DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

TPCSJH

sourcrates wrote: »

You need to relax and chill out, none of us ever set out to be in this position, but circumstances have led you to where you are now, so lose the guilt, you need to start dealing with the new face of things, things such as :


Defult notices - nothing to worry about, and are a requirement under the consumer credit act.


Debt collectors - again, nothing to worry about, once the DMP is up and running, they won`t` be on the agenda, unless occasionally a creditor assigns or puts your account out to managemnet of a DCA, again, all perfectly normal, the payments just go to them instead.


Creditors - they are neither happy nor sad, they are obliged to treat you fairly, and in accordance with your budget, creditors who say what your paying them is insufficiant, will normally sell on the debt to another company, they will contact you, and will probebly not know about the DMP, so you will have to inform stepchange, and also send a letter yourself to them as a back up.


Creditor contact - automated letters and phone calls, all made or sent by computer, and they may continue until someone tells it to stop sending them, i have a big blue bin for garbage such as this, i expect you do too.

I must have read this post a few times over the weekend as a positive reminder of things, thank you very much for posting! It's easy sometimes I think to think of creditors as a person you owe money to, rather than just a large company that deals with this on a regular basis.

It looks like a few of us here are starting with DMPs at the same time, here's to new starts for us all!

Thank you to those of you helping on this thread as well, it does make a huge difference!

sourcrates

Billy12345 wrote: »

Just had to share some good news....:j

Came back from a short cheeky holiday and to a voicemail from the FOS. Called them back and guess what......R******er, my last creditor, have agreed to issue my default on my loan with them.:j The lady at the FOS said because I had been unable to pay them the "minimum contracted amount" for over 2 years and there was no sign of being able to pay the minimum amount then she agreed that it would be unfair for my account not to be defaulted.

However, and this was a surprise but, the FOS have NO powers to force a company to issue a default to a consumer but only to advise. This I didn't know so even though the FOS agreed with me R******er could have still said no.

Thankfully R******er agreed to issue the default but only from now and not backdated..so good result but will take a further 18 months to drop off my credit file.

That means everything is defaulted now and will drop off my file by 2024 at the latest.
Now back to sorting out the cases and mountains of clothes to wash :beer:

There are no hard and fast rules on defaulting an account, only guidence published by the FCA in the CONC Handbook.


So creditors can choose how to interpret the guidence, hense why we dont see uniform treatment across the board.

sourcrates

TPCSJH wrote: »

I must have read this post a few times over the weekend as a positive reminder of things, thank you very much for posting! It's easy sometimes I think to think of creditors as a person you owe money to, rather than just a large company that deals with this on a regular basis.

It looks like a few of us here are starting with DMPs at the same time, here's to new starts for us all!

Thank you to those of you helping on this thread as well, it does make a huge difference!

Hi,


Don`t worry, its perfectly natural to feel this way, most people do, you get used to chugging along, paying the debt every month, then something happens, job loss, relationship breakdown, whatever life happens to throw at you, and you find you just cant cover the payments any more.


Everyone, on this thread in particular has been there, and experianced it first hand, stepchange are very good at what they do, but they do not tell you everything, thats were we come in, the practical things like saving an emergency fund, as you will have no access to credit, dealing with default notices, debt collectors, impending court action, whatever it may be, we can help you with all that, all you have to do ask..

MK-4

Hi All,

Hardly ever post but today I received news that I will be made redundant.

Currently going through all my options.
It will be just short of 3 months for my final day, and will get the statutory redundancy pay after working for nearly 20 years at this company.
This will give me around six months before things become critical.

Looking at selling the house and buying in a cheaper area to get rid of the remaining mortgage. Then salary can be reduced if needed.
Also may need to go contract or self employed.

Any idea of how StepChange deal with this?

sourcrates

MK-4 wrote: »

Hi All,

Hardly ever post but today I received news that I will be made redundant.

Currently going through all my options.
It will be just short of 3 months for my final day, and will get the statutory redundancy pay after working for nearly 20 years at this company.
This will give me around six months before things become critical.

Looking at selling the house and buying in a cheaper area to get rid of the remaining mortgage. Then salary can be reduced if needed.
Also may need to go contract or self employed.

Any idea of how StepChange deal with this?

Hi,


I would stop the DMP straight away, save your money, as your going to need it, ringfence your redundacy money too, i would write and tell stepchange about your change of circumstances, theres not much else you can do to be honest, certainly write and inform your creditors as well.


Any idea what you currently owe ?

MK-4

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,


I would stop the DMP straight away, save your money, as your going to need it, ringfence your redundacy money too, i would write and tell stepchange about your change of circumstances, theres not much else you can do to be honest, certainly write and inform your creditors as well.


