DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 11

[Deleted User]

Sorry you're having such a tough time just now, PaceThePixie. You've done the right thing posting on here as many of the contributors to the thread have had experience of most of the problems that can occur on a DMP. I don't know enough to answer your questions myself but I'm sure someone will come along to help you soon:T

All I can say is that most if not all of us use one of the free-to-use charitable organisations to administer our DMPs. You shouldn't have to pay fees on top of everything else when you're in debt:eek:. A lot of us are with StepChange . I can't speak highly enough of them and lots of others feel the same:j

How simple or otherwise it would be to switch from a fee-charging company to one like StepChange I really don't know but I'm sure someone will:T:T

milocat

Oh bloody hell. I wrote out my budget for what I needed to pay today and what Christmas presents I could buy and I've totally fluffed it. I am £100 out, and therefore my Stepchange payment bounced this morning I also can't pay my internet for the second month running. I've given EE a token payment as it were to avoid being cut off but now I can't pay Stepchange. And this is the 3rd payment I've missed in the past 12 months so if I miss another one I am totally screwed.
Why do I do this to myself??

Time_to_face_the_music

PaceThePixie wrote: »

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.

Hi PaceThePixie

Phone 0800 138 1111 now, it's not too late Stepchange are open until 8pm

While you are waiting to get through, check out

http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPdebtmanagementplan.aspx


and the section on

Want to switch your DMP to us?

Do it now, it will change both your lives and please come back and tell us how you get on.

TTFTM x

Sazzie23

PaceThePixie wrote: »

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.

I vote with TTFTM - try Stepchange, and can i just say TTFTM is not know to be their greatest fan, so your situation must really warrant some help in there.

Move to STepchange now, and then keep coming back here so we can help you a bit more. Your are doing well to post on here, I understand tough financial and emotional situations. Don't give up.

Hello TTFTM :hello:

Sazzie23

milocat wrote: »

Oh bloody hell. I wrote out my budget for what I needed to pay today and what Christmas presents I could buy and I've totally fluffed it. I am £100 out, and therefore my Stepchange payment bounced this morning I also can't pay my internet for the second month running. I've given EE a token payment as it were to avoid being cut off but now I can't pay Stepchange. And this is the 3rd payment I've missed in the past 12 months so if I miss another one I am totally screwed.
Why do I do this to myself??

Oh dear, thats a bit of Christmas fix isn't it:mad:

Can you pay SC anything, they like £5 per creditor if you can to keep the plan going. I think your budget sounds like it has a few holes. Maybe writing down EVERYTHING you spend would help?

Looking at your LBM date I guess the DMP is quite new?

First, ring SC tell them you've had some unexpected expenses (probably best not to say it got blown on presents) - boilers, cars, washers, even dental bills have been know to be mentioned in the past as 'acceptable' reasons not to make the payment. I wouldn't suggest you lie to them, merely explain why the money is not there.

Then do a DMP review on line, look at your real budget, not the one we think we can manage. Remember you are not doing yourself any favours trying to keep up a high payment. Better to do a lower monthly payment and make all the payments. If you manage to stash a little somewhere on the way, you can save it for emergencies or make little extra payments to the account.

Make sure you have the EE bill covered (including the arrears). Sell something, ask for money for Christmas, anything to get back to the black.

SC won't like you running up more debt. If they do bump you, either go to Payplan, Christians Against Poverty or other free DMP.

Finally, make sure you've done all the PPI/fees etc reclaims; switched to cheapest gas & electric /broadband etc. Not without issues if you have outstanding amounts, but it is doable and might help your budget a little.


OK so you have a plan, give it a try and see how things start to work out, we're here if you get stuck.

Time_to_face_the_music

Sazzie23 wrote: »

Hello TTFTM :hello:

Hello Sazzie and all DMPers new and old :hello:

I don't often post here now but I do still read and smile at the support and the progress. I love seeing old friend's names and reading new people's stories.

To put things in perspective for anyone who is just starting out on their debt free journey, 4 years ago we were in debt to the tune of £82,344 - though I didn't know this true figure at the time and thought it was around £60,000. To finance Christmas 2011 I sold my dead mother's jewellery, then the **** really hit the fan in January when the bills started to come in. In desperation I started looking at articles about debt, found MSE and then discovered a thing called a DMP which sounded like the answer to all our problems. I joined up, found a much earlier DMP & Mutual Support Thread (possibly number 6 or 7) and then inundated the people there with stupid questions. These wonderful people supported me and the people here now will support you in the same way :A

