DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

sourcrates

Hi JVRMac,

Basically a DMP is an option for people who for one reason or another can't use bankruptcy or one of the other insolvency solutions.

Usually because they have a property to protect or a job where insolvency is not allowed.

The down side to this, is that the DMP can take considerably longer to complete, you mentioned consolidation before, it can work, but further borrowing normally just adds to the debt, and your troubles.

I would agree that you need to treat this as a long term solution, and adjust your payments to take account of this fact.

motivated

Hi all

Just checked my Halifax loans to find they have added over £160 interest :mad:

Phoned them (they are now with the recoveries dept) and complained, they are refunding the interest added and 'resetting the repayment plan'. I informed them that I had already had default notices a couple of weeks back and asked where the default was. The lady informed me that because they've had to reset the payment plan I will be receiving 4 more letters and a default after 65 days.

Are they just delaying the inevitable?

[Deleted User]

JVRMac wrote: »

Thanks for your response. Its always difficult to talk about debt and the effects this has on your own and your family's lives. I know I have done well in reducing my debt and am a lot better off than where I was when I started. I think I just feel like my kids are missing out as everything has been on pause for the last 3 years and in another 5 years time they will be adults.

Firstly, welcome to the thread and congratulations on taking the first scary step in opening up about your situation and worries:beer:. I know how hard it can be and rest assured that you'll find lots of lovely people on here who are always willing to listen and will offer advice in a non-judgemental way. After all, we're all in the same boat or have been anyway. Sometimes the answers aren't always the ones we hoped to hear but they will always be honest and with your best interests at heart. Please keep posting and let us know how you get on.


I understand absolutely about your comment that everything has been 'on pause' for the last 3 years. I started off my DMP with the sole intention of becoming debt-free in the shortest possible time:eek:. Sadly, I didn't know this support thread existed otherwise I'd have done things very differently indeed. I was existing rather than living and every day was a struggle for at least the first 2 years. I dropped my repayments a bit via Stepchange after that when my budget review came up and things were so much better for me. I became much more optimistic about my situation. The actual debt-free date was a bit longer but it stopped being the be-all-and-end-all of my life.


I think if I were you I would try to make sure you give your children the type of life you feel they are missing out on. As you say, they'll be adults soon. I'm not talking about the latest models of phones every year or designer trainers etc but just the things that you feel they'll have happy memories of when they look back on their childhood years. It will make you feel a whole lot better too, knowing you are not depriving them of what you feel you should be giving them.


It would be a good idea to sit down and really analyse your I&E and see where tweaks can be made. Wise people on here advise claiming for things you don't need/do as the I&E forms for most lenders and DMP providers like Stepchange have so many sub catagories that I dismissed as not appropriate and which I foolishly put a £0 in at the beginning of my DMP. Not now, though. Yes, it goes against the grain not being entirely truthful but sometimes it needs to be done just to cope with life . Others, such as car insurance etc I just 'upped' a bit;). So long as your figures aren't ridiculously high they shouldn't question it. This will make your monthly expenditure look higher than it is and your debt repayment will go down appropriately. Lots of help to be found on the NEDCAB website as well as Stepchange's debt remedy tool which you can access and fiddle about with without commitment.


The other major point I want to make is have you CCA'd all your debts? It is a very simple process (loads of advice on this thread if you read back) and may prove some of your debts are unenforceable. If so it means you will not be chased through the courts to repay them and, according to sourcrates you can just forget about them altogether. Lots of others are following that route. Others are negotiating Full and Final settlements with the creditors of unenforceable debts to get them totally written off. Someone managed having to pay only 10% of a large debt to see it wiped out for good:j. A lot of us have left the security of SC so we can be more flexible with our payments. You said you self-managed prior to joining SC but maybe you are in a better position now to strike out on your own again. I wouldn't recommend it unless you are absolutely sure it's the right course for you though.


I'm sorry about the length of this post:o but I thought it best to put everything in one place.

Good Luck:beer:

Suseka97

motivated wrote: »

Hi all
Just checked my Halifax loans to find they have added over £160 interest :mad:
Phoned them (they are now with the recoveries dept) and complained, they are refunding the interest added and 'resetting the repayment plan'. I informed them that I had already had default notices a couple of weeks back and asked where the default was. The lady informed me that because they've had to reset the payment plan I will be receiving 4 more letters and a default after 65 days. Are they just delaying the inevitable?

I may have said this before, so forgive me if I'm repeating myself (this thread moves on at such a pace), but do keep an eye on Halifax. They did the same to me, back in the day - adding interest, refunding and promising a default. It took a long time for that to happen and its only recently (with the debt cleared over a year ago) that I've managed to get them to backdate the default to when it should have started. In fact, what they did is remove the marker completely (no default at all, not APs nor ARs - just settled).

