DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

sourcrates

Miner68 wrote: »

I am brand new to this forum and hope I am following the correct protocol, I am really hoping someone can give me some advice about car insurance renewal! I have been on a token payment plan for 6 months now. My vehicle insurance is due for renew on 29th April, I was really shocked to receive the renewal offer today which has increase from £480 to £745, according to the broker this is due to a poor credit rating, I have been with this company for 3 years and I always pay in full at the renewal date and I have £500 put to one side to cover this years policy, though now this is not enough! The broker has looked elsewhere but says this is the cheapest he can get. Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any advice?

Do a search yourself, never listen to the chestnuts a broker tells you.
The broker will have his cut included in that premium, look on this site under "cheaper car insurance".

Link here :

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/?tab=sect19

Pc2003

Jon81 wrote: »

could people let me know what the process of changing your address entails while on a DMP with stepchange.


If I told stepchange of the address change, would they let the creditors know, or do I need to inform them myself?

Hmm I would let them know too just in case. Quick letter with same wording to all should do it .


Okay ish few days here. Have allowed in my budget for 20 quid a week spends (2 pre school kids). Took my 20 quid out on wed this week and don't have a penny left...
8.40 on a prescription
5 at soft play centre for kids
5 in local shop (can't even remember what on-big downfall here)
And the remaining change? Got a coffee the other day.
So I have nothing else till wed when I can take my next 20 quid. Need to get better at this!!

Sazzie23

Pc2003 wrote: »

Hmm I would let them know too just in case. Quick letter with same wording to all should do it .


Okay ish few days here. Have allowed in my budget for 20 quid a week spends (2 pre school kids). Took my 20 quid out on wed this week and don't have a penny left...
8.40 on a prescription
5 at soft play centre for kids
5 in local shop (can't even remember what on-big downfall here)
And the remaining change? Got a coffee the other day.
So I have nothing else till wed when I can take my next 20 quid. Need to get better at this!!

Hi PC2003,

It's difficult isn't it, perhaps you have to change a few things. Do you have a budget for prescriptions, I'm on an annual pre-pay (anyone can have this, not just for those on benefits) and therefore this is paid in my budget. It.s £12 month so if you have 2 items a month it's paid for itself. Probably not worth it if you only have the odd item but you do need to include something for this in your budget or you'll end up with cash disappearing again.

Have you considered taking a small flask out with you when you go out, it keeps me out of the coffee shop so it's a good investment. I use one by 'lifestyle' it takes one mug full of coffee and you drink direct from the flask, keeps it warm for 6 hours. Agreed it makes me look like a bit of a saddo at times but it makes it more likely I'll stick to the budget.

If soft-play or other child based entertainment/take away visits are part of your routine be it weekly or monthly, and you don't want to give them up, then you probably need to build it it into your budget too, there's not point having a budget you're not sticking to. It'll just set you up to have problems.

Saz

Sazzie23

Miner68 wrote: »

I am brand new to this forum and hope I am following the correct protocol, I am really hoping someone can give me some advice about car insurance renewal! I have been on a token payment plan for 6 months now. My vehicle insurance is due for renew on 29th April, I was really shocked to receive the renewal offer today which has increase from £480 to £745, according to the broker this is due to a poor credit rating, I have been with this company for 3 years and I always pay in full at the renewal date and I have £500 put to one side to cover this years policy, though now this is not enough! The broker has looked elsewhere but says this is the cheapest he can get. Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any advice?

My credit rating is rubbish - 522 on Noddle, but I believe they only credit check you prior to purchase so it shouldn't affect the actual quote. And most insurers seem ok to offer to offer monthly payments. As others suggest do some searching yourself MSE has the ideas of how to search if you look on the main pages or Google MSE insurance and it should come up. I disagree that all brokers are rubbish, my house insurance is done through a broker and it's a competitive quite despite being a difficult to insure prems as previous subsidence claim. I accept that they need to take a cut, but doesn't mean they're complete charlatans.

Saz

Brogden

Sazzie23 wrote: »

My credit rating is rubbish - 522 on Noddle, but I believe they only credit check you prior to purchase so it shouldn't affect the actual quote. And most insurers seem ok to offer to offer monthly payments. As others suggest do some searching yourself MSE has the ideas of how to search if you look on the main pages or Google MSE insurance and it should come up. I disagree that all brokers are rubbish, my house insurance is done through a broker and it's a competitive quite despite being a difficult to insure prems as previous subsidence claim. I accept that they need to take a cut, but doesn't mean they're complete charlatans.

