DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

sourcrates

jak669 wrote: »

Feeling a little deflated after contacting Shawbrook Bank. Thy were quite nasty on the phone - asking why I took a loan out when I knew I couldn!!!8217;t pay. I explained I took it to consolidate my credit cards but other things had come up like my car blowing a head gasket and partner leaving and they were quite abrupt with me.

Not sure they are going to accept my dmp - really worrying now. Have sent my documents back to step change today - not sure how long they take.

Has anyone had a creditor reject their dmp and if so what happened etc any advice or reassurance would be really helpful as I am feeling very anxious now.

Hi,

This is why you should do everything in writing, to avoid confrontation such as this, they can say things on the phone, they would never put to pen and paper.

From now on, i would stay off the phone to all of your creditors, keep it in writing only.

It really makes no difference whatsoever if a creditor chooses to accept your DMP or not, they are now out of the equation really, you still pay them what has been agreed, they either fall into line, or they sell the debt on to a 3rd party debt purchaser, who you will then pay instead.

You have chosen the DMP route as the best way for you to repay your indebtedness, weather the creditors accept or reject it makes no difference at all, your job is to keep up with the payment schedule regardless of who is collecting on the account.

You need to put your focus in the right place from now on.

sourcrates

Old_and_bold wrote: »

My reason for visiting this site is to ask if there is a template available that I may use to offer a full and final settlement armed with the knowledge that these debts have been revealed as unenforceable ?

From the National Debtline website :

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Full-and-final-settlement-offers-%28sole-name%29.aspx

They also have a range of other sample letters to use for various debt situations.

F19FOX

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

Any of your accounts that were unenforceable would eventually become statute barred, after 6 years it would not show up on your credit file anyway.

Once off your file, the problem ends.

Thank you Sourcrates - much appreciated.

I've been reading many more of the excellent posts you and others have posted and have just written CCA requests to all my CC providers.

My situation is I have 6 credit card debts and 1 overdraft - all have been defaulted (most now coming up to their second anniversary). Total of just over £60k. I have been making token payments ever since of £1 as recommended by SC although I have always self managed!

I have little income but am hoping to be able make settlement offers. Clearly I'd like to be able to settle for as low as possible - hence my reason for asking for CCAs and checking for validity.

I will keep others updated on how I get on as I have found it has helped me to learn from others and how much they were able to settle for.

I may however be a while as it appears the CC providers are not the quickest to turn around CCA requests

Helpme34

Old_and_bold wrote: »

Hello all.
I have been on a DMP for over 10 years and have only recently discovered the ability to make a CCA request !!
I have received replies and to my surprise a number have been returned as unenforceable.
My reason for visiting this site is to ask if there is a template available that I may use to offer a full and final settlement armed with the knowledge that these debts have been revealed as unenforceable ?
I intend to offer 10 per cent of the remaining amount.
Thank you all for reading, have a great day
OaB

Hi OAB

Can i just ask how you go about requesting the CCA's and the best way to pay the £1 fee? I read somewhere not to pay by cheque as the creditors can forge your signature. Not sure if thats true or not. Any help would be appreciated. I have been on a Dmp for nearly 6 years now...but only slowly chipping away at it. Every little will help!

Thanks

sourcrates

Helpme34 wrote: »

Hi OAB

Can i just ask how you go about requesting the CCA's and the best way to pay the £1 fee? I read somewhere not to pay by cheque as the creditors can forge your signature. Not sure if thats true or not. Any help would be appreciated. I have been on a Dmp for nearly 6 years now...but only slowly chipping away at it. Every little will help!

Thanks

Why would they want to forge your signature ?

There is no requirement for a signature on a copy credit agreement, so it would be pointless.

When requesting CCAs you must do it in writing using this template letter:

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Information-about-your-agreement-under-the-Consumer-Credit-Act-%28sole-name%29.aspx

The £1 statutory fee can be paid by postal order.

the-mrs

I've bitten the bullet and sent for the pack. I hope I can sort it out once and for all now. SC are estimating taking a payment of £631/m to clear debts of £26,165 in 3.5 years. It seems absolutely impossible right now. If anyone has any advice regarding what I should do now in preparation, I'd be most grateful. Thanks.

[Deleted User]

the-mrs wrote: »

I've bitten the bullet and sent for the pack. I hope I can sort it out once and for all now. SC are estimating taking a payment of £631/m to clear debts of £26,165 in 3.5 years. It seems absolutely impossible right now. If anyone has any advice regarding what I should do now in preparation, I'd be most grateful. Thanks.

Welcome to the thread:beer:. Well done on taking the first step towards debt freedom. You've come to the right place for help and support from people who have been through it or are still plodding on towards clearing the debts once and for all. Keep posting and asking questions.

May I ask what it is that 'seems absolutely impossible'? Is it that the £631 monthly estimated by SC will be impossible for you to manage? If so, when you complete your I&E prior to starting your DMP, make sure you claim for everything possible. For instance people claim for cigarettes each week even if they don't really smoke, or for vet fees etc when they don't even have a pet. You will not be asked for proof so you can be as imaginative as you feel comfortable with;). The less money you have available after priority bills are paid the better. If you start off paying every penny you have on your DMP each month (as I foolishly did to get the debts paid off as quickly as possible) and leaving absolutely no surplus you'll find you're existing rather than living. You'll be living in fear of emergencies cropping up which you have no money to cover. Once on a DMP you'll have no access to your credit cards so this is an important factor.


