DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

unicorndeva

January2015 wrote: »

An account can only be defaulted once regardless of whether it is has been sold on to a DCA. If you are sure it was defaulted back in 2011 then write to Arrow and complain that they need to update their information and the information on the credit reference agency files.

It's important to clarify what we mean by 'default' in this instance. You may have defaulted by not paying in 2011 but did the creditor formally issue a default? Many creditors send notices of intention to default but don't always formally default the account. You need to be sure the account was formally defaulted back in 2011.

Thanks again, January!

The original account was with Empire Stores and that is no longer on my credit file. Does that mean it was defaulted and has now dropped off? Sorry I'm getting a bit confused with all this!

January2015

debby wrote: »

Hi. We took first step and contacted debt advice foundation yesterday. They contacted us again tonight and worked out our finances. They have told us the amount we should have to live on per month, and what is left goes towards our debts. They have not included our car in this as it's on HP. We couldn't lose the car it's vital for work.
I understand that we can either do this ourselves or go through a company. Debt advice foundation have told us the company they deal with do not charge.
The companies we owe the money to, what's the chances of them not including the interest?
We owe £15k, and we got down to have just £250 a month for us to buy food and essentials.
Our only problem at the moment is finding a way to get some money until payday at end of month. We have £20 until then. We have sold things on eBay over last week to get some money. Unfortunately someone has not paid for the iPad of £80 they won. So that is going to be relisted. I also do surveys. Running out of options for getting some ££ until payday.

Hi Debby

Welcome :beer:
I'm not sure how the Debt Advice Foundation works. There are other debt support charities, such as Stepchange. We started our DMP with Stepchange. We agreed an affordable budget with them and they collected one payment from us each month and they distributed it amongst our creditors.

Regarding interest - the majority of creditors will stop interest and charges (and contact) for 30 days once you inform them you are seeking support for your financial problems. Many will stop interest altogether once you are on a DMP. Some won't and it becomes a battle to get them to stop. For instance on our DMP, MBNA were fantastic and stopped interest and charges from day 1, but Barclaycard stopped interest on one of our accounts but not the other. It took us almost 2 years to battle with BC and get the interest they had charged refunded to the account - but we got there in the end, with the support and advice we found on this forum.

My advice is take each creditor as it comes and keep coming here and asking for advice from people who have been through the same journey as you are just starting on.

Regarding your budget - make sure you haven't set it too tight. You need a realistic budget to live which gives you room for flexibility. If it's too tight you are more likely to struggle, or even worse, fail your DMP. Get the budget right and you will find you will be able to live and enjoy life on your DMP. That doesn't mean you can afford luxuries such as expensive holidays etc.... it just means you can afford to live and have a quality of life which is more than just scraping by.

Regarding getting through to payday - if you haven't started your DMP yet - I withdrew cash from my credit cards to get through the month before my DMP paperwork was sent off. Yes my debt increased, but I got through that month.

debby

Thanks january for the information.
Debt advice foundation are one of the DMP mentioned on MSE list of ones to use.
Unfortunately we don't have a credit card that has any credit left to use. We thought of a pay day loan just to get us to pay day.
We are pretty desperate now and have no other way of getting any money to see us through

sourcrates

debby wrote: »

Thanks january for the information.
Debt advice foundation are one of the DMP mentioned on MSE list of ones to use.
Unfortunately we don't have a credit card that has any credit left to use. We thought of a pay day loan just to get us to pay day.
We are pretty desperate now and have no other way of getting any money to see us through

This makes me think your current budget is unrealistic.

You should not be concidering borrowing from a payday lender in your current situation.

If you can't make the books balance, increase your budget, and reduce your debt payments.

debby

sourcrates wrote: »

This makes me think your current budget is unrealistic.

You should not be concidering borrowing from a payday lender in your current situation.

If you can't make the books balance, increase your budget, and reduce your debt payments.

Thanks. Did you read further up at my circumstances. I don't know where to get any money from. Our DMP has not started yet. It's just in the stages of being set up

sourcrates

debby wrote: »

Thanks. Did you read further up at my circumstances. I don't know where to get any money from. Our DMP has not started yet. It's just in the stages of being set up

Sorry, yes I have now.

If your desperate, and a PDL is your only option, then so be it.

Try not to borrow more than you need so the repayment is manageable.

I would suggest to stop this happening again, to stop paying all your unsecured creditors for a while and save up a good emergency fund.

debby

Thanks Sourcrates. Debt advice is phoning us again tomorrow so they maybe able to help advise us too

January2015

unicorndeva wrote: »

Thanks again, January!

The original account was with Empire Stores and that is no longer on my credit file. Does that mean it was defaulted and has now dropped off? Sorry I'm getting a bit confused with all this!

A debt can only be recorded once on your credit reference agency files (CRA). If Empire Stores sold it on to Arrow then the Empire entry would be removed and the Arrow entry would appear.

If it was defaulted the information should be recorded against the debt, regardless of who now owns/manages it, e.g. one of our debts was defaulted by the original creditor in August 2015 but not passed to a debt collection agency (DCA) until October 2016. The only entry on our credit file is under the DCA name but the default still shows as August 2015.

Does this make sense?

January2015

debby wrote: »

Thanks Sourcrates. Debt advice is phoning us again tomorrow so they maybe able to help advise us too

Fingers crossed you get the support you need from Debt Advice tomorrow to help you get through to the end of the month.

I doubt Debt Advice will advise you to borrow more money though. It may be that they direct you to where to get vouchers for a local food bank, or some sort of similar advice.

Hope you get sorted :beer:

bsclp118

Why not try put the ipad on gumtree debby? You don't have to pay fees and generally you get a buyer willing to pick it up from you and get cash straight away.

Just an idea as obviously a PDL is the last resort. And you would be surprised what you can sell on there - maybe have a look around and see what you might be able to do without. Kitchen gadgets, furniture, books, CDs, comics (I made £50 selling a load of old comics my partner had stored away that he'd forgot about!).

As everyone else has said - don't even think about paying your non-priority debts until you have yourself sorted out.