DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

January2015 wrote: »

I expect you're right Sourcrates

Despite having almost £70k of debt left, I feel quite smug that we have probably had the best Christmas ever as a family and it was all paid for with planned savings. I owe Ellieseleven a huge thank you for organising the "Saving for Xmas 2016 - A pound a day challenge". I managed to save an average fo £2 per day and guilt free Christmas shopping is an amazing feeling

However, I do know very well the feeling of dread after Christmas and waiting for those dreaded bills and card statements to drop in. My username of January2015 is a dead giveaway of when those feelings hit me hardest and I joined this forum with a whopping £95k of unsecured debt:eek: For any new members just joining - I've never looked back. The support and advice on here is second to none. These people have been through, or are currently going through, the process of clearing debts. Stuff what the banks, card companies, pay day lenders say are the rules. You will be amazed at how often they don't quite get it right, don't know their @rse from their elbow. The fantastic people on this forum have been there, learnt from experience and share those experiences with others.

I've got a long way to go to clear my debts (well mine and hubby's) but I honestly do not worry about debts anymore. I do fret about savings - which has never happened before. I try to squirrel away every spare penny. The debts are being paid at a rate we can afford and we will get there eventually. We will use every trick in the book to reduce those debts where we can, e.g.

• challenging enforceability (1 of our debts has proved unenforceable)
• challenging interest and charges - we've had literally hundreds of pounds refunded to our account, which all helps reduce the balance owed to creditor
• saving for, and negotiating, partial settlements of debts - meaning to pay a reduced amount to close the account with no ongoing liability from any lenders or debt collection agencies

When I first started this journey, I felt guilty at not paying the required installments, I felt guilty at delaying the start of my DMP - in fact I just felt guilty and useless. Two years into our journey I feel empowered. We are clearing the debts and we set the amount we can afford to pay - we do not allow the creditors to dictate what we should pay.

I've said it before and I'll keep shouting it from the rooftops. I love my DMP. My marriage has always been strong, but facing, and dealing with our debts together has made us far happier knowing we are both working towards clearing our debts and working together to save for anything we need rather than just pulling out another piece of plastic and using borrowed money.

In fact, I have only one regret....and that's is that I didn't find the DFW forum earlier - but better late than never as the saying goes :beer:

Fabulous post Jan

If there are any newbies just starting out, or people considering a DMP but worried about the process and making that leap into the unknown then this post will definitely provide bundles of help and reassurance.
You have come so far in just 2 years and should be super proud of yourself :T
Here's to continued debt busting in 2017 :beer:

BDFSH x

CP2016

alianza wrote: »

One of ny debts us a joint bank account overdraft going back to my divorce. I am paying £15 a month..I know its joint liability but i fear i am the only one paying this. If i ask them how much she has paid or have you even contacted her or are you harassing her as much as you are harassing me if not why not then they just hide behind data protection rules. Just seems unfair as she clearly is able to help as she just bought a new car last week. Is there any way to find out if they have even made an effort to contact her and get her to pay a fair share.

Leaving aside the data protection stuff. which as Jan says, is reasonable, have you asked for a statement of account? They can't really expect you to make payments when you don't know whether there are charges, interest etc. being applied. I hope someone that knows more than me about your rights regarding a statement will be along soon.

sourcrates

alianza wrote: »

One of ny debts us a joint bank account overdraft going back to my divorce. I am paying £15 a month..I know its joint liability but i fear i am the only one paying this. Is there any way to find out if they have even made an effort to contact her and get her to pay a fair share.

No way whatsoever I'm afraid.

Data protection act will rear its ugly head every time, you could ask her yourself, is that a possibility ?

As long as your paying it, there's no further incentive for them to chase her.

By all means demand a statement of account though.

Only other suggestion I can think of, is stop paying it, let the debt get sold on however many times, then offer a very small amount to settle it somewhere down the line.

Depends how much of a problem it is to you really, at £15 a month, maybe best to let sleeping dogs lie.

[Deleted User]

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere wrote: »

Fabulous post Jan

If there are any newbies just starting out, or people considering a DMP but worried about the process and making that leap into the unknown then this post will definitely provide bundles of help and reassurance.
You have come so far in just 2 years and should be super proud of yourself :T
Here's to continued debt busting in 2017 :beer:

BDFSH x

I couldn't agree more, BDFSH:T. I was going to say something very similar when I read January's brilliant and inspiring post. Thanks January:A

[Deleted User]

January2015 wrote: »

[*]challenging enforceability (1 of our debts has proved unenforceable)

January, thank you for your 5* post. It covers all the bases and is totally inspiring. Any newbie (and lots of us 'oldies' too) can learn so much from it:T


One thing I wanted to clarify with you though was your comment about enforceability. I understand about getting debts CCA'd but what does it really mean if creditors can't supply any relevant paperwork relating to the debt?


I realise they can't chase us in court for such debts but does it mean we can just stop paying them and forget about them as if they don't exist? This probably sounds a really dumb question:o but as it might apply to a couple of my debts I'd be most interested to know where I legally stand now I'm self-managing my own DMP and can do whatever I want with them;)

Maybe sourcrates will have the answer too

sourcrates

carbootcrazy wrote: »

January, thank you for your 5* post. It covers all the bases and is totally inspiring. Any newbie (and lots of us 'oldies' too) can learn so much from it:T


One thing I wanted to clarify with you though was your comment about enforceability. I understand about getting debts CCA'd but what does it really mean if creditors can't supply any relevant paperwork relating to the debt?


