DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

BooBoo77

I just wanted to share some positive news with people who have been there/understand the challenges.  Having been in a DMP via Step Change since 2014, through the support and advice of this group, I've just gone self managed, as well as sending off all my CCA letters to my creditors.  So far just one, an old overdraft has come back saying they don't need CCA, so now I'm going to pay that one only and put the balance of my DMP payment budget into Premium Bonds while the others come back with CCA documentation and I save towards F&F settlements.  I've set both of those as standing orders and have also got a credit building credit card to use sparingly, now all my defaults but one have expired.  Thanks so much for everyone's advice and help.  It felt scary cutting ties with Step Change (who have been brilliant over the years) but I've done it.  Thanks again and hope every one else is having a good Friday. 

littleredsky

Hi, sorry if I'm asking something that's been answered before but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I've been in touch with Stepchange and have a client reference number but haven't set up any payment plan yet. Am I best cancelling all payments to my creditors, writing to them to advise I'm working with Stepchange and getting a 6 month savings buffer in place? I'm so anxious about all of this and want to make sure I do it all properly. My biggest debt (20k) is with a credit union and I'm so worried they won't give me any leeway. 

DebtHurricane

littleredsky said:

Hi, sorry if I'm asking something that's been answered before but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I've been in touch with Stepchange and have a client reference number but haven't set up any payment plan yet. Am I best cancelling all payments to my creditors, writing to them to advise I'm working with Stepchange and getting a 6 month savings buffer in place? I'm so anxious about all of this and want to make sure I do it all properly. My biggest debt (20k) is with a credit union and I'm so worried they won't give me any leeway. 

Exactly this. Cut ties, cancel payments. Ignore if you wish. They won’t do anything hastily apart from send letters. Use all spare cash to build a decent emergency fund for 6 months / till they all default. 

DebtHurricane

I offered a F&F to a creditor. The percentage I offered was around 20% and they’ve come back with a 50% counteroffer. Do I challenge and meet halfway or stick to my original offer? 

littleredsky

DebtHurricane said:

littleredsky said:

Hi, sorry if I'm asking something that's been answered before but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I've been in touch with Stepchange and have a client reference number but haven't set up any payment plan yet. Am I best cancelling all payments to my creditors, writing to them to advise I'm working with Stepchange and getting a 6 month savings buffer in place? I'm so anxious about all of this and want to make sure I do it all properly. My biggest debt (20k) is with a credit union and I'm so worried they won't give me any leeway. 

Exactly this. Cut ties, cancel payments. Ignore if you wish. They won’t do anything hastily apart from send letters. Use all spare cash to build a decent emergency fund for 6 months / till they all default. 

Thank you so much. I'm just totally worried about cancelling everything.. I've never been in a position like this before! Do I write to all my creditors when I cancel my direct debits or do I wait til the default comes through? Sorry, I'm reading through the thread but there's so much info and I want to make sure I don't F it up - thank you.

DebtHurricane

littleredsky said:

DebtHurricane said:

littleredsky said:

Hi, sorry if I'm asking something that's been answered before but I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing. I've been in touch with Stepchange and have a client reference number but haven't set up any payment plan yet. Am I best cancelling all payments to my creditors, writing to them to advise I'm working with Stepchange and getting a 6 month savings buffer in place? I'm so anxious about all of this and want to make sure I do it all properly. My biggest debt (20k) is with a credit union and I'm so worried they won't give me any leeway. 

Exactly this. Cut ties, cancel payments. Ignore if you wish. They won’t do anything hastily apart from send letters. Use all spare cash to build a decent emergency fund for 6 months / till they all default. 

Thank you so much. I'm just totally worried about cancelling everything.. I've never been in a position like this before! Do I write to all my creditors when I cancel my direct debits or do I wait til the default comes through? Sorry, I'm reading through the thread but there's so much info and I want to make sure I don't F it up - thank you.