Saz

I agree......good brokers are good and worth the commission built into the premium. We won't find many charlatans.

I wouldn't be too happy with the reply 'it's because of a poor credit history' though. That is not precise enough although they may be limited as to what exactly they can say to you. .

With the household I pay a bit more than the quote due to a satisfied CCJ which I declared at outset when asked. Defaults and late payments would not have affected the premium on their own. It was the CCJ which did it .

My car insurance is with T*sco and the question over the phone was 'do you have any outstanding CCJ's?' I told them I had a satisfied one, nearly four years old and I went ahead with the quoted price :T.

We really make too much of all of this. I think insurance and utilities are generally available to most of us paying monthly without being fleeced.

If the broker is saying 'poor credit history' it does sound like a cop out. Definitely look elsewhere and look at direct offers too

Time_to_face_the_music

Miner68 wrote: »

I am brand new to this forum and hope I am following the correct protocol, I am really hoping someone can give me some advice about car insurance renewal! I have been on a token payment plan for 6 months now. My vehicle insurance is due for renew on 29th April, I was really shocked to receive the renewal offer today which has increase from £480 to £745, according to the broker this is due to a poor credit rating, I have been with this company for 3 years and I always pay in full at the renewal date and I have £500 put to one side to cover this years policy, though now this is not enough! The broker has looked elsewhere but says this is the cheapest he can get. Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any advice?

Hi Miner68 :hello:

I was really worried in the first year of our DMP that we wouldn't be able to get car insurance, house insurance, change mobile phone and energy deals etc.

None of these caused problems and we actually got great deals by using the price comparison websites instead of just renewing as we had previously. We actually managed to pay in full for the first time when we realised what the interest rates for paying monthly were too. Currently between 23.5% and 39.9% according to :money:

Another vote here for the Meerkats and their comparison site and this year we got free cinema tickets every week too

Please let us know how you get on.

TTFTM x

zenshi

Now I know this has been asked before but I can't find it.

Letter back from CC saying they can't give me info as I never signed the letter. I'm guessing I have no choice but to sign or I can't get the info I need to move forward

Can someone just confirm please

Pc2003

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hi PC2003,

It's difficult isn't it, perhaps you have to change a few things. Do you have a budget for prescriptions, I'm on an annual pre-pay (anyone can have this, not just for those on benefits) and therefore this is paid in my budget. It.s £12 month so if you have 2 items a month it's paid for itself. Probably not worth it if you only have the odd item but you do need to include something for this in your budget or you'll end up with cash disappearing again.

Have you considered taking a small flask out with you when you go out, it keeps me out of the coffee shop so it's a good investment. I use one by 'lifestyle' it takes one mug full of coffee and you drink direct from the flask, keeps it warm for 6 hours. Agreed it makes me look like a bit of a saddo at times but it makes it more likely I'll stick to the budget.

If soft-play or other child based entertainment/take away visits are part of your routine be it weekly or monthly, and you don't want to give them up, then you probably need to build it it into your budget too, there's not point having a budget you're not sticking to. It'll just set you up to have problems.

Saz

See those are great ideas. I should have taken my own drink. Why didn't I think of that! I have no issue with that. I already look like a saddo and the coffee there is gross!
It's one prescription a month so should have budgeted that agreed and hoping with the weather getting better things like soft play can be limited. In fact it was pretty much empty anyway.
I feel a bit more positive now!! Thanks x

blisteringblue

A little sig update as my DMP payments went this week.

Hehe, complained again to Idem Servicing about texting me that I must contact them. They did it 3 days running even though I got a letter last month apologising and agreeing to payments for 12 months.

Another apology and a cheque for £25 for my hassles Thanks very much, lets hope they text me again next month

Triangle

Pc2003 wrote: »

If you are just switching rates with the same lender you should be fine. Most don't carry out any searches if you are moving from svr to a new rate.
We have just done ours and got 1.64% no questions asked.
If you are looking to remortgage to another lender then you will struggle as credit checks will be carried out etc.
There is talk of lenders having to carry out new credit checks when existing customers are switching and there are some stories of folk not being able to do but for now most lenders will carry out a rate switch. You don't want to be on svr if you don't need to be as prob over paying.

I do work in this industry which makes my predicament worse as i should know better!!!

Massive thanks for this post :T
I have successfully got a new deal with our current provider, easy as pie. Didn't get your type of rate sadly and interestingly was only offered a couple of deals - sub prime. But I'm now paying £50 less a month, fixed for 5 years for security (and also gives yet another incentive to finish the DMP early!) and shaved two years off