DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

Slytherin

I've previously mentioned not have a great experience with Nationwide but I rang them with an update (delaying my DMP) and the guy I spoke to was absolutely brilliant. I explained as much as I could but he really didn't care - he picked up on somethings personally that had troubled me and was more interested in whether or not I had support. He's also whacked a no pay notice til. September!

Anyway, something I thought of as unusual as he briefed me on F&F settlements which I was really surprised about. I don't have the cash for this currently but I imagined that banks weren't keen to encourage this, especially so early on. Obviously this chap wouldn't have a say in whether any F&F I proposed was accepted but I thought it interesting that he brought it up.

roo-dee

Suseka97 wrote: »

Hi there and welcome :hello:

Okay, I can't help re the PayDay lender question because I have no experience of those, but am sure someone will be along to help with that shortly. So, in answer to some of your other concerns. Yes, 5 months is a good amount of time and I would hold off returning the paperwork and also tell SC that you are doing so because you need a healthy balance in your account before the DMP begins, add that you'd rather have an emergency fund of a sufficient amount to deal with the unexpected, rather than have to vary your agreement once its up and running.

In the meantime you will have to contact your creditors, and if you can't handle speaking with anyone, you'll need to get those letters off sharpish - or email them if you can. These days as soon as someone contacts creditors they put an immediate 30 day hold on the account to allow time for the paperwork - so all you have to do is give them the SC reference and simply state you are in discussion with them about setting up a DMP and will be back in touch as soon as you are able. I wouldn't say it'll be 5 months then payments will begin - there is no need to give them a timeline just yet.

As to your payments/direct debits, you need to put a stop to them now -and if you have any debts associated with your current bank provider, you'll need to get yourself a new one that has no links to those debts you intend to put into the DMP.

Thank you so much for the advice, i really appreciate it. I will get straight on the ball first thing in the morning writing my letters, and will stop dd's.

roo-dee

sourcrates wrote: »

I posted yesterday on this very subject matter.

Debt can be a worry, yes, we all know that, but........as i said yesterday.......there are debt solutions put in place by parliament, to deal with problem debt.

The solutions are there, all you have to do is access them through the various debt charities, although a DMP is an informal arrangement, creditors will work with you, makes no difference if you took the loan last night or last year, life changes, things happen, creditors are well aware of this.

It can be difficult at first, top hits on most search engines when looking for "debt help" brings up lots of private debt management companies who charge exorbitant fee`s, money certainly talks.

Cancel the CPA for the payday loan with your bank, write and tell the companies concerned you are in financial trouble and are working with stepchange, they will not just ignore you, after the new regulations on payday lending came into force, most of the fly by night operators have gone, those who are left are all FCA registered, and must adhere to the code of conduct/lending code etc.

You will be fine, anything you do not know, ask on here.

Thank you so much for the advice, I will cancel the CPA. I will no doubt be asking lots of questions as i am a nervous wreck, I am looking forward to getting a night sleep soon Thanks again xx

sourcrates

Slytherin wrote: »

Anyway, something I thought of as unusual as he briefed me on F&F settlements which I was really surprised about. I don't have the cash for this currently but I imagined that banks weren't keen to encourage this, especially so early on. Obviously this chap wouldn't have a say in whether any F&F I proposed was accepted but I thought it interesting that he brought it up.

It really all boils down to pounds and pence, they will whey up how long it will take you to repay your debt at say £10 a month, verses how much they could sell the debt on for, and gain some tax relief on the balance.

Or would it be better for them to accept a settlement offer from you and save time and effort.

mikebec2010

Firstly, thank you to all of you wonderful people for such a great and informative forum.

Quick question if I may, I have been on a dmp with Stepchange since 2013. I had to give up my job due to a family loss and the debts soon got out of hand. Anyway over 4 years later I have decided to send CCA requests to my creditors. My largest debt is with PRA (sold by Barclaycard and previously Egg card).

Whilst I appreciate there are no guarantees but if any of the debts do come back as unenforceable can I simply ask Stepchange to remove them from my DMP or will I have to go self managed if I choose to stop paying those creditors?

Thanks!!

Suseka97

mikebec2010 wrote: »

.....Quick question if I may, I have been on a dmp with Stepchange since 2013. I had to give up my job due to a family loss and the debts soon got out of hand. Anyway over 4 years later I have decided to send CCA requests to my creditors. My largest debt is with PRA (sold by Barclaycard and previously Egg card).
Whilst I appreciate there are no guarantees but if any of the debts do come back as unenforceable can I simply ask Stepchange to remove them from my DMP or will I have to go self managed if I choose to stop paying those creditors? Thanks!!

