DMP - can I keep my current bank account? And am I doing the right thing?

Bewildered_Banshee

If you use the debt remedy tool on Step change it will allow you to plan a budget and advise a reasonable amount for creditor payments.
It's a good starting point, I'm just starting a dmp and found it and the step change staff very helpful. make sure the budget is sustainable. My overdraft was included so I had to change banks. I now have a Barclays account which is not a basic one - they allow you to apply and see what you get. I was in a very similar position to you. Don't beat yourself up- it's a very positive move. (my repayments were over £1k and now 280 a month - but it's going to take me a long time to pay back). Good luck.

EssexHebridean

I agree with those saying post an SOA I'm afraid. Maybe we won't find any savings, but you're already revealed that there are most definitely wants as opposed to needs on there so who knows, perhaps there may be other stuff where we can spot savings that you've missed? It's easy to get bogged down in your own situation - we're used to looking dispassionately at just the figures and so can often find savings that the "owner" of the SOA might not even have thought of.

the paid bank account - you say that if it goes you'll "need" to pay for the benefits separately - but that isn't necessarily the case. Taking just the things you've mentioned - phone insurance - time to start being ultra careful with phones then! They'll be covered on Contents insurance anyway albeit with an excess. Travel Insurance - on 57k of debt it might be a good idea to accept that at least for the next couple of years holidays are not in your game plan, so that removes the need for that. Breakdown cover: Yes you do need this, but how basic can you get your cover? Martin has a great guide which is worth a read - have a browse on the main site. We have comprehensive UK cover (inc homestart, hire car, get-you-home cover etc) and for the past two years we've paid less than £120 per year to cover both cars - it's actually possible to get it for less than this so it seems likely that you might still save money? Guessing that your packaged account costs in the region of £10 - £15 per month?

National_Debtline

Hi bells on it

From what you’ve said a DMP sounds like it could be a sensible option for you. 6 years is a reasonable amount of time to pay your debts back, it won’t put your home at risk and you could pay it off even quicker if, fingers crossed, you get a better paid job.

With regards to your overdraft you must include it in your DMP. It’s really important to treat all your creditors fairly and in the same way as each other. That will mean getting a new account somewhere you don’t have any debt. Basic accounts are recommended as you can’t go overdrawn and you shouldn’t incur any bank charges, but you can usually still have the normal features like a debit card and direct debits.

EssexHebridean gives some good advice, shop around to see how cheaply you can get the individual policies, and think about which ones are really needed. Think of it as getting a completely fresh start by including every single debt in your DMP. Good luck with it all.

Susie
@natdebtline

glentoran99

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi bells on it

From what you’ve said a DMP sounds like it could be a sensible option for you. 6 years is a reasonable amount of time to pay your debts back, it won’t put your home at risk and you could pay it off even quicker if, fingers crossed, you get a better paid job.

With regards to your overdraft you must include it in your DMP. It’s really important to treat all your creditors fairly and in the same way as each other. That will mean getting a new account somewhere you don’t have any debt. Basic accounts are recommended as you can’t go overdrawn and you shouldn’t incur any bank charges, but you can usually still have the normal features like a debit card and direct debits.

EssexHebridean gives some good advice, shop around to see how cheaply you can get the individual policies, and think about which ones are really needed. Think of it as getting a completely fresh start by including every single debt in your DMP. Good luck with it all.

Susie
@natdebtline

I didn't and encountered no issues, so its not a MUST

bells_on_it

lynz68 wrote: »

You need to post an SOA people can't really provide much advice without it and will possibly spot areas where you can cut back that you haven't picked up on yourself.

£70 a month for Sky is ridiculous when you have £57k of debt. Paying for a bank account when you don't have enough money for food also ridiculous. While you think the benefits are good how many times have you actually used them. I use to have an account like that but never used the benefits all I was doing was paying the bank money.

Going into a DMP is about cutting back and focusing on the debt not about trying to maintain a certain lifestyle.