Or is the reason you think it will be 'absolutely impossible' because 3.5 years seems such a short time in which to clear over £26,000 of debt? Most creditors agree to freeze interest when such as SC are managing a DMP so you will be repaying what you currently owe rather than a constantly increasing balance:j. It's best not to think of a DMP in terms of taking the shortest time possible, as I mentioned in the paragraph above. It's a marathon rather than a sprint. I think several of us have learned that the hard way:o


Most people will advise you to delay starting your DMP by 2,3 (or more if possible) months so you can save an emergency fund. Stop paying all creditors or just pay a token amount, say £1 in the meantime. This might seem very alien to you if, like me, you'd struggled never to miss a payment so far but don't worry about doing it. You can write to/phone your creditors and tell them you are experiencing financial difficulties and are taking advice from SC. You will have a reference number from SC which you can quote to creditors. They are used to that. Then, either delay sending the forms back to SC or let them know when you want your DMP to start.

Old_and_bold

To,
Carbootcrazy, thank you so much and good luck.
Sourcrates, thank you for the link.
Helpme34, after advice from a friend I did a little reading on the subject and then used the Nationaldebtline and their sample letters to request a CCA. I tried to download a link to the site, but being a newbie
I was advised not to sign the letter just print my name and enclosed a postal order for £1 to each DCA.
To my surprise most returned the postal order and they were all swift with the good news !!
I was surprised how easy the whole process was and secretly would have been pleased if only one came back non enforceable.
I now intend to manage this myself and will keep you all posted of my progress.
I wish you the very best of luck with your quest.

OaB

the-mrs

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Welcome to the thread:beer:. Well done on taking the first step towards debt freedom. You've come to the right place for help and support from people who have been through it or are still plodding on towards clearing the debts once and for all. Keep posting and asking questions.

May I ask what it is that 'seems absolutely impossible'? Is it that the £631 monthly estimated by SC will be impossible for you to manage? If so, when you complete your I&E prior to starting your DMP, make sure you claim for everything possible. For instance people claim for cigarettes each week even if they don't really smoke, or for vet fees etc when they don't even have a pet. You will not be asked for proof so you can be as imaginative as you feel comfortable with;). The less money you have available after priority bills are paid the better. If you start off paying every penny you have on your DMP each month (as I foolishly did to get the debts paid off as quickly as possible) and leaving absolutely no surplus you'll find you're existing rather than living. You'll be living in fear of emergencies cropping up which you have no money to cover. Once on a DMP you'll have no access to your credit cards so this is an important factor.


Or is the reason you think it will be 'absolutely impossible' because 3.5 years seems such a short time in which to clear over £26,000 of debt? Most creditors agree to freeze interest when such as SC are managing a DMP so you will be repaying what you currently owe rather than a constantly increasing balance:j. It's best not to think of a DMP in terms of taking the shortest time possible, as I mentioned in the paragraph above. It's a marathon rather than a sprint. I think several of us have learned that the hard way:o


Most people will advise you to delay starting your DMP by 2,3 (or more if possible) months so you can save an emergency fund. Stop paying all creditors or just pay a token amount, say £1 in the meantime. This might seem very alien to you if, like me, you'd struggled never to miss a payment so far but don't worry about doing it. You can write to/phone your creditors and tell them you are experiencing financial difficulties and are taking advice from SC. You will have a reference number from SC which you can quote to creditors. They are used to that. Then, either delay sending the forms back to SC or let them know when you want your DMP to start.

It was more the latter, that it seems such an enormous amount of money to clear in what seems like a very short space of time. The whole concept of not paying at least the minimum or offering a token amount while I cobble together an emergency fund seems very alien to me. At the moment, I have good credit and it feels very strange knowing i'm going to intentionally ruin that for a considerable amount of time. I am just about managing to pay the minimum on everything and get it to creditors on time, but it's absolutely crippling me now and it's got to the point where everything is needing to go on a credit card once I've paid bills and I know it's totally unsustainable.

[Deleted User]

the-mrs wrote: »

It was more the latter, that it seems such an enormous amount of money to clear in what seems like a very short space of time. The whole concept of not paying at least the minimum or offering a token amount while I cobble together an emergency fund seems very alien to me. At the moment, I have good credit and it feels very strange knowing i'm going to intentionally ruin that for a considerable amount of time. I am just about managing to pay the minimum on everything and get it to creditors on time, but it's absolutely crippling me now and it's got to the point where everything is needing to go on a credit card once I've paid bills and I know it's totally unsustainable.

I totally understand what you say. It could have been me writing it. I'd struggled for so long myself, robbing Peter to pay Paul every month just to make the minimum payments and then having to resort to the credit cards to cover the basics like food. It was a vicious cycle and when my cards were maxed out and I started getting overlimit charges I realised enough was enough. The constant worry was making me ill. Starting a DMP was the very best financial decision I ever made:j