DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

Girl_unknown

sourcrates said:

ditty1234 said:

Hi I have my DMP w Stepchange all steady and I was happy with it. Now with schools closed I am thinking about pausing it for 3 month as I have lost 2/5 of my income (agency cover work) and have an extra person to feed - son home from uni. Are there any specific provisions for DMP's / covid 19  or do I just call them?

As you are aware, a Debt Management Plan is an informal way to repay your debts at a rate you can comfortably afford.
They are not yet regulated, so its just a case of picking up the phone to stepchange and telling them what you want to do.

You will not be the only one affected by the current situation, so the debt charities are likely to see an influx of calls for help in the coming weeks/months.

I had to contact them yesterday for the same reason they are working from home so it's best to just email them

sourcrates

To anyone trying to contact the free debt charities.

Stepchange, in fact, all the free debt advice services, will be inundated with calls and emails right now, something like 2 million people have been put out of work overnight, please don`t fret, debt collection is a very long process, creditors etc will be well aware of the situation a lot of people find themselves in, if you cannot pay, then don`t, it will be sorted out in time, once things settle down, but for now, expect wait times to increase.

Remember, creditors/debt collectors will be off work too, they work in call centers, so most will be closed for the duration, try not to worry, and the storm will be weathered. 

cherokee

sourcrates said:

ditty1234 said:

Hi I have my DMP w Stepchange all steady and I was happy with it. Now with schools closed I am thinking about pausing it for 3 month as I have lost 2/5 of my income (agency cover work) and have an extra person to feed - son home from uni. Are there any specific provisions for DMP's / covid 19  or do I just call them?

As you are aware, a Debt Management Plan is an informal way to repay your debts at a rate you can comfortably afford.
They are not yet regulated, so its just a case of picking up the phone to stepchange and telling them what you want to do.

You will not be the only one affected by the current situation, so the debt charities are likely to see an influx of calls for help in the coming weeks/months.

Maybe this has been asked already.   I emailed SC a few days ago to ask about pausing my DMP due to low income because of the current situation with COVID-19.  As they are so busy not had a reply yet, in the meantime, should I cancel my DD? 

sourcrates

Use common sense, during the current National Emergency, it would make sense to pause non essential debt repayments if they are unafordable.

The priority is staying safe, putting food on the table, and keeping a roof over your head.

Anything else can be sorted out at a later date.

Cheesephetamine

I wanted to add to sourcrates comment. I am on a DMP since august 19 paying 629 GBP a month. I have never missed a payment, and all my creditors (a lot by the way) have stopped fees and interests. Some "sold" the debt to other companies, but I have had no issues with anyone other than the mandatory letters they need to send etc. After this covid-19 crisis, my husband has been made redundant, and I have to take care of the whole household finances. While we short out his situation (universal credit and other aids - I applied for PIP, and I am awaiting an answer from DWP which could take months...), I have cancelled my direct debit and directly wrote to StepChange to explain my situation. I wanted to make payment tokens or set up a lower DD for the time being with the full idea in mind to go back to paying as much as possible as soon as possible. I was worried about potential CCJs or other dire consequences. StepChange answered my mail quick quickly (3 days later), and this was their response:

"In regards to your request I have missed the April payment for you as impacted by coronavirus, we will need to do a review of your budget but we can't do this until your universal credit comes through, I would ask you call once received or by middle/end of April to provide an update so we can discuss what to do in May. In regards to the CCJ, you should be fine due to these unique circumstances & also up to march your payment history was very good, so I’m sure your creditors will understand the situation. We do advise you to call your creditors to advise what's going on, & we are adding notes on to the system for when they call. You may get some communication from us to advise you missed a payment please ignore this, it’s just the automated system. Your plan will not close. Your creditors may update your credit file as a missed payment."

So all in all this is an unprecedented circumstance, we are NOT the only ones in this situation and creditors will have to understand (i don't think they have much choice at the moment) as long as you make them aware and you show a willingness to go back to getting your debt shorted out once the worst has passed.

Suseka97

To add a further thought to ponder on with regards to whether to suspend a DMP or reduce payments.  You can imagine that many staff working in the financial sector, as well as DCAs - will be experiencing their own resourcing issues.  Many will be working from home remotely and they could also have a number of their workforce self-isolating or in some form of quarantine and so cannot work.  

