DRO delay

sallymanton

Hiya, 
Just after some reassurance really. I applied for a debt relief order over a month ago now, I had told all my creditors (14 of them) this is what I was doing, so they all put my accounts on hold for 30 days. For some reason stepchange recieved my application wage slips, a debt review, and everything else that goes with it, it took 2 weeks and for me to chase that there there was a problem and i had to do another expenditure review, that was over a week ago. I called on Friday as heard nothing, my creditors are now chasing again, adding interest, selling on to other debt agencies, getting quite forceful now wanting updates which i cant give. Stepchange said its been overlooked and nothing else has been done so there are delays in finalising everything. 
Its getting really messy and i feel out of my depth now, its been over a month and i dont know what to do, i really dont feel confident now. 😭

fatbelly

Just hang on in there.

The application isn't made until the intermediary presses the button and there a lot of things that they have to be satisfied about before they do that.

Have you paid the £90?

You don't have to respond to anything the creditors want but if a debt has been sold (not just a collection agency) then stepchange do need to know the new owner and reference.

sourcrates

Relax, debt collection takes forever, months, or years in a lot of cases.
it’s  rare for debts to be sold that quickly, are you sure they have not just been passed to a collector to manage ?

sallymanton

@fatbelly no i haven't had the go ahead to pay the £90 yet, i was told that could take another week for the documents to come through for me to authorise, its a just dragging. I am letting stepchange know if any details or contacts change in the meantime.

@sourcrates it Could mean thar, they are with collection agents and are being passed on to others, it's a just frightening, didn't think it would take this long, stepchange weren't very apologetic either 

fatbelly

OK - they can't submit the application until the fee is paid. It's mostly done by BACS payment at the moment - they'll give you the details.

I rarely do one in under a month now - we're too heavily monitored - but I do try to give my clients some idea of the timescale. In most cases it's waiting for the client to pay that causes delay.

sallymanton

@fatbelly thank you, i think it was just disheartening that my application fell by the wayside and had i not chased nothing would be done about it, i know these things happen but it will be nearly 2 months by the time its all complete.
Enough to send anyone over the edge when people are chasing 😢

sallymanton

I have just spoken to stepchange, and he has advised for me to ring them all and offer a payment, i cant afford to do that and pay the £90 they are asking, as he just basically said what he told me 2 weeks ago... Im at a loss now 😢

sammyjammy

sallymanton said:

I have just spoken to stepchange, and he has advised for me to ring them all and offer a payment, i cant afford to do that and pay the £90 they are asking, as he just basically said what he told me 2 weeks ago... Im at a loss now 😢

Don't do that.  Just ignore the calls and the letters, don't open them if it helps then when you get to the stage where you've paid your fee you can open them and update Stepchange of any changes.  

Mistakes happen, its a difficult time.

ldhme

When my partner was applying for her DRO it seemed to take forever, fair bit of back and forth. Took about 2 months from deciding to apply for one to it being approved.
The deciding factor in going for a DRO was that she had letters from bailiffs for a council parking fine stating they were going to removal of goods stage. I delayed them by a month or so but then had 2 to 3 weeks of ensuring all doors were locked and had to park her car 2 streets away. She was explicitly told not to inform them of the DRO as they could prioritise recovery before the DRO was in place. But that was 11 and half months ago, just 2 weeks to go now, the second the DRO was approved all communication stopped almost instantly from all creditors. Just hang in there.

fatbelly

sallymanton said:

I have just spoken to stepchange, and he has advised for me to ring them all and offer a payment, 

There's no point at all in doing that - a waste of your time and money

sourcrates

What did i say in my earlier post ?

Debt collection takes forever, if nothing else happens, you`d still be getting calls and the odd letter next year at this time, just ignore them, block the numbers, bin the letters, few weeks time, DRO will be up and running and you`ll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Trust me i know.