DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

January2015

ella2ethan1 wrote: »

Thank both! Santander has opened my account but I will look at nationwide to open a savings account. Can you open new accounts together or should I wait a couple of months?

I have sorted out my plan with SC so just have to send the paperwork back, do you wait to do it in order to save for a couple of months or just send it straight back?

I don't think there will be any problems opening savings accounts straight away. You might want to wait and see what online savings accounts Santander offer - that way you will be able to see your main account and savings account through the same online login information.

Send the paperwork straight back to SC, but if you want a few months to save an emergency fund (and I recommend you do) then put in a covering letter telling them the month you want them to start collecting payments (assume they will collect on 1st of each month). Just explain in the letter you need to build a small emergency fund. They are used to this.

January2015

Billy12345 wrote: »

Thanks January.

I feel terrible for not including this at the beginning but had to keep one card back so I kept the one with the smallest balance and struggled like hell with the monthly payments.

I've looked online and cannot see anyway to add this so guess I'll have to bite the bullet and call them. They have been great in the past so fingers crossed there wont be any trouble. If I have to go self managed is it simply a case of filling in the I&E form on the NEDCAB website then writing to the creditors or is there more to it than this.

I would rather stay with SC at least for now to see how it progresses if they allow me to add this creditor to the DMP.

I'll let you know how I get on.:)

Billy12345

My fingers are tightly crossed for that everything goes ok with SC. I'm sure they will be fine. They are used to their customers messing up occassionally....most of us have messed up fairly big time with our debts and that's how we ended up needing a DMP....so in the scheme of things your not including a card is a fairly small thing.

If you do need to go self managed and used NEDCAB, it is really easy and just follow each section and it builds the I&E statement for you, calculates the offer to each creditor and generates all the letters to send to creditors. I'm sure you won't need it though.

[Deleted User]

Billy, I can appreciate that you are concerned about what SC will think and do about not adding the card before but please don't worry. SC were always totally helpful and non-judgemental whenever I had to deal with them:)


One thing though. You said this card had your smallest balance and I'm just wondering if it is small enough to pay off straight away or fairly quickly. I can't see what a credit card with a zero balance (when that's what it has) is anything to do with SC or your other creditors. If I had a card with a zero balance I think I'd just keep it quiet:o purely in case of the direst emergency but strictly not to be used otherwise.

I'm not sure what anyone else thinks about this approach but I know in the future you may find getting a credit card (should you ever want one) very difficult/impossible. Having one already is a massive plus.


By the way, I hope you had a wonderful holiday:beer:. It might be a while before you get another one so please don't feel bad about that one, especially as it was all fixed up pre DMP:)

henrryyyy

Hi feel a bit deflated right now, not sure if I misinterpreted what I should have done or if SC are confused

I sent my SC forms off 2 days ago, with a cover note saying I want my plan to start on or after 1st August 2017.
Just received a text message saying its all set up and my first payment is due 10/04/2017
So I phoned up and explained I wanted to start on 1st August, he questioned why, I said basically I got recommended to do that by this forum to start an emergency fund and to get my creditors to default me. He goes 'I can understand wanting an emergency fund, but i can see you have budgeted £30 for it
Then goes on to say something like, if I want I can cancel the DMP now and reopen it in August, but I would need to make token payments to my creditors or they might take a CCJ out on me and that this is something I would need to arrange myself and my creditors are more likely to freeze interest if I am working with a dmp company.
Once I had sent my forms, I emailed all my creditors informing them that I have sent all details to SC and that my start date would be 1st August and that SC will be in touch shortly, most of them have only put my account on hold for 30 days
So I basically said I'll phone back after getting advice from here

motivated

ella2ethan1 wrote: »

Thank both! Santander has opened my account but I will look at nationwide to open a savings account. Can you open new accounts together or should I wait a couple of months?

I have sorted out my plan with SC so just have to send the paperwork back, do you wait to do it in order to save for a couple of months or just send it straight back?

Hi ella

I too opened a Santander account online and then I also opened 2 savings account with them. They were both opened online and usable withing minutes. So easy. This way I can transfer money around all the accounts so easily.

