DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

DMP_Tiger

I am by no means an expert as I am just beginning my DMP journey but your situation sounds very similar to mine. Please see my notes in red:

icklemissus wrote: »

I spoke to Stepchange several months ago, and a came off the phone feeling even worse than before. Basically said I would have to sell the house as the debt is £45k of mixed debt of both mine and husbands. so we dont qualify for an IVA Stepchange advised bankruptcy for me as the debt calculator said it will take me 30 years to pay off my £35k debt. As a homeowner I am doing a DMP and all being well, my term will reduce through additional income and F & F's.

But reading through this thread, I feel like their might be a Light at the end of the tunnel so to speak! If you have read this thread slowly and carefully, you are sure to feel loads better about a DMP


I am I right in thinking I can arrange a self-managed DMP myself, for both mine and my husbands' debt?

We have a mortgage, coming up to the end of its fixed rate next summer and at the amount of debt we have we won't get a remortgage anyway so does it matter if I default on all the loans and credit cards? This terrifies me as we have always been on a fixed rate, although switching to SVR will be cheaper, but what if interest rates go sky high?

I know step one is get a basic bank account, get paid into their transfer myself all the actual bills.
I've done the DEDCAB DMP thing, saved it, and the letters.
What letters do I send first? I edited the holding letter to include a token payment offer, my letter is a few pages back on this thread.
we have no Emergency fund, so ideally token payment one? or The Holding Letter.
Do I just cancel the Direct Debits? Yes absolutely!

Additionally, some of our debt 2 small CC and an overdraft are with our bank but also my children's child trust funds, and my daughters' young persons account. Can they touch those? or do I need to move everything first? I switched everything including my daughter's account just to be safe. Not sure about trust funds though.

Can I just cancel the Direct debits of all the other creditors and deal with the nationwide one, in a week or two once I've sorted out the new bank? Yes that's exactly what I did, but work it around DD dates so you don't pay out anything from now

and one last thing, can creditors say no, if new spending is quite recent, as we have had to replace our fridge freezer and washing machine, and they went on my very account? Not sure about Very but I withdrew some cash on my Credit Card just before cancelling payments and they haven't mentioned it...

I'm just so fed up of surviving! Intrest rates on 3 credit cards have all gone from 0%- 19-25% and its unmanageable, cant ask mum and dad to bail us out as they have already helped out previously. So ashamed and depressed by the whole situation!

DMP_Tiger

icklemissus this may be helpful:

DMP_Tiger wrote: »

Ok so today I have sent first communication to creditors, the template letter that Stepchange sent me was more suited to starting the DMP straight away, rather than delaying for a few months and sending token payments so I've edited it quite a bit. Does this look ok? I have forgotten to put my SC ref number on it but they can ask for it if they want it.

Dear Sirs

Temporary payment arrangement - Card No: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX


I have received advice from StepChange Debt Charity to help solve my debt problem.

I am in financial difficulties at the moment and not able to meet my normal monthly payments. I will make a monthly payment of whatever I can afford until more money is available.

As I will no longer have access to credit, Stepchange have advised me to build an emergency fund over the next few months before I begin the ongoing monthly payments. I will therefore be making a token payment of £1.00 per month for approximately 5 months. I will continue to follow the advice I receive from StepChange Debt Charity to improve my circumstances and find a more permanent solution to repay my debt. In the meantime, please consider stopping interest or any other charges on my account to help me during my financial difficulties.

To help me make payments to you, please confirm the bank account details so I can set up a standing order.

In order for me to keep proper records, please only contact me in writing, please do not telephone me. I will respond to your letters in a timely manner.

Yours faithfully

NowInspired

icklemissus wrote: »

I spoke to Stepchange several months ago, and a came off the phone feeling even worse than before. Basically said I would have to sell the house as the debt is £45k of mixed debt of both mine and husbands. so we dont qualify for an IVA

I was exactly the same. The conversation was going fine with Stepchange and the chap seemed supportive until towards the end of the conversation. He told me that Lloyds Bank may well come after me to make me personally bankrupt. He then said "but that probably wouldn't happen as you don't have enough equity in the house for all the other creditors". He also said they may well put a charging order on our house.

I also at some point in the conversation made negative reference to how one of the credit cards were behaving and he said "well you've got to try and see it from their point of view too"..By the end of the conversation I felt extremely frightened, not totally supported and not happy at all.

Having said that, he probably did me a favour because I decided that there was no way anyone else was going to tell me how much money I should be sending to each creditor and therefore taking away any little control I had left. No way was I risking losing anything to anyone, especially as I knew that one of my cards (MBNA) may possibly be unenforceable and that that extra money could go towards the possibly more problematic Lloyds Bank.

