Payplan experiences/advice

SortingIt_2

Hi there,

After having to take a paycut and an ex not paying up I am now approx £400 short a month to meet all payments on a very very very basic budget consisting of living expenses and paying debts - this did not include any extras such as dental, opticians, social, etc etc. I now realise from research that I should include these in a budget.

Anyhow, I finally realised that I can't carry on and need to take action. I have managed to date to pay everything through the help of family and friends but as of next pay day this all stops. I need to get some order and perspective as such.

Thanks to this site I have been able to get a bit of background but I am still quite nervous about it. Sorry to sound like a big baby. I have payplan calling me this evening at 8pm to go through everything (I was unable to get a tel appt with cccs until a couple of weeks) and I really don't know what to expect. Any experiences/advice or anything else you think I should know about it all would be gratefully received.

I have started reading through the DMP support thread but as you can imagine it is taking sometime. You guys really do support each other and it's great.

Ok - sorry for such a long post. I look forward to any replies.

Lucy1982_2

Morning!

Now I don't know much about DMP's, but other on here are wonderful and will help if you have any questions.

Have you sat down and worked out a realistic budget for yourself? Have a look at the sticky thread called 'Frist time Poster' which will tell you everything you need to know about doing you statement of Affairs (SOA) a list of everything that needs to leave you account and everything that goes into it.

Good luck with Payplan later and let us know how you get on

pinkkat8910

Hi sortingit! Welcome to the boards

Firstly, well done for making the first step in putting things right, it takes a lot of courage (no matter what people say!)

Payplan will run through your Statement of Affairs on the phone, your incomings and outgoings and establish what you have left over as surplus, this in turn will be offered on a pro-rata basis to your creditors (ie. a percentage based on the amount owing to each creditor).

This process can be quite long winded Sortingit, it can take upto 3 months in some cases (if not longer!) for creditors to agree new reduced payments and the possibility of freezing interest (do remember they are not obliged to!).

Once the DMP is set up its easy peasy!!

My advice would be :

1) Set up another bank account which has no relation to any of your creditors (such as if you have a HSBC loan and bank account ... move your account elsewhere) ... this stops any risk of creditors 'helping themselves'

2) Perhaps look at changing your phone number ... initially you can be inundated with phone calls from creditors who want to deal with you direct as opposed to Payplan. Changing numbers omits all these phone calls and all correspondence is done with letters!

3) When telling payplan what you spend per month, be realistic! Don't deprive yourself of everything ... they will probably do this for you anyway! For example on going out, if you say you spend nothing they are likely to include an allowance anyway ... everyone has to go once in a while eh

and most importantly ... know that you're on your way to debt-free wonderland!! haha!

Keep us posted with how you get on won't you :money:

rayday2

Sounds a bit naughty but my first month in DMP I made out we ate at work canteens took public transport (which is more expensive!) the children ate school dinners and we had regular perscriptions I know this sounds naughty but it gave me a safety net to learn to live in budget and I didn't want to commit to the plan and then not have enough money I thought it was better to raise it at next review if we were managing.

Kat is spot on with her advice so follow her steps!

SortingIt_2

Thank you all for your advice. I have taken it all on board and will start working on it.

I have posted on the DMP thread too as wasn't sure where to post??

I am very anxious about all of this but I can see that with you guys that you can get there!

Thanks again xx

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hi sweetie,

We're doing our own DMP, but we did have some help from CCCS in the beginning which really helped.

The other people who've replied are much better informed than me, the only advice I can add is to have as much of your debt paperwork to hand so that you can quote figures and interest rates when you need to, and to have worked out a rough budget yourself so you've started to think about the "extras" like hair cuts, prescriptions, birthdays school trips etc and what kind of budget you need for those.

Don't try to cut your expenses back to the bone - you've got to live like this! :eek:

If you don't go out drinking, or buy newspapers etc, add in an amount anyway which will be helpful when the kids come home from school wanting a tenner for the school trip or something.

And don't be scared, Payplan are there to help you.

BTW, I keep meaning to read the DMP thread but it feels like too big a task to embark on (I'm a bit intimidated by the enormous threads!)

Let us know how you get on tonight honey,

Love Jacks xxx

pinkkat8910

I can understand your anxieties ... heck I was there once too

Keep at it and the end will soon be in sight ... i'm sure you'll feel a million times better after speaking with Payplan tonight!

rayday2

Jacks don't read it all! Jump in on the last page, I jumped in before realising it was mainly people setting up DMP but we all help each other along and someone like you would be very valuable!

yellowmonkey

Hi

Do not worry at all. They are great. You will wonder what the fuss is all about later tonight. Let us know how it goes

Try to have details of your debt ie amounts and who too. If I remember right they also need account numbers of your creditor debts

Jacks Pop over to the DMP thread. You will be most welcome (As is anybody ). Really enjoy your posts by the way.

ym

SortingIt_2

Thanks to you all for your replies. It has really helped in calming my nerves about all of this. I know it is the right thing to do as I can't struggle any longer.

I have a list of all my debts, account numbers and current balances. The only thing I am not sure I have done right is my budget/soa as I haven't allowed for anything such as dentist, opticians, bday/xmas, entertainment etc etc. I was not sure such things were allowed. Do I include and also anyone know what the average is?? I don't want to look like I am spending away....

Thanks xx

yellowmonkey

Hi

I had no idea about dentist,entertainment,opticians etc. They have guidlines that they allow for each expenditure. They allowed £480 for food ( 2 adults, 2 children ). Dont spend nearly that much. They will go through all of this with you. Off the top of my head i think they allow something like £15 for dentist. Dont quote me on that though

ym