DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

System

January2015 wrote: »

The great thing about a DMP is that if you priority costs increase, e.g. the mortgage interest rate goes up, then your non priority DMP payments go down. You no longer have to worry how you will find the extra money for the mortgage or increased utility bills etc.

Seriously -send off those CCA requests now and don't worry about what creditors will think. They won't bat an eyelid. They get hundreds of such requests everyday. Everyday you delay is a day wasted.

Also visit the resolver site and check for PPI - even if you think you didn't have any, check anyway. The worst that will happen is you get whole load of no you didn't have it replies, but you may get lucky and get one or more where you did have it and could potentially reclaim money.

Keep meaning to look at the Resolver site. Where exactly do I find it? Although the only one I think I may have had PPI with was my Debenhams card and there is and always was, only a low balance on that...only owe £261. That is the only account never to have been defaulted.
Pretty sure we never had it with anything else. Can you check even if you do not have account numbers etc?

January2015

debt_free_wanna_be wrote: »

Hello

Can I pick your brains for advice?

I have about 7 creditors. One of my creditors has recently moved the debt to 1st credit this month. Stepchange are now paying 1st credit directly instead of previous creditor. It'll take 5 years to pay it off at the current rate. I was thinking about writing to ask for F&F for my daughter to pay, with a settlement offer of something like 10% of the amount with the aim of thinking 15-20% of the value.

Has anyone done this whilst in a DMP and to advise negotiating tactics?

I was reading elsewhere about 1st credit and planned to send them a letter with F&F from NationalDebthelpline with the following conditions for them to confirm in writing.

(1) We accept that your offer will be a Full and Final settlement.
(2) We can confirm that the remaining balance will NOT be sold onto another Agency for collection.
(3) We can confirm that upon receipt of your payment of xxx that your account will be closed forthwith and that our records will be updated accordingly.
(4) We will ensure that your Credit File is updated accordingly and clearly marked as 'satisfied'.
(5) We can confirm that upon receipt of your payment of xxx we will issue you will a written receipt and you will hear nothing more from our company or anyone else who may have been connected with your account.

Thanks in advance

You can always try and negotiate F&Fs with creditors and/or DCAs.

How likely you are to succeed (and at what discount) will depend on multiple factors.

To achieve a settlement figure as low as 10 to 20% of the outstanding balance you are likely to need the account to be either unenforceable or you have been able to pay only token payments for a long time and it is clear this situation will not change for some considerable time.

Other factors which may be considered are how long you have been on a DMP, how much do they already get each month (if they are getting a reasonable amount, why would they accept a low F&F?).

All you can do is try. Each creditor / DCA will respond differently, and then again, each creditor / DCA will treat different customers differently. There is not a lot of logic to this game

System

January2015 wrote: »

You can always try and negotiate F&Fs with creditors and/or DCAs.

How likely you are to succeed (and at what discount) will depend on multiple factors.

To achieve a settlement figure as low as 10 to 20% of the outstanding balance you are likely to need the account to be either unenforceable or you have been able to pay only token payments for a long time and it is clear this situation will not change for some considerable time.

Other factors which may be considered are how long you have been on a DMP, how much do they already get each month (if they are getting a reasonable amount, why would they accept a low F&F?).

All you can do is try. Each creditor / DCA will respond differently, and then again, each creditor / DCA will treat different customers differently. There is not a lot of logic to this game

Its like a game of roulette isn't it?:rotfl:

System

Just a question regarding PPI etc...if you make a claim on a debt currently on a DMP and you were successful. Are they not just going to take the amount towards payment of the debt?

debt_free_wanna_be_2

Thanks for your advice. Seems very random!

Is there a general time frame from when you've been in a DMP to when your debt is passed onto other DCA? I started DMP in April 2016.

January2015

ploppy57 wrote: »

Just a question regarding PPI etc...if you make a claim on a debt currently on a DMP and you were successful. Are they not just going to take the amount towards payment of the debt?

My understanding (and I might be wrong ) is that if the debt has been sold then the PPI repayment is paid to you.

I would guess that if the debt is still with the original creditor they could potentially use it to reduce the outstanding balance.

Hopefully someone with more concrete knowledge will be along to comment on this.

January2015

debt_free_wanna_be wrote: »

Thanks for your advice. Seems very random!

Is there a general time frame from when you've been in a DMP to when your debt is passed onto other DCA? I started DMP in April 2016.

I started my DMP in .... wait for it.... January 2015 :rotfl:

I spent a year with Stepchange and then went self managed. I've been paying £1 a month for over 2 years now. My debt free date is 26 years away :eek:

I've settled one unenforceable account at 10% of the outstanding balance and a couple at approx 50% (one lower, one just over) of the outstanding balance.

Basically if creditors or DCAs are getting a reasonable regular payment through Stepchange they are unlikely to negotiate much below 80 or 90%. They are better off having a regular income than giving up the debt for pennies in the pound.

Edit: I am leaving my creditors/DCAs to stew for another 12 month before I bother going back with any more F&Fs.

debt_free_wanna_be_2

Interesting - when you went to token amount, did you provide any reasoning for this?

Has it been a lot of hassle with DCA/creditors contacting you regularly and interest being applied?

And did you switch methods with the aim of reducing the amount owed? Sounds like a better strategy to be honest. Interested in the pros/cons of doing it this way.

System

I am doing the same as January, just taken us longer to pluck up the courage....

I wrote to all the creditors when we went SM this month and told them £1 per month. I initially said for 6 months and will review it after that. .....just edited to add that we sent a new I&E form and worked it out so that they could see how little we had to pay our debts and I then added that we could only pay £1 for 6 months as had a lot of unexpected household bills.

They are all happy with that (except M**rcroft who have still not replied), and have written back saying they will review in 6 months to make sure we can still afford the £1 per month....:rotfl:

All the debts bar one are already defaulted anyway and they had all previously agreed to stop interest.

In the meantime we will be saving funds with a view to paying off F&F's in the future. Although our predicted DFD is many years away, I have now stopped fretting about it and am confident that it will actually be a lot sooner.

Superhoopza

Hi,

I posted on page 145, I know there's lots of on going stories here but would really appreciate any possible advice people can offer as we are approaching the end of the month where I'll be short of money after making all current payments.