Honest answer = if you contact them to tell them you’re stopping / pausing payments, they’re more likely to ‘treat you fairly’ and put accounts on hold etc. You DONT want this- in other words by ignoring them they will eventually default you. Creditors often seem to think they’re helping by not defaulting but as I learned on this forum a quick default is good if it’s going to take some time to pay the debt off. My experience personally this year has been that those creditors I ignored did default me quickly. The ones I tried to ‘keep in the loop’ or paid anything towards are still not defaulting me! Cancel payments and honestly wait. It’s worth it in the end. The amount of charges and interest that stops means you will be able to eventually pay the debt off without that hindering. Good luck! Be strong. As the very knowledgeable sourcrates and suseka always say: it’s your debt management plan so you make the rules. Be in control. 

crystaltina

Hi, I’ve literally joined this forum a few days ago and am reading through the posts (but I haven’t reached the first page yet, so my apologies).

I’m at the stage whereby I can no longer manage to repay my debts (£24k) as my long term relationship has ended and as a result, my living costs have increased. The debts are in my name alone and I have never missed a payment (no default on the accounts). 

I called SC earlier this week who explained a DMP is a likely solution. Then I found this forum! Can I please clarify from all that I have read, (I’ve seen so many acronyms that I’ve never heard of before 😫) that if I stop making repayments towards my debts (in the hope that the creditors will eventually default me), interest and charges potentially could stop?  Once an account has defaulted, the creditor will have no ability to apply interest etc. later on in the future? 

That feels so scary - I’ve read so many other people feeling like that too.  

At what point should I start a DMP?  When all creditors have served a default?  And is it at that point, I go back to SC and ask them to manage a DMP for me? So potentially it could be between 3-6 months?  (I really don’t know much about this and until I can fathom it out, I’d much rather ask for SC’s help before I decide to manage it myself). 

My apologies to everyone who must be tired of reading the same questions? I’m sorry!!!

I’d be grateful for anyone’s advice, thank you!

kelslayer

Hi 
I have been with SC since 2015, my defaults will start to drop off starting from December andhave about £6k left.  I have reduced my monthly payments so that i can start to build up some F&F payments.  I have 6 debts left and requested CCA's from them.  They have written back to say that they are looking for them and will get back to me.  Cabot have asked me to continue payments in the meantime. 

I would like to go self managed, but not sure how to go about this?  do i just write to each creditor? is there a template available? do i have to explain myself to SC? do i have to ring and speak to them or can i just email them?

thanks in advance.

KimbullDF

Hi guys. I'm a month into my DMP with SC. First seems to have gone fairly straight forward, some letters but nowhere as many as initially expected. 
Two have already written with default notices. 3 haven't.
Now my initial mass panic and anxiety has subsided I'm in a much more mentally stable place and back to my normal state of mind, quite prepared to just deal with this head on.
As I initiated the DMP with SC before discovering this forum and the gold mine of advice, I'm worrying what the best possible thing is I could do moving forward is as I now realise I should have held off for defaults and so on. But my position is what it is and I'm wondering if anyone can suggest what I should do now. 

ditty1234

KimbullDF said:

Hi guys. I'm a month into my DMP with SC. First seems to have gone fairly straight forward, some letters but nowhere as many as initially expected. 
Two have already written with default notices. 3 haven't.
Now my initial mass panic and anxiety has subsided I'm in a much more mentally stable place and back to my normal state of mind, quite prepared to just deal with this head on.
As I initiated the DMP with SC before discovering this forum and the gold mine of advice, I'm worrying what the best possible thing is I could do moving forward is as I now realise I should have held off for defaults and so on. But my position is what it is and I'm wondering if anyone can suggest what I should do now. 

Hi I was on a DMP w Stepchange for a year and loved the piece of mind, then I realised 2 of my bank credits - a loan and an old overdraft was not going to get defaulted - so I used paused all payments due to drop in income and wrote the bank a complaint for non default. So now the loan is defaulted and I am waiting for the overdraft to default before I start paying again. Also once the credit is defaulted they can not start adding interest and fees to it, which I do think is important. 
My income won't be normal till December anyways, so it's a bit hit and miss. So I have lost a year in terms of defaults dropping off, but it doesen't make any difference at this point, and I think an old one is much less damaging than a fresh one, so if the overdraft defaulted say in 3 years that would be very annoying. I am not planning on getting any more credit, but want to be able to rent a place and just do normal things in time. Well done for getting the journey started.