I'm tempted to open a third to keep all of our expenses separate.
M

January2015

henrryyyy wrote: »

Hi feel a bit deflated right now, not sure if I misinterpreted what I should have done or if SC are confused

I sent my SC forms off 2 days ago, with a cover note saying I want my plan to start on or after 1st August 2017.
Just received a text message saying its all set up and my first payment is due 10/04/2017
So I phoned up and explained I wanted to start on 1st August, he questioned why, I said basically I got recommended to do that by this forum to start an emergency fund and to get my creditors to default me. He goes 'I can understand wanting an emergency fund, but i can see you have budgeted £30 for it
Then goes on to say something like, if I want I can cancel the DMP now and reopen it in August, but I would need to make token payments to my creditors or they might take a CCJ out on me and that this is something I would need to arrange myself and my creditors are more likely to freeze interest if I am working with a dmp company.
Once I had sent my forms, I emailed all my creditors informing them that I have sent all details to SC and that my start date would be 1st August and that SC will be in touch shortly, most of them have only put my account on hold for 30 days
So I basically said I'll phone back after getting advice from here

Don't panic. What on earth does the SC person you spoke to think you would do with £30 if you had an emergency ??????

If you start your DMP payments on 10/04/17 that is all you will have should an unexpected expense such as car breakdown, boiler breakdown etc. etc. occur. Yes, you will budget £30 per month of emergencies when your DMP starts, but it would be unrealistic to start a DMP and not have some small emergency fund put to one side. I am not talking about £30 when I say small emergency fund.

You can either phone SC back and explain what I have said above, hope you get a different SC person because they really do understand this issue (normally - you just got one who didn't appear to understand), or you can do as they said and send token payments of £1 to each of your creditors and restart your DMP process when you have saved enough for an emergency fund.

However, you should just be able to talk to SC and get them to delay the start of the DMP until you are ready.

I also think the person you spoke to spoke absolute rubbish when they said creditors are more likely to freeze interest if you are working with a DMP company. Customers who self manage DMPs have to be treated exactly the same as they would be if they were being supported by a DMP charity/company. That's not just me saying that - it's in the Lending Standards Code....the creditors rules and regulations document.

I honestly think if you phone back and speak to someone else and just explain you have absolutely nothing to fall back on in the event of an unexpected expense and just want to put a few months money by then they will be fine.

Some people 'make up' an expense, such as car repair, needing spectacles, etc. etc. I don't think anyone should need to do that, but some people do not feel able to cope with saying they just want to put by an emergency fund.

[Deleted User]

henrryyyy wrote: »

Hi feel a bit deflated right now, not sure if I misinterpreted what I should have done or if SC are confused

I sent my SC forms off 2 days ago, with a cover note saying I want my plan to start on or after 1st August 2017.
Just received a text message saying its all set up and my first payment is due 10/04/2017
So I phoned up and explained I wanted to start on 1st August, he questioned why, I said basically I got recommended to do that by this forum to start an emergency fund and to get my creditors to default me. He goes 'I can understand wanting an emergency fund, but i can see you have budgeted £30 for it
Then goes on to say something like, if I want I can cancel the DMP now and reopen it in August, but I would need to make token payments to my creditors or they might take a CCJ out on me and that this is something I would need to arrange myself and my creditors are more likely to freeze interest if I am working with a dmp company.
Once I had sent my forms, I emailed all my creditors informing them that I have sent all details to SC and that my start date would be 1st August and that SC will be in touch shortly, most of them have only put my account on hold for 30 days
So I basically said I'll phone back after getting advice from here

I'm really sorry you've had this hassle when you've made such a great start. As January said, don't panic:)

I once had to sort something out with them and the phone conversation was taking ages as it was complicated:o. I wasn't getting on too well with the advisor (it was a man, wonder if it was the one you dealt with?) and I said I'd have to hang up and phone again the day after. He said he'd leave a note on my file so I wouldn't have to go through all the details again as I might not get him on the phone next time..


Long story short, when I phoned next day I got a different operative who was so helpful:j. Apparently the note left on my file didn't really explain what we'd discussed the day before so I had to go through it all again anyway:(. The lady made several very helpful suggestions without me having to push for them and I was immensely relieved. She was so much more sympathetic and understanding about my problem.


To be honest, I don't think they all sing from the same hymn sheet and have a certain amount of leeway. So please phone again (with fingers crossed that a different advisor answers your call). Explain about the need for a realistic emergency fund before embarking on your DMP. If it worries you to say outright that you want to build an emergency fund up with no real purpose in mind could you say something like your car/boiler/whatever is just about OK for the moment but is very old and will need urgent work/replacement fairly soon? They aren't too happy about people disrupting the DMP once set up by having to revert to minimal payments to cover such emergencies, although they will accept such an arrangement. Better not to have to do it too early in the DMP in my opinion and that's what would happen if the boiler/car/whatever really was to conk out very soon;)

Good luck:beer:

Billy12345

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Better not to have to do it too early in the DMP in my opinion and that's what would happen if the boiler/car/whatever really was to conk out very soon;)

Good luck:beer:

I had a similar experience. Like many I started with no emergency fund and thought things would be fine, then bang, my car decided to play silly !!!!!!s. Got a quote from the garage which was :eek: so I contacted SC and explained what happened.

