DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

January2015

MA61 wrote: »

Hi all

Firstly apologies if this is posted somewhere obvious and I have missed it. I'm going to try and give a very brief outline of my situation - for me the question is quite short and specific, but a little bit of background is always helpful.

I've been in debt before, about 13 years ago I got a basic account with nationwide, worked with CCCS and went through the hassle with creditors. Worked a charm and for many years after I remained debt free, paying off my small credit card in full each month and knowing the dangers of debt, avoiding things like store cards like the plague.

I got a very well paid job, and saved up a deposit to buy my first home. Unfortunately soon after buying it I was signed off work with stress related illness, ended a 7 year relationship and then my dad became terminally ill and passed away. This corresponded with me going self-employed. A combination of reduced income and depression led me into a debt spiral.

I am now at the point where I know I cannot easily repay the debt and am currently drawing up a budget which shows half my money is being eaten in mortgage, service, charge, council tax etc, so I can't afford to make all the minimum payments.

So my question is - IS THERE A WAY I CAN GO ABOUT DOING ALL OF THIS WITHOUT LOSING MY FLAT? After working my !!!! off and getting ill from it all, that's the last thing I want to happen! EDIT: Oh I should point out that the debts are credit cards and an unsecured personal loan. There is nothing secured on the property, which has approximately £30k equity.

Thanks in advance for your help.

A DMP will not impact your property, or the equity in your property. You can either go with one of the charitable DMP groups, Stepchange, National Debtline etc., or you could set up and manage you own DMP if you feel you could cope with that.

Don't stress about the debt - life's too short, just sort out a DMP and start to enjoy life again

MA61

Thanks for the reassurance!

Summer12

defected wrote: »

Help!

I am just starting out on the dmp journey. Made a plan offer token payments, and cancelled all my DDs that are due next month. However I had a coop loan due tomorrow (career development loan if that makes a difference) I have emailed them with a token payment offer, advised them of stepchange ref and asked them to cancel the SO (cant do it from my end)

They have replied and asked me to call the financial support team urgently to 'work out a solution' whilst i am sorting out my DMP with stepchange....

What do I do? i dont really want to speak to them, no doubt they will be wanting to convince me to make higher payments.

thanks

I have just cancelled a SO from my account. Did it online in the same place that it allowed me to cancel direct debits. Two clicks and it was gone. I wouldn’t trust them to do it.

Summer12

To everyone worried about contact from creditors. I know how you feel this was me last month! As soon as our pay goes into our new accounts next week (hopefully!) I will be writing to my creditors and explaining our financial difficulties. I plan to ask them all to contact us by post only. I!!!8217;ve removed all our telephone numbers off online accounts and have spoken to our mobile provider who are happy to change our mobile numbers for free if needs be only takes 24hrs. We don!!!8217;t have a !!!8220;home phone!!!8221; fed up of answering double glazing calls! I fully expect to be using a wheel barrow to collect our post from our mailbox but have to keep in mind that most of this will be computer generated automated stuff. It will take us about 10 years to pay all our debts off so figure I may aswell just get used to all the extra post I!!!8217;m about to get!!

January2015

Summer12 wrote: »

To everyone worried about contact from creditors. I know how you feel this was me last month! As soon as our pay goes into our new accounts next week (hopefully!) I will be writing to my creditors and explaining our financial difficulties. I plan to ask them all to contact us by post only. I!!!8217;ve removed all our telephone numbers off online accounts and have spoken to our mobile provider who are happy to change our mobile numbers for free if needs be only takes 24hrs. We don!!!8217;t have a !!!8220;home phone!!!8221; fed up of answering double glazing calls! I fully expect to be using a wheel barrow to collect our post from our mailbox but have to keep in mind that most of this will be computer generated automated stuff. It will take us about 10 years to pay all our debts off so figure I may aswell just get used to all the extra post I!!!8217;m about to get!!

After the first few months, the level of letters drastically reduces. I generally only get one a year from each creditor now.

[Deleted User]

January2015 wrote: »

After the first few months, the level of letters drastically reduces. I generally only get one a year from each creditor now.

