Dmp - settle with original creditors?

mum2b

Hello
I wonder if someone here can help me please? I am in a DMP and have received some inheritance so may be able to pay all creditors off.
I have contacted the DMP people who have said I will need to pay them a fee and repay appx 80% - my OH has paid off several debts at around 60% so is it worth me contacting the creditors direct (to try and get the 80% down?) and is this even legal?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Adele

BlueJ94

Pay who a fee? 

mum2b

The dmp company 

Carrot007

mum2b said:

The dmp company 

I hope you have paid them nothing (but with them saying that I am sure you have). If you have then get rid of them as you are just wasting money. And yes negotiate yourself. Even the good DMP (ie free) companies do not have your best interest as top priority.

sourcrates

Its not best practice to be paying a fee charging DMP company for what is essentially a service provided free by the main debt charities, however you most likely were not aware of that fact.

Certainly do not allow them to make settlement offers on your behalf, and don`t for the love of life pay them any more money.

You can do this yourself, National Debtline have a very useful template letter on their website, the idea is to part settle your debts and making a substantial saving in the process, paying DMP companies unnecessary fee`s will not achieve that.

Ditch the DMP company now, you no longer need them, when your creditors write to you respond with the settlement offers, start low, you can always increase your offer, and another thing, do not expect instant results, creditors are notorious for taking their time to respond, think of it more as a marathon, than a sprint.

Good luck, any further help required, just ask on this thread.

Link to letter here -

Sample Letter - Settlement offer | Sample letter | National Debtline | National Debtline

LisaDBe

I am so glad i have found this thread.

 My partner has been able to offer me 12k to hopefully settle up my 18K debt which I currently have managed by a DMP company.

Now i did not know that there were companies that provided these services free of charge - 3 years ago at my very lowest point i decided to remove my head from the sand and reach out to someone, i was completely on my own and totally lost in debt, i spent 2hours sat crying on the phone to a stranger going through all my debts and coming up with a budget, at the time i didn't really twig on with the fee they were taking, that tiny amount in relation to what i owed seemed insignificant, but when i got together with my partner and told him all about it he was fuming, but i didn't know there were other options!

 I have spoken to them today about using this 12K to settle my debts, hoping that i could some how get rid of them and then just pay what i have been paying them back to my partner each month so that we have a nice pot of savings in the future. When i spoke to them they advised they would first need me to sign some paper work, then pay them the money and they would then go to my creditors to negotiate. She gave a few examples of what some of my creditors had agreed to over the last 6months with other customers,  40%-60% for one, another was 50% another 40%. So as you can imagine i was buzzin!

She then dropped the bomb shell that they would charge me a fee, this fee would be 30% of the amount that they saved me through the settlement, so using my plan of paying 12K off my 18K debt as an example they would charge me an additional 2k. I was fuming and told her that, profiteering from my lowest point! I could have cried!!

So after a chat with my partner i decided to sit down tonight and research what i could do to get myself out of this and came across this. I am now going to use the template linked above and write my own letter which explains my own circumstance and hopefully come start making some sort of settlements and come  out of the other side of this horrendous time! So once again thank you, you've made my flippin night!!! 

LB