DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

[Deleted User]

Bepop wrote: »

Thank you for your advice much appreciated. I have added stepchange in to my letters and will post them out today. Again what a great bunch you all are..don't think I would have made it this far without you all xx

Well done, Bepop:T

Try to relax a bit now and enjoy the bank holiday weekend:beer:


Oooops! Crossed posts with Suseka:o

motivated

Bepop wrote: »

Thank you for your advice much appreciated. I have added stepchange in to my letters and will post them out today. Again what a great bunch you all are..don't think I would have made it this far without you all xx

Hi Bepop

I totally agree about not finding the strength to do it without the advice and support on here. I too was in the same boat only a couple of months ago. Asking questions and panicking about debt companies, defaults, credit files etc. I took the plunge and haven't looked back since. Now I'm totally at ease with the whole SC and DMP route. I've already paid my first payment and have my second payment ready to go on the 1st. I've not had one negative thing to say at all so far and actually feel excited about the future now. Already my balances have reduced and will continue to do so until I reach the finish line.
We are so much more relaxed now

You will feel so much better about it all once it's all up and running. You have made the right decision and you will find the strength to challenge any of your creditors with the help of the amazing people on here.
Good luck
M

Twins

Suseka97 wrote: »

A quick, but :j update...

Having completed my annual review -I decided it was worth checking some of the balances as I hadn't done it since the last few of my creditors had sold my debt on to a DCA. I usually check balances when debts are sold on, but due to work and other family pressures -I had let that slip.

Just got the last of the updated statements from 3 debts with the PRA Group and the amounts owed to them are lower than SC had recorded. Have tonight updated my balances and I've now hit the 80% paid (one of my milestones) and reduced my DFD by 1 month.

Can't tell you how good that feels - only 10 months more and I'll be free of debt :T

So to end the evening I just want to encourage anyone out there who is undecided whether to take control of their situation and take that first step - please, please do so. My only regret was that I didn't do this sooner. My debt position was brought about mostly due to my husband sticking his head in the sand and refusing to come clean with me about how bad our situation was (due to loss of income) and so our debts grew for over a year more than they should have. But we are where we are and I've found the whole DMP experience overall a good one and post-DMP I'll be turning my attention to the mortgage.

Hi Suseka

Please can I ask how much you pay per month on your DMP? I notice from your signature that your Debt was higher than mine but you've significantly reduced your time to be debt free and wondered what your monthly amount was? I started off on £30k worth of debt in 2011 and now I'm at £17k with an estimated Debt free year of 2023. I'm so keen to reduce that down so am aiming to offer to F&F payments where I can.

Thank you and well done!! Love hearing stores like this... gets me so motivated!

January2015

Twins wrote: »

Hi Suseka

Please can I ask how much you pay per month on your DMP? I notice from your signature that your Debt was higher than mine but you've significantly reduced your time to be debt free and wondered what your monthly amount was? I started off on £30k worth of debt in 2011 and now I'm at £17k with an estimated Debt free year of 2023. I'm so keen to reduce that down so am aiming to offer to F&F payments where I can.

Thank you and well done!! Love hearing stores like this... gets me so motivated!

Suseka will no doubt reply to your question - but just thought I would let you know about my DMP and payments / progress.

We started the DMP owing approx £95k. We started paying approx £900 per month and were forecast to be on a DMP for approx 9 years. When we went self managed we dropped the payments so that we had more flexibility with our budget. We then paid approx £600 per month. During this time we dropped to £1 per creditor per month for a few months as well.

In just over 2 years our debt has gone from £95k down to £68k and shortly will drop to £49k. This has been a combination of monthly DMP payments and some full and final settlement offers.

No matter what our monthly payment is, we don't worry about the debt free date (DFD) forecast because we will keep saving and offering F&Fs and bringing that DFD closer and closer.

My goal is to be debt free within 3 years

Twins

January2015 wrote: »

Suseka will no doubt reply to your question - but just thought I would let you know about my DMP and payments / progress.

We started the DMP owing approx £95k. We started paying approx £900 per month and were forecast to be on a DMP for approx 9 years. When we went self managed we dropped the payments so that we had more flexibility with our budget. We then paid approx £600 per month. During this time we dropped to £1 per creditor per month for a few months as well.

