DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

Summer12 · 3 March 2018 at 6:41PM

MK-4 wrote: »

I have a credit card with no balance that I want to keep until the EM fund is in place. Once the DMP starts do I have to close this?

Both my wife and I have elderly parents living in other countries. Over the next years we will need to go to funerals and need to have the savings to do that. If anything happens before we can get the EM fund savings going we have no way of getting any credit to pay for flights.

Car rental requires a credit card so that is also a worry.

Obviously I don’t know which countries your parents are from but I have looked into the car hire thing for the United States and it’s a company by company thing. So some will accept a debit card some won’t, some you have to pre pay too to be able to use a debit card as the guarantee bit.

January2015 · 3 March 2018 at 6:42PM

MK-4 wrote: »

I have a credit card with no balance that I want to keep until the EM fund is in place. Once the DMP starts do I have to close this?

Both my wife and I have elderly parents living in other countries. Over the next years we will need to go to funerals and need to have the savings to do that. If anything happens before we can get the EM fund savings going we have no way of getting any credit to pay for flights.

Car rental requires a credit card so that is also a worry.

Nothing to stop you keeping a card account open - although if you have any other accounts with this lender (or linked lenders) they may not like it.

For me personally, I would ditch the account as soon as I could regardless because I don't ever want access to credit again - however I can see, and understand, your reasoning for keeping a credit card account open.

System · 3 March 2018 at 6:43PM

Anybody got experience of sending off CCA's to L*nk? Sent the letters on 31st Jan and have heard nothing back from them. PR* were happy to out our accounts on hold, but no communication from L*nk at all. Would you just wait, or write again and chase a response. Currently paying them £1 a month to each account.

January2015 · 3 March 2018 at 6:46PM

ploppy57 wrote: »

Anybody got experience of sending off CCA's to L*nk? Sent the letters on 31st Jan and have heard nothing back from them. PR* were happy to out our accounts on hold, but no communication from L*nk at all. Would you just wait, or write again and chase a response. Currently paying them £1 a month to each account.

No experience of Link - but you've written, stop paying until they supply the requested documentation. Don't bother chasing or communicating with them again until they provide what you've asked for.

MK-4 · 3 March 2018 at 7:22PM

Thanks Summer12 and January2015,

I too want to close the credit card account and never want any form of credit again, nor access to credit.

Delaying the start of the DMP will give a small EM fund and hopefully in two or three years time we will be able to start saving a bit. It is just the now to two / three years that is a real worry.

Summer12 · 3 March 2018 at 7:22PM

Puzzcat wrote: »

i have 3 UE debts at the minute. One came back and said it was UE so I sent them a well I'm not paying you letter and not heard anything since. One I haven't heard anything back from them since the we are looking for the cca letter was received in September so i stopped paying them.

The third was more awkward as they were sure it was enforceable and this has finally been settled, for now anyway. I did write to them to say it was UE but not why, I followed AAD'd letter templates hence why I paid the £10 to join. All mine had stopped interest ages ago as my dmp started in 2013.

Puzz. x

Whilst mine hasn’t acknowledged one way or the other re: enforceability just simply that they have fulfilled their obligation re CCA. I’ve seen examples online of their replies and stubbornness. I’ve subscribed to AAD too. Wish I’d known about all the online help before rather than struggling on and living off credit. Thanks for your response.

Suseka97 · 4 March 2018 at 10:32AM

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Thanks for that:T. I didn't disbelieve you:o, just thought I must have misunderstood because it seemed such an unlikely thing for them to do IMO. Looks as if NewbieNat has had the same response. Must be a new policy of SC but I'd never heard of them ever doing this before.

Just to add to the discussion re SC sending applications to set up a Barclays basic account with their packs. They did the same when we started (almost 5 years ago now), which at the time we found quite odd because the majority of debt was linked to Barclays loans and credit cards. When I queried this they said that there was some sort of agreement that when setting up a DMP via SC they (Barclays) would not use the 'right to offset'. Suffice to say I didn't take them up on that offer

and was lucky enough to also hold a bank account with Norwich & Peterborough which we then switched everything to. Recently N&P closed their bank account services so last year we went with a basic Nationwide account and haven't had any problems since. What I liked about Nationwide was that you could have a debit card with a basic account, which some others didn't appear to offer. Of course you can't have an overdraft facility, nor cheque book -but that's not an issue for us.

Suseka97 · 4 March 2018 at 10:39AM

usedtobeblue wrote: »

.....
1. My fixed rate mortgage is due to end in Jul 2019, whats the changes of being able to switch mortgages or negotiate a lower rate than SVR?

Just to comment on this point. You shouldn't have a problem with 'switching' if you stay with your current provider. You would probably find it difficult to move your mortgage to a different provider and even if you did, you wouldn't get favourable rates because by then your credit file will show defaults or DM/AP markers which will affect your credit worthiness.

Interestingly we've stayed on our provided BMR since coming off the fixed rate because with interest rates so low, there really wasn't much difference in cost. Now we are nearly at the end of our DMP I am going to fix for around the same monthly cost and same terms, as I imagine interest rates will now start to rise - but my intention is to put any extra money aside and overpay. There's lot of useful advice on the MSE site about mortgages, switching, overpayments etc and worth reading up on when the time comes.

kram · 4 March 2018 at 10:48AM

NewbieNat wrote: »

I'm still wondering how to delay setting up my DMP to save for an emergency fund. Do I tell the creditors it will be set up at a later date? SC are pushing for it right away,

Hi NewbieNat,

Please read the following post from Puzzcat it's a copy / paste, amend & send template letter to send to your creditors:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=69267499&postcount=463

jaxsmar · 4 March 2018 at 11:24AM

Just started my DMP journey. My first payment has been paid via s/c. The heavy weight that I've been carrying has been lifted. I only wish I did it years ago. I got offered the choice if a DMP or DRO. But choose a DMP. I owe 3 creditors. I've heard from 2 so far but I haven't received any nasty phone calls, but I had been paying the debts right up to one month ago, I had never missed a payment but was juggling between 2 credit cards, increased my overdraught etc but when it came to food shopping I realised that I couldn't carry on as I was skimping so much that I couldn't buy a bag of apples because I needed bread. Something so stupid made me wake up. I had been on ML for years read all the posts yet I just kept thinking something will come along....I could kick myself. Anyway onwards and upwards. I will be relying on you guy's for help as I'm sure at some point I will need advise and inspiration.