DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

sourcrates

Well done January,


Can take a while with BC, only strategy that works is either pay them nothing, or just a quid a month.


Good luck with the last one, something tells me it wont be that long before it drops on your doormat.

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

Well done January,


Can take a while with BC, only strategy that works is either pay them nothing, or just a quid a month.


Good luck with the last one, something tells me it wont be that long before it drops on your doormat.

Many thank Sourcrates.

I must point out that it was much of your advice and guidance that gave me the biggest push to move to self managed - so a huge thank you from me to you :beer:

Bear04

Hi all


Have been on a DMP with Stepchange for last 9 months now paying £300 a month towards my debts. Unfortunately my partner who contributed to the household expenses has lost her job and can no longer afford to pay what she used to. Can I just tell Stepchange that I want to reduce my monthly payment to token payments of £5 to each creditor( 9 in total) for the next few months until she finds herself another job and then I can up my payments to £300 a month again?

sourcrates

Bear04 wrote: »

Can I just tell Stepchange that I want to reduce my monthly payment to token payments of £5 to each creditor( 9 in total) for the next few months until she finds herself another job and then I can up my payments to £300 a month again?

Of course you can.

Your DMP is an informal arrangement, there are no hard and fast rules to follow, your circumstances have changed, and that affects your ability to pay.

Just give them a ring, explain the situation, tell them how much you'd like to pay, job done.

Remember, they are there to help you, nothing else.

Triangle

Hi all

For those that are self-managed, how do you keep track of it all? Pathetic as it sounds one of the things holding me back is I really like SC's 'you will be debt free by blah blah blah.' I also like their calculator you can play around with eg increasing your payment by X amount will bring your debt free date forward by X amount of time.

I'm rubbish - absolutely, totally rubbish - with Excel and spreadsheets. Much more a list, paper and highlighter kind of girl!

Thanks

blisteringblue

Triangle wrote: »

For those that are self-managed, how do you keep track of it all? Pathetic as it sounds one of the things holding me back is I really like SC's 'you will be debt free by blah blah blah.' I also like their calculator you can play around with eg increasing your payment by X amount will bring your debt free date forward by X amount of time.

I'm rubbish - absolutely, totally rubbish - with Excel and spreadsheets. Much more a list, paper and highlighter kind of girl!

Sorry to say mine is all Excel Spreadsheet, but it's not complicated.

I also have an account in YNAB for each debt that transfers to each month.

Mine are all interest free so its quite easy to reconcile though

January2015

Triangle wrote: »

Hi all

For those that are self-managed, how do you keep track of it all? Pathetic as it sounds one of the things holding me back is I really like SC's 'you will be debt free by blah blah blah.' I also like their calculator you can play around with eg increasing your payment by X amount will bring your debt free date forward by X amount of time.

I'm rubbish - absolutely, totally rubbish - with Excel and spreadsheets. Much more a list, paper and highlighter kind of girl!

Thanks

Another Excel user here as well.

However, I think you could play around with debt free date scenarios if you use the MSE overpayment calculator

For example, I input:

• Current mortgage debt as £81000
  • it doesn't matter that my debt is not mortgage debt - it's just a calculator at the end of the day and I'm using it to see what would happen to my unsecured debt

• Remaining mortgage term - I put in the 8 years remaining based on my current monthly payments

• Annual interest rate - I put in the monthly DMP payment amount in the next box (don't use the APR % box - it mucks up the results - or it does when you put 0% in anyway:rotfl:)

• Recurring overpayment - I put in £200 and left it at 'monthly'

• Press calculate and hey presto you have an idea of how much sooner you could be debt free.

In the scenario above - if I pay £200 per month extra towards my debts I could be debt free one year and 6 months earlier than my current forecast debt free date. I've checked (with Excel) and this calculation is right so it does work using the MSE calculator.


Give it a try and see what you think :beer:

Scottishmummy

Triangle wrote: »

Hi all

For those that are self-managed, how do you keep track of it all? Pathetic as it sounds one of the things holding me back is I really like SC's 'you will be debt free by blah blah blah.' I also like their calculator you can play around with eg increasing your payment by X amount will bring your debt free date forward by X amount of time.

I'm rubbish - absolutely, totally rubbish - with Excel and spreadsheets. Much more a list, paper and highlighter kind of girl!

Thanks

I have a basic excel spreadsheet but I also use the snowball calculator. I know it's not quite the same because I don't pay any interest on my debts but I can fiddle around with the payment amounts to see how much a few pounds here and there can make a difference.

LadyMorticia

Hey everyone.

I had to fill in a budget review as our outgoings have significantly become more, which means that our DMP payment has reduced and now my DFD is 16 years away! On the phone, the adviser was trying to push for an IVA but this seems so formal and I'm not sure what the benefits are of on. I know that after 5 years all remaining debt is written off, but apart from that, what other benefits does it have?

Thank you.

sourcrates

LadyMorticia wrote: »

Hey everyone.

I had to fill in a budget review as our outgoings have significantly become more, which means that our DMP payment has reduced and now my DFD is 16 years away! On the phone, the adviser was trying to push for an IVA but this seems so formal and I'm not sure what the benefits are of on. I know that after 5 years all remaining debt is written off, but apart from that, what other benefits does it have?

Thank you.

Hi,

You have legal protection from your creditors, you can't be harassed, it's a fixed term, normally, you have a yearly review, if nothing's changed, your payment does not go up, in year five you are expected to remortgage (if a homeowner) if you can't do that, sometimes an extra year is added to the IVA.

They are really only suitable if you have a lot of debt, or as in your case, other solutions will take a long time to complete.

Basically as long as you can service the payments, you will only have contact normally once a year, rest of the time you won't hear from your IP.

You have to have 75% of your creditors agree to it, by value of debt.

It worked well for me, but I would recomend getting as much information as possible before hand, I can recommend a good IP if you want to take it further.