DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

Penguin_

So following my letters sent out mid April, I haven't received any CCA's back with all 5 saying they are working on the requests. Hopefully, if they do end up returning them, it won't be for a couple of months & I can re-build my emergency fund.

LoanWhisperer

sourcrates said:

LoanWhisperer said:

hev3049 said:

Stop paying Ratesetter so they default the accounts.

Thanks - they've only been receiving £1 a month for the last 11 months - I want to start a DMP asap, so how long would it normally take between me instructing SC to stop paying them and them putting me into default - would SC even do that, ie treat one creditor differently to the others?
Ratesetter have been real d#cks on the phone compared to everyone else.. 
(From what I've been reading SC would have to do that as they're under instruction from me, or is this one of the reasons why it's better to self-manage, as I can make those decisions unilaterally?)
Something tells me SC would not go along with stopping paying just one creditor as they are doing things by the book, as it were?
I'm clueless as to the machinations of all this stuff behind the scenes.

Hi,
Your plan sounds quite reasonable, but a decade in debt is a very long time, lots of things can change, any reason why you cannot qualify for a debt relief order ?
Rules are changing soon, limit rises to 30k, disposable income threshold of £75 a month, why not look into that, see if you meet the criteria.

You do seem a little naïve on credit file damage limitation, you won`t be repairing your credit on a DMP, once an account defaults, no matter what debt solution you choose, the damage is pretty much done for 6 years, and to be honest, at this point, your credit file should be taking a back seat anyway.

Regarding stepchange and debt management, they will not prioritise one creditor over another, they are part funded by the banks, so a compromise must be sought at some point, if you want to do separate deals, then self management is the way forward.

HI, thank you for the response, and yes I am naive
I'd never had any credit products until 2015, and up until the economic downturn in late 2019 which obliterated my income had never missed a payment to any creditor so have never had to deal with this stuff before.
It is a fact though (having spoken to a few property agents yesterday and today) that a crap credit score and even defaults can be worked around in terms of securing a tenancy, but CCJs and/or an IVA cannot. 
That is a major area of concern for me as I am destined to rent for the foreseeable.
I would have loved to have qualified for a DRO, as it's only 18 months before it's removed from your file right, but I've just started working again - under current rules my debt is too large but even if they raise it to 30K I don't think I can swing it reasonably to  less than £75 after essentials, unless repayments to creditors are allowed to count as essentials, which I'm assuming they're not..!
I mean, I haven't actually done an updated budget with SC yet since coming off UC and I'm not sure what the usual parameters are - maybe I can budget things out so I'm left with 75 or less.
That would be fantastic.
My net income would be just under £1,700 pm with rent/council tax and bills etc coming to about £800-850 pm.
If people are able to produce a budget around those figures that shows less than 75 after essentials I'd like to hear about it.
A decade is a horrifically long time. But that's assuming paying back at only £200 per month for the entire duration, and paying all the accounts back at their full value, neither of which I'm hoping will be what actually transpires.
I guess strategically what I'd like to know is would it be more sensible to pay the £200 per month but be stashing 200 per month into a separate pot in order to build up funds to pay accounts off at a discount when offered?
Is that what you all have been doing when you self-manage?
I think I like the idea of having the flexibility to make unique arrangements with each creditor.
PS. When I was talking about repairing my credit file over the course of a DMP, I'm aware that the defaults are there to stay for the 6 years, but the score itself can actually be raised somewhat by reducing the amount of credit used via the DMP payments correct?
Some of the accounts are still showing their original credit limits, ie they are showing balance available, even though I can't/won't use them, and these can be used to repair the score to some degree, as the percentage of the balance used on those will change dynamically with each DMP payment.
But two of them are showing available balance as 0, even though there was say 2K left of it to be used originally, so knocking the debt down on those accounts won't improve the scoring no matter how much is paid off on them, does that make sense?
 I'm looking at this purely from a landlord/agent's perspective, where even though there are defaults, a score of say 650 is still better looking to them than a score of 490.
Feel free to correct if that is absolute nonsense
 

LoanWhisperer

Ah, ok - no a DRO is another type of legal insolvency - can't have that, I'd never be able to rent without a guarantor which I don't have, so that's not an option. It's why I can't go the IVA route either. 

bluebell_on_track

Suseka97 said:

bluebell_on_track said:

Hi everyone, 
I have received a letter from two of my creditors saying ‘although I am paying through step change, it’s not enough to clear the debt in a reasonable time. They will now make strides to collect the remaining debt from me. 

