DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

usvi98

Completely new, a lot of posts to go through and struggled finding something completely relatable.

Just received a letter from Lowell with debts from 2016. Totalling to just under £1900. I’m self-employed and this is confusing me which company to set up a DMP with - can someone please help?

Thanks, Aston

sourcrates

usvi98 wrote: »

Completely new, a lot of posts to go through and struggled finding something completely relatable.

Just received a letter from Lowell with debts from 2016. Totalling to just under £1900. I’m self-employed and this is confusing me which company to set up a DMP with - can someone please help?

Thanks, Aston

Hi,

Do you need a DMP for such a small amount of debt ?
If they are all with Lowell, just work out your disposable income, split it between each debt, you don’t really need to do more than that to be honest.

sammy_Beebee

Hi my DMP has been set up with StepChange and is due to start 1/11/19. I got an email from them yesterday saying they have now contacted all my creditors. I havbe started getting emails, letters and text message from creditors over the past 2 days as the 30day hold on the accounts is ending, my question is should I contact all the creditors again or do I just leave it as obviously StepChange has now sent details of my DMP to them all.

wood_for_the_trees

Suseka97 wrote: »

If StepChange handle DMPs much the same as they did when I was on one then I don't think it will be an issue. My partner received varying OT payments at the time we were setting ours up and SC only took into account his basic pay - accepting that OT varied and was not contractually guaranteed. Also, SC will ask you to complete an annual review of your financial position and this is usually done online and takes about 10 minutes - so its very straightforward and painless!

As for getting interest and charges stopped - you can never tell really. But a way to make that happen is to delay actually setting up your DMP for a few months, but write to your creditors to explain your financial predicament and tell them you are working with one of teh debt charities to come up with a solution. That will buy you some time and you shoudl be looking at delaying that for 3 months as a minimum. In the interim you should put the money you would have been paying your creditors aside and save that all important emergency fund.

So I just... stop paying them? I hadn't even thought that might be part of the process. Do I speak to Stepchange before or after I write to my creditors? Does Stepchange support intentionally defaulting on debts or will they try and get a DMP underway as soon as I call them?

Sorry for all the questions, it's just a lot to take in. I've been pretending I'm managing but I'm really not.

jupitercrash

jupitercrash wrote: »

In response, both MBNA and Creation have sent me an income & expenditure form to complete, saying that they can't arrange any further holds or solutions until they have this. They've also asked for payslips.

The thing is, I don't want to give them this information & have them potentially pressure me into starting a payment plan independently. I have recently received a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder and feel like I need the support of an organisation such as StepChange to help me manage this process once my EF reaches a decent level. Can I refuse to give them this information?

Sorry to keep going on, I appreciate there are lots of people here with questions & you're all working hard to answer them all - but can anyone give me any guidance on this?

Puzzcat

jupitercrash wrote: »

Sorry to keep going on, I appreciate there are lots of people here with questions & you're all working hard to answer them all - but can anyone give me any guidance on this?

I have never supplied any creditor with payslips, but in order to demonstrate you are in financial difficult they will need an i&e.
Puzz

Puzzcat

wood_for_the_trees wrote: »

So I just... stop paying them? I hadn't even thought that might be part of the process. Do I speak to Stepchange before or after I write to my creditors? Does Stepchange support intentionally defaulting on debts or will they try and get a DMP underway as soon as I call them?

Sorry for all the questions, it's just a lot to take in. I've been pretending I'm managing but I'm really not.

jupitercrash wrote: »

Sorry to keep going on, I appreciate there are lots of people here with questions & you're all working hard to answer them all - but can anyone give me any guidance on this?

Puzzcat wrote: »

I have never supplied any creditor with payslips, but in order to demonstrate you are in financial difficult they will need an i&e.
Puzz

Just to add, SC will want you to start asap, but its your dmp so you lead and they follow.

I just wrote holding letters to each creditor each month for 3 months stating I would be starting whenever it was and I didn't return my paperwork to SC until I was ready. I didn't have any problems with the creditors but the only difficult one I had was Creation who to this day despite the debt being sold have never defaulted me.. you can't win them all and at the end of the day lovely as it would have been not to have AP markers against just that debt, they don't have to default you. You obviously will need to supply SC with payslip and i & e when you are ready.

Puzz

kyledmu

kyledmu wrote: »

Hi,

So after a lot of soul searching and years of struggling, I’ve just started up a DMP with StepChange, one of the debts I have is a guarantor loan with Bamboo which I left off the debt list as I didn’t want it to have a negative effect on my friend who is my guarantor. However I’m already struggling to keep up with the DMP payments and payments to Bamboo.
My question is has anyone on a DMP added a Bamboo guarantor loan to their plan? From looking online and my Bamboo documents there’s no mention of what to do if I enter into a DMP so I’m really worried that they’ll demand or take payment from my friend.
Any help or advice would be amazing.

An update on this and another request for help: I managed to pay the payment due and reworked my budget to keep Bamboo up to date, however I’ve just received an email from Everyday Loans advising they’ve looked through my file and seen the Bamboo loan on my file but not my DMP (as it’s a guarantor loan, if added to my file it would leave my friend liable for payments).
ED Loans are threatening to refuse any further payments from StepChange but I’m not sure what to say to them to keep them ‘on board’ with the DMP as I’ve already begun to make payments and there’s no way I’d be able to afford to pay them separately. Could anyone advise of what I should say to ED Loans?

jupitercrash

Puzzcat wrote: »

I have never supplied any creditor with payslips, but in order to demonstrate you are in financial difficult they will need an i&e.
Puzz

So even though I'll be doing an I&E with StepChange in January when I start my DMP, I still have to fill out separate ones at creditors' requests? They aren't going to get any money from me until January, which I've made clear to them in writing so 1) I don't see the point giving them that info yet and 2) I'm worried they'll use the information to pressure me into setting up payments with them directly much sooner.

I was going to write back to them to tell them basically this, & that in the meantime I'd rather they defaulted the accounts. Am I within my rights to do this though?

[Deleted User]

sourcrates wrote: »

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.

Sorry for the late reply, haven't been online. thanks so much for this response. when you say "Self-Management may be the way forward for you", do you mean setting up a diy debt management plan?

Only Barclays have defaulted my account with them, a few of my other loans are in arrears. If i was to not pay my creditors for a month or so, is there more chance that they will default my accounts? I'm a bit worried legal action may be taken for skipping a payment but i may be worrying over nothing