Starting DMP

Beck50

Just another word, one email last week and one email sent this week to Cabot and Mortimer Clarke informing them of my current circumstances and also I received an email which I had to sign in to read, so they know I'm now aware of their actions giving me 26 days to respond, is actually 26 hours as they've tried calling me 3 times today.
Absolutely a disgrace at least all my other creditors have acknowledged and given me breathing space to sort things  our but not these guys no they want their money and want it now!.
If I answered the phone to them I'll probably say something out of turn and make it worse.
Can I complain to a governing body or is it simply put up and shut up.

fatbelly

It's not worth getting into an argument with them. Just find some way of blocking their calls

Beck50

Hi Rob5342, sorry to ask again but when you set up your standing orders how did you break it down, as with mine stepchange worked out that I'd have around £235 to pay back to my 11 creditors, but could now stretch to £250-£260, as my debts are just over £30k, 
I might reach out to the smaller ones and ask for a settlement but did your payments stay the same with them all.

Rob5342

My approach was to pay 75% of what I had available for debts towards the debts themselves each month, and put the other 25% into savings account for making settlement offers within I had four outstanding debts so I set the payments so that the two larger debts would be paid in about 6 years and the two smaller ones in about 10 months. My thinking was that I would get rid.of the two smaller ones quite quickly to give myself a mental boost, and then save those payments towards settlement offers for the others that I'd make after a few years.

There are lots of ways to.do.it, it's really down to you depending on how you want to approach it. Having said that I would suggest paying less than you can afford and putting the difference aside fo settlement offers, someone here recently reported settling a debt for 25% of the outstanding amount.

stu12345_2

rob.my plan is similar thinking.and i have to get away from stepchange and their pay as much as I can mentality in order to clear the debts fast as possible and also make sure the creditors get all their money back method..
my plan is to go it alone and only give  50% or less per month and save the difference so I can make low full and final offers as fast as I have saved up.

to do this I can't fill in income and expenditure sheets to creditors as they will question the large savings I am building up  per month.
to do this I would have to refuse their payment plans on their websites which require a compulsory D debit or such to use an agreed payment plan with them.

 and make manual payments instead.which don't ask for any income or expenditure forms.
doing this would save me £1000s compared to the stepchange method as stepchange method would suggest only a small emergency  savings amount per month which would never allow me to create a big enough fund to make full and final offers.
where as my method will.

I did mention this idea on another money forum and the only problem I got hit with is when I make the f and f offers.i may  have to explain and maybe even show proof of where the money is coming from.and using my large savings pile I will have accumulated may  cause problems as that money is meant for emergencies.not for making f and f offers.when in reality I shouldn't have been allowed to save that amount of money up.as I should have been trying to pay as much as I could.e.g. .the stepchange method------- a monthly  figure that allowed me a reasonable standard of living and covered all normal living costs.but at the same time was the max I could pay..

it was suggested that I say that I had been gifted the money from a friend.but don't show or explain  the details of that  transaction.

Rob5342

You don't have to give any sort of explanation about where the money came from. Just offer it and if they don't accept the offer then offer it to someone else who will.

stu12345_2

the more i think about it, the more i question my original and current method of debt repayment, eg the stepchange method, as i have been making around £300 to £350 a month to stepchange for 22 months and paid back around £7000, i still have £12,500 to go, so around another 3 to 4 yrs to go.
but if i had simply paid £100 a month from the start and saved the difference, my starting balance of around  £19000 , leaving , my  end of 22 months balance would be around £16500, but i would have savings of around £6000, if i continued this for say another 6 months, i would have saved up around £7500 whilst my debt would be around £16,000 by that point, and then i make f and f offers of say  50% approx with the £7500 savings, making a grand total payback of £10,500.
where if i had used the stepchange method (which allowed me to barely make any decent savings amounts) i would prob pay back the full £19,000 as i would never have any decent savings to make f and f offers.

this method would not work with stepchange for3 reasons, 1, they want as much as i can pay to creditors. 2, they want the creditors  to receive every penny, until balance is zero, 3. if a dmp is to last more than 10 yrs, they would suggest insolvency( as if i was only offering £100 a month, it would take over 10 yrs).
but stepchange dont understand that the solution is not to actually make the dmp last 10 yrs, but use all the gained savings to make reduced f and f offers.which would pay the dmp off much faster than their pay the max per month offer method £300-£350 and have no decent savings to ever make f and f offers.

 the solution is to go it alone,not via stepchange, and make £100 a month, save up, make f and f offers, and dont offer to fill out any income and expenditure forms, jsut make non committal monthly payments.

Beck50

All replies make sense,  so are standing orders better for making payments or should I use a debit card payment, using each individual reference  so they can allocate payments made.
But would you make the same amount each month or mix it up, concentrating on paying the smaller ones off quick as you say for mental reasons makes you feel better in that you cleared them up.

stu12345_2

i can state if you read the debt snowball method, somethings americans love, the dave ramsey method, google him and his videos on youtube., they say pay off the smallest debt first rather than  the biggest debt.
but, the financial advisors method is pay off the highest interest debt first, but the debt snowball debt method  is all about one thing psychology.
 they say if you clear the smallest ones first, it is a mental boost. this makes sense if all debts have interest frozen, eg they have all defaulted.
 but imo doesnt make sense if there is still interest and the interest is highest on the biggest debt.

i know many here will suggest standing orders, its jsut many creditors websites say direct debit, recurring card payment  or one off card payments.
I would prefer one off card payments, but i would do standing orders if the creditor allowed it and did not insist on an income  and expenditure sheet to be filled in.

I have not reached that stage yet, as i am soon to leave stepchange and go it alone, i have looked at msot of my creditors websites and payment methods and if you want to do anything (other than their  direct debit /recurring card payment, which they all seem to want your income and expenditure sheet completed online via their website.)
their websites  states adhoc card payments whcih you do manually when you want,can be done, but im sure it has been stated here, that standing orders are and should be available, as all you need is  their bank account, sort code and your debt reference number,

it jsut seems sneaky the way creditors have arranged their repayment methods on their sites to get a d debit or recurring card payment method, as they know its garaunteed income for them, but again they are sneaky as they will only accept these emthods if you complete their income and expenditure sheets, and again only if they agree to  them. However , i am going to keep all my income and expenditure details to myself,a nd not to any creditor, so it seems standing order or adhoc manual card payments will be my choice in the near future 

Beck50

Yes I wouldn't fill out the forms they insist you do and instead make payments and like yourself save some up to offer f & f settlements.
But I'm just starting my journey so looking for the right path to take.