Although there are no guarantees; chances are the former EGG one will be UE. My OHs Barclays/Prev Egg account proved to be so. If that is the case then I guess you can ask SC to remove it from your DMP and state that you want to prioritise enforceable debts -but you may find that they are reluctant to do so (their ethos is to treat all creditors fairly) in which case you will have to go self-managed -which is much easier than people think, especially when you are experienced with DMPs. Good luck with the CCA request

heavenlyharry01

Hi

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted.
Self managed DMP.

I’ve managed to do a number of partial settlements of our 11 debts. Bringing the total now down to 5.
The tricky ones we have found are creation, capital one and very.

I have a question to anyone with experience or advice with Very.

My husband and I both had very accounts. We were paying £1 token payments to each account, for over 1 year. They defaulted my husbands and sold it on to Lowell, which we have since settled.

My account, they refused to default or sell on. I wrote to them a number of times and in the last letter they pretty much stated they would only default if I stopped the token payments.
I have stopped the token payments and now I’m receiving letters from Very in which they have added admin charges.
I haven’t written to them since I’ve stopped paying as I was hoping they would default me and the best course of action might be to ignore them.....but obviously I don not want admin charges building up.
Should I hold fire and not contact them or should I contact them and state I can’t afgord to pay them anything at the moment?

Thank you

jak669

It has now been a couple of weeks since I started sorting out my debts. I have 9 creditors and StepChange have written to them all offering proposed amounts. So far mbna, Lloyds x2, Barclays, Shawbrook Bank and Santander x2 have all accepted my lower payments. Only marks and spencer!!!8217;s and post office to go. I am feeling so much better and finally I can see some light at the end of the tunnel (although it could be a 10 year tunnel) .

I am really grateful to this site and everyone on here that posts as you have been a real help along the way. Always there to ask questions and support each other. It is amazing.

The shawbrook one was my biggest worry but actually it turns out that I have already wiped £8k off my debt as they have stopped all interest ion what was a 7 year loan.

Once agin thank you for all your support and I shall be offering my support for anyone else thinking of doing a DMP. I have a long way to go as it is still very early days but I am now ready for the journey.

Suseka97

jak669 wrote: »

It has now been a couple of weeks since I started sorting out my debts. I have 9 creditors and StepChange have written to them all offering proposed amounts.... I am feeling so much better and finally I can see some light at the end of the tunnel (although it could be a 10 year tunnel) . The shawbrook one was my biggest worry but actually it turns out that I have already wiped £8k off my debt as they have stopped all interest ion what was a 7 year loan.... I have a long way to go as it is still very early days but I am now ready for the journey.

This is excellent news and well done for persevering as I recall how anxious you were at the start. This is a good post for newcomers, or those who may be sitting on the fence. This is doable, you just need to work through things systematically and not let the dread and worry about what creditors may or may not do, overcome you.

I wish you every good luck on your DMP journey and whilst 10 years may seem a long way off, trust me - the time flies. You may find that before the end of that timeframe you may be in a position to pay more, or get offered some F&Fs by the DCAs who will no doubt eventually hold your accounts.

Suseka97

For those who may have read my previous post about being contact by PRA - this is just a quick update. Seems the chappie I spoke with over the weekend didn't really take much notice of my comments about the account/s being UE. Well, low and behold I receive another phone call today, slightly different number so the block call I put on didn't kick in.

Anyway, this time I thought I'd be a little more 'to the point', though again I refused to confirm my personal details. The young lady was a little flummoxed, but to her credit she heard me out. I explained that I knew the accounts were UE and whilst I realise it didn't mean the debt/s had been written off , I intended to prioritise my enforceable ones, I continued on saying that at some point in the future, when all other debts were cleared, I would consider contacting them to offer some form of settlement.

So, she kindly offered to put my account on hold for 30 days :rotfl: to which I replied that whilst I appreciated the offer, it would be a good deal longer than 30 days before I would likely be in touch. I then asked for all telephone numbers to be removed from their database and bless her - she said she would make a note for no contact for the next month or so, but I said 'no' - I'm not asking for you to put my phone number/s on hold - I'm asking for them to be removed permanently and pointed out that I knew my rights in that respect. She then confirmed that from now on all communications would be carried out in writing.

So, to anyone in a similar situation to me - do stick to your guns and don't let them control the conversation or threaten.. blah.. blah. To be fair the lady was perfectly amicable and actually apologised for calling. So PRA are going back to the end of the queue - again!

I have to admit I probably will, maybe sometime next year, consider offering very low F&Fs - just to wipe the slate clean. But then again, I might not The way I view it (rightly or wrongly) is that I would have paid PRA for around 2 years under the DMP and I'm pretty sure they would have made quite a few £s on the price they paid for the accounts already.