Important update! We have recently reviewed and updated our Forum Rules and FAQs. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with the latest version.
DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!
3.6K replies
487.5K views
Quick links
Essential Money | Who & Where are you? | Work & Benefits | Household and travel | Shopping & Freebies | About MSE | The MoneySavers Arms | Covid-19 & Coronavirus Support
Replies
Welcome to the forum and good luck with your DMP journey
To answer your first question - I would simply delay sending back the paperwork and enter a start date of July, if that's what you want. Personally I'd leave it a good 6 months (as you will have read is the advice we generally offer in order to save a decent EF). You may have come across sourcrates comment on this a few posts up advising folks that SC is funded by the banks and they will want to get you repaying by your chosen method quickly and are not interested in your EF, so in that you have to take care of yourself. It's a shame that most folks come on here after having already contacted SC and jump too quickly into their DMP. I did all those years ago, and regretted it. In saying this I'm not criticising SC, that's their job and they are a great help to people in your situation.
Its important that folks build up an EF because you will have no access to credit once the DMP kicks in and life has a habit of throwing curveballs at you. A broken boiler, car that needs fixing, washing machine breaks down etc, etc. So what you want to avoid is having to mess around with your DMP should the unexpected happen.
To answer your second question, yes - you can ask your creditors to contact you via email, rather than by post. A lot of folks prefer electronic communications, the main thing is to ensure you save those emails (I'd print hard copies) so you have an audit trail of anything that is agreed between you and them.
Defenatly stay firm, this is exactly why you should not speak to these people on the phone, they say we are adding this, and that, plus interest, blah blah, the script they use is designed to make you feel this way, and pay up, its all aimed at getting you to pay, they try to play mind games with you, so stay off the phone, and they cant do that anymore.
The best way to deal with creditors is to write explaining your intentions, then monitor what they send you, but otherwise ignore them, until your ready to start paying them, update them at your leisure, under current data protection laws you can decide how they are to contact you, so do so, block phone numbers, ask for email contact only, you choose.
Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an abusive or illegal post then please report it to:
[email protected].
Any views expressed are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
"I don`t trust Bankers, I don`t trust Banks, and I don`t trust you.........Private Frazer".
For free debt advice, contact either : Stepchange, National Debtline, CitizensAdviceBureaux.
I’ve organised a new bank account and I’m going to write to the creditors to tell them I’m in negotiation with SC and looking to start making payments in July and to tell them if they wish to discuss anything with me then it must be via email - not quite sure how to word that letter so any advice is appreciated if there is any legal jargon I can follow. Need to make sure I draw out my salary from my old bank account as soon as it hits the account (too late to get it sorted for end of March salary) but frightened that they could use the offset rule with my wages ....and once I get the money into my new bank account need to contact all he companies I have ddr with for utilities etc to make sure that all ddr transferred too! Such a lot of head work and worrying that ddr that are due at start of month will try and collect from my old bank account - is it better possibly on my old online bank account for me to cancel all ddr so that the utility companies write to me?? Sorry to be a pain and ask silly questions but I know the advice given on this forum is from other people who have been in this situation. Any responses greatly appreciated for the dmp newbie! :
Hi,
You can change bank details on most utility accounts websites, or give them a quick ring to update them, cancel your old ones first.
The offset rule is not something widly used, and certainly not as quickly as you suggest, banks just dont work that fast lol.
As regards contact, something along these lines may be useful :
Dear Sirs,
Re acc no : xxxx xxxx
As you are aware i am in severe financial difficulty, and will soon be entering into a debt mangement plan, after taking advice from stepchange debt charity.
To avoid unnessessary and confusing communications, i must insist that all future contact be made by email only, my prefered email address is ...(enter email address here)....!
Please update your systems immediatly, and remove any phone numbers you currently have for me.
Yours sincerely
Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an abusive or illegal post then please report it to:
[email protected].
Any views expressed are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
"I don`t trust Bankers, I don`t trust Banks, and I don`t trust you.........Private Frazer".
For free debt advice, contact either : Stepchange, National Debtline, CitizensAdviceBureaux.
Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an abusive or illegal post then please report it to:
[email protected].
Any views expressed are mine and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.com.
"I don`t trust Bankers, I don`t trust Banks, and I don`t trust you.........Private Frazer".
For free debt advice, contact either : Stepchange, National Debtline, CitizensAdviceBureaux.
I have fixed mine twice since being on a dmp with the same provider (Nationwide) just did it online, both times my mortgage payments went down with reasonable interest rates.
Puzz
I love my dmp started in Nov 13 with SC. Self Managed 2016 57% done
£60062/25384.84 - 13222.60k UE
MY DIARY http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4768685
So first of all, I decided a few weeks ago to switch to a self managed DMP. Decided to give myself a two month break from payments too. Happy to report this is going well so far. Heard back from most creditors via letter who were fine with everything. Still a couple yet to respond. Also ive had two more defaults which I’m pleased about. That’s 5 down and