DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

Puzzcat

Maddie57 wrote: »

Hi all

I am just starting my dmp journey and I would be grateful for some guidance. I have just submitted an application to stepchange which has been recieved. What are the rough timescales for speaking to an advisor and if all goes well getting the plan set up?

Maddie

Hi Maddie,

As Sazzie says do ensure you have an emergency fund before you start the dmp as you will have no access to credit. I did token payments for 3 months before starting. Also great advice to try and read back the threads as they are full of questions and answers you don't know you want to ask yet!!

I never spoke to an advisor, just set the whole thing up online, that's why I chose SC over Payplan.

Good Luck
Love Puzz. x

[Deleted User]

Hi Maddie:wave:

Please do as Sazzie and Puzzcat advise and get an emergency stash together before your DMP starts. My biggest regret is not finding this board before I started my DMP with StepChange in the spring of 2013:o. I just dived into it, so relieved that I had a manageable way of paying all my creditors. I had no back-up savings whatsoever as all had been spent just on keeping afloat debt-wise:(

With no access to credit even the smallest emergency is so scary. Take that from someone who's been there:o. It never occurred to me to make token payments for a few months prior to the DMP (and SC never mentioned it) and I'd been stupidly proud of myself for never missing a payment even though I was robbing Peter to pay Paul by withdrawing cash on one CC to pay off another as soon as payment cleared. The interest rates that kept racking up eventually meant all my cards were maxed out and I had nowhere to turn but a DMP. I imagined doorstep debt-collectors and all sorts if I missed payments, I was so naive:o

The advice you'll find on these boards is invaluable because it's provided by lovely people who've been in the same position and want to help others get through it as smoothly as possible.

Starting a DMP is the best financial decision I ever made but I certainly could have handled it better at the start.

Good Luck:beer:

Ellieseleven

Hmmm...just phoned SC to tell them that my last payment to my 10k loan is £45.23 instead of the normal monthly payment of £49.96 (this monthly payment has already been reduced from £69.96 a few months ago) to be told that the payment now will reduce to £25. I queried this and asked why, when this is the last payment, the lady I spoke to said it's because of payments to my other debts changing???? They haven't changed????

I think I may have to look into self managing, at this rate I will never get to the finish line!

Ellie x

Maddie57

Hi

Thanks for all the advice. I applied online for my DMP and I didn't think about geting an emergency fund set up or doing token payments. I am lucky in that I do have access to the bank of mum and dad and I am hoping to get an extra part time job which would allow me to pay a bit extra and save up.

One of my debts is a guarantor loan - I am assuming that they will want my guarantor to make up the difference in my payment - anyone have any experience of this?

I am going to finish emailing my creditors a copy of the letter I sent tomorrow. I need to get a new bank account set up but I think I have a bit of time to do this before the payroll cut off.

Maddie

January2015

Maddie57 wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for all the advice. I applied online for my DMP and I didn't think about geting an emergency fund set up or doing token payments. I am lucky in that I do have access to the bank of mum and dad and I am hoping to get an extra part time job which would allow me to pay a bit extra and save up.

One of my debts is a guarantor loan - I am assuming that they will want my guarantor to make up the difference in my payment - anyone have any experience of this?

I am going to finish emailing my creditors a copy of the letter I sent tomorrow. I need to get a new bank account set up but I think I have a bit of time to do this before the payroll cut off.

Maddie

Even though you have already applied online for your DMP you can still tell Step Change you don't want to start it until a month you are ready. For example you may wish to make token payment for October, November and December and start the DMP payments in January. It seems a long way off until January, but it will whizz by and you can use those months to build up an emergency fund.

I started my DMP in March and only had one month of paying token £1 payments to our creditors. That one month of emergency funds has been and gone with 2 car breakdowns and other smaller crises is our home.

Don't be embarrassed to tell Step Change you want to make a few months of token payments.

Good luck with everything

Sazzie23

Maddie57 wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for all the advice. I applied online for my DMP and I didn't think about geting an emergency fund set up or doing token payments. I am lucky in that I do have access to the bank of mum and dad and I am hoping to get an extra part time job which would allow me to pay a bit extra and save up.

One of my debts is a guarantor loan - I am assuming that they will want my guarantor to make up the difference in my payment - anyone have any experience of this?

I am going to finish emailing my creditors a copy of the letter I sent tomorrow. I need to get a new bank account set up but I think I have a bit of time to do this before the payroll cut off.

Maddie

HI Maddie, sounds like you are getting on well, it's good you have some folks supporting you, have you told them about the DMP?

