DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

LinziM

Hi, I am new here and looking for some advice. We are in a DMP and have been for 11 months (with stepchange). We owe a hell of a lot (£127k, now down to £110k so getting there slowly!) We recently had a review as we were struggling with the payments and stepchange reduced our monthly payment) All our debtors (we have 27 in total) have accepted the new payment amounts. All except Robinson Way (Hoist). We have 4 of our accounts transferred to them. They have said that the original amounts were contracted to be paid and that they will accrue the difference from the new payments each month and then they will eventually default us. I have raised a complaint as we don’t have a contract with them and I don’t understand what they mean by contractual payment. Stepchange have sent them our new income and expenditure sheet listing the ins and out for us. We are not shirking away from any of our debt and want to pay it but it doesn’t help when they won’t accept the payments. Most of the other debtors have been really good. Just wondered if anyone knew if Robinson way can actually do this? Thanks for any help

Billy12345

neiljmuk wrote: »

Hi all! I've been defaulted by Argos (what ever their finance company is) for a good couple of years and the debt handled by Moorcroft for much of this time. They suddenly added £400 quid interest onto the £1500 debt out of nowhere. Moorcroft have sent a query to them to find out why.

Anyone else had this. Pretty sure they cannot slap backdated mass amount of interest on a long since defaulted debt?!

Most of my other creditor keep sending me letters refunding me every two minutes for errors and poor handling I'm obivious to lol!

Did you get any response from Argos ? I thought once a creditor defaulted you then that set the amount you owed in stone. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable will correct this. I think it is important for everyone really to know the answer :beer:

ditty1234

Hi all,
I am feeling so much more calm after changing from trying to keep up w cc payments and starting a DMP this month with SC.
I am getting default letters from all creditors, but I think that just means they are closing my cards and they seem to be sticking to the original amount for the most part. Do I need to respond to these letters, some of them acknowledge they have had contact with SC and some doesen't?
I have managed to save up a few hundred so far for my EF so far, so feel things are going to plan, with a log of minor hick ups and adjustments still to be done.

Willing2Learn

maggies1970 wrote: »

one more question...how long should I wait for respond for my previous letter before sending another one if the first one hasn't been acknowledged by creditor?

Hi,

Creditors are often not the quickest to reply. Are you referring to your holding letters asking them to freeze the accounts? If it were me, I would probably give them a couple of months to respond and then send out another letter.

SkintDad87 wrote: »

Just wondering, with the threat of the debt being sold to debt collectors, I've read horror stories that they ask for the whole debt in 1 go, how likely are they to accept payment plans...and how far does it have to go, before visits or CCJs are involved?

Yeah, the DCAs may ask for all the money in one go, though that has never happened to me. They will accept payment plans, as long as they are consistent with your SOA (I&E). They won't escalate to a CCJ, unless you continually fail to keep to your agreements with them. A CCJ is literally the last option, when all else has failed.

Willing2Learn

LinziM wrote: »

We are in a DMP and have been for 11 months (with stepchange). We owe a hell of a lot (£127k, now down to £110k so getting there slowly!) We recently had a review as we were struggling with the payments and stepchange reduced our monthly payment) All our debtors (we have 27 in total) have accepted the new payment amounts. All except Robinson Way (Hoist). We have 4 of our accounts transferred to them. They have said that the original amounts were contracted to be paid and that they will accrue the difference from the new payments each month and then they will eventually default us. I have raised a complaint as we don’t have a contract with them and I don’t understand what they mean by contractual payment. Stepchange have sent them our new income and expenditure sheet listing the ins and out for us. We are not shirking away from any of our debt and want to pay it but it doesn’t help when they won’t accept the payments. Most of the other debtors have been really good. Just wondered if anyone knew if Robinson way can actually do this?

Hi, just stopped by to say well done on making such impressive inroads toward paying down your debts in such a short time. Well done!!

I'm sorry that I don't have an answer to your main question as I don't understand what Robinson Way mean... Hopefully someone else will be along shortly with an answer for you. (I am assuming you have asked SC, what they think that Robinson Way could possibly mean?)

Willing2Learn

ditty1234 wrote: »

I am getting default letters from all creditors, but I think that just means they are closing my cards and they seem to be sticking to the original amount for the most part. Do I need to respond to these letters, some of them acknowledge they have had contact with SC and some doesen't?

