DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

sourcrates

Whatamidoinghere wrote: »

Sorry not very clear what I mean is if I have a default do I continue paying them until the debt is cleared or will they pass it to someone else if so what do I need to do.

Yes you do keep paying until or if, your notified differently.

Your debt may, or may not be sold on, if it is, as said above, you will be notified of the new owner details in writing.

glaister

Thanks for your answer. I am not sure I fully understand though.

Her creditor agreed to the DMP and she has been making the payments every month (so she can afford them), but they return the payments.

sourcrates

Please folks, it would help immensely when replying to a particular post, if you press the :


“QUOTE”


button to respond.

Then we know which thread you are referring to.

Otherwise random messages get littered around and confused people start scratching their heads.

Thanks in anticipation.

Estone_Villan

Hi All

My first post.

I've always been bad at managing money. I've been close to falling apart a few times but have always had a bit of luck getting promotions at work at exactly the right time. It's kept the wolf from the door but came to a head last year when my partner went back to university to re-train.

I have over £14,000 to clear. And started to miss payments. I got in touch with StepChange after reading this forum and I think that helped me to face up to reality. Although I've still not found the balls to tell my partner.

I've had a few problems with setting up bank accounts this month so missed my first DMP payment but the DD info is in, and I'm looking forward to bringing the total down.

I know it's early days, and the end seems very far away. But I'll just be glad to live with a little less stress when I see the postman at the door.

Queen_of_Swords

Estone_Villan wrote: »

Hi All

My first post.

I've always been bad at managing money. I've been close to falling apart a few times but have always had a bit of luck getting promotions at work at exactly the right time. It's kept the wolf from the door but came to a head last year when my partner went back to university to re-train.

I have over £14,000 to clear. And started to miss payments. I got in touch with StepChange after reading this forum and I think that helped me to face up to reality. Although I've still not found the balls to tell my partner.

I've had a few problems with setting up bank accounts this month so missed my first DMP payment but the DD info is in, and I'm looking forward to bringing the total down.

I know it's early days, and the end seems very far away. But I'll just be glad to live with a little less stress when I see the postman at the door.

Hello and welcome to this forum,
It's invaluable. I am new to this as well - my first DMP payment went out on April 1st. There are so many wise people on here and it gave me the strength to look hard at my stuation and deal with it. It is a long journey that we are on, but at least we are headed somewhere positive, and with lots of support available here at least. Much better than living hand to mouth, robbing Peter to pay Paul...... I'm running out of cliches here! :rotfl:

But seriously, you won't regret taking this step. I know I feel as though it's such a weight of my mind. I pay SC, I am on a strict budget, but that's a lot better than what it was like before......dreading payday as I would have to actually look at my bank account and realise that once again I was using the rapidly dwindling remaining credit to buy groceries, whilst maintaining the minimum payments...... awful situation.

Good luck to you on your journey.

ditty1234

Hi there I am still only starting my journey, will prep holding letters today and hopefully start paying to SC from May. But here is my very big but how do you match up your budget with your spending?
I have a book where I write all money leaving my possession, no matter what the reason or funding, but it tends to add up to more than wha tis on my spreadsheet, as there will be £7 - £30 - £60 expenses every month that doesn't fit any category:
For example this month:
Tv cable £8
Tshirt (child) £7
Sports membership(child) £29
Prof membership that went out early £38
School supplies for an exam £17, 50
Trip pocket money (child) £29
My driving licence (Brexit - dont ask) £43
Hiking trousers (young uni child) £32 (needed for hiking holiday and for a residential field trip)
And £20 for a charity fund raiser dinner coming up this Friday.
SO about £225 all together.
This fits the pattern of spending about £200 too much on a running basis for years, and it's all sort of on the budget, but it seems like a lot in a month, where I am trying to not spend any money. Yes I know it's a laugh.
Next month it's £63 for my practical test, £60 for 2 lessons, £85 for child passport and the story continues, pay for prom, bike lock(for child new bicycle he paid for himself).
Have already cancelled summer holls this year, partly to save up for my citizenship in a year or so, as well as for payments full and final amounts on my large debt.
Sorry for this rant, but I am trying to save for an budget to cover things like this, an an emergency fund for car, vet and family emergencies.
But how do you guys do it?

Willing2Learn

ditty1234 wrote: »

Hi there I am still only starting my journey, will prep holding letters today and hopefully start paying to SC from May. But here is my very big but how do you match up your budget with your spending?
I have a book where I write all money leaving my possession, no matter what the reason or funding, but it tends to add up to more than wha tis on my spreadsheet, as there will be £7 - £30 - £60 expenses every month that doesn't fit any category:
For example this month:
Tv cable £8
Tshirt (child) £7
Sports membership(child) £29
Prof membership that went out early £38
School supplies for an exam £17, 50
Trip pocket money (child) £29
My driving licence (Brexit - dont ask) £43
Hiking trousers (young uni child) £32 (needed for hiking holiday and for a residential field trip)
And £20 for a charity fund raiser dinner coming up this Friday.
SO about £225 all together.

