DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

19ryanh93

Oh also while I’m thinking about it. As my DMP has just started my EF is sat at about £500. Is it worthy of say in January holding payments on the DMP to build that up a bit more? Is this something StepChange would allow? My payments are about £700 a month so wouldn’t be for that long.

Norfolk_Jim

Hi, after a lifetime of never missing a payment and never failing to pay anyone what is owed I've admitted defeat and applied for a DMP with Stepchange. I've lived a frugal life for at least a decade and got nowhere. Having hit 55 and having had to leave my career as a teacher to defend my mental health, I realised that based on the last 10 year I would never be able to repay my debts. I owe in excess of £45,000 not including a similar mortgage. Over all Its gone up nor down.


So following the advice on the MSE forums I contacted Stepchange and agreed a DMP. I sent off the paperwork last Monday, sent letters to all my creditors and set up a new clean bank account for me and my other half.


Far from feeling better that Im taking the necessary steps to address my debt, I'm feeling much worse, emotional and the sleepless nights have returned (hence on MSE at 3 in the morning), maybe because change is unsettling and big change is big unsettling.


I'm waiting to hear from SC now that I sent my agreement and other documents to them. wondering how long that will take.


Posted documents Monday - Tuesday my boiler broke down and is beyond economic repair. We now have no hot water or heating. Not as bas as it sounds since we rarely ever put the heating on for fear of the bill.


Fortunately our Pastor referred me to an article on the main MSE web site about boiler grants. As my wife is disabled and gets PIP we qualify for a boiler grant and the church is picking up the bill for our contribution to it. The church leaders tell me they are commited to standing with us through this difficult time. They would have preferred us to go with CAP but I told them CAP is currently overwhelmed by demand and wasnt taking on new clients - they had referred my to SC instead.


Is it usual to feel this bad at the start of a DMP? I see posts about feeling relief and being able to sleep at night again - for me it seems to be the opposite.


Someone on the debt free forum pointed me at this thread, which I hadnt noticed before. Im reading through it for inspiration and reassurance. Breaking the convictions of a lifetime is proving very hard - but I just couldnt carry on any more

Suseka97

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

..........So following the advice on the MSE forums I contacted Stepchange and agreed a DMP. I sent off the paperwork last Monday, sent letters to all my creditors and set up a new clean bank account for me and my other half. Far from feeling better that Im taking the necessary steps to address my debt, I'm feeling much worse, emotional and the sleepless nights have returned (hence on MSE at 3 in the morning), maybe because change is unsettling and big change is big unsettling.

I'm waiting to hear from SC now that I sent my agreement and other documents to them. wondering how long that will take.

Is it usual to feel this bad at the start of a DMP? I see posts about feeling relief and being able to sleep at night again - for me it seems to be the opposite.

Someone on the debt free forum pointed me at this thread, which I hadnt noticed before. Im reading through it for inspiration and reassurance. Breaking the convictions of a lifetime is proving very hard - but I just couldnt carry on any more

Glad you've found this thread, and I hope you'll find it helpful and reassuring

We've pretty much all been there, in terms of how you are feeling right now. It's unnerving, unsettling and worrying at the outset - because you are breaking away from that debt bubble we all live(d) in.

We had a humongous (joint) debt of around £90k by the time we had our 'light-bulb' moment, and it was terrifying at first. But, in time, the feelings of shame and embarrassment subsided and we just settled into the rhythm of the DMP.

I wasn't aware of this forum at the outset and wish I had been, because it would have made things a lot easier and I wouldn't have worried so much at the time. Every letter that landed on my doormat made me feel anxious and I imagined all sorts of bad things... but nothing came about!

Your worries are totally natural and it will take a little while for you to come to terms with the situation, but when you do (and you will) you'll realise you've done the best thing. You've broken away from that debt cycle and you are now on the road to debt freedom.

You will no doubt start receiving various standard, computer generated, letters from your creditors, but don't let them worry you. If they do, then pop back on here and we'll help.

Oh, and, it won't take SC long to get things up and running. They like to do things quickly. We tend to suggest folks give themselves anything between 3 - 6 months to build up an emergency fund before launching into a DMP - for reasons you've just experienced with the boiler breakdown. But I think for you its probably better than you get things up and running so you can then just put this all behind you and focus on your mental well-being.

Suseka97

19ryanh93 wrote: »

Oh also while I’m thinking about it. As my DMP has just started my EF is sat at about £500. Is it worthy of say in January holding payments on the DMP to build that up a bit more? Is this something StepChange would allow? My payments are about £700 a month so wouldn’t be for that long.

If you've already started, then you've missed the boat in terms of building up that EF. I don't think SC will be agreeable to you holding off your monthly payment and you've already mentioned that some of your creditors have rejected your offer - so I suggest you just let things ride for the moment.

Yes, we do tend to advise folks to hold off from launching into their DMP so they can build up a reasonable EF fund - but many folks don't, which is okay too. If you find yourself needing a payment break at some point in the future, due to an unforeseen bill - then you can just let SC know the reason and it'll be fine.

I knew someone who started off with a 5-year DMP and it ended up taking him closer to 7-years because he had to take several payment breaks along the way. The thing to remember is a DMP is an informal arrangement and you are very much in control of it.

sourcrates

Hi Norfolk_Jim,

Most people feel this way at first, after a lifetime of been worried about making minimum payments on time, and not been late, credit scores, files and all that rubbish, all of a sudden, those things no longer matter, your credit bubble has burst, welcome back to the real world Jim, your sleep pattern will improve in time, honestly.

