DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

Suseka97

Buddy2017 wrote: »

.............I have made the first step and contacted Stepchange and they gave 3 options DMP, Bankruptcy or IVA. I dont want to do the last two because a I have done it before..Everything about this situation is making me unwell, I dont sleep properly i have chest pains and i feel like im walking through clay.....

My question is this do I go through stepchange and roll everything into one payment or contact the credit cards thats causing issues and seek an arrangement indiviually with them, or invidually with each of my creditors.

im sat here now with no money in current account no food in house and usually i would stick on card and pay off on monday when my CB goes in but i feel it would be wrong to spend on it today as i have already contacted stepchange and it feels wrong.

Could really do with some advice. Thank you for reading

Okay, firstly welcome to the forum and whilst us DMPers are here to help, you might also find it useful to post up on the general board.

Before I answer the question as to whether to go it alone or not - your priority right now is to put food on the table, so use the credit card if you need to and don't feel bad about that. Once everything is up and running, DMP wise, you will hopefully not find yourself in this situation again.

I would suggest that you get the DMP set up with SC - that'll take the worry off your shoulders, as it sounds like you've enough on your plate right now. Further down the road, when the DMP has settled down you could choose to take back control and manage it yourself. That's what a lot of us have done over time.

I'm pleased to hear that SC are being flexible with regards to your budget - so that's good. But the one thing I advise is to delay starting the DMP until you have saved money towards an emergency fund. You'll have no access to credit once the DMP kicks in and with a young family, you really do need a financial buffer.

This is easy to do - you just write to your creditors and tell them you are in financial difficulty and that you are working through a solution with StepChange. Add to that letter that you will no longer be making any payments until x month - seriously give yourself at least 6months. Get the paperwork from SC, but delay sending it back for as long as you can. Or, tell SC you are thinking about your options and then give it a month or two of not paying anything and go back to them saying you'd like to get the ball rolling - that should easily give you at least 3 months or more of saving.

Most creditors put accounts on hold for 30 days as a matter of routine and at the end of the 30 days you just write back and say you are still working things through and keep stalling that way. Do expect to have to handle the standard letters that will drop on your doormat, once you stop making payments - but they are nothing to worry about. Honestly.

Above all - stop making any non-priority payments. Cancel the direct debits as soon as you can and send off those letters

NowInspired

Hi Buddy2017 and welcome

I'm no expert on all of this as still quite new to it all. I would say though that if you need to get food as you have none in, then you must get it, that is a priority need. Don't worry about whether you feel it is right or wrong in the eyes of Step Change or anyone else. No-one would expect you to go hungry.

As to how you pay your debts. I've gone self managed and have dealt with them all individually myself, putting together a debt management plan. It is quite a lot of letter writing though and if you feel it may all be too much to try and deal with at the moment, then Step change might be a better choice for you.

I'm sure someone else will come along with more advice to help.

Now Inspired

Buddy2017

Thank you,

i am considering options around self managed but am i right in assuming once you have one default it negatively impacts credit rating as much as 7. At the end of day I don't want more credit, im 47 and cant believe what a disaster I am and here again.

I will go get some food shopping and pay it back Tuesday at least its only a short term borrow

Suseka97

Buddy2017 wrote: »

Thank you,
i am considering options around self managed but am i right in assuming once you have one default it negatively impacts credit rating as much as 7. At the end of day I don't want more credit, im 47 and cant believe what a disaster I am and here again.
I will go get some food shopping and pay it back Tuesday at least its only a short term borrow

Glad to hear you're getting the food situation sorted - you and your family are the priority here - not your creditors. If it were me - seeing as you are about to go down the DMP route, I'd buy the food and keep the CB money. Your original post indicates you are in a real financial spot and you need to start putting money aside for that 'rainy day' moment or for when an unexpected bill or expense comes your way.

As to defaults - you'll just have to accept the fact that once you stop making your contractual payments and enter into any form of payment plan, your credit file will be impacted on. That's just how it is - and, as you say, you really don't want more credit anyway so I'd just forget about that aspect of things.

Marble030509

Hello everyone.

First post here! Have read through all of the DMP threads and it really has helped me get a better understanding of everything. Keeping it short and sweet myself and my partner are in £30,000ish of debt, 80% of it is credit card debt. All of my questions have bee answered throughout these threads i would just like to make certain of a few points if that is ok.