So we decided to go self managed. I've already found out that that MBNA card is indeed (at the moment) unenforceable. I'm in the process of looking into the other cards too. I know where my focus lays and have a plan in place. It's not up and running 100% yet due to Lloyds being difficult to communicate with but we'll get there. It's actually quite liberating setting it up ourselves. I'm sure Stepchange are helpful to many people but for me personally I'm better off going it alone and having control.

anita55

Jumping in can someone answer me a quick question please? I am paying £1.00 per month on DMP have been for about 7 years I have now done a snowball and think if I'm careful I can pay it off in 3 years (when I retire) at £50 a month per debt. Can I do this without contacting them?

Stressedmummy

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry if this has already been asked, I'm working my way through all these very helpful posts.

I'm looking into a DMP, self managed possibly. My question is, would I be able to continue paying the creditors I can afford, but lower my payments on the bigger ones (after writing to them) until I am able to pay more on the bigger ones? Sorry if that doesn't make much sense. I'm in a bit of a state about it all to be honest.

Thanks in advance

harvey180

Hi all,
thanks for the help in advance

Cabot have bought an old Egg Loan taken out in 2007/8. After problems I defaulted in March 2009 and been on a DMP long term.

I asked for CCA in Jan and have had a letter back saying Cabot cannot provide this and that the debt is unenforceable.!

The account has fallen off my credit file and I was wondering if people think I am safe to stop paying as Cabot cannot provide the CCA.

Many thanks,
Jon

Suseka97

anita55 wrote: »

Jumping in can someone answer me a quick question please? I am paying £1.00 per month on DMP have been for about 7 years I have now done a snowball and think if I'm careful I can pay it off in 3 years (when I retire) at £50 a month per debt. Can I do this without contacting them?

Are you in a managed arrangement - if so with who and have you spoken with them. Paying tokens (£1) per month for 7 years, with the possibility of doing so for another 3 years, doesn't sound all that good to me (regardless of what you might be able to do when you retire). How can you pay more then? Are your debts defaulted?

Suseka97

Stressedmummy wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I'm sorry if this has already been asked, I'm working my way through all these very helpful posts.
I'm looking into a DMP, self managed possibly. My question is, would I be able to continue paying the creditors I can afford, but lower my payments on the bigger ones (after writing to them) until I am able to pay more on the bigger ones? Sorry if that doesn't make much sense. I'm in a bit of a state about it all to be honest.
Thanks in advance

This sounds a bit like 'snowballing' -not something I'm overly familiar with, so hopefully someone else will come along with advice / thoughts on that.

But snowballing isn't a DMP, because you keep to the minimums and knock each of your creditors off, one at a time. So if you really do want to self-manage a DMP and are looking to get your 'bigger ones' to default you (stopping interest and charges) - you may as well treat them all the same. Why continue to pay interest on any, would be my question (and I'm assuming you are struggling with your financial commitments - hence your question).

Why not go on one of the free debt management services sites (Stepchange, Payplan, NEDCAB) and use their online DMP calculators to work out your income and expenditure and what you can afford to pay. With that said - you can of course go self-managed, but that'll get the ball rolling.

Suseka97

harvey180 wrote: »

Hi all,
thanks for the help in advance
Cabot have bought an old Egg Loan taken out in 2007/8. After problems I defaulted in March 2009 and been on a DMP long term. I asked for CCA in Jan and have had a letter back saying Cabot cannot provide this and that the debt is unenforceable.!
The account has fallen off my credit file and I was wondering if people think I am safe to stop paying as Cabot cannot provide the CCA.
Many thanks,
Jon

In a word - yes. You can stop paying as they have written to say the debt is UE. However, that doesn't mean they'll stop chasing you for payment. I don't know how tenacious Cabot are because I've had no dealings with them, but UE simply means they cannot take legal action against you at this point in time. Do keep hold of the UE paperwork, because I've read on this forum where some unscrupulous companies have sold the debt on knowing it to be UE and so that letter will hold you in good stead to fend off any DCA down the line should it come to that.

harvey180

Suseka97 wrote: »

In a word - yes. You can stop paying as they have written to say the debt is UE. However, that doesn't mean they'll stop chasing you for payment. I don't know how tenacious Cabot are because I've had no dealings with them, but UE simply means they cannot take legal action against you at this point in time. Do keep hold of the UE paperwork, because I've read on this forum where some unscrupulous companies have sold the debt on knowing it to be UE and so that letter will hold you in good stead to fend off any DCA down the line should it come to that.

Thanks for the pointers, not sure if I should be offering an Full and Final, the outstanding balance is just over 5k.
Jon