DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

System

EmergencyNurse wrote: »

DMP finally sorted. Start 1st May, SC contacting all creditors within the next 10 days. Token payments to be made as suggested. Finally on the road to Debt Freedom.

Well done. You won't regret it

NewbieNat

Hi
No answer regarding whether to contact SC advising of starting DMP at a later date, but I'd like to know the answer to that too.

[Deleted User]

julies123 wrote: »

Also for various reasons, health being one of them I don't want my partner to know, he doesnt know how much debt im in, house is mine, we have no financial connections etc, I realise that this would be a big no no for some, but I simply will not tell him. So I cant have any debt collectors knocking on the door, has anybody ever had this happen to them? I dont want to be panicking every time the doorbell goes or a car goes past :-(

Hi julies123:hello:.

Welcome to the thread. If there's anything you'd like to know or are confused about please ask. There's no such thing as a stupid question. There's usually someone who will have the answer often from personal experience of the same problems you are having so ask away:beer:


I'm just posting now to set your mind at rest about keeping your debt situation private from your partner. I'm in exactly the same situation as you and that's really the main reason I struggled on for so long trying to pay my debts in the normal way. When it became impossible and I had to resort to a DMP I was in a very anxious state in case he would find out. Incidentally, the DMP was the best financial decision I ever made:j.


The only communication I ever received from creditors or Stepchange was by mail once I'd told them I wanted no contact by telephone. Creditors will accept this way of communicating. It was in the early stages just prior to DMP when they used to phone me a lot and that was a real worry. I know that OH would never read my mail but he might have answered the landline phone to one of my creditors:eek:. I had never heard of a DMP in those black days :Aand obviously hadn't discovered this thread and the wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful people on it.


As for debt collectors calling at your home, it just won't happen. Just keep in touch with the DMP management company and your creditors if/when asked to do so and everything will run smoothly in the background without anyone but you knowing that it's happening:j.


I started 2013 with almost £57000 of personal debts:o. My OH knew nothing about it then and still doesn't:j. We never had any joint accounts/associations so it was relatively easy. I know people say ''a problem shared is a problem halved'' and it's good advice in most cases. But the debt issue was something I had to deal with completely on my own and although I worried about it being possible to maintain secrecy I've done it for over 5 years with no problem. I am now happily self-managing with, again, everything ticking away quietly in the background:j


I wish you the best of luck in your DMP 'journey' and look forward to reading about your progress:beer:

[Deleted User]

ploppy57 wrote: »

Well the first of the CCA request replies arrived today from PR*....they would like to advise us that they are unable to supply us with the requested document and therefore at the moment the debt is UE!!!:T They then go on, in what I imagine is the standard letter, to say this doesn't mean we won't have to pay and they are still entitled to contact us or pass the debt on to another DCA etc etc. They then end up saying it is now being passed to the collections department.

The total of this particular debt is only about £290...(our second lowest debt we have). So hoping they will realise it isn't worth the hassle of admin costs to pass it on or chase us for it and will settle for a very, very small amount. :rotfl:

Congratulations, ploppy :j. Great news:T.

I know it's one of your smallest debts but it's a great start and will have given you a lot of encouragement to pursue the others too. Here's to success with them all:beer:

Suseka97

NewbieNat wrote: »

Hi
No answer regarding whether to contact SC advising of starting DMP at a later date, but I'd like to know the answer to that too.

If you are planning to delay the start of a DMP because you are aiming to put away and emergency fund, then yes - you should tell SC, especially if you've already signed and returned the paperwork. If you've still yet to return the paperwork, then it still makes sense to tell them you're not in a position to start yet. Depends where you are in the process.

System

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Congratulations, ploppy :j. Great news:T.

I know it's one of your smallest debts but it's a great start and will have given you a lot of encouragement to pursue the others too. Here's to success with them all:beer:

Thanks. I have taken Jan's advice and written to them with a 10% F&F offer...will wait with fingers crossed.
We have 2 more debts with them, totalling just over £1500, so hoping they come back the same....:)

Zerodebtsoon

January2015 wrote: »

I know Sourcrates has said already your mortgage will be fine just as long as your are up to date with your repayments, but just to confirm we have our mortgage with RBS and also have debts on our DMP with RBS and NW (NW being part of the same banking group as RBS). The mortgage has been 100% fine. It's never been an issue that we have debts on DMP with the same banking group.

