Thinking of Start a Debt Management Plan Need Some Advice

Floopy2009

Hi there,

I am looking for some advice

I am looking to start a debt management i have about 40,000 pound in debt after everything is gone i have about 500-600 left to pay to the creditors on dmp

Does anyone have any dealing will the below will they be ok with the proposal from StepChange

Halifax
Barclays
Santander
Argos
Next
Virgin

Have any of them taken people to court thats my concern ?

Currently i have no arrears but will do next when i stop paying so that the dmp gets setup

I have been also told to open a seperate bank account will i need to make sure that all my direct debits are setup or can i provide the details and the new bank setup them.

Also i have some savings for emergencies do i keep this in my new bank account or put them somewhere else ?

Does anyone have an example of a single persons plan so i can get a feel or are the limits set in the StepChange form which will be accepted ?

Many thanks in advance

January2015

Floopy2009 wrote: »

Hi there,

I am looking for some advice

I am looking to start a debt management i have about 40,000 pound in debt after everything is gone i have about 500-600 left to pay to the creditors on dmp

Does anyone have any dealing will the below will they be ok with the proposal from StepChange

Halifax
Barclays
Santander
Argos
Next
Virgin

Have any of them taken people to court thats my concern ?

Currently i have no arrears but will do next when i stop paying so that the dmp gets setup

I have been also told to open a seperate bank account will i need to make sure that all my direct debits are setup or can i provide the details and the new bank setup them.

Also i have some savings for emergencies do i keep this in my new bank account or put them somewhere else ?

Does anyone have an example of a single persons plan so i can get a feel or are the limits set in the StepChange form which will be accepted ?

Many thanks in advance

Everyones DMP plan will be different. I've been on a DMP since January 2015. We owed just shy of £100k. From your list of creditors we had Halifax and Barclays.

All our creditors were great. Some stopped interest and charges quicker than others, some we had to push through several letters and quoting sections of The Lending Code. Barclaycard seem to only stop interest if the amount you pay them is less than 1% of the amount due. We've resorted to only payment BC £1 per month to force a default and that's taken months and months.

As long as you communicate and make token payments creditors rarely take people to court. If you watch the 'can't pay we'll take it away' type programmes you will quickly realise that all those bailiffs visits are for debts owed to people and/or companies rather than banks/credit card companies. Banks and credit cards sell debts on rather than take legal action themselves - so debts will be transferred to debt collections agencies first (DCAs). DCAs are okay to deal with.

If any of your debts are old it's worth considering sending a CCA request (asking for a copy of the consumer credit agreement you would have signed). Folks on here will tell you if there's any possibility it's unenforceable, i.e. you still owe the money but the creditor would not be able to enforce collection of the debt and would not be able to take any legal action against you. We have a debt like that for approx £11k. I know we owe it, but it's the least of our problems at the moment and we are just not paying it. The creditor is not chasing us for the money either.

When putting in figures on the StepChange (SC) form for your expenditure - inflate as much as you can. For example, if you don't have pets - for the form you do and it costs quite a lot to feed and insure pets. If you don't smoke - for the form you do. Add the cost of cigarettes, etc. etc.

Also, you can contact creditors and advise you are seeking advice from SC and just make token payments of £1 for several months. You really need to delay the start of your DMP to allow you to build up a good emergency fund. If anything happens (boiler repair, car breakdown etc.) you will no longer have access to credit and therefore an emergency fund is essential to have in place before you start the DMP.

Good luck with it all. Pop over to the wonderful DMP Mutual support thread and you will find a great group of people who are going through their own DMPs, or have been through and come out the otherside. They will all have invaluable advice and guidance to share. No question is a stupid question - but you can bet your bottom dollar if you have a question, one or more of those lovely folks will have already been through it and know the answer. It really is worth reading through the whole thread if you can make the time (do it in stages rather than in one go). You will be amazed at the fantastic information you will find just through reading the thread.

On_my_way

Having been on a DMP myself the first thing I would say to you is to call all of your creditors and tell them that you can't make your minimum payments. I promise you that they will be fine about it and will help you.

UNLESS you are forced to don't stop paying otherwise they will put defaults on your credit file which will cause you problems with borrowing or mortgage etc for 6 years.

I would really encourage you to ring them to sort out lower payments without defaulting. Hopefully you will be able to increase your work hours or something to help you out too.

Good luck. In my experience the best thing is to tell them that you can't pay the amount they want at the moment.

sourcrates

On_my_way wrote: »

Having been on a DMP myself the first thing I would say to you is to call all of your creditors and tell them that you can't make your minimum payments. I promise you that they will be fine about it and will help you.

UNLESS you are forced to don't stop paying otherwise they will put defaults on your credit file which will cause you problems with borrowing or mortgage etc for 6 years.

I would really encourage you to ring them to sort out lower payments without defaulting. Hopefully you will be able to increase your work hours or something to help you out too.

Good luck. In my experience the best thing is to tell them that you can't pay the amount they want at the moment.

If they don't default you, creditors can put "AP" markers on your credit file (arrangement to pay).

These can stay on your credit file for a further 6 years after you Finnish repaying the debt, so potentially a very long time, that's why in any debt management plan that's going to last longer than 6 years, as most do, it's better to be defaulted as early as possible, so you know exactly when those defaults will be gone.

Which is a lot better for you, and your credit file, in the long run.