DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

BeingDebtFreeStartsHere

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Hello everyone,

I've not posted on this thread for a while but I have been plugging away at my debt and now I have just 19 days left before I am debt-free:j

For all of you that are starting out, it is daunting at the beginning and you are going into the unknown but now you have made that decision, stick with it, you won't be disappointed:)

It might not always be plain sailing but the rewards are huge and are worth it. I started out with over £46k of debt and I had sunk to levels of despair I didn't even want to think about. Going onto a DMP has been my saviour.

I now have a debt-free life to look forward to and I have changed my attitude to money, I budget for the things I need and still live a decent life. I won't lie, it has sometimes been very hard but I wouldn't change a thing.

Good Luck to you all;)

Ellie x

Ellie - that is fantastic news!! :T

You should be so proud of yourself

I love to hear of people who have reached the end of their DMP and are ready to start a wonderful, well-deserved debt free life. Enjoy every minute, you've worked hard to get to this point :beer:

Take care,

BDFSH x

Badsaver

I gave in yesterday and admitted I needed help with my debt. I should never have been in this situation... but here I am. I spoke to step change via Web chat yesterday and completed my plan. But I rushed and missed stuff off. I've gone through again on the phone today with a grand total of £31400 owed. I feel physically sick that I've got myself into this situation. However I suppose it would have only got worse if I had ignored it.
I've managed to keep pretty much on top of payments but I've had to pretty much borrow more to make ends meet... the viscous circle! My original pay amount equated to around £500 per month. And that was on 19000 (because I'd missed things out!) I'm worried now that I will need to pay a hell of a lot more now as the debt has increased by £10k. I have to ring them back later to finish the process as they were close to closing.

I don't really know what to expect with the DMP (they haven't decided this is the right way to go yet but I'm assuming it will) there is so much information in these threads I'm getting lost! 😔

I'm again assuming that the SC folk will explain everything to me but now I'm worried about defaults etc after reading bits on here (not that my credit rating could get much worse!) One of my debts is saying I need to pay them 330 per month alone even on the DMP so I'm worried that they will all do that.

I don't actually know why I'm writing this. I think I just need reassuring that this is the right way to go. I felt a large weight off my mind yesterday, and now I'm getting anxious again thinking that I'm doing the wrong thing and that I should just battle on through and keep struggling to avoid defaults and ccjs. In my head they would stop harassing me but from reading the thread that doesn't seem to be the case.

Do I just start paying straight away? Do I ask SC to start payments in a couple of months? I'm sorry if I'm going over old ground here. I'm just struggling and my head hurts!!

Thanks in advance to anyone that helps! J x

motivated

Hi Badsaver.

I am very new the the DMP process too. Our debt total is around the £75,000 mark :eek: I also did my budget etc with SC and after realising I had miscalculated I rang them back the next day and amended. They couldn't have been nicer honestly. I panicked for nothing.

The advice I received on this thread has helped me no end My OH was worried sick about future credit and defaults and CCJs etc but after a lot of talking we finally accepted that the DMP route is the way to go.

We too have got to the point that we were worried sick about the amount we are paying every month but now I am confident that we will find that life will get easier from now on.


The lovely folk on here will guide you in the right direction
Good luck with it all and stick around
M

motivated

Just to add SC asked if I will be starting my payments in March. I told them that my car tax and insurance are due and the lady said that's absolutely fine. I plan to start my payments in April in order to build up an emergency fund.
M

January2015

Badsaver wrote: »

I gave in yesterday and admitted I needed help with my debt. I should never have been in this situation... but here I am. I spoke to step change via Web chat yesterday and completed my plan. But I rushed and missed stuff off. I've gone through again on the phone today with a grand total of £31400 owed. I feel physically sick that I've got myself into this situation. However I suppose it would have only got worse if I had ignored it.
I've managed to keep pretty much on top of payments but I've had to pretty much borrow more to make ends meet... the viscous circle! My original pay amount equated to around £500 per month. And that was on 19000 (because I'd missed things out!) I'm worried now that I will need to pay a hell of a lot more now as the debt has increased by £10k. I have to ring them back later to finish the process as they were close to closing.

I don't really know what to expect with the DMP (they haven't decided this is the right way to go yet but I'm assuming it will) there is so much information in these threads I'm getting lost! ��

I'm again assuming that the SC folk will explain everything to me but now I'm worried about defaults etc after reading bits on here (not that my credit rating could get much worse!) One of my debts is saying I need to pay them 330 per month alone even on the DMP so I'm worried that they will all do that.

I don't actually know why I'm writing this. I think I just need reassuring that this is the right way to go. I felt a large weight off my mind yesterday, and now I'm getting anxious again thinking that I'm doing the wrong thing and that I should just battle on through and keep struggling to avoid defaults and ccjs. In my head they would stop harassing me but from reading the thread that doesn't seem to be the case.