:j

Just to add that we had debt with Santander when we started our DMP (now cleared) and have our mortgage with them. There has been no trouble at all

julies123

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Hi julies123:hello:.

I'm just posting now to set your mind at rest about keeping your debt situation private from your partner. I'm in exactly the same situation as you and that's really the main reason I struggled on for so long trying to pay my debts in the normal way. When it became impossible and I had to resort to a DMP I was in a very anxious state in case he would find out. Incidentally, the DMP was the best financial decision I ever made:j.

The only communication I ever received from creditors or Stepchange was by mail once I'd told them I wanted no contact by telephone. Creditors will accept this way of communicating. It was in the early stages just prior to DMP when they used to phone me a lot and that was a real worry. I know that OH would never read my mail but he might have answered the landline phone to one of my creditors:eek:. I had never heard of a DMP in those black days :Aand obviously hadn't discovered this thread and the wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful people on it.


As for debt collectors calling at your home, it just won't happen. Just keep in touch with the DMP management company and your creditors if/when asked to do so and everything will run smoothly in the background without anyone but you knowing that it's happening:j.

I started 2013 with almost £57000 of personal debts:o. My OH knew nothing about it then and still doesn't:j. We never had any joint accounts/associations so it was relatively easy. I know people say ''a problem shared is a problem halved'' and it's good advice in most cases. But the debt issue was something I had to deal with completely on my own and although I worried about it being possible to maintain secrecy I've done it for over 5 years with no problem. I am now happily self-managing with, again, everything ticking away quietly in the background:j


I wish you the best of luck in your DMP 'journey' and look forward to reading about your progress:beer:

Thank you everyone for your replies, it is so helpful.
And thank you so much carbootcrazy, your post has really helped me feel a bit better.
Totally relate to your "black days" as Im sure most on here do. :-( .My debts are just under what yours were but not far!, Just knowing that there is a way out if this is an immense relief! Although still worrying about what will happen to my credit rating, but guess that is trashed anyway now as I have such high debt.
My main worry was about people knocking on the door!!
And also worried about nationwide as having searched on internet seems they can be a bit ruthless and issue ccj's etc .

Get_Lippie

I've been reading this thread for a few weeks now, and I REALLY wish I'd found it before I started my DMP with Stepchange ...

Anyhoo:
Debt amount is £29k, and the monthly repayments were nearly £1,500 a month. Stepchange I&E shows I can afford around £750 a month to pay back (most of my debts are very, very old - £7k on a Debenhams card from the mid-nineties, £6k on an old Egg [now Barclay-] card etc), and the repayment amount isn't an unreasonable amount for my salary. Some of my debts haven't defaulted, but most have. Lloyds, with whom I had a loan, a credit card and a £4.5k overdraft, have rejected all StepChange's payment offers. Most of my other offers have been accepted, and even Newday (who I believe can be awkward) has agreed to freeze interest.

My first payment to Stepchange went through this week, and whilst I was checking my old bank accounts, prior to closing them, I realised that a PPI claim I made with Lloyds in January has paid out unexpectedly, and the amount paid is nearly half the total amount I owe! Total surprise as it was for PPI I'd previously been told wasn't mis-sold.

Naturally, I've now been googling about settling a DMP early, and it seems from doing that, that the best time to make full and final settlement offers is after you've been in the DMP for six months, as they'll be more likely to accept lower offers for settlement at that point. Stepchange estimate I can be debt-free in three years with my present payment amount, but obviously, I'd like to be debt-free as soon as possible under the circumstances.

What's the best way to deal with the unexpected PPI payout? I have, of course, transferred the funds to a different bank, mainly to use as an emergency fund, but would I be okay to hold onto it until I've made six months worth of payments via Stepchange and make F&F offers to all my debtors then? Or should I pay some of the debts off in full, now? any advice much appreciated. I was suicidal and considering bankruptcy or an IVA just a couple of months ago (and full-on insolvency would have ended my career as a result), and just getting the DMP started has helped enormously.

jwil

defected wrote: »

A couple of questions if anyone can help, i have several credit cards with Barclaycard and therefore owe that creditor a large amount, does this make them more likely to take court action?
I also have a mortgage with barclays, is this the same company? could this cause an issue, are they more likely to go for a charge on the property?
thanks in advance x

I have a mortgage with Barclays and one of my debts is a Barclaycard. There has been no issue and the BC has now been sold on.