These companies will expect people's financial positions are going to be impacted and that existing plans will need to be altered, suspended or even cancelled in some cases.  Also, they will no doubt be inundated with customer enquiries from those who until now were quite happily paying their contractual obligations. 

The current global situation is a bit of a game-changer and the last thing people should be worrying about is debt. There are far more important things to focus on. 

Palpitations

Hi all after some advice or process to complain about a creditor:
So I set up my own dmp early last year with most accounts set up with plan and defaulted (approx June last year). I have 3 accounts with creation one of which is defaulted and being dealt with by solicitors threatening legal action. The account had been passed to wescott late last year and just as I was setting up payment plan was told creation had took back the account. I continue to get statements and demands from the other 2 creation accounts (this will have been going on approx one year) and I think I am still being charged interest. They received the same correspondence as all my other creditors which they either ignored or demanded financial evidence, I’ve complained to them highlighting all other creditors accepted but to no avail just with more requests for payslips etc. 
I finally feel like I am getting on my feet but the situation with creation has got me right back at the beginning, any advice appreciated. 

Willing2Learn

Brave_Up said:

Some advice really needed please.  I have approx £27000 cc debt. I have put in figures to stepchange and they say I can afford 440 per month.  I know that I cant live on this- dont have an extravagant lifestyle but 250 would probably be manageable.  Can I put this forward.  Also after reading through fantastic advice on here I havent paid my cc payments this month to try to start building up an ef.  Circumstances have left me tighter than normal as rent up 100 and no maintenance for 4 months- supposed to start back again next month.  I have not contacted cc companies as I'm wanting them to default me.  Just checking do I contact SC now or wait a couple of months?  Do I contact cc and let them know?? Thanks for any support/advice as I'm feeling lost and very on my own.

Hi Brave_Up and welcome to the forum 

In this new COVID-19 world, I would be delaying the start of my DMP for at least six months so that I could build up a sizeable Emergency Fund.  This should also mean that your creditors default your accounts nice and early (which is good news).  You only need to contact SC when you are a month away from your preferred DMP start date.  You could write to your creditors, requesting that they put a hold on your accounts while you are seeking advice. 

Willing2Learn

Palpitations said:

Hi all after some advice or process to complain about a creditor:
So I set up my own dmp early last year with most accounts set up with plan and defaulted (approx June last year). I have 3 accounts with creation one of which is defaulted and being dealt with by solicitors threatening legal action. 

If it were me, I would be withholding payment on the two Creation accounts that have not defaulted, as that should hopefully prompt them to default the two accounts.  When an account is defaulted, interest becomes frozen.

I also recommend you only correspond with Creation via Royal Mail letter.

If you are sticking to your scheduled DMP payments toward the defaulted account, then the solicitors that are 'threatening legal action' would probably be auto-generated letters, as it would be unlikely they would be going down the enforcement path when you are adhering to your scheduled monthly payment plan. 

Palpitations

Willing2Learn said:

Palpitations said:

Hi all after some advice or process to complain about a creditor:
So I set up my own dmp early last year with most accounts set up with plan and defaulted (approx June last year). I have 3 accounts with creation one of which is defaulted and being dealt with by solicitors threatening legal action. 

If it were me, I would be withholding payment on the two Creation accounts that have not defaulted, as that should hopefully prompt them to default the two accounts.  When an account is defaulted, interest becomes frozen.

I also recommend you only correspond with Creation via Royal Mail letter.

If you are sticking to your scheduled DMP payments toward the defaulted account, then the solicitors that are 'threatening legal action' would probably be auto-generated letters, as it would be unlikely they would be going down the enforcement path when you are adhering to your scheduled monthly payment plan. 

Thank you for your time as always willing 2 learn.
So I don’t make a payment in the 2 accounts that aren’t defaulted (I’d read that advice before so had withheld) so they have continued to chase and charge for around a year. 
i haven’t made a payment on the account being dealt with by the solicitor either (not sure why that one is defaulted) it seems the solicitor is attempting to negotiate payments the same way a dma would be but more aggressively.  I’d just read someone else posting about creation and going down the (fca?) route and wondered whether this might help?