DMP mutual support thread part 13 !!

January2015

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Just a continuation of my F&F saga, Feeling really despondent actually as I was so hoping to be more or less debt-free by the end of this year as I have the funds to do it, so long as the settlements offered are good enough;)


Despite good advice offered I decided to bite the bullet and phone my creditor L... to see what their counter offer was likely to be. The very nice person I spoke to couldn't help (it was supposed to be the line to the settlement team:mad:) but said they'd contact them straightaway and get back to me within 48 hours. I wasn't holding my breath as it took over 3 weeks to respond by letter before. I've now received an email from them with their offer of 65% payable. Er, no thanks, totally out of the question:(:(:(


Back to the drawing board then:(

I feel your frustration :mad: As you know I recently had a fantasticly low settlement offer with a creditor. We have multiple accounts with the same creditor and I was hopeful they would also settle the remaining accounts at the same level. Would they ????? No way - coming back at us with ridiculous settlement figures of 80% +. Each account was different.

BC also coming back at 80% settlement figures. They can continue to wait then. We are still paying token payments only to those who do not want to settle. Fine by me, but so frustrating.

Suseka97

ash28 wrote: »

Hi All......

After reading on here about Barclaycard and payments of over 1% attracting interest, I'm going to tweak the I & E to bring the payments to just under 1%, currently over by £2 or £3.
Good, yes, definitely do that

I had planned to start and make payments to them in March....does that sound ok?
Absolutely, just let them know that's what you plan to do

Barlcaycard used to be an Egg card taken out in 1998 - so I'm going to ask for a CCA - shall I wait until I have started making repayments before asking ?
Don't wait, send the CCA request off now - you never know, if they can't provide the paperwork, you might already be in UE territory. But our former EGG, then Barclaycard debt did prove to be enforceable

Capital One card is from 2000 - is it worth asking for a CCA from them? And again, do I wait ?
Again yes, and send off the paperwork now

Thanks for taking the time to read this.....my stomach is churning, it took me a day to press the cancel button for the direct debits and I've been on edge ever since.

Good luck and well done for jumping straight in with self-managing. I agree that with only 2 creditors it'll be much easier for you than others -and it does give you a lot more flexibility. Do be prepared for a flurry of letters, but don't panic as these are mostly computer generated and triggered when direct debits are cancelled and payment dates are missed. Some of these will cross over with the letters you send - but that's just how it is, so just file them away and wait for actual responses in relation to the letter/s you send. It would seem that the new rules about minimum payments has pushed quite a few people down the DMP route, which isn't such a bad thing I guess if ultimately it gets people out of the seemingly neverending credit/debt cycle.

ash28

January2015 wrote: »

Definitely send those CCA requests in now. There is a good chance they will be UE - always a possibility they are enforceable, but being accounts that old you have the odds on your side

Write and tell them you are in financial difficulty and are seeking support for your situation (mention Stepchange or one of the other charitites). Tell them you will contact them again once you have organised a viable budget. Don't bother paying them anything for now. When you write make sure you state in the letter that all communication must be done in writing and you do not give them permission to telephone you.

March sounds fine as a start date for payments - you can review that over the coming weeks if you find you need a bit longer.

Welcome to the forum :beer:

Thanks for replying, I've written to them using NEDCAB holding letters template and reference numbers - that should put them on hold for 30 days?
I did tell them only to contact me writing....but jumping every time the phone rings.
I'll get the CCA letters out to them this week, does that mean everything is on hold until I get a reply from them, or do I send letters with payment offers and I & E statement next month and tell them I will start payments in March?

ash28

Suseka97 wrote: »

Good luck and well done for jumping straight in with self-managing. I agree that with only 2 creditors it'll be much easier for you than others -and it does give you a lot more flexibility. Do be prepared for a flurry of letters, but don't panic as these are mostly computer generated and triggered when direct debits are cancelled and payment dates are missed. Some of these will cross over with the letters you send - but that's just how it is, so just file them away and wait for actual responses in relation to the letter/s you send. It would seem that the new rules about minimum payments has pushed quite a few people down the DMP route, which isn't such a bad thing I guess if ultimately it gets people out of the seemingly neverending credit/debt cycle.

Thanks for replying, I think you're right about the change in minimum payments - I was paying minimum payments to both of them which I could just about do but once big increases were on the cards I couldn't. It does mean I will pay them off in about 7 years as opposed to 30!!!


I will get the CCA letters out this week, I didn't know anything about it until I started reading through the threads the other day, I'm more than happy to pay the debts (they are mine) but it will take some of the pressure off if they are unenforceable and I might be able to negotiate a settlement figure in time. To be honest, I'm expecting them to be enforceable.



Making the decision to put a stake in the ground and go down the DMP route has lifted a weight from my shoulders in some ways but I'm on tenterhooks!

[Deleted User]

January2015 wrote: »

I feel your frustration :mad: As you know I recently had a fantasticly low settlement offer with a creditor. We have multiple accounts with the same creditor and I was hopeful they would also settle the remaining accounts at the same level. Would they ????? No way - coming back at us with ridiculous settlement figures of 80% +. Each account was different.