Any idea what you currently owe ?

Hi Sourcrates,
Thanks for your comments. Owing is just under £32K
The redundancy payment will only be made at the end of my 12 week notice period.
Not sure how to Ring Fence this but will investigate.

Will contact Stepchange tomorrow, however my payment to them went out today.

Do I stop the DMP with SC, as in cancel it? Bit wary of doing that as salary will still be paid for just under 3 months. Then hoping to use the redundancy payment to help with selling the house.

karigan_2

Hi all.

With a staggering debt of £31,700 (inc £7000 to family) between 9 creditors I've arranged a DMP with Stepchange which is going to start on May 1st. I've had my head in the sand for the last five years because i was so afraid of how bad it was going to be but currently all I'm feeling is relief that it's out in the open and there's nothing that I'm concealing from anyone anymore.

5 years 1 month and counting. I've cut up all my cards and blocked them on the bank's apps so that I can't ever spend on them again.

Also at the advice of stepchange I've opened a brand new current account- overdraft free and had my wages switched to it and switched all of the non-debt direct debits- to go out on the 1st to help my budgeting. I was paid today and it feels so odd (in a good way) to see my balance not in the negative thousands but instead to be in the black.

sourcrates

MK-4 wrote: »

Hi Sourcrates,
Thanks for your comments. Owing is just under £32K
The redundancy payment will only be made at the end of my 12 week notice period.
Not sure how to Ring Fence this but will investigate.

Will contact Stepchange tomorrow, however my payment to them went out today.

Do I stop the DMP with SC, as in cancel it? Bit wary of doing that as salary will still be paid for just under 3 months. Then hoping to use the redundancy payment to help with selling the house.

Are you likely to be able to find more work anytime soon ?

If so, keep the arrangement going, but if not, your gonna have to stop payment at some point.

LivingInTheFuture

Hello everyone!

I have sought advice from StepChange who recommend a DMP.

My situation is as follows.

My salary is £34,750 and I receive approximately £5,000 per annum in bonuses. Therefore my basic take-home pay is ~£2,250 p/m but could be as much as £2,700 p/m with overtime and a decent bonus month.

H&T Pawnbrokers | £950 | £65 p/m
Peachy Loans | £600 | £110 p/m
OneStopMoneyShop | £600 | £114 p/m
Cash4UNow | £500 | £140 p/m
Quidmarket | £750 | £250 p/m
Loans2Go | £750 | £169 p/m
FastLoanUK | £800 | £110 p/m
Drafty | £900 | £60 p/m

Amigo Loans | £2,000 | £100 p/m (Guarantor)
George Banco | £6,000 | £170 p/m (Guarantor)
Bamboo Loans | £5,000 | £150 p/m
Everyday Loans | £3,000 | £250 p/m

Family Loan | £20,000 | £500 p/m
Family Loan 2 | £2,000 | £100 p/m
Family Loan 3 | £18,000 | £338 p/m
Family Loan 4 | £15,000 | £342 p/m

I put the figures into the StepChange website yesterday and a DMP was their recommendation. I have spent the last day or so reading these boards to see exactly what has happened to other people in a similar situation.

My main questions are:

Can I overstate the living expenses to account for the family/friend loans and the Guarantor loans? I don't want anyone else to be out of pocket or to have a default on their credit file.

StepChange seemed to indicate that £523 would be my DMP payment each month, which if it came to fruition, would arguably change my life overnight. I would then have around £1,000 per month after living expenses, paying family and friends/guarantors and making the £523 payment to my DMP.

I had already written to my creditors last month to request they freeze interest and charges and/or allow me a 60 day window to seek advice about my situation. Some of them agreed to do this, whereas others (Bamboo) were not as understanding. So much so that yetserday Bamboo took £147 from my bank despite 9 emails from the 18th March onwards requesting this does not happen under any circumstances. I now have £5.80 to my name because of this.

I am going to set up a new bank account in the next few days and request that my salary is paid there in future. I am currently with RBS - can anyone recommend a non-linked bank to open a basic account with?

Final question - if I say I pay £800 p/m rent on my DMP I&E, can they actually check this? I would be using this figure to account for some of the family/friend/guarantor payments and then hopefully offering the DMP payment to anything in my own name.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

MK-4

sourcrates wrote: »

Are you likely to be able to find more work anytime soon ?

If so, keep the arrangement going, but if not, your gonna have to stop payment at some point.

Very worried about getting a new job, due to age. The other half has the same problems and has not even been able to land menial minimum wage job, so much uncertainty at the moment.

Considering selling the house and moving to a cheaper area to pay off the remaining mortgage (4 years left) then my salary requirement can be reduced substantially.

I am seeing this as a new adventure, so not all bad.