Santander and DMP

lillypoo

Hi just wanted to check you have or are moving your direct debits over to your new account individually rather than using the switch service?

LilMissM

I have used the switch service. Should I do it manually and then cancel them in Santander?

sourcrates

Utility DD`s/CT etc are fine, just not ones associated with your credit debts.

Take some time to formulate a plan, debt management is not something you should rush into, like everything else in life you need to do things in the right way to benefit you, not your creditors.

fatbelly

Yes. You're fire fighting here when you could have been doing this in a planned way.

LilMissM

Have I made it all worse? I have cancelled the switch option and my mum has phoned her bank and they said it has been cancelled and will be recalled on Monday. I'm going to manually set up all my direct debits and standing orders in my new bank today and cancel them from Santander.

The switch option from Starling sounded good, they get it all transferred over and close your old account for you so I thought rhat was the best option

sourcrates

You don`t want creditors to be able to take any payments from you, your essential bills are fine, but any DD`s to credit cards or loans etc should be cancelled not transferred.

The idea is to have a "safe" bank account that no one else can take money from unless you authorise it.

As fatbelly stated, it`s about doing this in a planned way.

Rob5342

LilMissM said:

Have I made it all worse? 

Try not to get too worried by it, I found it all quite worrying at first but with the help of this site I have really got things under control.

Concentrate on getting your Starling account set up with your pay and essential bills direct.debots set up. Cancel the direct debts for your loans and credit cards and wait for them to default. While you are waiting for them to default work out a sustainable budget for yourself that includes a.dmp repayment amount, then start living.on the budget and put the DMP amount into a savings account as an emergency fund. Once the debts have defaulted and you are happy with the amount in your emergency fund then start repaying them through a DMP, you can either manage that yourself or go back to Stepchange or use Payplan. I'd recommend managing it yourself, all.itinvolves is setting up a direct debit to each creditor and telling them what you'll be paying. Stepchange act in the creditors best interests rather than yours, if you do it yourself it can cost a lot.less and can cause a.lot.less harm.tp your credit report.

LilMissM

Ok so I contacted Santander today and explained my situation. The very nice lady said that they can release the money that has been paid in by my mum but that her bank (RBS) have to recall it. Mum phoned her bank and they said it is highly unlikely that the money will be returned (even though they said the complete opposite the day before) and that even if they do a successful recall it can take up to 24 days!

Is this right? I feel like Santander have been sound about it all but my Mums bank are being weird. We both told our respective banks the situation and that I need that money urgently.

I obviously can't wait 24 working days to get the money back so am going to phone Santander again tomorrow and see what they say. Mum has to phone her bank at lunchtime if the money is not back in her account by then.

Any advice please lovely people? 

Andyjflet

Just a quick warning, whatever you do please don't bridge the gap with a payday loan and make your situation 10 times worse, if you need money to live then use your mum if you can. 

I hope this all works out for you. 

LilMissM

So I finally got my Mum's money back from Santander. I had to phone them again and explained my situation/predicament and what RBS told my Mum and they released the money so I could transfer it into my new Starling account. Breathed a sigh of relief for a moment. The people I spoke to at Santander also recommended cancelling the Step Change DMP and either going with Pay Plan or try and manage a DMP myself. 

I have done a new budget planner and, no matter how I tweak it,  it seems I have more going out than I have coming in so my sigh of relief was rather short lived. I genuinely do not see how I am going to get out of this mess I've gotten myself into  Seeing everything in a budget planner really puts in perspective just how much in the $h!t I am in. 

I will still do what you have advised in this thread, let the debts default for a couple of months(?) or more? but I don't really see how I can a) save a bit aside each month in an emergency fund (I have been living in my overdraft all this year) and b) how I'm going to be able to pay these debts off altogether if my outgoings are more than my incoming. The biggest chunk of my outgoings is my household bills, especially since my energy bills went up.

I dunno what to do