DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

DourPower

Hello all you amazing contributors

I'm finally going to bite the bullet after years of deliberation and robbing peter to pay paul, getting deeper in debt, blah blah... (and having opened a 'clean' account a good while ago and got used to using it, but I still didn't dare start).

I intend to do a self managed DMP for my CC debts and overdraft, and as such will be drawing any remaining available credit as cash for the EF, stopping my direct debit payments in the next few days (before they go out 1st July), and sending holding letters from the NEDCAB website, with an extra line about only written contact.

Having read a fair bit of this thread, recently and a few years ago when my wife did a DRO, my questions just now are:

what is the best strategy for getting a quick default? Would it be better not sending such a letter and just going radio silent for eight months? Are there pros and cons there?

what is the value of the token payments of £1 that some folk do (as opposed to sending nothing)?

is eight months (e.g. feb 2021, after xmas/jan which are always tricky) a reasonable time to suggest I'll start my DMP proper then?

is there any issue with the 'last desperate grab of cash' that I'm intending to do?

Should I try to upgrade my clean Santander basic account to a proper account tomorrow (before the proverbial hits the fan, and i still have a no defaults status) so that I can get a contactless card and that sort of thing - it's pretty annoying the whole top-up debit card arrangement. If I did that and set the overdraft to £0 will it remain invisible to creditors?

natlie

Hi @DourPower
3 of my creditors defaulted me straight away with no missed payments (Barclaycard, MBNA and Tesco) and just a call from SC to say Id be starting a DMP 
Nat 

 

DourPower

Thanks Nat - was that just the holding letter that triggered the defaults, or your first missed payment, or SC contacting them?

I've opened a current account today with Santander, being careful to have no agreed overdraft facility, alongside my clean 'Basic account' is that a really dumb thing to have done??

sourcrates

DourPower said:

I've opened a current account today with Santander, being careful to have no agreed overdraft facility, alongside my clean 'Basic account' is that a really dumb thing to have done??

Do you have debts with santander ?

If so, then yes it was dumb, if no, then no, not a problem.

natlie

DourPower said:

Thanks Nat - was that just the holding letter that triggered the defaults, or your first missed payment, or SC contacting them?

I've opened a current account today with Santander, being careful to have no agreed overdraft facility, alongside my clean 'Basic account' is that a really dumb thing to have done??

It was just the contact from StepChange that triggered it, with Tesco my SC payment was more than my mimimum payment and they still defaulted me. 

I went straight into my DMP with no missed payments as I already had an EF and I'm not too worried about my credit score as its been awful for years due to high debts 

vicki84

Nearly all of my accounts have defaulted except for 1st Direct I started my Stepchange plan around September last year. Any advice on what to do with this?

Thanks

TuxedoCat

All of my accounts have now defaulted apart from a large-ish loan with Hitachi in the region of £6k. Currently with FOS as I believe they are treating my unfairly, not heard back yet so would be interested in responses to the above query!

I have cleared arrears on a Halifax CC and Very - will this automatically reflect on my credit file or will it still appear as arrangement to pay etc.  

I have a few that have only just defaulted in April and May which is very annoying considering Barclays and Tesco defaulted almost immediately back in August 2019.

sourcrates

Arrangement to pay markers stay on your file for 6 years after the debt has been repaid in full, so potentially a lot longer than a default would there for, AP marker`s are never good, better to default then at least you have an end date.

panda_magic

Hi. I've been I. My DMP for a year, with payplan managing. So far so good. Thanks again to sourcrates and the other regular posters.
In reviewing our accounts I've noticed one of my wife's ccs (tesco) is continuing to charge interest, which is strange because my tesco was defaulted. One of my other loans is also charging but isn't so much of an issue as the APR is reasonable. 
I've also noted that some of the other accounts haven't defaulted (but have stopped interest, I think. ) 
I'm coming up to my annual review, so given the general recommendation to build an EF and not pay much for the first 6months. Is it too late to drastically reduce payments and force tescos (and others) hands I. feel bad for the creditors who have treated me well, can I stop only my payments to tesco and those charging interest, or will payplan insist on paying everyone pro rata. 
Apart from tesco, I'm relatively happy and don't want to rock the boat, but the interest will add about another 7 months to the payment plan. 
Any advice. 
(I have written to them to ask them to cease interest and return what they have charged) 

DourPower

sourcrates said:

DourPower said:

I've opened a current account today with Santander, being careful to have no agreed overdraft facility, alongside my clean 'Basic account' is that a really dumb thing to have done??

Do you have debts with santander ?

If so, then yes it was dumb, if no, then no, not a problem.

Thanks Sourcrates, I've kept Santander free from debts, just been using a basic account up to now, which all my wages/bills (except CC payments) go to/from. I was just worried that an account that *could* have an overdraft would expose it, even if the overdraft facility is set at zero. Glad to hear it isn't a problem.