DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

Miss_Toffee_Penny

There is some great advice on here. You lot are fab x

To those of you starting out; please do not worry. Take one step at a time.

I recall not sleeping at the start of our DMP. I used to wake in the middle of the night and walk around my kitchen worrying myself silly at all stupid hours! It's the mixture of guilt, feeling stupid, embarrassed and somewhat relieved all in one. You no longer can afford to carry on living like this, so be positive that you are taking the right steps in dealing with your debts.

You will receive lots of letters from the companies you owe. They are standard written but do sound scary. Once the companies realise they ain't getting what you haven't got then they start to pass you to their debt collection agencies. Some of their letters will be written in big red writing (Moorcroft, one of Halifax's chums would do this). The letters are written in a way to get you to contact them and offer more than what you have.

Please do not worry and stand your ground with what you are offering to pay. The beauty of a DMP is it's flexibility in what you can realistically afford to pay towards the debt totals and having a life too. I'm not saying you should default and party every weekend, kitting yourself out in new clothes each month. It's about paying something off but being able to eat, heat your home and pay general household bills like rent, electric etc. Some months will be better than others but that's how life is.

We found StepChange very easy to deal with. I liked the fact I could hide behind them when dealing with creditors at the start. I just kept referring them to the Stepchange number I had. Some creditors also liked to bump up charges right before they defaulted and sold the debt on to the agencies. They obviously get more money for the higher debts. It is frustrating but when you see the totals coming down, albeit slowly in some cases, you will begin to see a light at the end of your tunnel.

You will look back at this time of your life and realise it is the best thing you have ever done. You will be debt free. One day you might even laugh about it. One step at a time but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Good luck.

Miss_Toffee_Penny

It's amazing on this thread that as strangers, we all seem to know the same blokes; Peter, Paul and Bill :rotfl:

heavenlyharry01

Hello

Has anyone any experience on getting VERY/NCO to default? I’ve been paying them £1 per month for nearly a year now and still no default - which I have requested. Stop paying completely? Or write another letter, this time headed COMPLAINT rather than asking nicely!?
As always your advice is much appreciated

sourcrates

heavenlyharry01 wrote: »

Hello

Has anyone any experience on getting VERY/NCO to default? I’ve been paying them £1 per month for nearly a year now and still no default - which I have requested. Stop paying completely? Or write another letter, this time headed COMPLAINT rather than asking nicely!?
As always your advice is much appreciated

Usually they waste no time in selling on the accounts, after first been hauled through there internal debt collectors.

Could be you’ve slipped below the radar, no harm in prodding them.

motivated

Morning all

As it’s the 1st of the month I have just logged into our MBNA cards and we no longer have access. So true to their word MBNA seem to be defaulting us now. :T

They probably got fed up of me keeping on at them too. I used to be afraid of my creditors, not any more I am now Mrs ‘ I can do this’
M

vaper

motivated wrote: »

Morning all

As it’s the 1st of the month I have just logged into our MBNA cards and we no longer have access. So true to their word MBNA seem to be defaulting us now. :T

They probably got fed up of me keeping on at them too. I used to be afraid of my creditors, not any more I am now Mrs ‘ I can do this’
M

Well done. Keep going :beer:

Suseka97

oldboybailey wrote: »

Hello everyone,
I've been reading the forum loads over the last few days and its got me thinking so hopefully one of you amazing people will be able to offer some advice please.......

My concern is that as the payments are just above 1% of the total debt, are they likely to be difficult in freezing interest and charges etc? And subsequently will it be difficult getting the accounts defaulted asap?

After reading the forums over the last couple of days, I am tempted to go self managed. My DMP is set up with Step Change and they have written to my creditors already however the first payment doesn't go out until 1st December.

I've only left myself 1 months salary to build an emergency fund as I didn't read the forum properly before signing up either.

If I was to cancel my Step Change DMP before any payments are made, then write to my creditors myself offering token payments for a few months in order to build up an emergency fund, and then set up my own DMP with them are they likely to accept this considering they've JUST had a letter saying I can afford to pay £277? Is it likely they would speed up court action or anything under these circumstances?

The other thing on the horizon is that my wife has been informed part of her job will likely be made redundant and she is likely to reduce to 50% hours in April. If her job changes she won't be able to afford to give me more than about £50.