Does this just mean they’ll sell it on? Or does it mean they are going to take me to court? 

Thank you for your help xxx

Have a chat with StepChange and let them know.  There would be no gains for them, if they tried to enforce collection through the courts, so I doubt that would be the next move.  They may well decide to sell the debt on and if they do, all you have to do is let SC know so they can amend the payment details.  Out of interest, who are the creditors in question  - it might help to know then if anyone has experienced this they can be a bit more specific about what happened next.

Above all, don't let this worry you  

Thanks v much for the reply. This particular creditor is HSBC. I have already had mbna sell on which was all fine 

Suseka97

bluebell_on_track said:

Suseka97 said:

bluebell_on_track said:

Hi everyone, 
I have received a letter from two of my creditors saying ‘although I am paying through step change, it’s not enough to clear the debt in a reasonable time. They will now make strides to collect the remaining debt from me. 

Does this just mean they’ll sell it on? Or does it mean they are going to take me to court? 

Thank you for your help xxx

Have a chat with StepChange and let them know.  There would be no gains for them, if they tried to enforce collection through the courts, so I doubt that would be the next move.  They may well decide to sell the debt on and if they do, all you have to do is let SC know so they can amend the payment details.  Out of interest, who are the creditors in question  - it might help to know then if anyone has experienced this they can be a bit more specific about what happened next.

Above all, don't let this worry you  

Thanks v much for the reply. This particular creditor is HSBC. I have already had mbna sell on which was all fine 

Okay, so that's from the OC and I imagine they will now sell or pass the debt on.  The last thing the 'big names' want is bad publicity on how they handle customers who are in financial difficulty, so it's far easier to sell your debt on or pass it to a 3rd party to collect on their behalf.  Just wait it out and see that comes next, but don't fret about it.

fruitloop666

Hi, I’ve have never posted on here before but have gained so much knowledge by reading people’s experiences on here for quite a while now.   I have been with SC on a DMP for 6 months now, everything running well but am now thinking of going self managed.  I was thinking of using NEDCAB but what I’m unsure of is when I make my offers to each creditor,  do I have to tell each of them what the other one is being offered.  I wanted to pay just token payments to the ones who hadn’t defaulted my account but I didn’t know if they would play ball if they could see I was paying other creditors more. Do I just send creditors my SOA and not actually giving them a breakdown of what each creditor is being paid.  Any help or advice would really be appreciated. 

Cosmic-bee

Hi It's been a long time since my DMP started -2016
Barclaycard cleared, PRA & Wescott have taken over two others, however Virgin Money Credit Card is still with Virgin at over £11k. Total overall debt is £21K
Virgin havnt sold the debt is it still possible to negioate a F&F with them or will they give No to any offers.
Or do I push to get them sell to 3rd party. I know due to my disabilities and health they moved me to a different dept.
Thanks in advance.

ditty1234

Cosmic-bee said:

Hi It's been a long time since my DMP started -2016
Barclaycard cleared, PRA & Wescott have taken over two others, however Virgin Money Credit Card is still with Virgin at over £11k. Total overall debt is £21K
Virgin havnt sold the debt is it still possible to negioate a F&F with them or will they give No to any offers.
Or do I push to get them sell to 3rd party. I know due to my disabilities and health they moved me to a different dept.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Cosmic, just checking that your Virgin Money CC is actually defaulted? Have you checked that, do you do credit score checks? You could just start paying less, and put the money aside for f and f instead? Well done with ringing debt down. 

alxofn1

Hello everyone. Just a quick question. I use the MSE Credit Club and check it regularly. One think I've noticed is two of my creditors which changed hands to debt collection agencies (Moorcroft/PRA) are not showing on the list of creditors on the credit report. I am not sure if this is standard practice as these are debt collection agencies and not creditors per se? I can still see my MBNA creditors on there (they have yet to issue the defaults formally I believe). 

sourcrates

alxofn1 said:

Hello everyone. Just a quick question. I use the MSE Credit Club and check it regularly. One think I've noticed is two of my creditors which changed hands to debt collection agencies (Moorcroft/PRA) are not showing on the list of creditors on the credit report. I am not sure if this is standard practice as these are debt collection agencies and not creditors per se? I can still see my MBNA creditors on there (they have yet to issue the defaults formally I believe). 

It will update in time, Moorcroft may be involved in a managerial role, rather than as a purchaser.