The journey wasn't smooth all the way - the debt went up before it started going down; certain creditors (M&S I still hate you!) simply would not stop interest; we fell out with Stepchange (then CCCS) and I went it alone; our roof supports decided to partly collapse; I was made redundant, not once but twice; we had to deal with an endowment shortfall and a totally dead car but despite all this we got there. This thread and its predecessors got us there, they will get you there too, people here will celebrate every success with you, cheer you along at each milestone and sympathise with every problem :T

OK ramble over and I'm off again once I have wished everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year. If you are lurking and thinking I really need to do something about my debt, make 2016 the year that you do it

TTFTM x

Puzzcat

:xmassign: TTFTM. xx

Karen777

wow TTFM not sure I had read your story before! what a rollercoaster!
I am more lurker than poster (and far from the wisest cookie in the jar on all this stuff but another vote from me on free to use dmps - I started with payplan and have been self managed for a while now as soon as I felt I could manage it myself. Hoping to duck into the 6ks this month (touch and go!) - but if not it will be next month. Trying to learn that small steps are better than big steps followed by a big crashing falling over wailing gnashing of teeth etc!

hello everyone

2spicy

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

Hello Sazzie and all DMPers new and old :hello:

I don't often post here now but I do still read and smile at the support and the progress. I love seeing old friend's names and reading new people's stories.

To put things in perspective for anyone who is just starting out on their debt free journey, 4 years ago we were in debt to the tune of £82,344 - though I didn't know this true figure at the time and thought it was around £60,000. To finance Christmas 2011 I sold my dead mother's jewellery, then the **** really hit the fan in January when the bills started to come in. In desperation I started looking at articles about debt, found MSE and then discovered a thing called a DMP which sounded like the answer to all our problems. I joined up, found a much earlier DMP & Mutual Support Thread (possibly number 6 or 7) and then inundated the people there with stupid questions. These wonderful people supported me and the people here now will support you in the same way :A

The journey wasn't smooth all the way - the debt went up before it started going down; certain creditors (M&S I still hate you!) simply would not stop interest; we fell out with Stepchange (then CCCS) and I went it alone; our roof supports decided to partly collapse; I was made redundant, not once but twice; we had to deal with an endowment shortfall and a totally dead car but despite all this we got there. This thread and its predecessors got us there, they will get you there too, people here will celebrate every success with you, cheer you along at each milestone and sympathise with every problem :T

OK ramble over and I'm off again once I have wished everyone a very happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year. If you are lurking and thinking I really need to do something about my debt, make 2016 the year that you do it

TTFTM x

\

I can second this, ok, were not Debt Free yet, but we've engineered our DMP payments to suit our lifestyle. With 2 children growning up, we didn't want to disclose our financial status to family and friends and didnt want to deprive our children of school trips or swimming lessons. We started with a debt of excess of £75,688.00
(this is closer to £80,000 as we had borrowed money from family, but that wasnt included on the DMP).
Back in the Autumn of 2008 we sat down and worked out all our finances, then the shock hit us that we were going to be paying minimum amounts for the rest of our lives if we didnt act now. After reading the forums here (we literally started on the first post and continued through every post) we knew what we had to do. So in Jan 2009 we completed the paperwork and started our DMP in the Feb.
Once the shock and embarrassment of telling people on the phone that we were in financial difficulty subsided, we settled in for the long haul.
We set the repayments at a realistic level, and made sure we were able to cover unforeseen expenses (we claimed for pets / prescriptions / glasses / haircuts etc even though we didnt have any, just to maintain a "head" of surplus cash).
Some years we increased our DMP payments by only a few £££, other years, we were able to increase it by £2-300.
We each took out a "CashPlus" pre-pay credit card and used the "credit builder" feature to rebuild our credit rating for the last 4 years (£60 a year)

Now, were 6 months from finishing our DMP, we've "lost" the defaults on our credit files and are both back into the '900' band with experian.
We've taken the plunge to purchase furniture for the house, with nothing to pay for 9 months, so essentially, well have cleared the DMP and have 3x DMP payments banked to clear the deferred balance.

Were going to raise a glass to all of those fighting the battle to be debt free, those starting off on the adventure and to ourselves, who (hopefully) will be free of the shackles and can start to get down to some serious saving, using the financial skills and experience weve learnt over the last 7 years.

One final message though to everyone, Stay Strong, donot be bullied, you have a right to live, to have food on the table.

Happy Christmas everyone

so_very_confused

Hi TTFTM
Lovely to her from you. I am also more of a lurker than poster these day. When I found DFW you were so inspirational you kept me going you were always a source of sound, sage advice and I thank you for it.
Have a lovely debt free Christmasi:xmassign:
svc