Apologies if that sounds really harsh I don't mean it to be.

Get SOA done and you will get lots of helpful advice.

Hi really appreciate the advice and don't think you're being harsh you're being honest, I will get the SOA on here - is that all bills?? Or just non debt so you can see where we might be able to make savings.

In terms of sky it's not £70 for the tv, that includes line rental and broadband which is around half of that. We need broadband without doubt so have no choice but to pay for line rental.

For the holidays I get what you're saying and we by no means have any wild plans, our holiday this year was a 4 night sun newspaper holiday, and we've taken our tent away for a couple of nights. We try to get time away with the kids, purely as it's total family time! Next year we've another sun holiday which cost £42 and we are sensible with eating we cook in as we would at home. But I still like to have the insurance as I actually had to claim on it this year for damaged property but yep I can buy a policy as and when I need it.

We rarely go out, only times would be to a friends house or vice versa for drinks.

I'm sure there are the odd things? So I'll get the details on here

bells_on_it

My packaged bank account costs £25 a month, it was beneficial as it gave me a lower apr on my overdraft, phone insurance for both mine and my husbands phone, family travel insurance, home emergency and car emergency.

The work we had done to the house were essential. Unfortunately we live in a 1900s house, we started to get extensive damp and water ingress, so we're getting plaster come off the walls and brown staining upstairs. We had to get the house repointed and exterior paint removed as water was getting trapped behind failing masonry paint (painted over natural stone). Then the boiler failed so we had to buy a new boiler and cylinder. Then to add to that the house wasn't earthed, so our house was technically live so we had to get electric work done, and then we had a burst water main on our driveway and unfortunately we were liable (and on a water met with which was forced when we moved in) as it was within our boundary. Thankfully I was able to find a few schemes with the water board i.e. Lead replacement and leak stop so they contributed to the overall bill.

Trust me, none of the work was unnecessary , we've only painted 4 rooms in the 4 years we've been here, and 10L of that paint was free because I complained to dulux that their paint quality was poor so they gave me FOC. We've also had only one of the rooms replastered and patched up the rest that suffered from damp. We're here for the long term and I think we've pretty much had all that we could go wrong with the house and never anticipated (naively) that I'd be made redundant losing my car so had to use the redundancy to buy one and have only managed to find a job that's paying 14k less per year. I'm still searching for the right role, but with 2 kids under 5 and one just going to school I have to be realistic on the commute. currently it's over 1 hour each way

Hope I don't sound like I'm being off and I'm not trying to get you to feel pity either, the debts were our mistakes in the first place and frustratingly we paid debts off in excess of 20k twice in the last 13 years then things went wrong with the house and it started to spiral.

glentoran99

bells_on_it wrote: »

Hi really appreciate the advice and don't think you're being harsh you're being honest, I will get the SOA on here - is that all bills?? Or just non debt so you can see where we might be able to make savings.

In terms of sky it's not £70 for the tv, that includes line rental and broadband which is around half of that. We need broadband without doubt so have no choice but to pay for line rental.

For the holidays I get what you're saying and we by no means have any wild plans, our holiday this year was a 4 night sun newspaper holiday, and we've taken our tent away for a couple of nights. We try to get time away with the kids, purely as it's total family time! Next year we've another sun holiday which cost £42 and we are sensible with eating we cook in as we would at home. But I still like to have the insurance as I actually had to claim on it this year for damaged property but yep I can buy a policy as and when I need it.

We rarely go out, only times would be to a friends house or vice versa for drinks.

I'm sure there are the odd things? So I'll get the details on here

all income and outgoings


http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php


and be honest, you need to know where your money is going

EssexHebridean

Yep - Glentoran is right in their final line there - the SOA needs to be entirely honest and accurate - it also needs to reflect the way things are right now - NOT what you think we expect to see.

£25 a month is a ludicrous cost for a bank account - get rid ASAP, include the overdraft in the DMP and replace the cover from the account with the essentials in terms of insurances - ie not phone cover.