Do I just start paying straight away? Do I ask SC to start payments in a couple of months? I'm sorry if I'm going over old ground here. I'm just struggling and my head hurts!!

Thanks in advance to anyone that helps! J x

Don't worry you will have to pay more on the DMP because your debts are higher than you first realised. SC will help you calculate what your priority payments are (housing costs, utility bills, groceries, clothing, etc. etc.) and what's left from your income after that is divided up between your debts. It doesn't matter if your debts are £10,000 or £100,000 (like mine almost were:eek:), creditors can only have a share of what's left after priority bills and living costs are taken first.

Don't worry about - in fact, totally ignore - creditors who say you must pay them £xxx even on the DMP. Pay them what is calculated through the DMP as their share. Nothing bad will happen.

I know it's worrying to begin with and it feels so wrong to not pay the contracted amounts - you will soon learn to understand you have rights even though you cannot meet the full payments and the creditors have to lump it

Edit: I forgot to say, I wouldn't pay anything for a good few months. Keep telling creditors you are working with SC. Ask SC to delay the start of your DMP to allow you to build your emergency fund. You will need it.

Badsaver

Thanks to you both. I'm so happy that you are both feeling better and getting on top of things!! I feel a little better now I know it's not as scary as I first thought!

A few of my debts are not taken by DD but my card payment and they take them automatically. Do I just need to call them and ask them to not take the payments for a couple of months until it's sorted out? The same company that told me I had to pay x amount have advised me they won't stop taking payments until they officially heard from SC. They have my card details as they refused to move my DD date two days back so now just take a payment as I have authorised them to do it. Can I 'unauthorise' them to take a payment manually?

motivated

The first thing I did was open a new basic bank account. I applied online for a Santander basic account. I filled in the details and within the hour I had email confirmation that my account was open and that our debit cards will arrive soon. They arrived about 3-4 days later

I then login in to my new account and opened an online savers account. Both my DH and I have given new details to work for wages to be paid into. My DHs have gone in there already as he gets paid weekly. Mine will probably go in there in March as I was a little late for mine as I get paid monthly.
I asked my bank for a repayment holiday on 2 loans that I have with them and they accepted. The next payment due for these will be March. This will give me time to have my wages shifted over to the new account. My rent and council tax and any other priority DDs will be changed over when I ring them on Monday.

It has been easy for us so far. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

As others have said to me. You have made the first most important step by phoning SC.
good luck.

Edit: I contacted our CCs via the online messaging service on our accounts and explained that I am in contact with stepchange and how we are having financial difficulties. They were all ok and said they will put our accounts on hold for 30 days while we sort things with SC. I also deleted work phone numbers from our accounts just in case.

sourcrates

Badsaver wrote: »

Thanks to you both. I'm so happy that you are both feeling better and getting on top of things!! I feel a little better now I know it's not as scary as I first thought!

A few of my debts are not taken by DD but my card payment and they take them automatically. Do I just need to call them and ask them to not take the payments for a couple of months until it's sorted out? The same company that told me I had to pay x amount have advised me they won't stop taking payments until they officially heard from SC. They have my card details as they refused to move my DD date two days back so now just take a payment as I have authorised them to do it. Can I 'unauthorise' them to take a payment manually?

You have to take control now, don't ask them, tell them.

You need to cancel your old debt card, reporting it lost is best.

You can do this through online banking with most banks, your card is cancelled straight away.

You then get a new card, with a new number, that your creditors won't have.

So they can't debt your account.

alianza

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

The ONLY restriction on the sending of CCA requests, is that there must be a balance outstanding on the account you CCA.

Thats it, makes no odds if you've paid it religiously since day one, or never paid at thing, you are entitled to this information at any time, it is your right under sec 77-79 consumer credit act 1974.

Use this template letter from National Debtline : (had to delete link lol)

Dont forget to include the £1 statutory payment, in the form of a cheque or postal order.

Get writing !!!

Thanks for the advice(and to the other poster too). The letter I received for the loan debt says they are putting my account on hold for three months to allow me time to set up alternative arrangements etc. they recommended I contact payplan (which I won't do) and also gave some other organisations on the back page including the one that supplies the template for the CCA letter. Anyway my question is I have filled in the letter and ready to print off but is it best to do that ASAP or hold off being as they have said nothing will happen for three months anyway and then hit them with it in mid to late April?

bexbex

Hi all
I swapped from my old HSBC account to a new Halifax account.
All direct debits etc etc etc swapped over and I like the account....
I've just had a letter from lloyds who I have a credit card with saying that it's possible that they may try and recover the debt through other lloyds account.
I thought I was safe but I didn't realise Halifax are now part of lloyds.....

How likely is this to happen? I have separate savings in a different bank and the Halifax one is used for my wages to go into and bills to come out of.

X