DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

neiljmuk

Talking to creditors on the phone is bad enough but I'm going to walk in to an actual Lloyds branch and tear the lot up (hypothetically speaking) over removing payment plan agreement on the now unauthorised OD. Wish me luck!

neiljmuk

LadyMorticia wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your help. I contacted SC and they advised that I miss this months payment. They said that they'll let me creditors know but that I should let them know too. I hate dealing with creditors.

That's a bit odd. Drop to a token payment and creditors won't bat an eyelid, but a missed payment will annoy them a bit without warning so you should give them a heads up.

Even with token payments SC will advise you to contact creditors but you don't need to bother... I'd be tempted to double check if token would be better than missed.

LadyMorticia

January2015 wrote: »

Hi Sourcrates - hope you're keeping well. Lady M said her debt had been 'sold' to NCO Europe. When I spoke to NCO the lady I spoke to told me they were the in-house collection arm of Shop Direct. Shop Direct own Littlewoods, Very, K&Co, Isme and Woolworths. I think they just like debtors to worry a bit more when they say they have sold the debt to NCO People like Lady M will not realise that NCO = Very = Littlewoods etc. etc.

neiljmuk wrote: »

That's a bit odd. Drop to a token payment and creditors won't bat an eyelid, but a missed payment will annoy them a bit without warning so you should give them a heads up.

Even with token payments SC will advise you to contact creditors but you don't need to bother... I'd be tempted to double check if token would be better than missed.

Do I pay a token payment to the creditors directly? How much should a token payment be?

neiljmuk

LadyMorticia wrote: »

Do I pay a token payment to the creditors directly? How much should a token payment be?

Would normally be done by SC as per my last reply, but you could do depending on their reaction to the proposed missed payment when you call them. I'd call for more experienced heads to sanction or push back on this advice. I'm no expert yet but have a feel for how to play things with regard to my own DMP unless SC go mad at me for dropping to token payments again then Self Management is a massive learning curve that will be thrust upon me by the end of the week! It's coming one day in order to weed out 3 creditors and make them default me tho!

pinkspideruk

Thnks for the advice carboot crazy i will give SC a call and seee about the token payments for 3 months. I dont think itnwill impact on my dfd hugely as im due a payrise in nov so when i go back to normal payments they will increase and hopefully i can get some money put back into my savings too

sourcrates

Your all overthinking this token payments thing.

Lady M, if you want to tell creditors your missing a payment, simply write a short letter to each with a brief explanation, post it, and then forget about it.

Absolutely no point whatsoever making a token payment, your creditors don't care, they don't check up on inivuduals circumstances every day, week, month.

You tell them what's happening, why does everyone want to seek there approvel for the slightest thing ?

I really don't want to sound pedantic, but Just do whatever you need to do and move on, it's possible to overthink these things lol

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

Your all overthinking this token payments thing.

Lady M, if you want to tell creditors your missing a payment, simply write a short letter to each with a brief explanation, post it, and then forget about it.

Absolutely no point whatsoever making a token payment, your creditors don't care, they don't check up on inivuduals circumstances every day, week, month.

You tell them what's happening, why does everyone want to seek there approvel for the slightest thing ?

I really don't want to sound pedantic, but Just do whatever you need to do and move on, it's possible to overthink these things lol

I totally agree with Sourcrates on this

Some people on DMPs think the sky will fall in if they deviate from the agreed DMP payments. Believe me, I know from experience that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. (I'm not shouting - just emphasising:D)

I did make token payments to most of my creditors when we first went self managed. They all got £1 a month (most for 3 months, some for 4 months, and a couple for the last 8 months). At least 1 creditor had no token payments for a while. For me this was manipulating the creditors to cancel the interest, but the point is nothing bad happened.

If it makes people feel better and they want a record, then write and advise you will be making a token payment of £1 until further notice (don't give an end date just yet, just make the point that when your situation improves you will review the payment amount and leave it as vague as that).

Of course, all of this is much easier on a self managed dmp than if you are with a charity such as Stepchange etc. but even then, it's your DMP not theirs, you decide what you can afford - they are just the conduit through which you pay and communicate with those predators.
If intending to make token payments - remember don't ask if you can make token payments - just tell them you are. It's your money you decide how much you pay, who you pay, and when you pay.

tracspe

Hi this is my first post, although I do read the thread for tips and support regularly.


Okay so I've just had my first annual review with SC and all is going to plan and I'm quite happy with the way things are going.


The only debt that bugs me is my previous bank who I have a loan and overdraft facility with. They have accepted the payment plan from SC for the loan, but not for the overdraft so I'm incurring unauthorized charges which is taking me over my original overdraft limit (the budgeted payment each month paid by SC doesn't quite cover the cost of a monthly letter and the unauthorized over your limit charge) So I'm in a little bit of a catch 22 situation with this one thing only.


Now over the next few months I'm hoping to have some extra income with a bit of summer work, but it is only a couple of months so don't want to adjust my budget with SC 'cause for one I don't know how much I'll get and when.


Tall and short of it I suppose my question is, should I use this additional cash to make a dent in the overdraft so that my budgeted payments start taking it in the right direction? Or any alternative advice/ideas would be very welcome.


I know that it's frowned upon by SC if you look more favourably on one debt, scared I might get into trouble and other creditors will find out and the world will end!!!!!


Thanks in advance.

snowbean

January2015 wrote: »

I totally agree with Sourcrates on this

Some people on DMPs think the sky will fall in if they deviate from the agreed DMP payments. Believe me, I know from experience that ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. (I'm not shouting - just emphasising:D)

I think it's just that feeling of well the DMP's all going well, don't want to do anything to rock the boat and start getting a load of hassle / stress again.

January2015

tracspe wrote: »

Hi this is my first post, although I do read the thread for tips and support regularly.


Okay so I've just had my first annual review with SC and all is going to plan and I'm quite happy with the way things are going.


The only debt that bugs me is my previous bank who I have a loan and overdraft facility with. They have accepted the payment plan from SC for the loan, but not for the overdraft so I'm incurring unauthorized charges which is taking me over my original overdraft limit (the budgeted payment each month paid by SC doesn't quite cover the cost of a monthly letter and the unauthorized over your limit charge) So I'm in a little bit of a catch 22 situation with this one thing only.


Now over the next few months I'm hoping to have some extra income with a bit of summer work, but it is only a couple of months so don't want to adjust my budget with SC 'cause for one I don't know how much I'll get and when.


Tall and short of it I suppose my question is, should I use this additional cash to make a dent in the overdraft so that my budgeted payments start taking it in the right direction? Or any alternative advice/ideas would be very welcome.


I know that it's frowned upon by SC if you look more favourably on one debt, scared I might get into trouble and other creditors will find out and the world will end!!!!!


Thanks in advance.

Write to the bank now and quote The Lending Code as follows:

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.

Ask them why they are treating the loan and the overdraft differently with respect to interest and charges. Request they revisit their decision on the overdraft and request they refund all interest and charges accrued since they were advised you were entering into a DMP.

They really shouldn't be treating your accounts differently. Your bank will be subscribers of The Lending Code.