Having a solo DMP when living together?

foolofbeans

I have been looking at our finances recently as we are in serious trouble. I talked to DH and he seemed onboard with cutting back and even agreed that his entertainment and smoking money needed to be drastically cut.
A month later and nothing has changed I have deliberately left his bank with no money (I am the one who monitors the accounts and robs Peter to pay Paul)) and told him there was only £20 spare for him to go out with last night. Today I checked the bank and he hasn't taken anything out which means that he took it from his recently increased credit card :mad:

I'm so exhausted with worrying about money while he has never taken control of his finances. I know I am equally as bad as I spend too but I am ready and willing to make sacrifices to clear debts but it appears I am fighting a losing battle.
Can I enter a DMP on my own if we live together?
My income is paltry (circa £600/month) but maybe enough to pay debts and I'm frantically searching for jobs to increase this. Would I be able to declare to a DMP that DH pays all the household bills? I have to talk to him about that bit yet of course!

I could always do nothing as the day is getting closer to when there is no more credit and the bills can't be paid but I like to have a plan to tackle problems as this helps me feel more positive.

sourcrates

DMP is just a fancy name for an arrangement to repay your debts at a lower rate than you were originally contracted to.
Anyone can propose this type of arrangement to creditors, inc you.

You don't need to use a 3rd party, you can propose it yourself.

There isn't any acceptance criteria, and your income or what your other half pays is irrelevant, you simply work out what you can afford to pay from your available money, then write to all your creditors with the offer.

It doesn't Matter if they don't accept, you pay anyway, and they either tow the line, or sell the debt, in which case it would be rinse and repeat with the new owner.

HappyMJ

foolofbeans wrote: »

I have been looking at our finances recently as we are in serious trouble. I talked to DH and he seemed onboard with cutting back and even agreed that his entertainment and smoking money needed to be drastically cut.
A month later and nothing has changed I have deliberately left his bank with no money (I am the one who monitors the accounts and robs Peter to pay Paul)) and told him there was only £20 spare for him to go out with last night. Today I checked the bank and he hasn't taken anything out which means that he took it from his recently increased credit card :mad:

I'm so exhausted with worrying about money while he has never taken control of his finances. I know I am equally as bad as I spend too but I am ready and willing to make sacrifices to clear debts but it appears I am fighting a losing battle.
Can I enter a DMP on my own if we live together?
My income is paltry (circa £600/month) but maybe enough to pay debts and I'm frantically searching for jobs to increase this. Would I be able to declare to a DMP that DH pays all the household bills? I have to talk to him about that bit yet of course!

I could always do nothing as the day is getting closer to when there is no more credit and the bills can't be paid but I like to have a plan to tackle problems as this helps me feel more positive.

You can enter into individual DMP's which might mean you make no payments and he makes some payments.

Expenses for these sort of arrangements are normally either split 50/50 or split by your income share i.e if he takes home £1,800 a month then you would split the household expenses 25/75. As he's taking home 3 times more then he would be expected to pay more towards the household expenses but as you earn something you would be expected to pay something towards them too.

I think there's a bigger issue though.

Time_to_face_the_music

sourcrates wrote: »

DMP is just a fancy name for an arrangement to repay your debts at a lower rate than you were originally contracted to.
Anyone can propose this type of arrangement to creditors, inc you.

You don't need to use a 3rd party, you can propose it yourself.

There isn't any acceptance criteria, and your income or what your other half pays is irrelevant, you simply work out what you can afford to pay from your available money, then write to all your creditors with the offer.

It doesn't Matter if they don't accept, you pay anyway, and they either tow the line, or sell the debt, in which case it would be rinse and repeat with the new owner.

There is another scenario where you make reduced payments but the creditor doesn't stop interest and doesn't sell on the debt and you find your debt increasing.

I left Stepchange and went self managed for this very reason and if someone is comfortable with writing letters from provided templates and running an Excel (or similar) spreadsheet, I would recommend a CAB self managed DMP every time.

TTFTM x

foolofbeans

sourcrates wrote: »

DMP is just a fancy name for an arrangement to repay your debts at a lower rate than you were originally contracted to.
Anyone can propose this type of arrangement to creditors, inc you.

How could I not know this? I have lurked on the boards for a while but this info is very useful, thank you.

HappyMJ wrote: »

You can enter into individual DMP's which might mean you make no payments and he makes some payments.
Of course that's assuming he wants to enter into a DMP. We won't have any choice soon and he probably would if it meant paying less on the debts but I was hoping we could have cleared the debts by knuckling down and budgeting.
I think there's a bigger issue though.

I think that has become very clear to me lately

foolofbeans

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

There is another scenario where you make reduced payments but the creditor doesn't stop interest and doesn't sell on the debt and you find your debt increasing.

That's a scary thought.
I'd be happy to arrange my own DMP and it would help me feel more in control as I could see what is to be paid and when and how much we still owe.
I guess I had assumed that the companies would just go along with what I decided as long as I plan to pay them back all what is owed. It's got to be worth talking to individual companies about reducing payments even if just for a short time until we can increase our income,