DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

fullofcold

Interesting that since we have asked for a copy of the CCA Cabot have now sent a letter offering a 50% reduction in the balance to repay as F&F. Have kept the letter because hopefully in March we'll be in a position to do so.

Suseka97

Couger wrote: »

.....We have just started a DMP with SC, myself and my partner owe 69k, the wealth of information on here is amazing, I feel so sick that we owe so much, and have got to the point where we are and have ran out of credit, cards were ending promo rates with no means to move debts on, so glad ball is rolling, cancelled all DD with around 14 creditors and paid token payments on a couple so far. I guess now we wait.
Question do i need to contact creditors or will SC doing there bit be enough whats everyones advice ?

Most do tend to write to their creditors to put them in the picture and it also helps to maintain a good relationship with your creditors. Some may well send you a letter asking you to provide them with signed authority that they can engage with StepChange - so writing in advance speeds that process up.

Debtress

I have now cancelled my DMP with SC as I await CCA's from my last 3 creditors, all of which have had to go to the original creditors to get the paperwork. Two of these CCA's will be from 1983! I believe the advice on here is to sit tight, wait and see if they can eventually produce something and then start paying them again or try and negotiate a F&F. The DCA's have asked me to continue payments whilst they get the documents but I am not going to do so. Feeling rather nervous not paying anything now after doing so for over 7 years! And the irony of it all is, is that I offered 35% F&F to them last month and they turned me down and wanted 75/80%.

NowInspired

Hi
I've not posted on here for a while but as we're now well over a year since we contacted the creditors and set up our own payments, I felt I wanted to just post something which I've realised.

At first, when I was so scared and panicking about paying it all back, I had visions of paying off a fairly hefty sum each month. I'm self-employed and my hours vary so this was always going to be a bit difficult but the fear made me feel that I had to pay as much as I could.

I spoke to Step Change and they were wanting me to pay nearly £500 a month. I wasn't entirely happy with my dealings with them and decided that we would go it alone, doing a joint self-managed DMP with my husband. This meant that I would set the figures myself. I worked the figures out and, although they were not £500 a month, it was still a fairly large amount and was pushing the rest of our finances each month to the limit.

I decided, after talking to someone on here, to write to each creditor and reduce down the amount I could afford, and I produced an appropriate income and expenditure form to suit my figures. They will not ask for proof of your outgoings, so your income and expenditure form should be written to suit you and for what you can afford and are willing to pay.

I know that the amount we are paying is not much and that it will take a long time, but at the same time I feel we should have a decent quality of life and not be miserable. A lot of what we owed was due to excessive interest and not all made up of our silly spending. So as far as I'm concerned if the companies have to wait a while, then so be it. I refuse to live in permanent stress anymore and it is very liberating. The bottom line is they can wait, and in fact some of them have already started to offer us the chance of reducing what we owe so I know that at some point I will hopefully be able to take them up on that offer, but in the meantime they can wait.

The other thing we have done is make sure that we have enough life cover in case anything should happen to us, so that neither ourselves nor our children have to worry about these debts should anything happen to either or both of us. Knowing that we have this extra cover also takes the pressure and panic away that we have to pay this off as fast as we can. We've always had instructions written out as to how to deal with financial matters should anything happen to us and I have discussed in these instructions about these debts and that the policies will cover them. These instructions are in a sealed envelope and our children know where they are.

I wanted to post this because I think everyone in the beginning thinks that they must push themselves to the limit to make the payments because they feel so guilty and scared. What I am saying is, please remember you cannot beat yourself up for the rest of your life for something that is often partly due to the companies themselves with their extortionate interest rates. You must also have a good quality of life whilst you are making the payments.

Please do not promise the likes of Step Change or any of the companies more than you can afford. If you can self-manage it puts you in control and believe me, the companies will play ball, you just be firm, tell them what you can afford and that's that. They Do leave you alone, so long as you are paying them something. They will request a review every so often, but you can just send them an income and expenditure form. (I set up one form on my computer and send the same one to all of them, I do not and will not mess about doing the ones that they send out, as they are all different. Just tell them you've already prepared a form and send them that form. If you don't want to quote all the figures of the other creditors' debts, you just say that those figures to the other creditors are still in negotiation.) So long as you are making a payment that's all that matters. Please also be aware that they bought these debts for literally pennies in the pound.

Please live decent and happy lives and once you have decided to start paying them back, please don't set yourselves up for any more misery by overstretching yourselves.

I feel strongly about this because I can now in retrospect see how afraid and scared I was and I now realise that life itself is so much more important than money.

Please stay positive, things do get so much easier, I wish I knew then what I know now. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year

NowInspired

adamski87

Hi all, new here so thought I could turn for advice.

Around February of this year my debts started to become less manageable. It placed a major strain on my personal and professional life, and coupled with family illnsses, I ended up in a difficult place with regards to mental wellbeing. As the year progressed, I began missing payments and ultimately decided a debt solution would be the best approach.