Most arrangements settle down real quick, you make your one monthly payment to stepchange, and that my freind is it, obviously things can go a bit pete tong occasionally, debts can be sold on, some creditors may not accept your arrangement, but its nothing that cannot be rectified.

We have a good support network on this forum, so you are in the right place.

[Deleted User]

Hi i was wondering if anyone could kindly advise.

i have one creditor on my DMP that have defaulted my account Barclays. They defaulted it in August. i currently owe them around £1150. Would be it worth making a full and final settlement offer to them now my account is in default or is it far too early to?

i have other bigger debts that are not in default yet.

Willing2Learn

smallie210 wrote: »

Hi i was wondering if anyone could kindly advise.

i have one creditor on my DMP that have defaulted my account Barclays. They defaulted it in August. i currently owe them around £1150. Would be it worth making a full and final settlement offer to them now my account is in default or is it far too early to?

If it were me, I would wait for the account to be passed on to a DCA before making any f&f settlement offer.

Suseka97

Hello my fellow DMPers... am just popping on to wish everyone a great debt-busting week and have a chat! Things in my world are pretty samey, I still have 3 UE debts and get emails offering me discounts to settle everyr few months or so. One day I'll take a serious look into offering F&Fs, but lower than the current discounted amounts

I've been trying to help someone who is very dear to me with their financial problems, and I have to admit I have found it emotionally draining and quite exhausting. This person is suffering from severe depression and its that which causes me the most worry. I've managed to get all his creditors to put things on hold and intend to keep them at bay for a few more months, to give him time to work on his mental well-being. He is getting professional help now, which is a blessing.

He's been advised, via the SC online tool, that an IVA is the better option - but I'm not convinced. He has no assets to protect and although a DMP would run for a good fews years more, I'm concerned that if he did set up an IVA - that it would fail and he'd be back to square one. Things are so unpredictable with him right now in terms of job security. He doesn't qualify for a DRO and his debts are circa. £28k, so not insignificant. If he went down the IVA route he'd end up doing a 5 + 1 year stint and I think he could probably clear his debts via a DMP in a 7 year timeframe. I'm losing sleep over which way is best for him and he's relying on me to help with this decision.

Anyway -time is on my side, at least until after Christmas and I'm just glad I've helped hold the creditors at bay. In truth they are being quite reasonable at the moment, because I made them aware of his mental health issues. I hope that lasts a wee while longer!

Its good to read the news stories on this thread and all the advice being given out to newbies. Goodness knows where we would all be without this forum.

violet888

Hello all and thank you in advance for any help or suggestions.
We have been struggling for a number of years and reached the stage where the last year have been living on the little available on credit cards after the minimum payments are made. We are over 60, I am employed, husband is self-employed & employed (both erratic & little income). Can we go to stepchange to ask about a dmp as I believe they do not accept self employed. We have a mortgage which is up to date. Debt mainly from credit cards & a loan, all payments up to date at present but feel we really cannot go on like this. (I won't go on about the details.)

My questions apart from the one above are: some of our debt is an overdraft on one of our 2 bank accounts. We also have 2 credit cards with that Bank. My husband was hoping to stay with the bank as we've been with them years but what will they do if I write to all the creditors to stop payments (including them for the credit cards)? Will the bank take my salary at the end of the month to cover the overdraft? In other words should we change banks? We already have an unused account at another bank we don't owe any money to.
Also I was hoping to start the DMP asap as I really didn't want another month ahead of struggling to make these payments.

Thanks again & look forward to any help you can offer during this worrying time.

Suseka97

violet888 wrote: »

...................My questions apart from the one above are: some of our debt is an overdraft on one of our 2 bank accounts. We also have 2 credit cards with that Bank. My husband was hoping to stay with the bank as we've been with them years but what will they do if I write to all the creditors to stop payments (including them for the credit cards)? Will the bank take my salary at the end of the month to cover the overdraft? In other words should we change banks? We already have an unused account at another bank we don't owe any money to.
Also I was hoping to start the DMP asap as I really didn't want another month ahead of struggling to make these payments..

Hi and welcome to the DMP thread.

I can't comment about the self-employed part, but as for the bank account question - unfortunately the answer is yes, you will need to move banks. Financial institutions have the 'right to offset' and that would put you at risk of them keeping hold of your salary to pay off that overdraft. You mention you already have an unused account with another bank - so as long as there are no financial associations between the two, then you are in a great starting position.

With regards to kicking this all off - the first thing to do is to get your salary and husband's income paid into the new account and 'manually' transfer over your household direct debits. Also, to give you some breathing space, you should cancel your payments to any creditor not linked to your bank and write to them to let them know you are in financial difficulty and will be working with a debt charity to come up with a solution. Its standard practice for most companies to put your account on hold for 30 days in these circumstances.

Once you have got your monies sorted in terms of transferring to the new account, you can then write the same letter to your current bank provider and then cancel the direct debits for the credit cards. You can't really do anything with the overdraft, that will just sit there.

It's worth having a chat with SC to see where you stand regarding your husband's employment and I'm assuming you are looking to do a joint DMP. So hopefully you can do just that.

I know you want to get things up and running - but don't rush into setting up the DMP too quickly. Aim to give yourself a payment break window of at least 3 months, but preferably 6 and that will allow you to get a decent sum tucked away in your emergency fund.