I realise they can't chase us in court for such debts but does it mean we can just stop paying them and forget about them as if they don't exist? This probably sounds a really dumb question:o but as it might apply to a couple of my debts I'd be most interested to know where I legally stand now I'm self-managing my own DMP and can do whatever I want with them;)

Maybe sourcrates will have the answer too

In order for a debt to be legally enforceable the creditor must possess a valid credit agreement.

The law does allow some leeway to the creditor, they can reconstruct a credit agreement from information already held on there systems, but they can't simply make up information.

The crux of the matter is this, they only have to produce this document when asked to do so by you, they can sell a debt, take you to court, do virtually anything, and never have to produce one shread of evidence to prove you owe the debt.

They only have to provit, when you make a CCA request.

So what do we mean by unenforceable then ?

As the name suggests, they cannot use the courts to enforce the debt, they can ask you to pay, they can still record non payment on your credit file, but they cannot force you to pay.

So yes, you can quite legally just walk away and ignore it, safe in the knowledge without that piece of A4 paper, they can't do a thing to you.

The thing to watch out for though, is if they sell on the debt, because you must then inform said new owner of the accounts status, theoretically they can obtain judgement against you, unaware of the lack of credit agreement, and you would then have to go through the process of getting it set aside.

So never ignore and always be wary.

Sleepysophie

Hi everyone,
Its been ages since I asked a question! But I always check the activity on here each day to make sure I am up-to-date - thanks for being so knowledgeable about all things DMP related!
I wonder if anyone can help with this one?
BC stoped charging me interest out of the blue, without any communication as to why after 2 years of applying interest every month. They just stopped and because I have 3 accounts with them I was pretty happy about this, so I didn't question it. One of the accounts was later moved to Link and so I pay them direct. As far as I know Link are not charging interest but since I started paying them I haven't had a statement to check. Its been about 3 months.
However, what I am hoping someone can help me on is the other two accounts which remained with BC ..... I continued receiving monthly statements from them without the interest (all good). There was a note on the monthly statement telling me the account was now closed (fair enough). I received these for 5 or 6 months. Then out of the blue, this month, I have received a BC statement with no note on it about the account being closed (so presumably open?) and interest has started to be applied again?
No letter expalining why this is now the case, just as I received no communication when they stopped it and closed the account?
Has anyone had the same with BC?
Should I be calling them to ask what's going on or is it possible that it was an error and they could back date the interest they haven't charged me when they closed the account?
I don't understand how they can close my account and re-open it without some communication with me?

Anyone have any ideas? I have checked my credit file which only records the DMP arrangement on these 2 accounts for a 6 month period in 2014 and nothing else. Payments are shown as up-to-date.

Thanks

heavenlyharry01

Such amazing advice and all so inspiring (loved your post January2015). All these posts give me confidence that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm currently not paying anything towards my 11 debts! We left StepChange after one month and haven't made a payment since beginning of November.
I have written to the creditors informing them we left step change and will be self managing.

I'm hoping to get as many as my debts defaulted and sold on so I can get FF offers.

My question is....should I be making token payments until I get round to doing my budget for self management or does it not matter?

Thanks

sourcrates

heavenlyharry01 wrote: »

Such amazing advice and all so inspiring (loved your post January2015). All these posts give me confidence that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm currently not paying anything towards my 11 debts! We left StepChange after one month and haven't made a payment since beginning of November.
I have written to the creditors informing them we left step change and will be self managing.

I'm hoping to get as many as my debts defaulted and sold on so I can get FF offers.

My question is....should I be making token payments until I get round to doing my budget for self management or does it not matter?

Thanks

Personally I wouldn't bother.

You will be defaulted quicker as things stand.

[Deleted User]

heavenlyharry01 wrote: »

Such amazing advice and all so inspiring (loved your post January2015). All these posts give me confidence that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm currently not paying anything towards my 11 debts! We left StepChange after one month and haven't made a payment since beginning of November.
I have written to the creditors informing them we left step change and will be self managing.

I'm hoping to get as many as my debts defaulted and sold on so I can get FF offers.

My question is....should I be making token payments until I get round to doing my budget for self management or does it not matter?

Thanks

You're so much braver than me:A. I'm such a scaredy cat, I constantly fear the worst will happen if I take the slightest step out of line

I've now severed contact with SC and am in the process of setting up my self-managed plan. I intended to just have one month of paying nothing whatsoever to creditors, with the legitimate excuse that it's taken time to get the information back from them and set up my SOs. Even I'm brave enough to do that;). I'd like to extend it though so I can get a bit more of a savings cushion. It's clear from your post that nothing dreadful happens after 2 months missed payments. Have any of your creditors contacted you after you told them you were going self-managed?

I too was wondering about token payments but the thinking of a lot of knowledgeable people on here (sourcrates in particular) seems to be not to bother. I've already been defaulted by my creditors though so it won't make any difference on that score. I just wondered if, having already defaulted me, they might be less helpful. I'll be following your progress with great interest. Thanks and good luck:beer: