Move to Self-Managed DMP?

sunday_girl

Hi

Hoping for some advice please.

My husband and I have been on a joint DMP with Payplan since 2013. We have 4 debts - Halifax defaulted us straight away so we have been paying Wescot and the other 3 are still with the original creditors. Loan and OD with Natwest interest was frozen from the start, no problems. Barclaycard however rejected our dmp offer this year and though for the past few months haven't been charging any interest, they have now started adding interest again of approximately half of our monthly DMP payment to them.

Payplan don't seem to do a great deal to help so wondering if it would be a good idea to go self managed and continue paying the same amounts as agreed by Payplan. Our overdraft debt is relatively small so I feel we might have a better opportunity to negotiate to pay this off completely if we are self managed which we cannot do under Payplan. More importantly, I need to know what the best course of action is to deal with Barclaycard. Do I have to add them to the DMP if we start self managing or is it best to stop paying altogether/make token payments so they default us and then set up an arrangement with a DCA?

Hope this makes sense, any advice much appreciated.

sourcrates

sunday_girl wrote: »

More importantly, I need to know what the best course of action is to deal with Barclaycard. Do I have to add them to the DMP if we start self managing or is it best to stop paying altogether/make token payments so they default us and then set up an arrangement with a DCA?

Hope this makes sense, any advice much appreciated.

Hi,

Barclaycard are regulars on this forum, for exactly the reasons you describe above.

You also appear to have a strategy to deal with them, I would stop paying them altogether, let them go through the motions, and .........eventually, they will sell it on.

Going Self managed is a good plan too, gives you the freedom to do as you want, negotiate your own settlement offers etc etc.

So yes to both !!

sunday_girl

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

Barclaycard are regulars on this forum, for exactly the reasons you describe above.

You also appear to have a strategy to deal with them, I would stop paying them altogether, let them go through the motions, and .........eventually, they will sell it on.

Going Self managed is a good plan too, gives you the freedom to do as you want, negotiate your own settlement offers etc etc.

So yes to both !!

That's great, thanks for your help.

Choc-addict

Hey,

No longer post here often but just to say that I went self managed dmp and it was the best thing I ever did. Creditors were happy to deal with me direct and I ended up clearing all my debts a lot sooner.

Best of luck x

blisteringblue

Go it alone, had exactly the same issue with Barclaycard this year and went self managed. Dropped their payment to £5 a month and it took a couple of months before they stopped the interest and then around 6 months to finally get defaulted.

We've 8 creditors and all have been great to deal with as self managed and the 3 that would not stop interest under Stepchange have all stopped after paying my own token payments for a few months.

Stepchange are great but it's a very regimented system, sometimes you simply have to pay less to get rid of interest and Stepchange simply won't allow this.

sunday_girl

Thanks, really appreciate your replies....going to start sorting out self management tomorrow.

Mockingjays

I switched to a self managed DMP a couple of years back and have never looked back. I had a similar problem with Stepchange and a CC debt. Once interest started to be reapplied I wasn't making any inroads into the debt, which I felt was getting me nowhere.

I found that all my creditors were happy to deal with me, and the most important thing to keep them happy is to keep them in the loop with regular financial statements and not missing any payments. Mine are all set up with standing orders, which I can control. I send them up to offers/statements when requested and it's all been very smooth.

At the time I switched someone gave me this link https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/dmp.asp I found it really helpful, it has template letters etc.

All the best.

peteuk

Around the time that CCCS became Step Change I took the decision to self manage my DMP. I realise that the advice from CCCS/SC had been free and without their help and support I would have been lost, but in the end I was talking to my creditors as much as they were, if not more.

I had one incident where I was being told that the creditor had had no information from CCCS/SC (which wasn't the case someone made a mistake and they were saving face) So I ended up piggy in the middle. Thankfully I had the SOA review from CCCS and so filled it out and sent it as an update to me creditors.

At least when there is a problem, I don't get told to speak to my third party now and I know when I have sent info and how.

Good luck.

sunday_girl

Quick update - letters to creditors and financial statements printed and ready to send (with help of nedcab - what a useful resource!).

Just a couple of questions....what should we tell Barclaycard when we write to them? Should we be upfront that we are resorting to token payments in order to get them to default us?

Also, should I be sending the letters recorded delivery of is normal first class post OK?

Thanks once again for your replies and encouragement.

glentoran99

sunday_girl wrote: »

Quick update - letters to creditors and financial statements printed and ready to send (with help of nedcab - what a useful resource!).

Just a couple of questions....what should we tell Barclaycard when we write to them? Should we be upfront that we are resorting to token payments in order to get them to default us?

Also, should I be sending the letters recorded delivery of is normal first class post OK?

Thanks once again for your replies and encouragement.

No, you tell them you cant afford any more than token payments

sourcrates

sunday_girl wrote: »

Also, should I be sending the letters recorded delivery of is normal first class post OK?

Mail gets delivered in bulk to these companies, recorded mail SHOULD be sent separately, but usually ends up in the same bag in my experience !!