In just over 2 years our debt has gone from £95k down to £68k and shortly will drop to £49k. This has been a combination of monthly DMP payments and some full and final settlement offers.

No matter what our monthly payment is, we don't worry about the debt free date (DFD) forecast because we will keep saving and offering F&Fs and bringing that DFD closer and closer.

My goal is to be debt free within 3 years

Thanks January, you're doing fab :T It's good to hear everyone's stories and how they are beating their forecasted DFD. I know I need to really focus on overpaying and chipping away at my debts. I'm up for my DMP review and am seriously thinking of self managing. I worry about rocking the boat with my creditors as up until now none of them have bat an eyelid with my payments or halting interest. Don't want it all to kick off....

Have a great evening!

January2015

Twins wrote: »

Thanks January, you're doing fab :T It's good to hear everyone's stories and how they are beating their forecasted DFD. I know I need to really focus on overpaying and chipping away at my debts. I'm up for my DMP review and am seriously thinking of self managing. I worry about rocking the boat with my creditors as up until now none of them have bat an eyelid with my payments or halting interest. Don't want it all to kick off....

Have a great evening!

None of our creditors said a dicky bird when we went self managed. They just all carried on as they had when we were with SC. Even when I told them we were only paying them £1 a month for a while when we moved to self managed - no problem. Moving to self managed we dropped out payments by a third and again - no problems as it was supported by an income and expenditure statement that evidenced it was all we could afford. The fact it was different to the one provided by SC was not a problem - we just stated it was all we could afford to pay them. Our income had not changed, but we made our expenditure more realistic and not as tight as budget as we had when were were with SC.

No-one will kick off if you decide to move to self managed.

Twins

January2015 wrote: »

None of our creditors said a dicky bird when we went self managed. They just all carried on as they had when we were with SC. Even when I told them we were only paying them £1 a month for a while when we moved to self managed - no problem. Moving to self managed we dropped out payments by a third and again - no problems as it was supported by an income and expenditure statement that evidenced it was all we could afford. The fact it was different to the one provided by SC was not a problem - we just stated it was all we could afford to pay them. Our income had not changed, but we made our expenditure more realistic and not as tight as budget as we had when were were with SC.

No-one will kick off if you decide to move to self managed.

Thanks January. Is there a template that you know of that I can send to my creditors to say I will self manage? Then did you have to call your DMP company and explain what you were going to do and did you run into any issues there? I don't have all my creditors bank details to set up direct debits to so that's going to be a pain

January2015

Twins wrote: »

Thanks January. Is there a template that you know of that I can send to my creditors to say I will self manage? Then did you have to call your DMP company and explain what you were going to do and did you run into any issues there? I don't have all my creditors bank details to set up direct debits to so that's going to be a pain

I used the NEDCAB DMP to move to self manage. It's an online self managed DMP provided by North East Derbyshire Citizens Advice Bureau. If you register an account and work through it, it does the calculations and produces the income and expenditure (I&E) sheet for you to print off and then produces the offer letters to all your creditors.

I used it to start off with, but don't bother with it anymore. I sort it all myself in excel and use their letters as the basis for any I need to send with updated offers etc.

Edit: sorry, I meant to say I never called any creditors. I sent the letters generated by NEDCAB and added a line in each letter to say I only gave permission to communicate with me in writing. I've had no phone calls at all since the beginning of my DMP. I also added a line requesting details for me to make payment to them, i.e. sort code and account number.

January2015

Twins - I will not set up direct debits for any of my creditors. I do not want them to have the power to take funds from my account at any time. All my payments to creditors are via standing orders - where I can easily change the amount to be paid each month if I need to.

motivated

Hi all

Guess what, I have questions

This morning I have received 3 letters from Halifax regarding 2 loans we have/had. One dated the 12/04/17 acknowledges our repayment plan but also states that it expires on 13/10/2017 then they want more income and expenditure details not sure why this is.

The other 2 dated the 11/04/17 state that the payments have not been received on my accounts as agreed with the repayment plan. This means your repayment arrangement has been cancelled and collections team activity to recover the debt will commence.

Not sure if these are just standard letters and if I need to do anything.

Any thoughts please
M