BC also coming back at 80% settlement figures. They can continue to wait then. We are still paying token payments only to those who do not want to settle. Fine by me, but so frustrating.

Thanks, Jan:T. Back to the drawing board for both of us, eh? I suspect you're far more patient at playing the long game than I am though:o


Just as a matter of interest, and it's probably a case of 'how long is a piece if string':rotfl:, from what you've experienced/heard how long is it on average before a creditor comes back with a better offer when the current one has been turned down? I had the idea that they do tend to do this sometime but also wonder if some of them never do and it's up to the debtor to submit another offer after a few months.

January2015

carbootcrazy wrote: »

Thanks, Jan:T. Back to the drawing board for both of us, eh? I suspect you're far more patient at playing the long game than I am though:o


Just as a matter of interest, and it's probably a case of 'how long is a piece if string':rotfl:, from what you've experienced/heard how long is it on average before a creditor comes back with a better offer when the current one has been turned down? I had the idea that they do tend to do this sometime but also wonder if some of them never do and it's up to the debtor to submit another offer after a few months.

I honestly can't say. I haven't had 'better offers' come back at me yet :rotfl: I've been submitting F&Fs on and off for almost two years now. My financial situation has got far worse (redundancy and health issues) and creditors know this. They all seem fine with accepting minimal payments and plodding along though.

I haven't had an 'out of the blue' F&F offer from a creditor..... one can but dream :rotfl:

Suseka97

January2015 wrote: »

I honestly can't say. I haven't had 'better offers' come back at me yet :rotfl: I've been submitting F&Fs on and off for almost two years now. My financial situation has got far worse (redundancy and health issues) and creditors know this. They all seem fine with accepting minimal payments and plodding along though.

I haven't had an 'out of the blue' F&F offer from a creditor..... one can but dream :rotfl:

I tend to get offers on the UE ones every couple to three months or so - each time the % discount increases, usually by 5% increments. I'm currently up to an offer of a 65% discount on two and only a 15% discount on the other (which is the largest debt) - so those are just getting added to the pile.

Recently I've had a reduction in two of the three enforceable ones due to a refund from the OC and they've written asking me to make an offer on the balances (both under £100 currently). I'm going to go back with a very low offer -- because having had the refund they've removed an earlier (no time limit) discount - cheeky beggars!

It definitely is a waiting game and one I'm prepared to play

Sylvester6

Hi everyone
I'm feeling a little bit fed up today. We sent letters to all our creditors explaining we were going self managed and paying token payments until March and 10 creditors have come back saying fine except Link!! We have 3 debts with them, 2 of which are our largest. I sent the original letter to them, we then received a letter asking is to ring them, I emailed them instead but got no response so was feeling brave and rang them ......I shouldn't have...they were awful but they said they would put the plan on our account and expect to hear from us in Feb with regards to upping the payment which was fine. Today we have received further letters stating that we have not contacted them and could we ring them....aarghh I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall!!! I'm definitely not ringing them but will send another letter when I can get my printer working!! It is so frustrating!! We have paid token payments to these accounts too!! So worried they'll take further action and not sure what else to do!!

Onebrokelady

I had my review with SC and told them about my drop in hours resulting in a drop in income and they were fine with that and have reduced my payment starting from this month so that's all sorted,I got a letter from MBNA today about the two debts I have with them and they have terminated my contract and registered a default on the accounts,does this mean that interest will not be charged now
I'm still waiting for the others to contact me

[Deleted User]

Sylvester6 wrote: »

Hi everyone
I'm feeling a little bit fed up today. We sent letters to all our creditors explaining we were going self managed and paying token payments until March and 10 creditors have come back saying fine except Link!! We have 3 debts with them, 2 of which are our largest. I sent the original letter to them, we then received a letter asking is to ring them, I emailed them instead but got no response so was feeling brave and rang them ......I shouldn't have...they were awful but they said they would put the plan on our account and expect to hear from us in Feb with regards to upping the payment which was fine. Today we have received further letters stating that we have not contacted them and could we ring them....aarghh I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall!!! I'm definitely not ringing them but will send another letter when I can get my printer working!! It is so frustrating!! We have paid token payments to these accounts too!! So worried they'll take further action and not sure what else to do!!

Link are the absolute worst to deal with. I have 2 debts with them although one of them is Unenforceable (which they wrote and told me when they failed to send any CCA paperwork) but they still keep writing and asking me to make payments on it.


I think they like people to negotiate things on the phone, they are dab hands at intimidating people and they can do it easier that way:eek:. When we owe money we feel in a weakened position and they try to browbeat us when we're at a low ebb.


When I did an updated I&E they asked me to send bank statements as proof of my outgoings, supposedly ''not to catch you out or anything''. What the heck was it for then?????:eek:.


You're lucky in a way that you're getting responses from them at all, even though they're not relevant. They took nearly a month to respond to my written F&F settlement offer. Their communication system is rubbish:mad:.