We are going to go through StepChange to set up the DMP by the way

1. This will seem like a daft question but are the following debts allowed to be included in a DMP......Very, Littlewoods, JD Williams, Next and finally PayPal Credit. Sorry if this seems a stupid question but these make up the other 20% of our debt away from the credit cards so just wanted to make 100& sure.

2. When saving for an emergency fund i believe it is best to send a holding letter to all of our creditors initially. This part i understand. I am a bit sketchy when it comes to what follows. We plan on saving an emergency fund for 3 to 6 months as suggested so obviously i need to write to them once again near the end of the initial 30 day period. In this second letter do i offer to make token payments until the commencement of my DMP or do i still not pay anything and just provide them with a start date of our DMP?

Many thanks in advance and once again this forum has been a godsend to us. Instead of watching TV in the evenings after work this week we have spent it reading through everything which has been a real eye opener and made us feel a lot better. I just wish we had taken action sooner rather than burying our heads in the sand thinking it would get better. I guess we experienced the lightbulb moment!

Cheers guys

Have a great weekend!

sourcrates

Marble030509 wrote: »

Hello everyone.

First post here! Have read through all of the DMP threads and it really has helped me get a better understanding of everything. Keeping it short and sweet myself and my partner are in £30,000ish of debt, 80% of it is credit card debt. All of my questions have bee answered throughout these threads i would just like to make certain of a few points if that is ok.

We are going to go through StepChange to set up the DMP by the way

1. This will seem like a daft question but are the following debts allowed to be included in a DMP......Very, Littlewoods, JD Williams, Next and finally PayPal Credit. Sorry if this seems a stupid question but these make up the other 20% of our debt away from the credit cards so just wanted to make 100& sure.

2. When saving for an emergency fund i believe it is best to send a holding letter to all of our creditors initially. This part i understand. I am a bit sketchy when it comes to what follows. We plan on saving an emergency fund for 3 to 6 months as suggested so obviously i need to write to them once again near the end of the initial 30 day period. In this second letter do i offer to make token payments until the commencement of my DMP or do i still not pay anything and just provide them with a start date of our DMP?

Many thanks in advance and once again this forum has been a godsend to us. Instead of watching TV in the evenings after work this week we have spent it reading through everything which has been a real eye opener and made us feel a lot better. I just wish we had taken action sooner rather than burying our heads in the sand thinking it would get better. I guess we experienced the lightbulb moment!

Cheers guys

Have a great weekend!

Hi,

Welcome to the thread.

Any unsecured debt can go into a debt management plan, an emergency fund is vital, so make sure you save one, you don`t need to get into a game of letter tennis with creditors, in your initial letter, say you will be in touch once you have taken advice.

You will get phone calls and letters, maybe for months on end, debt collection can be a very slow process due to the sheer number of defaulters there are out there, so nothing will progress very fast as far as collections are concerned.

Once you are happy to start your DMP, write to creditors with your offers, and tell them when you intend to start paying, thats it really, in the interum, they may default you, or even sell on your debt, all normal and above board, any new creditor will write to you.


Good luck.

Marble030509

Thank you every so much for the rapid response, much appreciated.

Obviously as we are going through StepChange will they send the offer letters for us once it is up and running or is this something that we would still need to press ahead with?

Would you suggest making token payments for the 3-6 months of saving an emergency fund?

Once again thanks so much.

lulabelle01

Today I received a notice to default one of my accounts. It looks a lot more serious than any other the other letters I’ve received. The creditor agreed to my reduced payments in December but I’ve yet to start paying. Should I write back and acknowledge there letter and give them the date i’ll Start making my payments? Or do I leave it? In my original letters I said I’d start paying in 3-4 months time.

sourcrates

Marble030509 wrote: »

Thank you every so much for the rapid response, much appreciated.

Obviously as we are going through StepChange will they send the offer letters for us once it is up and running or is this something that we would still need to press ahead with?

Would you suggest making token payments for the 3-6 months of saving an emergency fund?

Once again thanks so much.

Doesn’t hurt you writing as well, token payments are a waste of time, they cost more to process than the payment is worth.

sourcrates

lulabelle01 wrote: »

Today I received a notice to default one of my accounts. It looks a lot more serious than any other the other letters I’ve received. The creditor agreed to my reduced payments in December but I’ve yet to start paying. Should I write back and acknowledge there letter and give them the date i’ll Start making my payments? Or do I leave it? In my original letters I said I’d start paying in 3-4 months time.

Standard default notice, all par for the course, and of course what you are waiting for, just ignore it, no need to do anything.