SC werent happy to change the payments early in the plan, I was about six months in, I even had to ask if I could go on token payments as SC never mentioned this as an option, thankfully I found this forum or would have been stuck. SC offered to reduce the payments for one month which I said wouldnt do, they upped to two after a lot of expaining and finally I explained it would take three to meet the payment. They werent happy but would mark the file and said that creditors dont like these changes.

I said I wished I had delayed the start of the DMP to build up an emergency fund but they said my statement showed I would be able to save a little bit each month and they wouldnt have been happy to delay the start. I was new to DMP land and didnt know I could delay. I am still building up a small fund after paying for the car repairs but agree that SC dont like you dropping payments early in the DMP.

henrryyyy

Thanks for the replies
I've been told by another debt advisor that I am unable to delay my start date by more than one month, and she didnt understand why I would need to do this if I have done my budget properly. She confirmed the only option would be to cancel my DMP and reopen it in August. She had never heard of people wanting to do this and said I should look to start paying my debts ASAP.
I got told that wanting to get a default on my accounts is bad and that I open myself to court action. I explained about the whole credit rating thing, where defaults are removed 6 years from date of default whereas arrangement to pays arent until 6 years after account is settled. I got told that a DMP wouldnt be reflected on my credit rating.

basically got told I can cancel my DMP and listen to advice from here
carry on with my budget and delay payment til 1st may
go through a new budget, budgeting for emergencies starting 1st may

I've worked through a new budget with her which has me paying £200 less a month towards my debt(and increasing my DFD by 1 year) got told I have the option of making additonal payments direct to my creditors or through stepchange, ie if I do get a payday loan refund etc..
I worked through this budget to give me a bit of breathing space and time to think and get advice off here. Clearly if I want to build an emergency fund, stepchange isnt the option I can use.

I think she is going to come and look at the forum as she couldnt understand why I would want to do any of this emergency fund planning defaults etc.

I really dont know how I should proceed now

January2015

henrryyyy wrote: »

Thanks for the replies
I've been told by another debt advisor that I am unable to delay my start date by more than one month, and she didnt understand why I would need to do this if I have done my budget properly. She confirmed the only option would be to cancel my DMP and reopen it in August. She had never heard of people wanting to do this and said I should look to start paying my debts ASAP.
I got told that wanting to get a default on my accounts is bad and that I open myself to court action. I explained about the whole credit rating thing, where defaults are removed 6 years from date of default whereas arrangement to pays arent until 6 years after account is settled. I got told that a DMP wouldnt be reflected on my credit rating.

basically got told I can cancel my DMP and listen to advice from here
carry on with my budget and delay payment til 1st may
go through a new budget, budgeting for emergencies starting 1st may

I've worked through a new budget with her which has me paying £200 less a month towards my debt(and increasing my DFD by 1 year) got told I have the option of making additonal payments direct to my creditors or through stepchange, ie if I do get a payday loan refund etc..
I worked through this budget to give me a bit of breathing space and time to think and get advice off here. Clearly if I want to build an emergency fund, stepchange isnt the option I can use.

I think she is going to come and look at the forum as she couldnt understand why I would want to do any of this emergency fund planning defaults etc.

I really dont know how I should proceed now

I am so sorry you are having this trouble. We have all been through this and really it shouldn't be like it has been for you.

I would suggest you look at starting your DMP with SC later to allow you time to save an emergency fund. Regardless of what the SC advisers are telling you, you really will need this. You have already let your creditors know that your DMP will start on 1st August so just go back to SC in late June/early July and set up then.

The SC adviser is wrong about a DMP not reflecting on your credit rating. As you will be paying less than the full contractual amount to each of your debts they will each record some sort of late payment or arrangement to pay and this will continue to be reflected for the duration of your DMP. Defaults are definitely the preferred option as they are time limited to 6 years, as previously explained. The SC adviser is welcome to come onto this thread and chat to us about how it affects our credit files - I doubt she has even given it a second thought unless she has been in the position where it will affect her own credit file.