Once it is confirmed with her work, she is going to start looking for another full time post but if we do end up in a situation where she is part time for a while, is my best option to contact creditors again and offer token payments until she finds another full time post?

Also, if I did go self managed and for whatever reason it went wrong, do you think Step Change would have me back?

Sorry one last question, if my wife's income did fall, how would I evidence that to the creditors? Would a payslip with her new salary on be ok? Or should I still just supply my own I+E that highlights a reduction in my contribution from her towards bills etc?

Okay - I said I would pop back on and try to answer some of the questions raised - so here goes.

1. Interest: Its likely most will freeze interest and charges, others might lob a bit on because they realise eventually the account will default and then those charges stop. How quickly they default is unfortunately one of those 'unknowns'. Some will do so quickly (usually 3 - 6 months from when you stop making your contractual payments) others less so and you may find you need to give them a little (or big) push in that direction.

2. Self Managing / Emergency Fund: Okay, if you think you are able to handle creditors and the negotiations required. Then going SM gives you the most flexibility. Looking at the current payment plan you're in this for 8 years, so yes - do give that some serious thought. You most definitely must build up an emergency fund. So many of us (me included) didn't from the outset and lived to regret it and 1 months respite isn't likely to be enough.

3. Cancelling SC and rejigging your I&E: Just tell SC that you want more time to consider your options. That gives you time to consider just exactly whether you want to go SM or not. Its up to you when you start (its your DMP). Use the NEDCAB website to help you navigate around a self-managed DMP, lots of info and template letters to use. You can tell creditors what you like - just offer token payments for now. They can't take any court action against you until the account/s are defaulted and that won't happen quickly (see point above). Also, I see no reason why SC wouldn't be prepared to step in again if you wanted them to, but seriously if you can get you head in the game (of self-managing) I doubt you'll find the need.

4. Wife's income: If that comes to pass maybe you need to revisit other options, especially if you effectively lose income so much so that you can hardly afford the DMP payment as it stands. As to 'proving loss of income' you do not need to provide a copy of the payslip unless you want to. A DMP is an informal arrangement. They can ask - but you don't have to give.

I hope this helps

oldboybailey

Suseka97 wrote: »

Okay - I said I would pop back on and try to answer some of the questions raised - so here goes.

Thank you yes that has been a big help. After reading your response I've read several pages of the thread as well (over 100 pages I think) and i'm confident that managing it myself is the way to go. The stumbling block for me was that thing about SC telling my creditors I have £277 spare and then me saying a couple of days later that I don't have anything spare but you have helped me get over that fear with your response and instilling that confidence that this is MY DMP and I can manage it how I want to, rather than worrying about what the creditors would allow me to do.


I asked SC to delay the start and they said I could only hold off another month so I have decided to go self managed. I'm going to try get the defaults in as soon as possible and then make an offer of payment in line with what I can afford.


Think i'll try the CCA letters as well although most of my debts have been racked up over the last 5-8 years so unlikely to be successful it seems.


Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my questions

Suseka97

oldboybailey wrote: »

Thanks again for taking the time to reply to my questions

You're welcome

I think you've made the right decision. If you send off the CCAs then they (creditors or their agents) have to suspend collection activity until they provide what is required. Again NEDCAB have a template for that. So that'll give you a few months time to build up your EF anyway. After that, just rejig your I&E and go from there. SC are fairly strict on some of the 'essentials' (well, they were when I did mine over 4 years ago), whereas the NEDCAB one appears to allow higher amounts for things like food etc. I've even known people add in things that they don't spend money on simply to get to an end figure that is affordable.

Obviously you need to balance that with how long the debt will take to clear - the lower the payment, the longer the DMP. Some folks want to clear their debts quicker - others don't worry so much about the timeline. It's a personal choice.

Do keep popping back on as you progress and there are lots of people on here who can help.

Keezing

Barclays seem to be really keen to get rid of my debt.

Currently paying around 220pcm on a debt of around 25k remaining.

They offered me 30% off within a couple of weeks of notifying them of our financial difficulties.

10 months on they have now offered 70% off. So they are willing to accept 7k to settle a 25k debt.

Seems weird as they would get 7k after just 3 years of my DMP payments.

Sadly there is no way I can access the funds to take advantage of the offer, so I'll just keep on paying the 220 :-)