DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

dynan

Thanks @natlie! 

19ryanh93

Hols2021 said:

jwil said:

Hols2021 said:

Hi, 
I’m looking for a little bit of help as this is our first income and expenditure we are completing with cabot. Do we put all our details as a household and we both pay half the bills or Al would we be better to do it separately as they are not joint accounts? Only one account is with them now but we have another 10 accounts between us that have still to default, what i’d like to know is how I complete our debts part, it asks what we owe and how much we’re paying. At this point we’re not paying anything to these debts until they default so we have £400 spare to pay all these but won’t that look like we have all this spare cash? I’m just not sure how I complete this? Do we make an offer to pay the payment plan and explain the rest of the cash left over is for the other debts? 

Thanks 😊 

I did mine as an individual.  You could do either.

In terms of the £400 you have to service your debts, you can divide it proportionally across all the debts.  Add all the debts together and work out the percentage each forms of the total.  That debt then gets that same percentage of the £400.  Then you can allocate the rest of the £400 proportionally across the other debts.  The NEDCAB website will do it all for you.  Cabot don't need to know whether you are actually paying them or not.   So if your Cabot debt is 5% of your total debt, then they get 5% of the £400.

Hi, Thank you for getting back to me. Ok I think I will tell my husband to do it with just his salary, sorry but what I’m not sure about is that if he’s not paying any of these debts just now but he puts down on the form that he pays say £25 to them then Cabot gets the account would they not ask why we put down £25 when we weren’t paying it at that point or do we just complete the form as if we are paying them all so we know where we are and what we’re going to be paying to them all? 

One piece of advice I can give regarding Cabot, is they will try come for a bigger piece of the pie, stand your ground, I have just done my annual review with all my creditors and they've all agreed but Cabot are trying to get 53% of the money left to pay creditors (they do this every year), the debt they own is more like 15% of my total creditors.

Just a bit of advice for you.

19ryanh93

dynan said:

Thanks @natlie! 

If you are going self managed, I have been for 2 years now use NEDCAB, it will work everything out for you produce all the letters etc and then everything is saved in there so you can just go and edit things every now and then.

I have a reminder setup so every October I go back in edit all the numbers and it re works everything out and then just download and send them off. 

When you leave ste[change they will send you everything they have for your file, statements, payments you've been making etc etc and balances that they have for your creditors.

funny_bunny

Good day all!

Couple of questions:

- I know nedcab works well for self-managed DMP (I'm not there yet), but just wondering if anyone tried nationaldebtline for the same purpose?

- is it worth keeping (or requesting to original lender) a copy of original CCA just in case?

I heard some folks doubting the reconstituted copies of CCA supplied by whoever purchased the debts when requested, so to have the original CCA maybe useful to compare/challenge anyting doubtful few years down the line - I know that's a long shot but thought to ask here anyway to hear others opinion.

Thanks.
FB

PurpleMouse5

Stupid question, but how do I check the balances on my credit cards etc once they start blocking me from logging in? I'm paying back slowly on a DMP and just starting to get cards and logins blocked now.

19ryanh93

PurpleMouse5 said:

Stupid question, but how do I check the balances on my credit cards etc once they start blocking me from logging in? I'm paying back slowly on a DMP and just starting to get cards and logins blocked now.

Are you self managed?

If so you can just write to them and request it, if not ask whoever you are doing your DMP with.

I have a spreadsheet that I mark every payment on and adjusts my balance accordingly for each one, but at the beginning StepChange sent me the balances they had and then I just wrote to them asking for confirmation of each balance

Tamar7

Hi, I've been on a DMP over a year now, down from 19k to 10k. This year I had to reduce payments because I was having to borrow from my housemate to get to work every month, I've just got a job closer to home to reduce the travel cost. so my finish line has extended a year....................yay..(sarcasm)

Having been in a DMP, it certainly hasn't been plain sailing, Nasty letters about missed payments, my credit history, that I worked really hard on making excellent, after Uni, has nose dived, you can't swap and change accounts around to cover the unexpected on a plan, so there have been plenty of tears when a vet bill comes up (yes I have insurance... that strangely doesn't cover any issues my cats have). I've got used to going to birthdays and Christmas without or with some poor excuse of a present, having to avoid the staff whip round for babies or leavers. The embarrassing long description of why, although I'm a manager and have a good income, I can't go out much at all, buy all my clothes second hand for under a fiver on ebay, and generally try not to spend the zero money i have after bills and debts.  I also know that once my DMP is paid, I'll be 45 and have 6 years till my credit rating recovers. I'll be solvent by the time I'm 51...... At the age of 42, I live in a shared house, I own no furniture, my car is on finance I can't afford, but can't do without. (I live in the middle of no where because its cheap)  I shop at Aldi or Lidl. or sometimes the dodgy warehouse... yoghurts better for you after the use by date right?.. I haven't seen my friends in over a year. I borrow from my housemate, my brothers and my parents who are retired. so I can pay extortionate parking( lack of other options within feasible walking distance) I have no savings, no hope of ever buying a house or owning a car. Honestly if I stopped the car finance, I'd have nothing to buy an old banger with.  And holidays?......i'm not familiar with the term, I try to work or just generally not go out during my leave as then it doesn't cost me anything....  

And now to top it off, my overdrawn account with Lloyds, that I'd reduced from almost £2000 to £850, has been transferred to recovery company, with no notice, They had sent letters to which I had rung, explained the DMP and given the ID number of and they said they had put on a note each time and took me off the default list..... apparently not..... apparently I'll get a shiney looking welcome pack the call handler said cheerfully!! so they can decide how to recover my debt!!???!!! 

I asked if the DMP made any difference... no. 
I asked what was meant by recovering debt... did it mean court? ... did it mean two big blokes at my door demanding the tv (i don't own) or the car (on finance)??    I was told, wait for the welcome pack.

I'm really not sure at this point on what to do now or what this means. 

But yes DMP's, your debt is slowly paid... slowly and not painlessly, nor do you have more free cash, neither are you free of hassle from the banks... and yes your credit rating will be 0, and at my age, yes you will never have a financially secure future again, get to see your mortgage paid off, have lavish pension years on cruises or get to leave a nice little nest egg for your grand kids. 

If I'd known what knuckling down, getting a good education, a good job and further education would have brought, I'd have not bothered. 

If anyone knows some magic solution to my life, finances, please do get in touch.. 

sourcrates

Tamar7, 

Are you sure you are budgeting correctly?

Difficult when a homeowner to find a quicker way of getting debt free, all I can say is consumer debt, is all non-priority, why not re-charge your savings for a while, and just pay £1 a month to your creditors?

It will extend your arrangement for sure, but short-term gain can be good for you.

Have you explored every option here, if payments are unaffordable, have you asked for write off`s?
Have you explored the possibility of accounts being unenforceable?

You have to utilise every trick in the book when the roof is in danger of collapse, it appears to me you are prioritising creditor payments over your own wellbeing, sure it clears the debt quicker, but does nothing for you personally.

swansea_lad

I seen this recently

www.loqbox.com

They claim to build your credit score. Looks to good to be true

PurpleMouse5

Tamar7,

I would try and put your travel costs up on your budget. Allow yourself enough to comfortably get to work, and have a few visits to friends or family for you wellbeing as well. It will make the DMP a bit longer, but that might feel easier if you're not putting yourself on so tight a budget that it's affecting your wellbeing so much.