In search of advice...

SophieB

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year! It’s been a while since I last visited this forum or posted I think. We’ve been steadily away on our DMP since October 2016, and we are due to *hopefully* finish it in august 2019.

Some background: we got into a bit of a mess financially as my husband and I have had to support ourselves from a young age without help from family etc. Years of consolidation loans etc never helped and we were going round in circles...

In Summer 2016 we were recommended to get in touch with SC by a friend and since then we’ve been on a DMP to pay off our total debt (the balance of which was £46k 🤦🏽!♀️). Pains me even writing that.

Anyway, long story short, we have £10k left as we’ve been living off of my husband’s income and using mine to make our SC repayments on our DMP.

Last year saw me off work for a few months suffering with anxiety and depression. I then had to leave my job and am due to start a new one in the new year. My husband has lost his job last week and is now out of work (he’s the main income earner) and my new job is only part time due to childcare (hoping to top it up with a second job). We have been offered an opportunity overseas from august which we have accepted and are aiming to go for. Our DMP is due to be cleared in aug so the timing worked out perfectly.

However, with my husband now out of work, we can’t make our high repayments now. He’s ringing them tomorrow. Just wondered if anyone had any advice on the best way forward really. I really wanted to clear the rest of the debt before we leave I August but if we can’t keep paying the full amount it’s obviously going to extend more.

Please can anyone help with some advice on the best way forward? I’ve heard of some people being able to write off some debt but as we don’t have any savings I don’t think we can do this? It’s juat so frustrating... I feel so proud that we’ve paid off £36k and have ‘only’ £10k to go but it feels so near yet so far. I’m at a complete loss. It seems every time we try to better ourselves we hit another bloody obstacle. I’ve secured a job abroad for us to go and live our life (sensibly of course and with no debt) but at the moment it doesn’t even look like we can do that. Sorry for a miserable rant. I just know a lot of you on here are very experienced so might have some words of wisdom to share.

Thank you,

sourcrates

Hi,

We move posts if we think they will get more help elsewhere.

I have moved your post to the general DFW forum.

Suseka97

Hi there.

Firstly well done for reducing your debt quite substantially and I'm sorry to hear that circumstances appear to be working against your wish to clear the remaining before you move overseas.

One thing you might want to consider is whether any of your remaining creditors would accept any F&F offers, that is if you can get funds together between now and when you leave in order to do that. If not then you may have to accept that you'll leave with debts remaining and can continue with your arrangement to pay when you start work again.

As it stands you are going to have to stop, or significantly reduce, what you are paying - just explain the circumstances and you may find that will encourage creditors to consider the F&F option. You can also let them know you intend to move abroad and that you are keen to resolve things beforehand.

SophieB

Hi sourcrates,

Thank you for that. I thought I’d posted it in the DMP thread though? I was hoping you might have some advice as I’ve learned from your words of wisdom in the past?

Thanks Sueska for your reply. I didn’t know if it was worth going self managed for the remainder? Some creditors like MBNA haven’t defaulted the account so I don’t know if it’s worth going self managed to clear this last bit? Pay then a token amount of £1 u til they default the account? Whilst paying more to the others that are defaulted? Well, as much as we can at the moment.

Really at my wits end again. After feeling so positive and like we have been sorting our life out and the end is in sight. Just feel like it’s been taken away from us yet again. I’ve lost count of the number of years we’ve been working towards a debt free date for it to never arrive (through consolidation loans etc before).

Suseka97

If you feel up to it then I would highly recommend going SM and definitely drop MBNA to tokens and push for that default. That's a real irritation of mine, how some creditors disadvantage folks who are trying their best, versus others who will just walk away from their financial obligations.

Anyway, from the looks of it you are going to have to drop them all to tokens until your are able to get your incomes back to a reasonable level and I doubt you'll be able to save much towards F&Fs as it stands.

You've done so well, so don't beat yourself up about the current hiccup and don't get too despondent about not being able to clear the DMP this year. You are in a much better place now than you were in 2016 and whilst your debt free date may be a little further off than you'd originally planned - you'll still get there in the end.

I could have cleared my balance by now - but I've changed tack since I went SM and am playing the CCA card, also pushing for F&Fs and holding off until I get a discount I'm happy with. I have no qualms about that because over the years the OCs and even the DCAs (who will have paid pennies to the pound for the debt) have had their fair share. I'm okay that it means I can't wear that 'debt free' badge of honour quite yet, but I will certainly be there much sooner than if I'd have remained in the never ending credit cycle we were trapped within.

Just keep in mind its not a race, but a journey

SophieB

Thank you for the reply Sueska. So things have moved on... we spoke to step change who redid our budget and we now have a £900 deficit a month because my husband was the main earner. So they have now cancelled our DMP. They said we can pay token £1 payments or try to do f&f. Husband spoke to some of our creditors on Friday when we worked out how much we could get for our car (only asset) and some creditors agreed verbally to f and f settlements. (Barclays loan and Santander loan). Three of our biggest debts are with the PRA group. Our total debt left now is £10,500 (from £46,500 when we started DMP). The maximum we have raised through selling our car and borrowing some money is £4,500.

PRA group said our offers were reasonable inher opinion but that she didn’t have the clout to say and that they’d ring us back today. Husband has got off the phone to them now. They’ve declined all our offers and given counter offers which are £100 less than the balance!!!!

What would you do now? I’m so angry. We are trying are best to get ourselves out of this situation. They bought the debt for peanuts anyway and they just aren’t budging.

I don’t know if it is worth sending cca letters? This is something we didn’t know about when we started our DMP. But I guess it is fair to suspect that they don’t qualify for this and that’s what they aren’t settling?

Barclays said over the phone they would heavily settle for the amount if the others would. Does this now man that because PRA Group have said no Barclays will say no?

This is making me so ill. We are just trying to find the best solution here. They don’t seem to get/care that we don’t have enough money to live on now he’s out of work.

Husband didn’t mention that we are leaving the country in Aug and want it tied up before then. I don’t know why. I told him to.

What would you suggest we do now?

Thank you x