DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

Sazzie23

MrsSammyB wrote: »

Evening all, I'm having a bit of a time of it ��

My hubby is self employed and looking at no work for (at least) 2 weeks over Xmas, I knew this would be the case and made it clear to SC that this would happen especially at Christmas (one of the reasons we ended up in a pickle at times - as well as the obvious!). We pay quite a lot to our DMP every month, £1350 ish, so I've called them, after taking advice from this thread, and they've reduced the DMP by £800 for Jan 1st - they were lovely understanding and jobs a good'un.

Since speaking to them, I've been in a 7 car pile up on a motorway that I was lucky to walk away from and the car is sadly a total write off. I can and am claiming from the person who hit me (I was car 4 in the 7 cars and my car was smashed front and back), but the car I hit is claiming from me and my excess is circa £250. I've been signed off work since the crash and only get SSP and its now looking very likely I'm not going to be able to pay the DMP payment at all, let alone the reduced payment!

Merry Xmas to me! (I am a very positive person and know that I'm very lucky to have not been injured too badly and I'm pleased this is the most of my worries!)

I know I need to call and speak to them, but has anyone had experience of not being able to make a payment at all? What is the best thing to do? xx

Oh dear, not a nice thing to happen at any time, I suppose at least you'll be able to spend time with DH if you are both not working at the same time? Probably not much consolation in whats going to be a messy insurance claim as well as suffering physically:(

SC will be ok as long as you let them know, they like you to pay a minimum of £5 to each creditor if you can. You'll probably trigger some oddness from creditors, so I'd suggest you draft a letter along the lines of, Dear creditor name, unfortunately due to temp change in circumstances I am unable to pay normal amount.
These circumstances are ......your accident and subsequent SSP, AND DH and xmas employment situation...etc
I hope to return to normal payments in the future.

Hope you feel better soon and it all gets sorted, & don't forget your personal injury claim.

Sazzie23

milocat wrote: »

Oooh you lovely people. You know so much more than me about this stuff! F&F would you say on average if I had a debt of £1.5k and offered them £900 it would be accepted by a collections agency? Interest is frozen on 9 out of 10 of my debts. I may or may not have a little bit of money spare by the end of the month, so this is all highly useful sorry if am coming across as a bit of ditz - nobody around IRL to explain this sort of thing to me!

What I've read elsewhere is start your offer at 25% ; expect to settle at 40-60% if the debt is with a DCA, much higher if with the original creditor. You are more.likely to get a lower offer accepted If the DCA has not met targets, wants the commission, or because it's raining, there's a A in the month (not serious) or some other confounding factor that we don't understand.

If SC asks about your debt, or where the money came from you can tell them a family friend offered to pay off xx debt for you. They don't need to know the friend was you:D

2spicy

Had our annual review with PayPlan today, quite a good review, a few adjustments because of the cost of fuel and energy going down, so we've managed to increase the monthly payments by almost £75 !! ..

New adjusted creditor figures too mean were only just short of our "less than 5 grand by Christmas" target we set our self.

Weve just been out and ordered new beds for the whole family too (buy now, pay later with 12 months Interest free). Passed the credit check no issue and hope to have all new beds delivered in time for Christmas, and, at the current rate of repayments, we should be clear of the DMP by July next year and should have enough money to pay for the purchase by September next year.

2spicy

Sazzie23 wrote: »

What I've read elsewhere is start your offer at 25% ; expect to settle at 40-60% if the debt is with a DCA, much higher if with the original creditor. You are more.likely to get a lower offer accepted If the DCA has not met targets, wants the commission, or because it's raining, there's a A in the month (not serious) or some other confounding factor that we don't understand.

If SC asks about your debt, or where the money came from you can tell them a family friend offered to pay off xx debt for you. They don't need to know the friend was you:D

I covered this a few weeks ago when I managed to wipe out 2 of our 9 creditors, and move our DFD another month closer.

There is a sample letter that I posted within the last 2 months.

Sazzie23

2spicy wrote: »

I covered this a few weeks ago when I managed to wipe out 2 of our 9 creditors, and move our DFD another month closer.

There is a sample letter that I posted within the last 2 months.

Thanks 2spicy its post #718 on this thread, I cant paste links on this laptop (...just because..)

& that signature is looking very good - poss 8 payments to go? :beer:

Sazzie23

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Sazzie, Ellieseleven was replying to me. My user name is carbootcrazy but everyone abbreviates it to CBC:)

In my defence it was very early lol

Scaredofdebt_2

Advice needed please. I have had a letter today from hfx saying it is time for a review and that I need to ring them with my income and expenditure to hand. My SC review is due in Feb but I was going to do it in the New Year but not sure how I need to respond to Hfx. Can anyone help? Thank you.

2spicy

Scaredofdebt wrote: »

Advice needed please. I have had a letter today from hfx saying it is time for a review and that I need to ring them with my income and expenditure to hand. My SC review is due in Feb but I was going to do it in the New Year but not sure how I need to respond to Hfx. Can anyone help? Thank you.

Call Hfx and tell them that your DMP is being managed by SC. give them your DMP reference and tell them that an annual review will be done by SC and forwarded when this is completed.
Don't panic over it ... If they insist, then point them in the direction of SC.
Don't worry.

neiljmuk

January2015 wrote: »

I think they just want to talk it through with you - literally.

We had to do a review recently because we 'added' a debt (we didn't really but stupid EDF sold half of a dual fuel debt, ie sold the electric bit but not the gas, and so adding the DCA for the electric debt appeared to be a 'new' debt (even though the debt to EDF immediately reduced by over half):mad:

When we did our review it showed payments needed to reduce and they just talked it through with us. No hidden agenda - just made sure we had got figures correct. They are not trying to trip you up, or challenge you, but they do have to give debt advice/counselling - it's the basis on which they are set up. Not everything can be done without talking to them occasionally.

I know you are on hold for a fair while but it is a completely free service and they are helping so many people. They must have a limited staff budget - which is not supported by us lot in any way - so the more people who need financial support and guidance the longer it takes to get through. Just try and be patient - they are doing their best and are not keeping you on hold to annoy you;)

Thanks (and to others who replied). They indeed wanted to just check the £300 was a big enough reduction for me and that I was happy with the length of it. Very easy going call. Was just trying to get things sorted yesterday as it were, in the run up to Christmas. Coming together now tho. And have no beef with hold times and the great service they offer. Funnily enough I got through instantly and the person who picked up dealt with the review so spot on.

PaceThePixie

Afternoon All,

My husband has a DMP with a company called MoneyPlus. Earlier this year due to health problems myself he absorbed my one an only outgoing (loan) to his DMP. Today we received a breakdown of the whole plan. Up until now I had been unaware of how much he owed (previous marriage left him in A LOT of debt). I am not angry with him at all. I am concerned how the DMP is being run by MoneyPlus. They take a monthly administrative fee of £39.99. Fair enough as he / we are in debt. However is there another way or company who we can turn to help us as some of these debts are very small and the DMP is paying just £1 per month to some of the outstanding balances. We would like to be able to make offers to some of these companies to help rid us of these debts but the DMP company are not allowing us to do this? Hope this makes sense to you lovely people. It's been a tough year financially as I am off work with mental health issues too. Group hug and thanks in advance for any advice you have.