Dmp or not?

dreamer83

Hi all. Thinking of getting a dmp through stepchange. In 12k credit card debt. Have a current mortgage with halifax. Deal expires april 2023. How hard wud it b for me to get a new mortgage deal then if I had a dmp? 

I pay off minimum amount of debt every month and its leaving me in the minus most months.  Then they're adding back on nearly the same amount in interest.   
Just wanting peoples experiences and opinions of A debt management plan  and Step Change plz. 

lopsyfa

If you are staying with Halifax, you getting a new deal will be easy as no credit check is performed for existing customer. The problem arise if you want to switch lender.

12k is not massive amount and the best option may be posting an SOA to see where you can cut back and free more money to throw at the debt.

sourcrates

Yep, if your struggling you need to address the issue, debt management is a good way to do this, and stepchange are a reputable debt charity.

Fireflyaway

From personal experience I've used Payplan to do the DMP route and also tried dealing with my creditors on my own. The second route worked best for me. I found going via a third party sometimes caused delays. If I had to change my payments it was time consuming and on a few occasions I started getting chased again because there was a delay between what is told payplan and then telling my creditors. If you are able to do a written income and expenditure and telephone your creditors to arrange repayments, I see no advantage in adding in a third party. Some financial applications also ask if you are on a DMP. Doing it myself I felt able to say no to that question. I also found I paid my debt quicker. With using a third party you tend to stick to x amount per month whereas with doing it myself I found I could make extra repayments here and there and also pay extra to whoever I chose. A DMP company will usually offer each creditor a percentage, whereas doing it myself I paid some companies just £1 a month whilst I tackled other debts more aggressively. Using the snowball method helped. All my creditors were easy to deal with and they all froze interest. 

leninspot

In my experience of being in debt both Fireflyaway & Sourcrates have given you excellent advice. What matters most is that you take steps to manage your debts asap. I struggled for a very long time before I asked for help & my life was a living nightmare. I decided to use Payplan initially because it was easier for me to let someone else deal with my creditors. I used them for a long time & when my life began to return to something like normal I then dealt with things by myself. That helped because it allowed me to feel I was finally back in control of my own life. As I said though, the MOST important thing is to deal with your debts asap whichever route you decide to go. Very good luck - it will all come right in the end. x

Suseka97

All good advice thus far and really its up to you whether you follow through with StepChange or consider doing it yourself.  You could opt to start off with SC and once things settle you could effectively takeover the DMP so that you can do what FFA did in terms of snowballing.  

But to answer the question about mortgage renewals, as has been said - if you stay with the same provider you shouldn't have any issues.  I switched deals twice during my DMP years, it was all done online in a matter of minutes.