DAS, DPP and credit file confusion!

Ajw38

Hi coolcait

I was with stepchange. I was told I couldn’t over pay early on when I accidentally paid two pounds more. My DPP was revoked, despite telling DAS what was going on. When I was on a dmp if I had spare I just sent it and it was distributed.

The fees show up as AIB fees on my info on the dash portal. I probably was told about them and it explained to me but as I said, mum had just died and o was sorting out her estate and not paying attention to my stuff fully. I have been on a dmp since loosing my job in 2006. Had got my debt down from 20k to 6k, went self managed and was rebuilding credit with a credit builder card as everything was much better, but I screwed it all up when my mum died and I ended up helping my dad out and just ignoring life in general which is how I ended up in the DPP. Without actually checking any of it.

I originally thought I was not going to receive a set monthly salary. So Feb for example I would only have 1350 pay, whereas June or July I might have 1600. I was told there weren’t any options and if I couldn’t pay then it was pretty much tough. But on my lower paid months I couldn’t even sort out my bills. Which is fine if you have time to save but I started in jan and only get three weeks pay, then straight into Feb.

I can’t insert an image but on clearscore it shows up in the insolvency section, also tells me to avoid anymore ivas in the advice bit. I’ve complained twice to Experian and been told it’s tough. I first discovered it when I was refused a tenancy two years ago because I had an IVA. Luckily it was a tiny agency and once I sent her the info about it not being insolvency she let me rent, unfortunately i have to move again now and it’s caused utter chaos. I have found 6 months grace period by chucking my stuff in storage and renting a room from a friend but I need it sorted by end of 2019 so I can get a flat again! I’ve just logged a complaint on resolver because it’s just really caused so many problems.

I totally agree it’s a good thing for a lot of people, just not been my experience

misspuddleduck

Hi Ajw38

There is a fee paid to the payment distributor but this is paid by the creditors. For example if you paid £100 per month to your DAS and you had a balance of £8900 at the beginning of March, your payment in March of £100 would take your balance down to £8800. The payment distributor does deduct their fee from the £100 but this deduction is covered by your creditors. Every penny you pay reduces your DAS by the full amount.

You can apply for a six month payment holiday on a DAS if you have to.

IndyScot2020

Hi Ajw38,

So sorr to read about the awful, unfair treatment you encountered especially the mean landlords/ letting agents at a difficult time with dealing with loss of loved ones, redundancy etc. I struggle to understand how some landlord's and agencies can sleep at night by treating tenants and prospective tenants that way, kicking tenants out to make money (why can’t landlords sell the house keeping the condition that its sold with same tenant like most European countries do?). I suppose the new landlord tax and anti tenant regulations does not help resulting in smaller portfolio landlords are under renewed pressure to sell so maybe they are not entirely to blame. :mad:

It’s also appalling that a DAS / DPP that is meant to help debtors/creditors may have actually situation worse. The DAS system is supposed to be “voluntary” both in terms of entering and exiting it but that is not my experience.

I don't believe the majority of DAS administrator or DAS advisers know how badly designed the DAS is certain areas, particularly customers wishing to make overpayments, exiting a DAS and the potential damage it can do to a credit file. As someone in similar situation, I thank you for bringing this to the forum's attention and hope one day DAS advisers and the DAS administers take note and fix this once and for all.

I too have two credit file companies wrongly describing my former, now revoked DAS as an IVA/bankruptcy. These companies are ClearScore and Checkmyfile. However, it should be noted that companies like Clearscore & Checkmyfile only gather data from the credit agencies (Equifax, Experian and Transunion), so what they display on their apps may not necessarily be the same as what lenders/landlords see. Make sense?

Strangely only one of the three credit agencies records my revoked DAS – Equifax. Experian/Transunion do not record it. So, I would suggest Ajw38, you try Checkmyfile or try the free trial with the three agencies to read the report as a lender would see it. You may also find that just one of the credit agencies that records the DAS record it you may find it better to go to lenders/agencies who use the other credit agency for their searches. Hopefully though when you see the read out – your DAS is not recorded as an IVA (which do not even exist in Scotland!) or similar :cool:

It has been suggested to raise a complaint with the credit check agencies – I had mixed results with this. Equifax initially did remove the DAS from my file at my request about 3 months after I had revoked the DAS. But to my surprise and dismay they added it back 6 months later – fortunately this time with a ‘satisfied/discharged’ which is better at least than the suggestion the DAS is active

I do get your overall point though – this is where Stepchange appear to have a better system for some people than a DAS – they don’t name and shame debtors publically or share it with credit agencies & companies who in turn wrongly suggest the debtor is insolvent. This is completely unfair and DAS should recognise that some people have legitimate reasons to want to revoke a DAS without ignoring debts or missing payments, etc.

I also disagree with the view that overpayments and early settlements are straightforward in a DAS. On paper yet, but in reality, not always. My former major creditor for example would not even consider F&F settlement offers overpayments in a DAS issued as a ‘composition’ offer by a third party including the DAS agent. The creditor said they would only accept F&F offers and payments outwith the DAS which is what I ended up doing. This was quite handy actually in my case as it helped trigger the revocation process which is what I and the other creditors wanted (they too wanted early payment and were more than happy for me to self-manage without adding extra charges, etc) to exit the DAS with minimum fuss. It made no sense to wait til the end which in may cases can be a decade long. This exit route should be ok for most people, though I have found some lenders struggle to understand the term ‘revocation’ and how it can be legitimately used a way to exit a DAS in an orderly manner that is acceptable to all parties.

So well done to the people who have found a DAS was suitable for them. I’m not saying a DAS is to be dismissed by everyone as an debt management option. I just urge caution at the beginning, do carry out thorough research, don’t always believe hype a DAS adviser may give. Other programmes like Stepchange or even careful negotiation with creditors may result in breathing space (eg freeze charges) or a DPP which allows debtors to exit programme easily without a majorly negative mark on your credit file.