help with debt

Newdirections

Hi everyone, thank you all for the replies. I discussed it with my hubby and he really doesn't want to enter a DMP. Dancingfairy, I think you're right about our job situations not helping. I think I will struggle on for the next couple of months (applying for 100's of full time jobs daily, as I have been doing) and if our employment situation improves then we can probably manage the situation. I will keep the DMP option in mind as well though. It is a relief to know I can find some support on here.

whattodo1967

I know its scary but I can honestly say DMP was the best thing I ever did, my debt is finally coming down for the first time in years, never had a creditor turn up at my door. All my creditors have frozen interest and have all been very understanding and supportive. Whatever you decide to do good luck.

glentoran99

Ill join the DMP advocates, best thing I ever did, although I made the mistake of going to fee charging place first, but it was such a weight off the mind, and the only things I would have done differently was not go to a fee charging company, and not pay them anything until they defaulted me, so my credit file would be clear sooner,

glentoran99

Ellieseleven wrote: »

Hello NewDirection,

I had never missed a payment to any of my creditors before going on a DMP but I realised as Sourcrates says that eventually I had to accept the futility of what I was trying to do.

I have a well paying job and my OH had set up a gardening business but as recession hit we found paying everything a struggle as the business was not doing well. We turned to credit cards to make ends meet and I was forever robbing Peter to pay Paul.

We fought to try and avoid a DMP and threw thousands of pounds at ever-increasing interest payments making little impact on our spiralling debts.

We gave in in July 2010 with a total of £46,000 of debt (this had increased by at least 10k on the previous 12 months). I contacted Stepchange and went through our options with them and a DMP was the course of action we chose. Initially it was estimated it would take 11 years to pay back all of the debt but over the years we decreased the length of time by over 4 years.

A DMP has been our saviour, my greatest worry was going into retirement with a huge amount of debt hanging over us but now we will be debt free in approx. 10 months time and we have a lot to look forward to instead of dreading what the future will bring.

Yes, a DMP will trash your credit rating but do you really want credit again? This experience has helped me to understand my spending habits and the way I treated money in the past and I look at the way I spend money in a much more controlled fashion these days.

I would do some things slightly different, for instance Sourcrates has mentioned building an emergency fund and getting accounts defaulted early on. I jumped into our DMP and only had a months money put by, in hindsight, I would have waited for a few months and built up a proper emergency fund. All my creditors have defaulted apart from one who marks my file with AP.

We budget for everything but try to have a bit of wiggle room so that we can have the odd treat here and there and we live a fairly normal life (no-one knows we are on a DMP).

We have been able to do the normal things like change utility providers, broadband service, telephone contracts etc. but we have not taken on any further credit so our car is 10 years old and we have to save to replace things e.g. Fridge, Washing machine etc.

I felt such a failure when I first started out on my DMP and wondered what would become of us but now looking back over the last 5/6 years, it is the best thing that we could have possibly done and we look forward to having a chunk of money that we can put away and save instead of having to service debt.

Only you can decide which way to go and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

Ellie x

Why are you still paying them? stop paying them until they default