… But how do you guys do it?

Hi,

Learning how to budget is one of the more difficult life-skills to master, so try not to be too hard on yourself. It wasn't something I got my head around until I was well into my 40s. It is all about having workable budget categories. For instance, the hiking trousers and T-shirt for your child should be coming out of your monthly budgeted clothing category. There should also be a monthly budget category for "giving to charities" and for children's "school expenses". Things like TV cable and driving licenses should both have a monthly budget category too. It is just a matter of organising things properly.

If it is any help, I signed up to YNAB (classic version) in 2012 and that was the one biggest thing that enabled me to learn how to budget successfully. It is not cheap (the subscription service), but the YNAB budgeting method just saves me so many £££s.

In theory though, you should not need YNAB, if you can set yourself a realistic monthly budget...

Knitqueen

Hi Everyone

I am in the early stages of a DMP with SC and would appreciate advice and thoughts. I hadn’t realised the importance of building up an emergency fund and so got pushed (and I honestly did feel pushed) by SC into starting payments very quickly after I contacted them. As a result, I am struggling because my car needed some work and a couple of other things in the house needed doing. I am feeling very low about the fact that every day I’m still struggling and thinking about how to stretch a tiny amount of money as far as possible. I hoped the DMP would take some of this anxiety away and I obviously did expect that I had to be careful with money, but this is quite a struggle. I am considering running the DMP myself and I have read a few stories of people doing that here.
What I am less sure about is how easy/hassle-filled it is to take a payment break of a few months whilst I set it up, in order to build up the emergency fund. I also was encouraged into lowering some of my essential expense amounts on my SOA in order to make a higher payment to creditors and this honestly is not a realistic amount at present so I would be seeking to lower (not by too much as I want to pay things off as quickly as possible) when I set things up myself. I only started the DMP in January - is it too soon to start messing about and doing it myself and stopping payments for a bit?

So any advice on the above would be appreciated.

Also, one thing I have been relieved about with SC is that I haven’t been hassled by creditors. I get letters from some of them about defaults etc but nothing else and no calls. Would this change if I run things myself? I wonder if the creditors have been pleasant because I am with SC and this would change if I do things myself?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom

Willing2Learn

Knitqueen wrote: »

I am in the early stages of a DMP with SC and would appreciate advice and thoughts. I hadn’t realised the importance of building up an emergency fund and so got pushed (and I honestly did feel pushed) by SC into starting payments very quickly after I contacted them. As a result, I am struggling because my car needed some work and a couple of other things in the house needed doing. I am feeling very low about the fact that every day I’m still struggling and thinking about how to stretch a tiny amount of money as far as possible. I hoped the DMP would take some of this anxiety away and I obviously did expect that I had to be careful with money, but this is quite a struggle. I am considering running the DMP myself and I have read a few stories of people doing that here.
What I am less sure about is how easy/hassle-filled it is to take a payment break of a few months whilst I set it up, in order to build up the emergency fund. I also was encouraged into lowering some of my essential expense amounts on my SOA in order to make a higher payment to creditors and this honestly is not a realistic amount at present so I would be seeking to lower (not by too much as I want to pay things off as quickly as possible) when I set things up myself. I only started the DMP in January - is it too soon to start messing about and doing it myself and stopping payments for a bit?

Hi Knitqueen,

You could be honest with SC, and let them know about the car emergency and that other things have cropped up too that need fixing around the home. Why not suggest token payments to SC for six months, so that you can deal with your financial emergencies? In reality though, you use the six months token payments to build up a sizeable Emergency Fund.

Alternatively, you could terminate your agreement with SC and just go self-managed. You would need to write to all your creditors to let them know there will be a 6-month payment freeze while you devote your financial resources towards maintaining the car and the bits around the home. You would also need to include a new start date for the DMP. And finally you would need to state that you only consent to your creditors contacting you by Royal Mail (no 'phone calls, home visits, emails etc).

Knitqueen

Willing2Learn wrote: »

Hi Knitqueen,

You could be honest with SC, and let them know about the car emergency and that other things have cropped up too that need fixing around the home. Why not suggest token payments to SC for six months, so that you can deal with your financial emergencies? In reality though, you use the six months token payments to build up a sizeable Emergency Fund.

Alternatively, you could terminate your agreement with SC and just go self-managed. You would need to write to all your creditors to let them know there will be a 6-month payment freeze while you devote your financial resources towards maintaining the car and the bits around the home. You would also need to include a new start date for the DMP. And finally you would need to state that you only consent to your creditors contacting you by Royal Mail (no 'phone calls, home visits, emails etc).

Thank you for the advice Willing2Learn. -that’s really helpful. I did tell SC about the car and although they agreed to me missing one month they made me feel quite bad about it and pressed me about whether I could at least pay something etc. I feel that they wouldn’t be receptive to the idea of a six month token payment process as they seem quite strict about closing the plan if you miss 3 payments in a 12 month period.

Do you think 6 months token payments would be OK if I ran the DMP myself? Does it make it more likely they would pursue a CCJ for example?