammer than it needed to, will see what happens.

It must be my lucky month, in addition to the £75 mentioned above, Nationwide have offerred £250 for the error above and have amended my credit record. Thats not bad £325 out of my creditors due to their sloppy admin.

Puzzcat

make_the_change wrote: »

Thanks.

Would you recommend self managing or using SC first?

I used SC for 2 years and would highly recommend them, but if you are happy to talk to creditors/write letters and stick to your budget then self managed will be fine.

I had no issues when setting up my dmp originally and liked being able to quote ' I am setting up a dmp with Sc and this is my ref number' if any rang me ! I have also learnt to budget which I wasn't very good at before...

Puzz. x

nextyeartina

I'm on a dmp with stepchange. Most of my debts have defaulted. If I was to get a f&f agreed on a couple of the smaller debts and a partially settled mark is left on my credit file, will this stay on my credit file for another 6 years?


Tina x

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

cheffy1 wrote: »

Thanks for the welcome BDFSH

Seeing your sig, I assume that a default is a good thing? Does a defaulted debt automatically have the interest frozen?

The one thing i did manage to do today was look on experian to check, and 6 of 7 of my debts are marked as default.

I also managed to fully update all balances, so although I've been on my DMP since June 2015, today's really day one, as it's today I've finally taken control over dealing with this debt. (As sezzie23 said, my 2nd LBM)

So here goes......

Total debt £27906

Current debt free date expected 01/03/2024:eek:

Hi Cheffy,

As Sourcrates said once an account is defaulted all interest and charges are usually stopped for the remainder of the DMP. Of our defaulted accounts only 2 have been passed to a DCA - the others are still with the collections depts of the original creditors.

BDFSH x

gawebb99

hi can anyone help? we have recently started a dmp with stepchange, first payment to come out this week. We've received letters from a couple of creditors with 'default notice' ? do we need to do anything?