DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

danibee2k

Hi everyone,

I've spent the last few hours reading through this thread (using my time at work wisely :rotfl: )

I hadn't heard about DMP until I stumbled across this thread and I really feel like this could change my life, so thank you to all those that are posting and giving advice!

I, like a lot of others I've seen here, have been living on credit and trying to keep on top of accounts with payday loans and shifting money around. I know each month that my bills outweigh my incomings yet I keep trying to push through it.

I'm going to spend this evening talking it through with my OH who is in a similar situation and looking at the Stepchange website. I'm also going to figure out how I get an EF set up in prep for everything as it's always these things that catch us out!

In terms of setting up a new bank account, my only debt with my current bank is a smallish overdraft. Is it still worth setting up a new account and would you advise a standard bank or could I go with one of the newer startup banks like Revolut or similar?

Hoping to be hanging out here more regularly and will probably have more questions once I really start working through everything so thanks in advance!

danibee2k

One question I have just thought about, my partner and I split our bills in a way that I pay mortgage/council tax etc and she covers food/petrol/sundries as well as water and a few other bits, how do people generally separate these things on I&E docs?

We're set up like this as I'm employed and she's self-employed so it's always been easier for the main bills to come from my account as we know when the money is going in.

Red_Athena

danibee2k wrote: »

One question I have just thought about, my partner and I split our bills in a way that I pay mortgage/council tax etc and she covers food/petrol/sundries as well as water and a few other bits, how do people generally separate these things on I&E docs?

We're set up like this as I'm employed and she's self-employed so it's always been easier for the main bills to come from my account as we know when the money is going in.

I split everything in half for the I&E, although in practice we pay for different things. I guess it depends how you’re planning on paying for things in future as your I&Ewill affect your disposable budget amount for payments.

DMP_Tiger

danibee2k wrote: »

In terms of setting up a new bank account, my only debt with my current bank is a smallish overdraft. Is it still worth setting up a new account and would you advise a standard bank or could I go with one of the newer startup banks like Revolut or similar?

Depends how small the overdraft is...

If it's just a few hundred pounds, you can either transfer some money over from a credit card, draw some cash out with your CC and pay it into your current account, or use your CC for a few things that you would normally use you debit card for. Anything just to get your current account balance to zero. It would then be a good idea to cancel your overdraft.

It won't make a lot of difference to your Credit Card, it will save you the hassle of changing banks and it will be one less creditor on your DMP.

Having said all that, it's not really a hassle to change banks and it feels like a lovely fresh start

Red_Athena

Had my confirmation from StepChange today, first payment in October as I specified The debt amounts on the sheet they sent me are slightly wrong - I underestimated when I first went through the debt tool . Is it just a case of logging in when I have my password and changing the amounts? Or should I contact them? I did send updated balances with my dd form but they don’t seem to have noticed!

danibee2k

DMP_Tiger wrote: »

Depends how small the overdraft is.

If it's just a few hundred pounds, you can either transfer some money over from a credit card, draw some cash out with your CC and pay it into your current account, or use your CC for a few things that you would normally use you debit card for. Anything just to get your current account balance to zero. It would then be a good idea to cancel your overdraft.

It won't make a lot of difference to your Credit Card, it will save you the hassle of changing banks and it will be one less creditor on your DMP.

Having said all that, it's not really a hassle to change banks and it feels like a lovely fresh start

Thank you, I think i'll set up a new one as I don't have enough in my CC to pay off the overdraft as it's currently at £700. A fresh start sounds good!

danibee2k

Red_Athena wrote: »

I split everything in half for the I&E, although in practice we pay for different things. I guess it depends how you’re planning on paying for things in future as your I&Ewill affect your disposable budget amount for payments.

Thank you,

We both need to do this so makes sense that we just split everything in half I think.

Red_Athena

danibee2k wrote: »

Thank you,

We both need to do this so makes sense that we just split everything in half I think.

Good luck! I’m early on in the process but feeling relieved, you don’t believe the difference taking these steps makes :T

Willing2Learn

Red_Athena wrote: »

Had my confirmation from StepChange today, first payment in October as I specified The debt amounts on the sheet they sent me are slightly wrong - I underestimated when I first went through the debt tool . Is it just a case of logging in when I have my password and changing the amounts? Or should I contact them? I did send updated balances with my dd form but they don’t seem to have noticed!

I would get them on the phone to update them...

sourcrates

danibee2k wrote: »

Thank you,

We both need to do this so makes sense that we just split everything in half I think.

Hi,


Your "on paper budget", is just for information purposes.


How you actually distribute your income/expenditure is entirely up to you.