DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

January2015

Ethel_and_Ernest wrote: »

Morning everyone!

Firstly I just want to say thank you to everyone who has offered advice to us personally and also to all who share their journey. I love this forum and you guys are keeping me sane(ish). Just to know that we're not alone is so reassuring.

So, we have decided to manage our DMP ourselves! (That's the royal 'we' - Ernie is fully on board but I will be responsible for most of the doing)

After poring over numerous posts and a lengthy discussion we decided that we are going to be 'punished' by defaults anyway. I'm feeling quite positive and plan to take a proactive approach, maintaining contact with everyone on a monthly basis, even if it's just to say that our circumstances haven't changed yet. We may as well try and speed up the default process AND save whatever we can in the meantime until we're ready to start.

This represents a brand new, exciting financial start for us and our future will not involve credit agreements.

I've registered with the NEDCAB website, it looks straight forward and we now have a reference number.

However, we have already (verbally) provided some of our creditors with a StepChange reference number and don't want to confuse the issue with those lenders. I was thinking of amending the NEDCAB generated letter to read something like 'following input from both StepChange (ref 123) and NEDCAB, we have been advised that a DMP is the best solution to our debt problem'.

Does this sound ok?

We have:
2x RBS loans
1x RBS credit card
1x Virgin credit card
2x MBNA credit cards
1x Sainsbury's credit card

Also, we were given 30 days breathing space from RBS and Virgin CC following our initial phone calls. Is it worth sending these lenders the standard letter anyway? Or should I complete the next step for these lenders and send them the budget and token payment?

Thanks,
Ethel x

Your amendment to the NEDCAB letter regarding SC ref number sounds fine to me.

Don't overthink confusing your creditors with both reference numbers. We went from SC to using NEDCAB to self manage and just said this is the reference number from this point on. Creditors will be fine. In my view, the most important thing for them is that they have a record somewhere that you have sought advice for your financial problems.

Well done on your progress so far.

Sylvester6

Morning,
We are starting to hear back from creditors regarding us going self managed. Most on one hand have accepted our offer but then on the other hand are sending letters saying they will chase the debt if we don't contact them!! One DCA sent a letter to say they had reset our payment plan to £1 and for us to contact them when we can increase our payment.....then a week later we had a letter saying if we don't contact them they'll continue with collection activity and will start to contact us by phone and text! I have sent them a snotty letter back highlighting the point we will only communicate in writing and that they have already agreed to the plan. Does anyone else feel that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing or are they just computer generated letters? It's so frustrating.

Suseka97

Sylvester6 wrote: »

Morning,
We are starting to hear back from creditors regarding us going self managed. Most on one hand have accepted our offer but then on the other hand are sending letters saying they will chase the debt if we don't contact them!! One DCA sent a letter to say they had reset our payment plan to £1 and for us to contact them when we can increase our payment.....then a week later we had a letter saying if we don't contact them they'll continue with collection activity and will start to contact us by phone and text! I have sent them a snotty letter back highlighting the point we will only communicate in writing and that they have already agreed to the plan. Does anyone else feel that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing or are they just computer generated letters? It's so frustrating.

Yep, happened to me a lot in the beginning. What you'll find is that they have various departments that deal with your account and possibly in different locations. Most of the 'contact us or else' letters are automatically generated when you hit certain trigger points and these will often crossover with letters from their collection department who have written in response to your direct requests. Its par for the course - just bin them and stick with your plan and only bother if a letter appears to be asking a specific question about the plan, or if its time for your annual review.

Suseka97

Ethel_and_Ernest wrote: »

........
.
I've registered with the NEDCAB website, it looks straight forward and we now have a reference number.
However, we have already (verbally) provided some of our creditors with a StepChange reference number and don't want to confuse the issue with those lenders. I was thinking of amending the NEDCAB generated letter to read something like 'following input from both StepChange (ref 123) and NEDCAB, we have been advised that a DMP is the best solution to our debt problem'.
Does this sound ok?
We have:
2x RBS loans
1x RBS credit card
1x Virgin credit card
2x MBNA credit cards
1x Sainsbury's credit card
Also, we were given 30 days breathing space from RBS and Virgin CC following our initial phone calls. Is it worth sending these lenders the standard letter anyway? Or should I complete the next step for these lenders and send them the budget and token payment?
Thanks,
Ethel x

Good to hear you're feeling positive and taking matters into your own hands. Like Jan15 says, don't worry about confusing them with different ref numbers, but what you suggest sounds good.

