DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

sourcrates

Cpfc1234 said:

Suseka97 said:

Cpfc1234 said:

Hi there first post. I currently have 27.5k in cc and loan debt. I just opened a separate bank account that's not linked and after reading on here I see that getting an emergency fund up together by cancelling payments and contacting them. Are there letters to send or do you call. When do you stop the payments and what do you say? Any advice greatfully received. Many thanks in advance.

Yes, an emergency fund is key, as is making sure your accounts are defaulted before you launch into a DMP.  It's best to handle everything in writing from now on and make that clear when you contact them.  Just write and keep things simple, let them know you are in financial difficulty and you are working with one of the debt charities to help you resolve the situation .  Tell them you will be in touch in due course and leave it at that.

You can stop making payments on any debt that is not linked or associated to your bank account now, but wait to cancel payments to any linked debts until your new bank account is up and running and you've arranged for your wages to go to the new account.

What you should bear in mind is the wheels of debt collection turn slowly, and I'd suggest even more so now given all the people that have likely fallen behind or now cannot service their debts due to Covid, being on furlough or loss / reduced incomes.   You are just one in many, unfortunately.

To be fair I've been in a pickle for a while moving stuff about and managed to clear 15k but I can no longer move anything to interest free. I don't suppose there are templates to send to the companies? Thank you for your advice 

National Debtline cover almost every eventuality here -

Free sample letters | National Debtline | National Debtline

Cpfc1234

That's great. I'll check it out later. Hoping to get all in place for August 1st. Thank you both for the info

Ex_welsh_borrower

Hi All,

DMP with SC is running pretty smooth for me at the moment, 6 months in now and really pleasing to see about 3.5k come off the total balance which is still around 48k  but it's coming down slowly.

Most of the debts have now been defaulted or they've accepted payment plans such as store credit I had.

Two of my debts though the logins for them no longer work so I can't access to see if the debt is still with them or has been sold on (Barclaycard and MBNA) do I ring them to find out where they went? Having had a couple of months of simply paying SC and no letters I fear opening a can of worms!

Suseka97

Ex_welsh_borrower said:

Hi All,

DMP with SC is running pretty smooth for me at the moment, 6 months in now and really pleasing to see about 3.5k come off the total balance which is still around 48k  but it's coming down slowly.

Most of the debts have now been defaulted or they've accepted payment plans such as store credit I had.

Two of my debts though the logins for them no longer work so I can't access to see if the debt is still with them or has been sold on (Barclaycard and MBNA) do I ring them to find out where they went? Having had a couple of months of simply paying SC and no letters I fear opening a can of worms!

They will have closed your accounts, hence why you no longer have login access.  If/when a creditor sells your debt on they are legally required to inform you of that, but they may well pass the account over to their collections dept first, before eventually selling it as part of a bulk package to a DCA.  If you really want to know where the account is you can ask, but unless you hear differently I'd just let it ride.  No cans of worms need to be involved 

sourcrates

Ex_welsh_borrower said:

Hi All,

DMP with SC is running pretty smooth for me at the moment, 6 months in now and really pleasing to see about 3.5k come off the total balance which is still around 48k  but it's coming down slowly.

Most of the debts have now been defaulted or they've accepted payment plans such as store credit I had.

Two of my debts though the logins for them no longer work so I can't access to see if the debt is still with them or has been sold on (Barclaycard and MBNA) do I ring them to find out where they went? Having had a couple of months of simply paying SC and no letters I fear opening a can of worms!

If a debt is sold the new owner will write to you. No need to do anything.

Cpfc1234

Morning full of questions me. If my mortgage is with Halifax and a cc I want to default on also halifax will this present an issue with my mortgage? Many thanks 

alxofn1

Hello everyone, quick query. I hold two cards with the same creditor (MBNA) - they happen to be the only creditors now who haven't sold the debts on yet. Anyway, up till now they've not been imposing any interest/charges of any kind and out of the blue I've noticed this months DMP payment onto one of my cards has been basically outweighed by interest being levied onto the account. I understand creditors have no obligation to suspend interest/fees etc during a DMP but this all seems to have come out of the blue (no letters, nada). MBNA on the phone gave me a number which as expected won't open till Monday now. Is there any advice on how best to tackle this i.e. writing a letter, or just phoning them up? Or informing and then leaving it with SC? 

UPDATE : Have managed to get hold of MBNA's financial difficulty helpline - they advised that my payments have brought the account "out of arrears" ?! and so the system has started to treat the accounts as being "in credit" and therefore has imposed interest payments again. They've advised I need to speak to SC to bring down the payments to MBNA in order to stop as presently I am paying too much onto the MBNA cards... this all seems really strange no?

sourcrates

alxofn1 said:

Hello everyone, quick query. I hold two cards with the same creditor (MBNA) - they happen to be the only creditors now who haven't sold the debts on yet. Anyway, up till now they've not been imposing any interest/charges of any kind and out of the blue I've noticed this months DMP payment onto one of my cards has been basically outweighed by interest being levied onto the account. I understand creditors have no obligation to suspend interest/fees etc during a DMP but this all seems to have come out of the blue (no letters, nada). MBNA on the phone gave me a number which as expected won't open till Monday now. Is there any advice on how best to tackle this i.e. writing a letter, or just phoning them up? Or informing and then leaving it with SC? 

