DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

jools1985

This thread is really helpful and it's great to read and see how far its posters have come. I'm 'on the brink' of a DMP, but am also scared at the thought of getting all up and running - I must have a great yellow streak running through me.



I'm single and have huge credit card debts. I'm just about managing to pay off the minimums but the interest is stopping me from making the big inroads I'd like to. I've done the stepchange calculator which recommends a DMP.



One of the things stopping me is that some of the debt is currently interest free. The dates for these interest free periosds to end vary from October of this year until November 2019. Do any of you know if a DMP is possible when some of the creditors are not charging me interest anyway? Have any of you seasoned DMP'ers been in this position at the start?



Any help you can offer is hugely appreciated.

Suseka97

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Thanks for the update, Suseka:T. Well done on getting the info over to AAD (the scanning does take such a lot of time, doesn't it, especially when some of the CCA requests result in huge packages of seemingly unrelated paperwork:eek:). The amount of stuff that came back from Lloyds put me off dealing with that one for months:o.

That's what delayed me getting them checked out! Took ages to scan in, page by page and then consolidate the pdfs into one document. Needed several cups of coffee for that little exercise

Can I ask how you long you had to wait for a response from AAD please? Did you send scans for the 3 individual debts at intervals or pretty much straight after one another?

The turnaround was pretty darn quick. Only took AAD a few days to get back to me. I basically consolidated all paperwork for each account as a separate document, but emailed all three to the address provided with a little intro and a link to my AAD debt diary thread

I have 2 debts with LINK, both old MBNA credit cards from around 2001, strangely one UE and one which sadly is enforceable. LINK are very easy to deal with IMO, although not the quickest to respond to letters:( but I haven't actually tried them with a F&F offer yet. They've never given me any hassle though. I was considering doing a F&F in September as I've been paying the enforceable debt (with an outstanding balance of £3700ish) at a rate of £1 for a year now. I'll keep you posted. Good luck:beer:

Things make no sense to me with it comes to being UE or not - it's far more complex than I first thought. Hence why its best to get the paperwork checked out by people who know more about this stuff. I'm glad to hear Link are easy to deal with and I'll let you know how I get on with F&Fs. The 3 accounts with them are the lowest amounts, so that's another positive. Good luck with yours.

January2015 wrote: »

Hi Suseka
Sorry to hear about the confirmation of the enforceable debts - hey ho - we can't win them all

Nope, but always worth a shot

I just wanted to say I love the bit of your post where you say you are going to pay a monthly amount you are happy with and are no longer desperate to pay everything off as quickly as possible. This so describes the mindset I now have I am very happy with being in control of my debts and my DMP rather than my debts controlling me and even worse, creditors/DCAs controlling me.

Yep, me too. In the beginning I was desperate to be debt-free at the earliest opportunity. Felt quite ashamed at being in this position at first, but time (and a great deal of research about the amount of personal debt is out there) made me realise I'm not alone and was at least facing things head on.

I love to read your posts and keep up with your progress - keep up the great work on slaying down those debts at the least possible cost to you :beer:

That's very kind of you to say and I enjoy reading your posts and following your journey. Along with others who are regulars on here. The support if invaluable

Suseka97

jools1985 wrote: »

This thread is really helpful and it's great to read and see how far its posters have come. I'm 'on the brink' of a DMP, but am also scared at the thought of getting all up and running - I must have a great yellow streak running through me.

One of the things stopping me is that some of the debt is currently interest free. The dates for these interest free periosds to end vary from October of this year until November 2019. Do any of you know if a DMP is possible when some of the creditors are not charging me interest anyway? Have any of you seasoned DMP'ers been in this position at the start?

Any help you can offer is hugely appreciated.

Hello there and welcome

I didn't have any 0% debts, but at the end of the day - that doesn't really matter unless you are in a position to clear the balances by the end of the interest free period and from what you've said it doesn't look as if you can do that.

If you can only just about afford the minimum payments on your debts then you don't have much choice really. You may as well just get everything up and running -but give yourself time to save a decent emergency fund.

There's been a fairly recent change in legislation now whereby credit card companies are going to have to be prepared to help folks who are barely paying the minimums -but they will effectively close off your access to more credit as a result. So you've really go nothing to lose. Maybe give StepChange a call.

jools1985

Hi Suseka - thank you so much for the very quick reply. You are right about me not having much choice really and there is no chance I'll be able to pay off the interest free debt by the end of the interest free periods.



A couple of my credit cards have sent me information about the change in legislation about minimum payments - is that the 'perpetual debt' thing? I was given a bit of hope from the letters initially, but reading them again it seems to indicate that you have to be in perpetual debt for 18 months before they will help. I haven't been in that position for 18 months already so don't think it will be of any use to me currently.



I just need to bite the bullet and start the DMP process.

DMP_Tiger

jools1985 wrote: »

One of the things stopping me is that some of the debt is currently interest free. The dates for these interest free periosds to end vary from October of this year until November 2019. Do any of you know if a DMP is possible when some of the creditors are not charging me interest anyway? Have any of you seasoned DMP'ers been in this position at the start?

2 of my 3 credit cards were interest free when I stopped payments. They have both accepted my reduced payments (DMP) and haven't added any interest, so they are still 0% but now over a much longer period.

jools1985

DMP_Tiger wrote: »

2 of my 3 credit cards were interest free when I stopped payments. They have both accepted my reduced payments (DMP) and haven't added any interest, so they are still 0% but now over a much longer period.

That is really great to hear - thank you very much. It's really helped me.

Suseka97

jools1985 wrote: »

Hi Suseka - thank you so much for the very quick reply. You are right about me not having much choice really and there is no chance I'll be able to pay off the interest free debt by the end of the interest free periods....... I just need to bite the bullet and start the DMP process.

You're welcome do 'bite that bullet' and stop making any non-priority debt payments now or at least as soon as you can. Give SC a call and get the process going, the sooner you do that the better you'll feel and realise it's not as daunting as you may think. Nowadays most, if not all, creditors will freeze your account for 30 days as soon as you let them know you're discussing your debt situation with one of the debt charities - they know the drill.

jools1985

Suseka97 wrote: »

You're welcome do 'bite that bullet' and stop making any non-priority debt payments now or at least as soon as you can. Give SC a call and get the process going, the sooner you do that the better you'll feel and realise it's not as daunting as you may think. Nowadays most, if not all, creditors will freeze your account for 30 days as soon as you let them know you're discussing your debt situation with one of the debt charities - they know the drill.

Thank you. I'm starting to feel more positive already

kram

I noticed a few people having issues with multi page pdfs.

Here's a link to some free scanning software I use that enables you to scan multiple pages to pdf easily. :j

https://icopy.sourceforge.io/

W&R

Hello All
have been reading on here for some time and we are now making steps towards our DMP. New bank account in place, wages in and all essential DD's transferred. Holding letters to creditors are in the post.
Slight delay as, just when we thought we knew what we wanted to do/our exact position, our older son announced he was moving out (hooray!!). Quite a dent in our income though as we lose his financial contribution, but should mean some good savings - especially food and laundry costs :j Will need to redo our SOA/Step Change budget thing but we need to take action so are going ahead (self managing for now at least). The NEDCAB website was really useful for generating the letters.
I just wanted to say a big thank you to all who post on here as without your questions/answers/advice etc I don't think I would have plucked up the courage to do this - and definitely would be feeling more worried about what will happen.
Right now I just feel relieved - long may it last!
W&R