Hi,

The default letters are good news as it means the account interest and fees will be frozen. It also means that your credit file will be cleaned up much quicker. You ideally want all your creditors to default you.

There is no need to respond to those letters, as they are just part of the standard procedures.

Girl_unknown

Hello

I'm about to go back on a DMP with stepchange last month I had Barclays phone my work, I asked them to remove my work number from their system, they said they had fast forward to this month and they have started phoning my work again even though I was told my number had been removed, I wrote to them again asking them to remove my number (also I sent the hold the account letter too) they are still phoning my work, who else can I complain to as they aren't listening (I did get stroppy on the phone oops)

Willing2Learn

Girl_unknown wrote: »

I'm about to go back on a DMP with stepchange last month I had Barclays phone my work, I asked them to remove my work number from their system, they said they had fast forward to this month and they have started phoning my work again even though I was told my number had been removed, I wrote to them again asking them to remove my number (also I sent the hold the account letter too) they are still phoning my work, who else can I complain to as they aren't listening (I did get stroppy on the phone oops)

Hi,

The repeated calls at work are considered harassment. When you have specifically requested that the DCA does not contact you at work is grounds for an official written complaint.

Use the letter template included in the National Debtline Factsheet Harassment by creditors and debt collectors. If the calls continue after you have sent the letter, then you would have grounds to escalate to the FOS

Make sure you have the heading 'complaint' at the top of your letter. Include in the letter something to say you ONLY consent to correspondence in writing and that all other forms of contact would be considered harassment.

If it were me, and the repeated 'phone calls were occurring at work, then I would send the letter twice. Once by email so that it gets there quickly, and the second copy to be sent by Royal Mail ('signed for' delivery).

sourcrates

SkintDad87 wrote: »

Just wondering, with the threat of the debt being sold to debt collectors, I've read horror stories that they ask for the whole debt in 1 go, how likely are they to accept payment plans...and how far does it have to go, before visits or CCJs are involved?

No thats not the case at all, payment plans of whatever you can afford are the norm, these companies are not stupid, they know the average person does not have a large wad of cash stuffed under the bed.


Occasionally if you phone them they may ask for it all at once, you just say no, that is the reason why you should never phone a debt collector in the first place.


Most DCA`s have online account management, so you never have to speak to anyone, they are in a lot of cases easier to deal with than the original creditors.

e4rub

Hi everyone

I just wanted to pop by and share my story about being on a DMP and life after a DMP. I’m hoping it may give some of you hope, in a non patronising way!
We are a family of 5, Mum, Dad and 3 amazing kids!
Unfortunately (or in my eyes fortunately) my husband was made redundant and ended up with a job that paid 10K less per year. We’d never really worried about our finances, we both had ok jobs, we had a mortgage we could pay, had a few credit cards and a loan. We never really paid much attention to how much money we owed, after all we could make the required payments every month. But a 10K pay reduction per year changed all that. We no longer could pay our bills, so, stupidly we started putting everyday things like food shopping, petrol etc onto our credit cards.
We got to the stage where our cards were maxed and we had no money to live off.
We were in a real mess and had many sleepless nights. We fed our kids and we both went without food so they could have food.
A friend literally saved us. She told me about Stepchange and made me promise her that I would phone them. I NEVER break a promise!
To cut a long story short we embarked on a DMP with them and it took years to pay it off but we did, in full.
Since ending the DMP we started to try to repair our credit score, I had a credit building credit card with a small credit limit on it. I used it to put petrol in my car and paid it off in full every month. My credit score gradually got better. A year or so later my husband also got a credit building card and did the same with his petrol.
We both gradually repaired our credit scores to an above average level.

We recently have been approved for a mortgage, something that we never thought would happen. We thought we would be ‘blacklisted’ forever..............and that’s the main reason why I wanted to post this, so that people know that you can be at rock bottom financially and feel like it’s never going to get better, that your debts are too huge to pay off etc

It WILL get better, you will chip away at your debt a bit at a time, but that’s ok because your debt is getting smaller and smaller.

Our debt at it’s worse was over 40k but as we stand today we are debt free, apart from our mortgage.

My biggest tip for anyone on a DMP is have a realistic budget but stick to it. I’ve had to put food back in the supermarket when I’ve not had enough money 🙈
Even thought we are debt free, I still have a weekly food budget and do not go over it.

Best of luck to all of you on a DMP

Xxxxx