DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

Puzzcat

Triangle wrote: »

Hi all - haven't popped in for a while but could do with a bit of support (rather selfishly!) as feeling very low

It's been almost a year on our DMP now and there seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel. That's not to say it hasn't been the best thing we have done financially - there is no way we could have continued as we were - but we seem no further forward.

We are with stepchange and they have been brilliant, had to review payments a couple of times in the year with no problems. But of our four creditors, two are still charging interest (the other two have defaulted). My Argos CC has had something stupid like £50 paid off it in a whole year because of it And barclaycard are even worse. Sent letters, no response.

Budgeting wise we've done pretty well, it's actually been life changing. I now have a separate bank account with about 10 online savers attached to it - clothes, Xmas, car etc - and we've even managed a cheap family break. Have a family wedding this summer which has hit us hard but we are still doing ok. And things will also look up in September when my eldest starts school - approx £300 month saved from nursery fees :eek:

But I can't shake this feeling of uselessness. I've had a look at self-managed but got confused. I thought it would be as easy as cancelling stepchange, calling creditors and getting payment details, sending income and expenditure forms then simply paying them a set amount every month (doing token payments to Argos and BC until default) but the NEDCAB said something about logging in and having an account which confused me.

I've reached a proper lull - any advice?

Tx

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi,
Have you written and complained? If not do so, if you have then escalate to the fos. This is your dmp and you will need to do some of the work if you want interest stopped.e
Puzz

Hi Triangle,

Sorry my post probably came over a bit abrupt.. I shouldn't try to reply in a hurry before bed...!

Sorry you are feeling low, it is hard as it is such a long journey, but you must focus on how far you have come not how far you have to go..!

As I said if you have already written to the creditors to complain then escalate to the fos, this can be done online. No guarantee but no harm in trying.

Self managing is easy and is what you said. Nedcab is a free service that you can set up and it helps you get started with the letters to creditors etc. It is very simple and you can adapt it to how you want it, for example I didn't like the way they split my payments as its different to SC so I amended the letters accordingly so I could pay the same as I was. The hardest bit was getting all the account/sort codes as despite writing requesting the information some of the creditors didn't read the letters.. durr..

Anyway whichever way you go, chin up, keep smiling and keep asking questions...!!

Good luck.
Love Puzz. x

newlywed

Triangle, sometimes it's a long journey.

One of mine took a year to stop interest. It happened eventually. How long is your dmp expected to be? Mine wasn't meant to end up as being this long but I was made redundant and then OH has had very little work for way too long. It's going to take time, it can get frustrating, you do get ups and downs but the whole point of it is to have enough money to live whilst paying debts. It sounds like you are doing that so keep going.

Sazzie23

newlywed wrote: »

Triangle, sometimes it's a long journey.

One of mine took a year to stop interest. It happened eventually. How long is your dmp expected to be? Mine wasn't meant to end up as being this long but I was made redundant and then OH has had very little work for way too long. It's going to take time, it can get frustrating, you do get ups and downs but the whole point of it is to have enough money to live whilst paying debts. It sounds like you are doing that so keep going.

Very wise advice, for all DMPers, thank you.

Saz

snowbean

Is there any specific wording for a letter to complain about interest still being charged? Or to request a debt to be defaulted? I know to use the template for CCA request, but not sure if the same goes for the other letters. Thanks

vwight

Hi,

My first post to the forum, so apologies....

Been on a DMP with Stepchange for a few years now things going ok, tough at times but getting there, slowly! I should be coming up to clearing my first debt which is with Santander.

September should be my last payment however when I check my credit file is says that the account was Satisfied on 05/07/15 and that the balance is £0 from this date. Stepchange has been paying £28 each month to them, where has this been going?

So I'm confused, can anyone explain why this is?

Thought I would ask here first before contacting Santander as there is probably an easy explanation.

Thanks

J

sourcrates

vwight wrote: »

Hi,

My first post to the forum, so apologies....

Been on a DMP with Stepchange for a few years now things going ok, tough at times but getting there, slowly! I should be coming up to clearing my first debt which is with Santander.

September should be my last payment however when I check my credit file is says that the account was Satisfied on 05/07/15 and that the balance is £0 from this date. Stepchange has been paying £28 each month to them, where has this been going?

So I'm confused, can anyone explain why this is?

Thought I would ask here first before contacting Santander as there is probably an easy explanation.

Thanks

J

Hi,


One of two reasons, either :


(1) you have paid it off earlier than you thought,
or,
(2) the original creditor has sold on your account to a 3rd party, and has not yet informed you of this.


Its most likely to be option 2.


A quick call to the Original creditor will confirm which is correct.

Helpme34

Brogden wrote: »

You can get tax relief on contributions each year up to the amount of your earnings. Probably need something to live on now though....:rotfl:!!

£250 x 12 = £3,000. The tax relief will be added so that's £3,750 in the pot. You can't knock that!

Even if you don't have earnings you can pay £2,880 each year and that's £3,600 in the pot after the tax relief is added in

Go for it and tell PayPlan what you are doing and why like you told us.

Hi Brogden

So I completed my annual review early June and now PP have come back to me stating that Link Financial are stating that £250 for pension contributions is too much. They are saying that as we are payng into an ISA at present, we can reduce this and that usually private pensions only go up to £100...is this correct? Apparently unless we don't reduce this amount, Link F will not accept an informal rpymnt arrangement.
I'm really stressed now!!:(

What do I do?

blisteringblue

Helpme34 wrote: »

Hi Brogden

So I completed my annual review early June and now PP have come back to me stating that Link Financial are stating that £250 for pension contributions is too much. They are saying that as we are payng into an ISA at present, we can reduce this and that usually private pensions only go up to £100...is this correct? Apparently unless we don't reduce this amount, Link F will not accept an informal rpymnt arrangement.

Go self managed and tell them to suck eggs

Link Financial are a bottom feeding DCA so treat them that way.

Seriously, it's your DMP run it exactly as you want. I even write to mine telling them they either accept it or they don't, my payment will remain the same, and I don't care what they think. I've also stopped doing reviews with them for the same reason.

They can't exactly do much accept take me to court for a CCJ, but the amount I pay them its not going to happen. The court will just laugh at them.

Dubstar

Received my first 2 letters from creditors this morning.
One from Lloyds saying I did not pay my bill and my next months bill would include charges with no mention of the 30 day no contact period they had promised me 2 weeks ago or anything about the DMP offer from StepChange.

And the other from MBNA saying they accepted the payment and stopping all interest and charges until my situation improves which I am really pleased about so I just hope the others will do the same.

Reading the posts here has been great for me and just keep remembering they can't have what I have not got!

sourcrates

Dubstar wrote: »

Received my first 2 letters from creditors this morning.
One from Lloyds saying I did not pay my bill and my next months bill would include charges with no mention of the 30 day no contact period they had promised me 2 weeks ago or anything about the DMP offer from StepChange.

And the other from MBNA saying they accepted the payment and stopping all interest and charges until my situation improves which I am really pleased about so I just hope the others will do the same.

Reading the posts here has been great for me and just keep remembering they can't have what I have not got!

Hi,

During this time you will continue to get computer generated letters from creditors, as well as others regarding your DMP, it takes time for all to get up to speed with these things !!!