I don't see why they should need a further 65 days -so maybe go back to them an push a little. But, as has been experienced by others, creditors are a law unto themselves and it seems they can pretty much do what they want when it comes to defaults

motivated

Thanks Suseka

I have a feeling they are going to mess around for a while yet. I got the impression on the phone that they were just fobbing me off to be honest. I never want credit again and so the default is not the be all and end all. But it means that no more interest etc will be added. I hope I don't have to keep complaining and getting interest refunded every month.

I think I will put together a letter to them and push for defaults. I've not paid them full payments since January.
M

henrryyyy

I received another letter today saying another account has been sold on to fredricksons. so thats 2 out of 12 sold so far.

I received a letter from a P2P site I used stating they cant accept my £1 payment offer and want me to send bank statements and , and as I am no longer in a DMP they have sent a default notice. They also cant freeze interest because of being a P2P platform.
Is a default notice different to actually being defaulted? ie we're warning we may default you? or is it saying youre account is defaulted as of this moment?

motivated

henrryyyy wrote: »

I received another letter today saying another account has been sold on to fredricksons. so thats 2 out of 12 sold so far.

I received a letter from a P2P site I used stating they cant accept my £1 payment offer and want me to send bank statements and , and as I am no longer in a DMP they have sent a default notice. They also cant freeze interest because of being a P2P platform.
Is a default notice different to actually being defaulted? ie we're warning we may default you? or is it saying youre account is defaulted as of this moment?

Hi Henry

I have had 2 default notices from Halifax, one said we MAY default, the other said we WILL default if payment isn't received by 28th July. onto today I still have no defaults.

I think the default notice is something they have to send you before actually defaulting the account.

Bepop

Hi there..I haven't been on the forum for a while..but would like some advice please. I took the plunge in April to seek debt advice after stumbling across this wee forum, which I am so grateful for. After beating myself up what to do I contacted stepchange and my first payment towards my debts was taken on 1 July. In a few months I will have expenses that I know I will most probably struggle to cover and am beginning to feel the panick rising. I have read on the forum that you are able to make payment gestures?? Can I ask for advice on this please? How low a payment am I able to offer and would I contact stepchange to do this?? Thank you in advance for some much needed guidance xx

sourcrates

Bepop wrote: »

Hi there..I haven't been on the forum for a while..but would like some advice please. I took the plunge in April to seek debt advice after stumbling across this wee forum, which I am so grateful for. After beating myself up what to do I contacted stepchange and my first payment towards my debts was taken on 1 July. In a few months I will have expenses that I know I will most probably struggle to cover and am beginning to feel the panick rising. I have read on the forum that you are able to make payment gestures?? Can I ask for advice on this please? How low a payment am I able to offer and would I contact stepchange to do this?? Thank you in advance for some much needed guidance xx

Hi,

Within your budget there should be a category called "emergency fund" which you should be paying into every month.

If you are not doing this, you need to re-visit your budget now.

For a one off expense just stop your payments for 3 months or however long you need to, maybe worth taking some time out, saving some money, then re-starting the DMP.

Something tells me you have started a little too soon and not prepared for emergencies.

Suseka97

Bepop wrote: »

.....I took the plunge in April to seek debt advice after stumbling across this wee forum, which I am so grateful for. After beating myself up what to do I contacted stepchange and my first payment towards my debts was taken on 1 July. In a few months I will have expenses that I know I will most probably struggle to cover and am beginning to feel the panick rising. I have read on the forum that you are able to make payment gestures?? How low a payment am I able to offer and would I contact stepchange to do this??

As sourcrates has said - sounds like you've jumped into your DMP a bit too soon. Did you know about these additional expenses before you started? I know that the amount SC allow for 'emergencies' isn't that great, so depending on what those expenses amount to, you'll likely not have had chance to build up that fund since July. Anyways - you could contact SC letting them know about the problem and that you'll need to reduce or stop payments for x number of months and see what they say. Or - if they don't agree (which I'm sure they will, even if they limit the months you can reduce or stop) then you'll have to tell them you are going to stop altogether and get back to them when you've got things sorted (again, I'm sure plenty of others have done that over time). The only difference here is if you stop your DMP altogether it'll be on you to let your creditors know (SC won't do that for you) and explain the situation telling them when you'll be back in touch to restart the DMP.

Don't worry if that's the route you have to take - better that than struggling and worrying about how to make ends meet. You'll get plenty of advice and support here if you need it. A DMP is meant to be a) affordable and b) flexible and you make the rules (not the creditors, or SC for that matter). I'm not knocking SC by the way, but they are just the mediators of this arrangement - you are the controller