Re RBS and Virgin - that's up to you really. If it were me I'd send them the same standard letter as it just reinforces your situation and what you propose to do.

Good luck

Ethel_and_Ernest

January2015 wrote: »

Your amendment to the NEDCAB letter regarding SC ref number sounds fine to me.

Don't overthink confusing your creditors with both reference numbers. We went from SC to using NEDCAB to self manage and just said this is the reference number from this point on. Creditors will be fine. In my view, the most important thing for them is that they have a record somewhere that you have sought advice for your financial problems.

Well done on your progress so far.

Thanks January and Suseka.

I left the SC reference out, just adding the words 'and Stepchange Debt Charity' instead. I printed one for each account in the end.

All done, off to post them before I change my mind

Have a great day!
Ethel x

Rosie1001

Just has a letter from Lloyd

My debt has been transferred to moorcroft and said they will contact me in near future

What Payments can they ask me to make ... I have £80 left over to pay a month to them , can they make me pay more ..will I have to prove my income / outgoing etc

Thank you in advance

Sylvester6

Suseka thank you for your advice! I probably didn't need to send the stroppy letter then but they caught me on a bad day. Oh well another letter confirming our plan can't hurt can it? PRA have also agreed token payments for 6 months but have rung the hubby for the last 2 days. He's not been able to answer as he was at work and to be fair we did speak to creditors when we first started our DMP and they were fine. It's hard to know what to do for the best but I don't want them bombarding us with calls.

[Deleted User]

Rosie1001 wrote: »

Just has a letter from Lloyd

My debt has been transferred to moorcroft and said they will contact me in near future

What Payments can they ask me to make ... I have £80 left over to pay a month to them , can they make me pay more ..will I have to prove my income / outgoing etc

Thank you in advance

Firstly, please don't worry. Lloyds never sold my debt, just had Wescot manage it. Is that what has happened to yours, except with Moorcroft rather than Wescot? I'm not sure what you meant by 'transferred'. If Lloyds have sold your debt to Moorcroft the letter should have said something like ' Lloyds has assigned all of its respective rights, interest, benefit and entitlement in respect of the.....account (including the outstanding balance to Moorcroft....'


Either way, if it helps, all my debts that were just managed by someone else or sold on kept the same repayment level as before. Moorcroft should still be happy with whatever you've been paying Lloyds already. Things just chug along as before except you'll be paying a different company.


Wait until you receive the confirmation letter from Moorcroft and if anything worries you after that please come back and let us know. I'm sure someone will be able to advise you.


You mentioned income and outgoings. Are you on a DMP with someone already or self-managed? No doubt you will have provided an Income & Expenditure form already if you are with a DMP management company or going it alone. Creditors usually want updated I&E details, usually once a year as do SC if they are managing your plan. It's no hassle and nothing to worry about. They just need to know that your current payments are still sustainable for you. Obviously, if your income were to increase massively since the last form you completed the previous year they would expect a bigger debt repayment when they review things.

lulabelle01

Quick question I’m about to send offer letters to my creditors advising them of what I can currently pay (I’m using the templates from the NADCAB website). The financial statement that I am using leaves on the information relating to who I owe what to. Do I leave this on when I send my letters off?

January2015

lulabelle01 wrote: »

Quick question I’m about to send offer letters to my creditors advising them of what I can currently pay (I’m using the templates from the NADCAB website). The financial statement that I am using leaves on the information relating to who I owe what to. Do I leave this on when I send my letters off?

Yes - each creditor needs to see you are treating all creditors fairly and equally. They can see what you owe everyone from your creditor reports anyway, so none of this is confidential information. The statement produced by NEDCAB is intended for you to include all that information to be sent to EVERY creditor and show you are not prioritising one over others.