Help and advice for coming off a DMP

alvysinger

I've struggled with debt for about 10 years now and successfully went through a DMP with StepChange that saw me pay off loans and credit cards but feel straight back into the trap of taking on more debt (credit cards) that clearly I just can't use responsibly. So, feeling very ashamed of myself I went back to StepChange and set up a new DMP.

I've still got £2,684.45 to pay, according to my account but have been struggling to pay the £375 each month because of reduced income. I'm also at the stage where I need to do my compulsory budget review, but this gets declined each time with an insistence that I need to talk to them on the phone about it.

I've missed three payments in the last 12 months (not consecutively) so they've also warned that if I miss another they'll cancel my DMP. 

I've seen on here before that cancelling it and self-managing can be a better option, but I don't really know where to start with this and worry that I could get myself into a worse situation. These are my existing debts: 

Moorcroft - £1k
Capital One - £691
PRA Group - £384
Zopa - £331
118 188 - £272

Any advice for the best way to proceed from here would be really appreciated.

sourcrates

I don`t really like putting labels on things, but all self management means is you pay your own bills, instead of a 3rd party doing it for you.

So, for example, you have 5 creditors, you work out a monthly disposable income figure that is affordable to you, then either split that amount between the 5 creditors, or pay them on a pro-rata basis, just splitting your disposable income is the simplest way to do it.

Your balances are quite low now, so if say £50 each per month were affordable, that is what you would pay them.

Payments can be made on each individual creditors website, nothing could be more easy.

You don`t really need stepchange or anyone else's help with this, a little over 12 months would see all balances paid off.

alvysinger

sourcrates said:

I don`t really like putting labels on things, but all self management means is you pay your own bills, instead of a 3rd party doing it for you.

So, for example, you have 5 creditors, you work out a monthly disposable income figure that is affordable to you, then either split that amount between the 5 creditors, or pay them on a pro-rata basis, just splitting your disposable income is the simplest way to do it.

Your balances are quite low now, so if say £50 each per month were affordable, that is what you would pay them.

Payments can be made on each individual creditors website, nothing could be more easy.

You don`t really need stepchange or anyone else's help with this, a little over 12 months would see all balances paid off.

Thank you, is there a process for how to contact the creditors about this?

sourcrates

alvysinger said:

sourcrates said:

I don`t really like putting labels on things, but all self management means is you pay your own bills, instead of a 3rd party doing it for you.

So, for example, you have 5 creditors, you work out a monthly disposable income figure that is affordable to you, then either split that amount between the 5 creditors, or pay them on a pro-rata basis, just splitting your disposable income is the simplest way to do it.

Your balances are quite low now, so if say £50 each per month were affordable, that is what you would pay them.

Payments can be made on each individual creditors website, nothing could be more easy.

You don`t really need stepchange or anyone else's help with this, a little over 12 months would see all balances paid off.

Thank you, is there a process for how to contact the creditors about this?

Not really, your debts are long since defaulted, your not under any contractual agreement to pay a certain amount, on a certain date any longer, you just make your payment when it suites you.

You can of course tell them what your going to pay and when, but there is no need to do so.

Anyone that takes offence at that will just sell the debt to someone else, or instruct a collector to manage the account instead.

No19v87

alvysinger said:

I've struggled with debt for about 10 years now and successfully went through a DMP with StepChange that saw me pay off loans and credit cards but feel straight back into the trap of taking on more debt (credit cards) that clearly I just can't use responsibly. So, feeling very ashamed of myself I went back to StepChange and set up a new DMP.

I've still got £2,684.45 to pay, according to my account but have been struggling to pay the £375 each month because of reduced income. I'm also at the stage where I need to do my compulsory budget review, but this gets declined each time with an insistence that I need to talk to them on the phone about it.

I've missed three payments in the last 12 months (not consecutively) so they've also warned that if I miss another they'll cancel my DMP. 

I've seen on here before that cancelling it and self-managing can be a better option, but I don't really know where to start with this and worry that I could get myself into a worse situation. These are my existing debts: 

Moorcroft - £1k
Capital One - £691
PRA Group - £384
Zopa - £331
118 188 - £272

Any advice for the best way to proceed from here would be really appreciated.

You could miss a couple of payments before cancelling and offer say £200 to 118118, £250 to both Zopa and PRA as a settlement.

You could arguably get away with it for a third month and try settle Capital One around £500ish.

That’ll then leave you with one debt to Moorcroft and 2-3 months of payments before fully clearing it, if not before with another settlement offer.

Floss

At the end of the day, if your reduced income means you have less available to pay, there's nothing a creditor can do to magic more ££s for them.

Self managing means that you pay what you can afford and you are in control, so nobody can cancel your DMP except you.

Have a look at the NEDCAB site for help on self managing - it has a step-by-step process from listing your debts to budget sheet and letters to your creditors: 
https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/dmp.asp