DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

sourcrates

Thejourneybegins said:

Hi. Looking for some advice. I’ve got 99% of the answers by reading through the very helpful and informative posts and responses, so thanks all for this. I’m about to embark on a self managed DMP, which this site has given me the confidence to do so and wondered if the advice was should be that I?
a) send a letter to each creditor explaining I’m experiencing financial difficulties and will be in touch once I’ve taken advice, before I start missing payments
b) Send these letters shortly after I start missing payments
c) or just make zero contact?

I then as I’ve seen advised many times on here, would wait for defaults until I set up the self managed DMP, but just wondered if it generally worked better to inform them early on.

Thanks in advance for the advice and for the great content and support on here. I’m obviously nervous about the journey ahead, but feel empowered by reading all the stories and words of wisdom!

You can write to them if you really want too, but in all honesty, there is little point.

Your not looking for their sympathy, support, or approval, you want them to default you, if you start engaging with creditors, they will attempt to help you by making arrangements to pay etc, which is not what you are wanting.

Defaults mean the relationship is over, the honeymoon has ended, your not talking to each other, and can`t stand the sight of one another.......well, not in so many words, but you get my drift.

The creditors you have now are unlikely to be the creditors you will start your DMP with, as hopefully once defaulted, they will quickly sell on your debts, so what they may think or what you may tell them is irrelevant.

sourcrates

Flipflopsonpebblebeach said:

I've got myself into about 40k worth of debt. A family member became a widower and developed bad health so together with my parents we've had to financially provide for him and his three teenage children. 
I earn a good salary. But I've somehow let things get on top of me and so I panicked thinking I wouldn't be able to keep up all my repayments to credit cards and loans. 
I started a DMP with PayPlan. However one of the creditors told me that after about five months, even though PayPlan are paying them, it will count as a defaulted loan and it will affect my credit rating. 
Does anyone know whether this would seriously affect my ability to get a new mortgage or what other impact this would have? 
Do I have time to stop the DMP and switch back to finding 0% credit cards etc to try and avoid getting a bad credit rating?
Thanks in advance.  

This is why it pays to do your research before you enter into any debt arrangement.

To be fair, any kind of debt management will negatively affect your credit file, its par for the course, and is to be expected.

Homeowners can usually re-mortgage with their current lender quite easily when the time comes, as no credit checks are done, its only if you switch lender that happens.

Your priority should be reducing the debts, don`t go back to your old ways, it`s seldom productive.

Thejourneybegins

sourcrates said:

Thejourneybegins said:

Hi. Looking for some advice. I’ve got 99% of the answers by reading through the very helpful and informative posts and responses, so thanks all for this. I’m about to embark on a self managed DMP, which this site has given me the confidence to do so and wondered if the advice was should be that I?
a) send a letter to each creditor explaining I’m experiencing financial difficulties and will be in touch once I’ve taken advice, before I start missing payments
b) Send these letters shortly after I start missing payments
c) or just make zero contact?

I then as I’ve seen advised many times on here, would wait for defaults until I set up the self managed DMP, but just wondered if it generally worked better to inform them early on.

Thanks in advance for the advice and for the great content and support on here. I’m obviously nervous about the journey ahead, but feel empowered by reading all the stories and words of wisdom!

You can write to them if you really want too, but in all honesty, there is little point.

Your not looking for their sympathy, support, or approval, you want them to default you, if you start engaging with creditors, they will attempt to help you by making arrangements to pay etc, which is not what you are wanting.

Defaults mean the relationship is over, the honeymoon has ended, your not talking to each other, and can`t stand the sight of one another.......well, not in so many words, but you get my drift.

The creditors you have now are unlikely to be the creditors you will start your DMP with, as hopefully once defaulted, they will quickly sell on your debts, so what they may think or what you may tell them is irrelevant.

Thanks for this. Makes total sense. I suppose I need to not think about trying to be reasonable, as I’m sure I’m just a number. 

One further question on this is by giving/making no contact I take it the interest will continue unless I request a stop? Or am I to give thought that in all likelihood, that future settlement figures may well offset this?
Thanks again Sourcrates

sourcrates

Thejourneybegins said:

sourcrates said:

Thejourneybegins said:

Hi. Looking for some advice. I’ve got 99% of the answers by reading through the very helpful and informative posts and responses, so thanks all for this. I’m about to embark on a self managed DMP, which this site has given me the confidence to do so and wondered if the advice was should be that I?
a) send a letter to each creditor explaining I’m experiencing financial difficulties and will be in touch once I’ve taken advice, before I start missing payments
b) Send these letters shortly after I start missing payments
c) or just make zero contact?

I then as I’ve seen advised many times on here, would wait for defaults until I set up the self managed DMP, but just wondered if it generally worked better to inform them early on.

Thanks in advance for the advice and for the great content and support on here. I’m obviously nervous about the journey ahead, but feel empowered by reading all the stories and words of wisdom!

You can write to them if you really want too, but in all honesty, there is little point.