Same here. I just get an annual or twice-yearly statement from each creditor unless it's a letter notifying me that a debt has been sold on. All but one of mine have been sold now so those letters have stopped too:j.

Onebrokelady

defected wrote: »

Help!

I am just starting out on the dmp journey. Made a plan offer token payments, and cancelled all my DDs that are due next month. However I had a coop loan due tomorrow (career development loan if that makes a difference) I have emailed them with a token payment offer, advised them of stepchange ref and asked them to cancel the SO (cant do it from my end)

They have replied and asked me to call the financial support team urgently to 'work out a solution' whilst i am sorting out my DMP with stepchange

What do I do? i dont really want to speak to them, no doubt they will be wanting to convince me to make higher payments.

thanks

Just explain that you are working with SC,all my creditors tried to get me to agree to their debt management plan but I just told them that I was working with SC ,I on,t told them once and they accepted it and left me alone

Onebrokelady

MA61 wrote: »

Hi all

Firstly apologies if this is posted somewhere obvious and I have missed it. I'm going to try and give a very brief outline of my situation - for me the question is quite short and specific, but a little bit of background is always helpful.

I've been in debt before, about 13 years ago I got a basic account with nationwide, worked with CCCS and went through the hassle with creditors. Worked a charm and for many years after I remained debt free, paying off my small credit card in full each month and knowing the dangers of debt, avoiding things like store cards like the plague.

I got a very well paid job, and saved up a deposit to buy my first home. Unfortunately soon after buying it I was signed off work with stress related illness, ended a 7 year relationship and then my dad became terminally ill and passed away. This corresponded with me going self-employed. A combination of reduced income and depression led me into a debt spiral.

I am now at the point where I know I cannot easily repay the debt and am currently drawing up a budget which shows half my money is being eaten in mortgage, service, charge, council tax etc, so I can't afford to make all the minimum payments.

So my question is - IS THERE A WAY I CAN GO ABOUT DOING ALL OF THIS WITHOUT LOSING MY FLAT? After working my !!!! off and getting ill from it all, that's the last thing I want to happen! EDIT: Oh I should point out that the debts are credit cards and an unsecured personal loan. There is nothing secured on the property, which has approximately £30k equity.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I have just started a DMP with Stepchange,when I first phoned them for advice they asked me about my situation and then came up with three debt solutions,one was to set up DMP , one was an IVA but they don’t do them themselves so would refer me to someone else and the third was to sell my house and use the equity to settle my debts,the advisor asked me if I was willing to sell my house and I just said no that wasn’t an option so he just said a DMP would be my best solution, no hassle or anything,I started my DMP on the 1st of March and it’s the best thing I have ever done,I can pay my debt off but still have enough to live on and I’m not robbing Peter to pay Paul anymore

sourcrates

For those who are worried about their property and what effect a DMP will have on it, please take note.

If your debts are unsecured, then the chance of losing your house is less than 1%.

I only say that as nothing is 100% guaranteed in life.

Creditors have to take affordability into account, after pressure from the regulator, when dealing with customers who default, 99% of the time, they accept your payment proposal or sell on the debt, and the new owner does.

Their is always the chance a creditor may wish to secure there position and take you to court, if that happens, you simply pay what the court tells you to pay, based on your budget, so your payment would most likely stay the same, so in effect, there is no benefit to the creditors to get legal.

If a CCJ was awarded, they can then obtain a charging order, if you own the property outright, or a restriction if jointly owned, this does not mean an order for sale will be made, they are so rare now, they no longer keep records on them, usually if your repaying the debts via a DMP the court would refuse an order for sale anyway.

Your home would only be at risk if you ignored all requests for payment and did not cooperate with the courts, this is a worst case scenario for information purposes only.

MK-4

Onebrokelady wrote: »

...to sell my house and use the equity to settle my debts,the advisor asked me if I was willing to sell my house...

Just had the same from SC but expect they have to ask that as part of their responsibility.

I already tried to get the mortgage extended to get some equity out but the bank would not consider it. Selling the house and moving to a cheaper one would be acceptable, but we are already on the bottom rung so there are no cheaper ones in our area.

As with many on here the possibility of losing the house was my biggest worry. The advice and experience here has been really helpful and reassuring.