DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

Sazzie23

Morning everyone,

Struck me this morning that maybe we should have a link to a faq page for newbie DMPers, but I don't know where we'd out such a page, does anyone have suggestions?

Just so we could refers them to the link, I know most will be answered in the threads but not everyone has time, or it's not easy on a mobile connection etc.

What do you think?

Triangle

Hanliam wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Hoping you can help. We've got ourselves stupidly in debt and it looks like the only option now is a DMP, as our income has dropped- so I have been talking to Step Change and we are on the cusp of getting it all going....We've not yet defaulted on anything, but in reality have been getting ourselves worse in debt to make the payments which obviously can't continue.

The debts are all in my name - which means I presume that only my credit rating will be affected - We never want any more credit, but we do currently have a mortgage, and will need to remortgage in the future so I am worried about the long term effect on credit rating. Can anyone who has been through this give me any reassurance as to the ultimate consequences? If I have a mark on my file, but my husband doesn't

I am also a bit panicked by the wording in the DMP doc from Stepchange which says that creditors may not stop charges - does this happen very often? We have a loan, and 2 CC, both on 0% at the moment, one with MBNA, one with Virgin....how likely is it that they will start charging rather than stop?

Feeling pretty low and stressed about it all - but also just so want to get this sorted. Thanks for your help.

Hi

My husband and I have been in our DMP for almost a year and recently remortgaged with our current provider. It was very easy and although we had limited choice (the deals listed called 'sub prime') we still managed to save £50/month and shave two years off the mortgage term We decided to fix for 5 years.
Tx

Triangle

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Morning everyone,

Struck me this morning that maybe we should have a link to a faq page for newbie DMPers, but I don't know where we'd out such a page, does anyone have suggestions?

Just so we could refers them to the link, I know most will be answered in the threads but not everyone has time, or it's not easy on a mobile connection etc.

What do you think?

Sounds like a plan :j

KID77

Morning Sazzie,

I do think thats a good idea but not sure how how or where that would go?!?! Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will know.

I do think its important for people about to enter a DMP to read through the threads as going into a DMP is not a decision to be taken lightly so finding the time to read in my opinion is essential.

Before I spoke to SC or even joined this forum, I read the current thread which was 9 at the time and then I read back over 8. It was exactly a year ago this week and probably this weekend to be precise that I sat and read and read. It helped me so much and by the time I spoke to SC, I knew what my plan was and that I was making the right choice.

Even once signed up, I still read the threads, I would search for keywords and try and ensure I had as much knowledge about the situation as I could to help me be prepared.

I know people are busy but as I said, its a big deal entering a DMP so you need to fully understand what can happen and reading peoples experience of real life dmps is by far the best way to do that.

I have 2 young children and I work 3 days a week but I would just go on my phone reading every night and id wake up early most mornings as i felt really anxious at that time so again I would do more reading.

Sorry i am rambling on but just wanted to get my point across about how important it is to read the threads.

Have a lovely weekend everyone xx

zenshi

I posted my CCA requests April 14th and have only had one proper reply.
Two replied saying they were asking original creditors
Is there a template letter for chasing them up? I have looked on NatDebt but couldn't find one

System

Thanks Puzzcat and Triangle for your responses. Great news to know a remortgage is possible, and thanks for the recommendation to read back through the thread, I started wading through this one yesterday and feel much better informed.

I needed to update our DMP plan with SC as when I got it through I realised there was a bill missing - and I had double-counted something - Tried to call them and the lady on the phone told me that as I needed so many changes i would have to wait for a callback which would take up to 13 working days!! They were so quick to go through up to this point, I was quite shocked. I decided to email back in the details as well as you can guarantee when they do call I will be out at work!

Having the time to pause and think before we take this big step is good thing though, as we haven't dafulted on a payment yet, and there's no sense in rushing in.

A question for you - some people in the thread seemed to have delayed starting their DMP for 2-3 months, just paying their creditors a token payment.....what are the benefits from this, aside from helping to build up an emergency fund - does it help to get your debts defaulted sooner? What's the initial impact on your credit rating for doing this - if you did this for a couple of months, and then were able to pay things off / catch up on your payments would you be able to get away with minimal impact to credit rating? We have a slightly uncertain future ahead of us, in that times are tough now, but we know we are due to inherit (at some point) and I have this feeling like sods law, that if we say go to the DMP, it will all happen and then our credit rating may have been affected for nothing! That said I know we really need to act on what we know now, and I do sort of feel like we need the DMP to force us to sort this out - as we've failed spectacularly up to now.

Thanks

System

Just wanted to add if you wanted to do an FAQ page, perhaps the easiest thing to do would be to create a (free) blog on wordpress.com - it's essentially a mini website that you can set up as you like with menu's/ pages etc so would be easy to update. You could then just post a link to it on here regularly for new people to catch.

I am new so it would be really helpful - but reading back through everything has been useful (but I think I only managed 50 pages, and I am not sure what useful nugget I have missed!)

KID77

Hi Hanilan,
The reason most people delay is just to build an emergency fund.
We didn't delay and just got started straight away but luckily had a ppi refund come in within a few weeks which helped.
We found that our bank overdrafts and loans defaulted immediately, one cc within 3 but the rest took the 6 months which I believe is the typical guidlines.
So you can't assume that they will all take 6 months as some could default sooner and that then does inpact your credit file for a long time. Where as if they are just amrked as late payments for a few months, this doesnt have as bad an affect. It still would probably get you declined for new bank account and mortgage at least for 12 months but nowhere near as bad as a default on your file.

If you cant meet minimum payments for now and have no firm date on inheritance then you probably have no choice but to start dmp. If in a year or so you do come into money then you could use it to offer reduced settlements on your accounts. The credit file will still be affected for the 6 years from date of last default so may affect you remortgaging but as long as you dont want more credit, then life will carry on as normal :-)

Good luck xx

LadyMorticia

Hey lovelies.

Hope you're all having a lovely and stress-free weekend! It's a lovely day here in Somerset. My husband has taken our 3 year old for a walk and the 18 month old is napping so I'm just relaxing for a bit.

I had an email from Littlewoods saying that all accounts that have a DMP are dealt with by NCO Europe and that all DMP companies have been notified of this change. I just hope that the paperwork from SC gets to the right people. Ever the worrier, I am!

sourcrates

KID77 wrote: »

Hi Hanilan,
The reason most people delay is just to build an emergency fund.
We didn't delay and just got started straight away but luckily had a ppi refund come in within a few weeks which helped.
We found that our bank overdrafts and loans defaulted immediately, one cc within 3 but the rest took the 6 months which I believe is the typical guidlines.
So you can't assume that they will all take 6 months as some could default sooner and that then does inpact your credit file for a long time. Where as if they are just amrked as late payments for a few months, this doesnt have as bad an affect. It still would probably get you declined for new bank account and mortgage at least for 12 months but nowhere near as bad as a default on your file.

If you cant meet minimum payments for now and have no firm date on inheritance then you probably have no choice but to start dmp. If in a year or so you do come into money then you could use it to offer reduced settlements on your accounts. The credit file will still be affected for the 6 years from date of last default so may affect you remortgaging but as long as you dont want more credit, then life will carry on as normal :-)

Good luck xx

There are always choices in life.

You can stop paying your credit debts tomorrow in the almost certain knowledge nothing, except recycle bin fodder and ample use of Alexander graham bells invention will spoil your day, for at least 2/3 years, in most cases.

If you can't afford to pay, don't, or make token payments, and I must disagree about AP markers, they can potentially stay on your file for 12 years, long after any default has long since vanished.