Re the new bank account, if you think your wages are at risk due to changing over accounts, take the money out in cash and arrange to pay creditors cash for one month, or use that as your token payments month. Also SC will hold off the DMP if you haven't got the account set up yet, you just have to ask them and you can email them if you don't want to say it out loud

Well done for making a start at sorting your debts, be proud. :T

2spicy

Decided last night to send off to all my creditors and offer F&F payments of 40% of the outstanding balance of each debt. As were in the final 10 months, I thought I would see if it would be possible to get the smallest debts reduced by offering F&F payments. After speaking to my mother, she says she will "lend" is the money as she would like to see us debt free by the end of the year.
So, letters have just gone out offering just less than 50% of the total of each debt. This "should" (if accepted) reduce the debt to less than £4k.

Ok, the only issue I have is if F&F payments are accepted, and the debts are marked as "settled", they will also be marked as "incomplete". Not sure if this is a good thing, or if we I should just let sleeping dogs lie and let the DMP run the rest of its course.

Sazzie23

2spicy wrote: »

Decided last night to send off to all my creditors and offer F&F payments of 40% of the outstanding balance of each debt. As were in the final 10 months, I thought I would see if it would be possible to get the smallest debts reduced by offering F&F payments. After speaking to my mother, she says she will "lend" is the money as she would like to see us debt free by the end of the year.
So, letters have just gone out offering just less than 50% of the total of each debt. This "should" (if accepted) reduce the debt to less than £4k.

Ok, the only issue I have is if F&F payments are accepted, and the debts are marked as "settled", they will also be marked as "incomplete". Not sure if this is a good thing, or if we I should just let sleeping dogs lie and let the DMP run the rest of its course.

Hi. 2spicy another DFD for Christmas,ooh it's a wish list I daren't even dream of:o.

I'm not sure about the marking up of debts, are you planning on some sort of credit in the future - mortgage perhaps? Probably worth asking the question on the mortgage thread .

Good luck with the F&f.

blondie_80

Hi all,

I've been reading these forums for years and years, but have only just got my act together and actually done something about my debt!

I entered a DMP with Stepchange in July but so far, it's been pretty stressful. In relation to some I am in a pretty fortunate position, my debt is at 22k but I earn a good salary and am paying £538 monthly on the DMP so if interest is not charged, it won't take too long to pay back. However, I've already made 2 mistakes! First is that none of my accounts were in arrears before the DMP so creditors have not defaulted any of them and are continuing to charge interest, late payment fees etc. No-one at Stepchange explained that I would have to default on payments, or push them to default the accounts in order to get interest frozen. My credit rating is already shot so would rather they all defaulted then dropped off my report after 6 years, than carry on as I am with markers on my file which then hang around for 6 years AFTER the debt has been paid. I need to ring Stepchange about this and try and get it sorted out. The problem is, I suffer from mental health issues and the thought of calling these organisations makes me feel ill! I had a particularly teary call with Tesco Bank last night who were completely unsympathetic and refused to refund any of the £64 late payment fees I have been charged. They are also charging interest every month which then pushes me over the credit limit - and then charge me an overlimit fee!! I remember using the phrase 'you are simply perpetuating the cycle of debt' more than once...how embarrassing.

The second mistake I made is not getting a stash together before starting the DMP - I just panicked and jumped straight into it. I wish I had read this board properly before starting because now I have absolutely no cash set aside for car repairs, house repairs etc and my fridge freezer is on it's way out and the boiler will also probably not last the winter. Not really sure how I am going to pay for these. Ho hum.

Anyway - sorry to rant on, I'm just finding this all a bit more complicated than I originally thought. The other slight fly in the ointment is that I am currently having therapy on the NHS but those free sessions end soon. I realize that in order to stay mentally well, I'll need to start private therapy so I'm going to have to also discuss this with SC and ask them to reduce the payments by about £200 per month so I can pay for the therapy. Not sure how this will go down??

God, I feel so stupid and wish that I had just dealt with all of this years ago when I was young enough for the 6 years of bad credit not to make that much of a difference!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who contributes to this thread - it really is invaluable to have others who understand

Ali80

Hi everyone,

Hope you're all doing well. My DMP is ticking along fine but I have a problem with mobile phone debt. I have a 2 year contract which has just come to an end. I have lapsed behind on payments (which I was making over the phone, not direct debit) and owe about £400.....stupid of me I know.

They haven't written to me about the debt and my missed payments aren't showing on Noddle.

The problem is I can't pay £400 in one go and my phone is on it's way out. Should I ring them and offer to set up a DD to cover the debt or add it to my DMP? Will they be prepared to issue me a new phone and renew my contract what with owing money on the account and my credit rating being shot?

Be grateful for an advice, thanks.