DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

Black_Monday

I will join the AAD aswell, will have to wait till tomorrow, I'm to exhausted tonight to type it all again.

Thank you for replying ��

Onebrokelady

BigAnnieG wrote: »

Hello!

I just thought I'd pop by to give some support to those in the early stages of a DMP. Don't lose hope!

The backstory: I set up a business then became too ill to work, and ran up a massive debt just living (rent, bills, nothing out of the ordinary).

I got so scared about debt that I didn't do anything about it. Until I took out a massive consolidation loan... but that couldn't even cover everything. (Natwest behaved badly here - sold me a loan knowing I was self-employed, etc, etc, but I gave up arguing with them a while ago).

I got a job but it was minimum wage and didn't even cover my full monthly payments let alone rent and incoming bills. I had a breakdown.

I filled out the paperwork to file for bankruptcy and was one day away from posting it to the court.

Before I sent it, I called Stepchange, who were incredible. I went on a token DMP, paying £1/month for a year, to catch myself up a bit. (I wanted to repay the debt I had built up, although bankruptcy was discussed as an option, as I had no assets at all).

I had £24k of debts to pay off, plus ongoing living expenses. I lived alone, in an expensive city, on a minimum wage job that meant I didn't qualify for benefits, despite monthly repayments meaning I had no money left over for the rent etc.

Roll forward two years.

I was blessed to receive an inheritance this month that was enough to cover my remaining outstanding debts. The day I called all of my creditors to pay in full had a lot of happy tears in it.

However

When I let Stepchange know that I'd closed it all down, they congratulated me and told me how much I'd managed to pay off on my own over a period of just under two years.

I'd paid over half of that debt myself: £12,988 to be precise. That includes several periods of unemployment due to redundancy and illness, and low paid jobs.

I'm now, officially, debt-free. My file will be marked for another six years, but the last couple of years have taught me a LOT about frugal living so I don't mind staying within my means and not applying for any credit at all.

If it helps anybody out there, I did manage to get an Aqua credit builder credit card about 18 months into the DMP. I did this purely to start building a credit record again, and paid in full every month. It also helped to manage some business expenses (I only used it for work expenses, showed Finance the statement every month, claimed it all back to pay off in full). I wouldn't recommend getting credit during a DMP unless this is your plan.

I had to change my DMP amounts from time to time depending on my job and living circumstances, and it was always easy and never did I feel pressure from creditors to pay any more than I could afford.

If I'm honest, I learned to fudge my figures a bit during reviews in order to pay MORE of the debt off each month than Stepchange would say was affordable, but again I wouldn't recommend that unless you really don't mind eating beans for a week straight

I know I have my Grandad to thank for the inheritance boost to speed up paying off the debt, but I also know that even if that hadn't happened then I would have eventually paid it off anyway.

So, really, I'm just reaching out to anybody starting or currently on the DMP journey to tell you: don't panic. It will be OK. You are more than your credit score. Keep going.

Thank you so much for posting this,I've been on my DMP for nearly a year and it's been goingok,recently I have had to cut my hours at work due to ill health so my payments are going to have to be reduced,I have been worrying about calling Stepchange to tell them this but after reading your post I am going to pluck up the courage to phone them tomorrow
Well done on paying off your debt and enjoy your debt free status xx

JustinN37

Hi guys.

I've had confirmation that my DMP will be commencing on 1st December.

Would I be correct in thinking the first payment will be out via direct debit within the same month?

Thanks all.

Justin

Ethel_and_Ernest

Just a quick update on the holding letter situation ...

We sent one to every creditor, even those who we had previously advised via telephone. Virgin called back yesterday to say that they had received our letter and were giving us an additional 30 days breathing space. They have now paused interest and are reimbursing one late payment charge.

Still waiting to hear from the rest but it's a good start.

Have a great day everyone!

EyeEye

Hi guys,

So yesterday after 3 months of trying to avoid it and making everything worse I started to set up my DMP.

Iv got 4 creditors in total and iv let 2 of them know so far.
Barclaycard have been pretty good and gave me the usual 30 days. They also said once they received my offer from stepchange they would freeze interest and payments permanently.

Natwest who I have an overdraft with also said the same thing which is pretty exciting!

Hopefully they will accept the offer when it comes through!

Iv just got to speak to MBNA and Zopa which I will do in the next few days!

Iv not told family or friends about the debts Iv amounted! Embarrassed and ashamed about it all if I’m honest.
Hoping once that first DMP payment goes out il start to feel a bit better about it all!

Is there any advice on getting creditors to default? Once my plan is up and iv made a few payments I want to start getting defaults so I can then know exactly when il be debt free and can pick my credit rating out of the gutter.

Dmp is set to last for 6 years but hoping to shorten it by working over time and just general frugality!

Changingtimes

Tomorrow is payday and my usual day for all payments to go out.
I have heard from some creditors but not all. I am a little frightful of tomorrow and what it will bring no doubt numerous calls so I booked the day off work ��
I know am doing the right thing in sorting my debt but scared of the initial calls etc.
Wish me luck

[Deleted User]

Changingtimes wrote: »

Tomorrow is payday and my usual day for all payments to go out.
I have heard from some creditors but not all. I am a little frightful of tomorrow and what it will bring no doubt numerous calls so I booked the day off work ��
I know am doing the right thing in sorting my debt but scared of the initial calls etc.
Wish me luck

Please try not to worry:).

I doubt anyone will phone you the same day as the first missed payments. It usually takes a few days for their systems to catch up with events. Some may not phone you at all, they'll write instead. Either way, nothing earth-shattering will happen to you.

sourcrates

Changingtimes wrote: »

Tomorrow is payday and my usual day for all payments to go out.
I have heard from some creditors but not all. I am a little frightful of tomorrow and what it will bring no doubt numerous calls so I booked the day off work ��
I know am doing the right thing in sorting my debt but scared of the initial calls etc.
Wish me luck

I really think you should continue as normal, and not sit waiting by the phone, its never a good idea to engage with creditors over the phone anyway, ignore the calls, go for a walk, do everything in writing only, but most of all, live your life as you normally would.

Norfolk_Jim

Where do people keep their emergency fund? Don't creditors notice if you have like a £1000 in a building society but are telling them I can only make small / token payments? Do Stepchange have a view on this?

Moveslikeagger

Dont tell stepchange or your creditors?