DMP newbie

azmilligan71

I am in the process of setting up a DMP through Stepchange for my debt of 25k (unsecured loans/overdraft and credit cards)
 Has anyone ever had a DMP refused by stepchange? I am worried because one of my loans I only took out in august23, totally irresponsible, for 8.5k it was a panic loan to consolidate and try and reduce my monthly payments but really not better off hence why doing this now.
What a mess, I feel so stupid and ashamed of myself. Worried they will say they can’t help me, then what will I do….thanks

Rob5342

They were completely non judgemental when I used them, so you shouldn't have any problems at all.

Don't go straight into it though, it's better to stop paying, let the debts default and build up an emergency fund before starting the DMP..

Don't be ashamed, a lot of us here have been in similar positions. I got into £42k of credit card debt and couldn't see a way forward, but with a DMP I've been able to turn things right round.

sourcrates

azmilligan71 said:

I am in the process of setting up a DMP through Stepchange for my debt of 25k (unsecured loans/overdraft and credit cards)
 Has anyone ever had a DMP refused by stepchange? I am worried because one of my loans I only took out in august23, totally irresponsible, for 8.5k it was a panic loan to consolidate and try and reduce my monthly payments but really not better off hence why doing this now.
What a mess, I feel so stupid and ashamed of myself. Worried they will say they can’t help me, then what will I do….thanks

Well you just do it your self, its quite easy, instead of a 3rd party dealing with things, you deal with them.

If you can use the web, send emails, use online banking etc, do it yourself, its referred too as "self management" and its a doddle to organise.

azmilligan71

I am too frightened to do it myself, don’t think I could cope with the stress of it. I feel better having SC arrange as they have the experience, maybe go self managed at a later date? 

Do u think it is likely they will refuse because of the recent loan, as totally irresponsible? 

Thanks 

Rob5342

In my experience they simply look at your situation and recommend the best way out, they didn't question anything any further then that. As long as you stick the their terms I can't see why you'd have any problems. 

Doing it yourself really is very simple though - work out what you'll be paying each creditor, set up a standing order for that amount, email then to tell them, then just leave it going until you want to change it.

azmilligan71

Thanks for your help. I am getting very worked up about the whole situation and over thinking every step of this. They asked for all account numbers of loans/credit cards etc on the online application, but no statements then today I got an email asking for copies of the tesco loan only,  which made me worry because they picked that one out of all the others. So overthinking because its such a new loan. Worried about defaults, phonecalls, letters and threatening court letters or even sheriffs (live in scotland) coming to the house to take all our furniture. I know this is all my fault and I have to deal with it…..

Floss

You ARE massively overthinking this.

The sheriffs can only act once legal action has been taken, which takes time to happen, and you would get letters from the court if that were to happen.

Stepchange are very unlikely to refuse, and they will almost certainly not be put off by a relatively "new" debt.

We've all been in this situation and it does get much much easier.

Rob5342

You are worrying needlessly. Stepchange don't do anything special, they just have a tool to work out a budget and a system that sends your money to the creditors. Using them can save you a little bit of administration, but you can do exactly the same thing yourself with the same effect. They are unlikely to refuse to help you but even if they do you can simply do the same thing yourself.

Sheriffs are the last resort when all else fails, if you are making repayments on a DMP then it shouldn't get anywhere near that. Have a look at this article.

https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-stop-bailiffs/

Defaults aren't anything to worry about, most of the time the debt just gets sold to a DCA and you just carry on making the same payments to the.

sourcrates

I understand the "not knowing" aspect of this is driving you a little stir crazy, but honestly, you are making this 50 times worse for yourself than it need be, firstly by thinking you need a 3rd parties permission to do this, then by imagining worst case scenario all the time, instead of focusing on just how easy debt management is to initiate yourself.

As a basic guide to just how easy this can be, I`ll show you in 3 steps, how you should proceed.

Step (1) stop paying your unsecured debts, allow that money to build up so you can use it as an emergency fund.

Step (2) keep this up for a good 3/6 months, during this time your creditors will go through standard collection activity, you should ignore anything that is not a pre-action letter.
Sort out a budget you can live with in readiness for the next step.

Step (3) after 6 months or so, I would suspect most accounts will have been assigned to a debt collector or maybe sold on, regardless, debt collectors all have their own websites where you can set up payment plans, just go through the process with each individual DCA and they will take your payment every month, that`s it, job done, you are now in debt management and in control of your finances.

You can alter the basic steps above to further your advantage, wait longer for defaults, settle accounts early with settlement offers, etc.

All stepchange do is present a copy of your budget and an offer of payment to your creditors, its nothing the average person cannot do themselves.

NeverendingDMP

Try not to overthink it. Most of us have done that last ditch loan, credit card etc to get out of trouble then realized that actually this doesn't work so got help from step change instead. I went to step change in the beginning of my debt free journey and one of my loans at the time was probably less than six months (all 7.5k of it.) No one ever mentioned when I had taken it out or questioned it. They just wanted to know details, income and expenditure to help me determine what money was left after paying for the important stuff. I self manage mine and my dh debts now and this helps me choose the pace I am repaying and feel in control of it all again.

azmilligan71

Thanks so much for all the comments. Still waiting for stepchange to say all ok and dmp set up….the wait is awful. I will fee better once set up and I know where I am. Really appreciate the help