DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone

i need some advice please. Am on a DMP with stepchange since September.
I'm paying £600 a month, asked to change it to £500 then decided to change it back to £600 .

Paypal - pay £95 a month
Shawbrook - pay £276 a month
Satsuma - pay £30 a month (didn't freeze interest which is a pain)
Barclays - pay £38 a month
lending stream - pay £160 a month


Thing is i don't think i can afford £600 a month now and want to decrease the amount i pay monthly to £400 a month. Because of other bills i have to pay on top of this, i.e. car hire, insurance, money borrowed off family member, and also have to take my cat for blood test and theres a good chance more vet bills may incur if the results come back.

i have paid off £1200 of my debt so far and have approx £9000 left to pay off.


Im just a bit worried stepchange may get annoyed with me already making adjustments to my DMP and may cancel it. And my creditors may also get annoyed too. I heard of people setting up their own DMP and thought about it but not sure how my creditors will take to that

Wickedphantom24601

Hi all

I’ve now cancelled all direct debits and CPA and now I’m trying to sort my EF. When I was reading the boards someone had a really great template for a holding letter which I was planning to use but I can’t find it now!

Does anyone have a link to a good template?

Willing2Learn

Wickedphantom24601 wrote: »

Hi all

I’ve now cancelled all direct debits and CPA and now I’m trying to sort my EF. When I was reading the boards someone had a really great template for a holding letter which I was planning to use but I can’t find it now!

Does anyone have a link to a good template?

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Hold-action-on-your-account-%28sole-name%29.aspx

sourcrates

smallie210 wrote: »

Thing is i don't think i can afford £600 a month now and want to decrease the amount i pay monthly to £400 a month.

Im just a bit worried stepchange may get annoyed with me already making adjustments to my DMP and may cancel it. And my creditors may also get annoyed too. I heard of people setting up their own DMP and thought about it but not sure how my creditors will take to that

Hi,

A change of mindset is required here.

Your essential expenditure comes first, and anything left, is your disposable income, from which you repay your debts.

Creditors do not get annoyed, neither do stepchange, this is mearly a buisness transaction, although too much indecision may indeed flustrate the process.

From the content of your post i assume you have not saved up an emergency fund, or allowed your accounts to default yet, to be honest, you need to stop all non essential payments, and take time out to re-assess your situation, as its obvious you rushed into things, and are ill prepared for debt mangement, stepchange have a habit of doing that unfortunatly.

Its best practice to have an emergency fund set up first, then when you do start your plan, there are no hidden suprises waiting to trip you up, the time taken to save also allows your accounts to default, normally, so no more charges or interest can be applied.

Self mangement may be the way forward for you, its very simple, and your creditors either like it or they don`t, its your DMP, not theirs, you say how, when, and how much, if they are not happy, they sell the debt, and you inform the new owner of the plan and payment, its that simple.

Wickedphantom24601

Willing2Learn wrote: »

That was it, thank you!!

[Deleted User]

I think my debt with Westcott has been passed to Link after checking my credit report but I have not had any correspondence from either. It still shows as Westcott on my Stepchange account. Who do I contact?

[Deleted User]

Hi all,

I have recently moved house and have updated my address with StepChange accordingly. Do I need to let each individual debtor know too?

Many thanks,

Sophie

Suseka97

Haldane wrote: »

I think my debt with Westcott has been passed to Link after checking my credit report but I have not had any correspondence from either. It still shows as Westcott on my Stepchange account. Who do I contact?

If you've had no correspondance from either of them, what makes you think it has bee passed from Wescot to Link? DCAs do pass debts around and if that has happened, then I would wait until you get a letter from Link and then update your details with StepChange.

Sophiechatters wrote: »

I have recently moved house and have updated my address with StepChange accordingly. Do I need to let each individual debtor know too?

Yes, you should always keep your creditors informed of address changes. You never know when they might want to contact you for any reason. StepChange won't do that for you.

[Deleted User]

Haldane wrote: »

I think my debt with Westcott has been passed to Link after checking my credit report but I have not had any correspondence from either. It still shows as Westcott on my Stepchange account. Who do I contact?

Wescot don't own debts as far as I'm aware, they just manage/administer them for others. Who is/was the debt with that Wescot were collecting the money for? Has that changed? Link do buy debts and administer them themselves. I don't think Wescot administer Link debts if this information is any help.

[Deleted User]

Sophiechatters wrote: »

Hi all,

I have recently moved house and have updated my address with StepChange accordingly. Do I need to let each individual debtor know too?

Many thanks,

Sophie

Hi Sophie:)

I don't want to be pedantic, sorry,:o but you are the debtor (i.e. owe the debt) and the companies you owe money to are the creditors.

I've seen the terminology mixed up several times recently on various websites so just thought I'd mention it.