How long to set up DMP?

Emor49

Hi
On behalf of a friend with debt, I’m enquiring how long it may have taken Stepchange to sort out anyone else’s DMP? She has five creditors and quite substantial debt. She’s had the appointment with Stepchange and gone through budgets etc months back but still hasn’t heard. She keeps saying they’ll be in touch and the creditors must be taking their time. It’s dragging on for her and this doesn’t sound right to me. Can anyone else share any experiences/ advice please,
Many thanks 

Grumpelstiltskin

It shouldn't take months with hearing nothing from Stepchange, you are only getting this story secondhand, so tell her she must contact Stepchange again to find out exactly what the problem is and she should come on here herself with full details.

fatbelly

It can often be useful to have a delay in starting a dmp.

If your friend wants to come on here we can explain

Have a six-month plan

flipflopflo

I wonder if it was the real StepChange she was talking to and not a soundalike set up to take people unawares. 

Any way please help her out and get her to come on here for some good solid advice. The good folk on here can help her better if things are not coming second hand. Not getting at you at all, you’ve been a really good friend to be concerned and to ask. Was she contacted by StepChange in the first place or did she ring them? If she was contacted then that is definitely NOT StepChange. 

This is their website 
https://www.stepchange.org/

And this is their phone number 

0800 138 1111

Please try and get her to post here. We treat everyone with kindness and respect. 
 

StepChange_Aidan

Emor49 said:

Hi
On behalf of a friend with debt, I’m enquiring how long it may have taken Stepchange to sort out anyone else’s DMP? She has five creditors and quite substantial debt. She’s had the appointment with Stepchange and gone through budgets etc months back but still hasn’t heard. She keeps saying they’ll be in touch and the creditors must be taking their time. It’s dragging on for her and this doesn’t sound right to me. Can anyone else share any experiences/ advice please,
Many thanks 

Hi,

It typically takes 1-2 weeks to set up a DMP, but it might take longer if there’s a problem with the application or missing information.

It certainly shouldn’t take months to start a DMP, and it’s not a requirement for the creditors to agree to the offer before it does.

As Flipflopflo has mentioned, is your friend certain that they’ve been dealing with StepChange? There's some more information on 'clone firms' here.

I’d recommend that she calls us directly so we can look into this. Our contact details can be found on our website.

Kind regards,

Aidan

Rob5342

In the long term it's normally far better to stop paying and wait for defaults before you start a DMP.