Your not looking for their sympathy, support, or approval, you want them to default you, if you start engaging with creditors, they will attempt to help you by making arrangements to pay etc, which is not what you are wanting.

Defaults mean the relationship is over, the honeymoon has ended, your not talking to each other, and can`t stand the sight of one another.......well, not in so many words, but you get my drift.

The creditors you have now are unlikely to be the creditors you will start your DMP with, as hopefully once defaulted, they will quickly sell on your debts, so what they may think or what you may tell them is irrelevant.

Thanks for this. Makes total sense. I suppose I need to not think about trying to be reasonable, as I’m sure I’m just a number. 

One further question on this is by giving/making no contact I take it the interest will continue unless I request a stop? Or am I to give thought that in all likelihood, that future settlement figures may well offset this?
Thanks again Sourcrates

Yes you can`t help interest accruing, but as you say, future settlement offers should offset that.

wildheart83

I wrote to all my creditors to advise I was going self managed and today I've had a letter from Advantis Credit (Sainsbury's Bank) asking for my income/expenditure and also details of payments being made to other creditors. If I don't supply the info within 14 days they'll commence collections activity. 
Do I need to supply this information? They're my biggest debt and by far get the most money but they've had it regularly through Stepchange, and the only change is me going self managed. 

Sly72

wildheart83 said:

I wrote to all my creditors to advise I was going self managed and today I've had a letter from Advantis Credit (Sainsbury's Bank) asking for my income/expenditure and also details of payments being made to other creditors. If I don't supply the info within 14 days they'll commence collections activity. 
Do I need to supply this information? They're my biggest debt and by far get the most money but they've had it regularly through Stepchange, and the only change is me going self managed. 

I have several people saying up to you, if you want to provide this or just say this is what I can afford. If your income/expenditure  details of payments being made to other creditors are not changing from what you pay via Stepchange then just use those.

wildheart83

Sly72 said:

wildheart83 said:

I wrote to all my creditors to advise I was going self managed and today I've had a letter from Advantis Credit (Sainsbury's Bank) asking for my income/expenditure and also details of payments being made to other creditors. If I don't supply the info within 14 days they'll commence collections activity. 
Do I need to supply this information? They're my biggest debt and by far get the most money but they've had it regularly through Stepchange, and the only change is me going self managed. 

I have several people saying up to you, if you want to provide this or just say this is what I can afford. If your income/expenditure  details of payments being made to other creditors are not changing from what you pay via Stepchange then just use those.

Thanks, I think it was more a case of they already have this info, do I need to send it again? I've emailed them back to say nothing else changes except the fact I'm no longer dealing with Stepchange, they're not getting anything else. 

sourcrates

wildheart83 said:

Sly72 said:

wildheart83 said:

I wrote to all my creditors to advise I was going self managed and today I've had a letter from Advantis Credit (Sainsbury's Bank) asking for my income/expenditure and also details of payments being made to other creditors. If I don't supply the info within 14 days they'll commence collections activity. 
Do I need to supply this information? They're my biggest debt and by far get the most money but they've had it regularly through Stepchange, and the only change is me going self managed. 

I have several people saying up to you, if you want to provide this or just say this is what I can afford. If your income/expenditure  details of payments being made to other creditors are not changing from what you pay via Stepchange then just use those.

Thanks, I think it was more a case of they already have this info, do I need to send it again? I've emailed them back to say nothing else changes except the fact I'm no longer dealing with Stepchange, they're not getting anything else. 

Its a standard generic response to send out such documentation, remember you are a very small fish in a very large pond, companies deal with such circumstances with a bulk response, no personal touch these days, so do as you see fit.

cheeseball73

Hello! I am now in the position where I have some money that may allow me to clear my debt in part - £11k with £18k left on my DMP. The last one of my defaults falls off my credit file in December, so I want to start getting things finally sorted so I can move on with my life and start rebuilding my credit rating and hopefully get a mortgage in future.

I have sent CCA requests to all six creditors, and have received notification from one that they are trying to locate the paperwork - the other five are a little too soon to have come back to me. My question is: how do I proceed with my DMP in the meantime? If I get notification that a creditor cannot provide the information and the debt is unenforceable legally, can I just remove them from the DMP and then proceed with the F+F offer process? 

My DMP is managed with Stepchange, I am not at all keen to try and self-manage as I'm trying to reduce stress for myself as much as possible, with the DMP I don't have to think about it which is important when you have issues with anxiety that can prevent you from actually sorting things out rather than just worrying about them, I can't emphasise enough how much easier it's been to not have to deal with it directly. I'm not going to remove any debt from my DMP that I can't immediately pay in full, I think, just in case they start demanding payment in full or charging interest, and I also feel that being with Stepchange gives me more leverage in terms of the offers being made. 

cheeseball73

Sorry, should have said - the DMP was started in 2016 so the accounts have been sold on and passed around a fair bit since then - I'm hoping a few of the debts will end up unenforceable just to give me a little more chance of making a good offer. 

One is with PRA Group, one with Link Financial, and the other four with Link Financial but for some reason managed by Westcot even though I can log into Link and see the details on their customer portal.