Current figures:
£31,000 in debt (across 1 loan and 4 credit cards)
£1600 take home
£375 maximum affordable repayment

Upon reading various sources, (whether or not this was the correct approach, it's done now so nothing can change this) the best solution would be to;

a) contact my debtors informing them I was seeking professional advice as I was struggling with repayments
b) save an emergency fund
c) not pay towards debts so they would default

Fast forward to December.
I've checked clear score and 2 credit cards have defaulted, the loan and 1 other credit card has closed (which I assume they have sold the debt on to debt collectors) and 1 credit card is still in arreas. The only issue is the 2 'closed' debts that were sold on are not showing up on my credit score (they are both to Moorcroft) - is this normal?

I want to start the DMP sooner rather than later - should I wait for the final credit card to change from arreas to in default? Or should I just contact StepChange and just begin payments from next month?

Admittedly I have been a bit wreckless with throwing away a couple of letters through the middle of the year which I know is a mistake, and additionally a couple of my debts are at a previous address. I don't want to go through a ton of admin work to source everything together - are StepChange able to access my credit score to help with this?

Or, alternatively from what I've said above, what should be the right approach for me?

Any help is greatly appreciated

Debtress

Deep gloom here. Link Financial have managed to send me a credit agreement for MBNA from 2009. The front page does have my name and address at the time on it. The first page has terms 1-3 on it plus boxes for "tick signature" etc, the interest rate at the time 16.9% and what charges there will be etc. The remaining pages have the rest of the terms as a word document.

Looks like I will have to continue payments to them still.

Sorry - I am now adding to this post. I have found one of my old statements regarding this account and it was for a Virgin Money Mastercard but payable to MBNA. In the agreement that has been sent to me, the interest rates are different to what is on my last statement from them. For example, the CCA says 16.8% variable for card purchases but my statement says 15.4%, cash withdrawals CCA says 27.3% but my statement says 24.9% and so on, all the interest rates are different.

In your experience, do credit card companies change their interest rates for the better for customers?

lastchance17

hello , sent off letter of authority yesterday for DMP starting end of january. I have no debt with my bank and have set up DD form my normal account. Payplan did not mention having to change to anotehr bank. Is there any way of checking if any of my creditors are linked to my bank ? I am guessing if they were PayPlan would have said to open new account elsewhere

thanks

Skint2918

I'm starting a dmp january.which I'm happy about. But I have a lot of creditors. But there is only 4 I'm worrying about. In last 6 weeks I took out 4 payday loans to pay bills. I Hadd full intention to pay them back but have since asked for help. From payplan. I have contacted all payday loans and frooze them for 30 days. The thing I'm worrying about. Is. Will they accept dmp and. Will they bee nasty and issue ccj and baylifs and threaten me as its recently took them out. I'm happy with my dmp and payplan said my dmp should be 28 months just scared of payday loans

sourcrates

Skint2918 wrote: »

I'm starting a dmp january.which I'm happy about. But I have a lot of creditors. But there is only 4 I'm worrying about. In last 6 weeks I took out 4 payday loans to pay bills. I Hadd full intention to pay them back but have since asked for help. From payplan. I have contacted all payday loans and frooze them for 30 days. The thing I'm worrying about. Is. Will they accept dmp and. Will they bee nasty and issue ccj and baylifs and threaten me as its recently took them out. I'm happy with my dmp and payplan said my dmp should be 28 months just scared of payday loans

Hi,

Well done for taking action to clear your debts.
Creditors are not nasty, they are not anything really, they are a business, and this was a business transaction.

Payday loan providers like fast returns, debt management, courts and bailiffs are not in their portfolio, they have neither the time, nor the staff to deal with bad debts, the most likely thing to happen will be the sale of your debt to a debt purchasing company, or they may just pass the day to day management of your account to a debt collector, it doesn’t matter which.

It also doesn’t matter if any of your other creditors don’t accept the proposals, as the same will happen, as I have described above.

Debt management plans usually run pretty smoothly, just remember your debt can be sold on at any time, but it makes no difference to you, you just pay the new owner, who will have written to you.

ACA22

Hi


I currently owe £36k to 6 creditors (2 loans - 4 CC) and repayments are now becoming an issue. I've spoken to PayPlan about my options and although they have suggested an IVA may be a better option I prefer the DMP approach. I also have a joint mortgage with my partner, she is not in any problematic debt, and I currently have not missed a payment on any of my debts.


After reading the great wealth of knowledge on here I want to post my plan of action and get any comments from people that have a good insight.


- In January I plan on cancelling all direct debits to the creditors, to try and start accruing the defaults on the debts. This will also be the start of my EF.
- February will be to contact all the creditors to indicate I'm in financial difficultly and speaking to PayPlan to discuss options. Still making no payments
- February/March indicate I intend to start a DMP with Payplan in April/May


I've already discussed amount with PayPlan and can afford £550 as a monthly payment.
Hoping that the 3 month period of no payment will help force the defaults to be entered on to the accounts and should also give me time to build a decent EF.


My current account isn't linked to any of the debts and not within its overdraft, so not going to replace this. Also have set an everyday saver account up with the same firm so I can start to place my EF in there.


Any advice as to thoughts on the plan would be appreciated.
Thanks, this forum is literally a life saver.