UPDATE : Have managed to get hold of MBNA's financial difficulty helpline - they advised that my payments have brought the account "out of arrears" ?! and so the system has started to treat the accounts as being "in credit" and therefore has imposed interest payments again. They've advised I need to speak to SC to bring down the payments to MBNA in order to stop as presently I am paying too much onto the MBNA cards... this all seems really strange no?

Well, as advised many times previously, its much better to have all accounts defaulted before starting debt management, then all this hassle with interest etc is avoided.

Difficult to advise now, talk to stepchange I guess would be the thing to do, either that or get out of the DMP, ignore anything but court letters for a year, then start the journey again, this time with everything defaulted and most likely sold on.

The option you choose is up to you.

alxofn1

sourcrates said:

alxofn1 said:

Hello everyone, quick query. I hold two cards with the same creditor (MBNA) - they happen to be the only creditors now who haven't sold the debts on yet. Anyway, up till now they've not been imposing any interest/charges of any kind and out of the blue I've noticed this months DMP payment onto one of my cards has been basically outweighed by interest being levied onto the account. I understand creditors have no obligation to suspend interest/fees etc during a DMP but this all seems to have come out of the blue (no letters, nada). MBNA on the phone gave me a number which as expected won't open till Monday now. Is there any advice on how best to tackle this i.e. writing a letter, or just phoning them up? Or informing and then leaving it with SC? 

UPDATE : Have managed to get hold of MBNA's financial difficulty helpline - they advised that my payments have brought the account "out of arrears" ?! and so the system has started to treat the accounts as being "in credit" and therefore has imposed interest payments again. They've advised I need to speak to SC to bring down the payments to MBNA in order to stop as presently I am paying too much onto the MBNA cards... this all seems really strange no?

Well, as advised many times previously, its much better to have all accounts defaulted before starting debt management, then all this hassle with interest etc is avoided.

Difficult to advise now, talk to stepchange I guess would be the thing to do, either that or get out of the DMP, ignore anything but court letters for a year, then start the journey again, this time with everything defaulted and most likely sold on.

The option you choose is up to you.

Thanks - this is what has confused me I think. With all the other creditors I have paid way under the minimum agreed payments and they have - as expected - defaulted me. However with MBNA even though I have been making well below the minimum payments they have somehow worked out that my DMP payments have brought the account out of arrears hence their system treating the account as "healthy" enough to service interest fees being imposed upon it. 

From what I understand then, it's possible to run a DMP plan on my other creditors that have been sold on and keep those with SC (just for simplicity) and - as you suggest - possibly manage the MBNA payments independently and pay a token amount in order to force it into default(s)? 

sourcrates

alxofn1 said:

sourcrates said:

alxofn1 said:

Hello everyone, quick query. I hold two cards with the same creditor (MBNA) - they happen to be the only creditors now who haven't sold the debts on yet. Anyway, up till now they've not been imposing any interest/charges of any kind and out of the blue I've noticed this months DMP payment onto one of my cards has been basically outweighed by interest being levied onto the account. I understand creditors have no obligation to suspend interest/fees etc during a DMP but this all seems to have come out of the blue (no letters, nada). MBNA on the phone gave me a number which as expected won't open till Monday now. Is there any advice on how best to tackle this i.e. writing a letter, or just phoning them up? Or informing and then leaving it with SC? 

UPDATE : Have managed to get hold of MBNA's financial difficulty helpline - they advised that my payments have brought the account "out of arrears" ?! and so the system has started to treat the accounts as being "in credit" and therefore has imposed interest payments again. They've advised I need to speak to SC to bring down the payments to MBNA in order to stop as presently I am paying too much onto the MBNA cards... this all seems really strange no?

Well, as advised many times previously, its much better to have all accounts defaulted before starting debt management, then all this hassle with interest etc is avoided.

Difficult to advise now, talk to stepchange I guess would be the thing to do, either that or get out of the DMP, ignore anything but court letters for a year, then start the journey again, this time with everything defaulted and most likely sold on.

The option you choose is up to you.

Thanks - this is what has confused me I think. With all the other creditors I have paid way under the minimum agreed payments and they have - as expected - defaulted me. However with MBNA even though I have been making well below the minimum payments they have somehow worked out that my DMP payments have brought the account out of arrears hence their system treating the account as "healthy" enough to service interest fees being imposed upon it. 

From what I understand then, it's possible to run a DMP plan on my other creditors that have been sold on and keep those with SC (just for simplicity) and - as you suggest - possibly manage the MBNA payments independently and pay a token amount in order to force it into default(s)? 

Probably the best way to go now yes.

Just tell SC to remove MBNA from your arrangement, they may not like this as there philosophy is to treat all creditors equally, so you may have some decisions to make here.