DMP 9k owed - Need help

s12c

RAS said:

This is a completely informal arrangement. You can pause if you need to, or just terminate the deal if you want to manage the debts yourself. How much is in your statement of affairs/budget for emergencies?

I'm also a bit surprised you are renting and have to provide you own bed. Is it unfurnished?

The flat was/is unfurnished but that rent is very cheap. Anywhere else, I'd need £850 pcm for the same thing.

Grumpelstiltskin

No problem that is what emergency funds are for, but after that did you continue to build another fund up. you should have been allowing £x per  month in your SOA up keep an emergency fund going.

s12c

Grumpelstiltskin said:

No problem that is what emergency funds are for, but after that did you continue to build another fund up. you should have been allowing £x per  month in your SOA up keep an emergency fund going.

Stepchange won't allow more than £25 per month for this purpose. 

Grumpelstiltskin

That is why you should self manage then you decide how much you are going to save each month, but you must save the amount.

Grumpelstiltskin

Your bed is it the frame or the mattress that is going?

If it's the frame have you tried Freecycle, Olio, Facebook market place or charity shops?

s12c

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Your bed is it the frame or the mattress that is going?

If it's the frame have you tried Freecycle, Olio, Facebook market place or charity shops?

Its both sadly, it was a divan and the springs and base seem to be going. I'm hoping they'll be overtime opportunities at work soon that could address it.  I might look into surveys etc too

DisabledDan

s12c said:

I think all of my debts are defaulted and some have transferred to debt management companies.

Stepchange are managing this for me. I don't know what an AP marker is.

The debt breakdown is as follows: 



I don't have any non-consumer debt included in my DMP

I take home around £2300 per month. My fixed expenses total £1300 (rent, bills, insurance) and then the DMP is £350 per month and I have £650 for variable costs (food, transport, presents, fees etc)

What a lovely bunch of scum you have there on the lower half particularly.

The way I see it is you are 29 and single so unencumbered, therefore the question is do you value credit, do you want to save for a property so in 30 years when you have paid it off the Council can take it to pay off your social care?

Or would you prefer to form a company and buy to let up north for the cost of your wedding as and when that happens?

These may seem like facile questions but if you determine that you don't really care and you don't mind having a bad credit record for 6 years, oh wait you already have that, so question is do you want to go nuclear on 90% of the debt?

Regarding AP markers, I am no expert, just been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, was an extra in the movie and the remake, as I understand it if you stop paying but a debt does not default then it does not fall off your credit record for 6 years from when the debt is paid.  While if all your debt defaulted and was sold it falls off the credit record 6 years from the default.

From the list above it looks as if you had a bit of a problem you funded with credit cards, none of our business why, just whether the debt is consumer debt because the ability to enforce is limited.

The idea of defaulting is to get a substantial discount on the debt after it is sold, but some of your debt looks like it is just being managed by the likes of Moorcroft and still owned by the original lender.  So maybe now is the time for Tactical Nuke in the form of a self managed DMP where you shock them all by stopping paying the lot, meanwhile you pay what you would have paid to a new bank unrelated to any of your creditors.

You then wait until all the debt is sold off, you make no payments and enter into no agreement until all are at the same place.  Then the debt will be passed to the same or similar scum who will send an automated series of letters until they are fired and the debt is given to a new debt collector to chase.  What you are waiting for is for a specific discount; initial letters don't give a percentage, later they offer 20% (not worth it), then more scare tactics and finally an offer for 60% off.  With a DMP that is self managed you make the offer when you are ready but keeping that many debts in sync will be tricky.  Still your credit record will be updated with what you pay so some will do the same offer while others will think you have more disposable income.  

I serviced my debt for years after the 0% percent would no longer be offered, then I was fool enough to pay £50 per debt, then £15 , then £5 and even £1 per debt all the time resetting the 6 year countdown.  Finally,  I just wrote them all a letter saying I would not be making any more payments and I could not envisage a time when I would be able to make any payments.  They then defaulted pretty quickly, I think all within 3 months except one.  My route was not DMP but rather a Full Nuke, waiting 6 years from default and never making a payment or acknowledging the debt.  I was able to take this Full Nuke route because I had nothing to lose and felt I had paid enough interest for debt that was created on their computers and never existed not was earned by work or sale of assets.

They can pretend the money exists and I can pretend it does not, in the end it does not matter.  Sure the likes of Lowell can but debt that is unenforceable but still write letters trying to fool me but they get nothing.  Nobody is coming here and if they do they have no rights nor would I engage with them, I enjoy wasting their time and seeing the expressions on their faces on the video doorbell. I am not suggesting you do what I did,  but you need to get to the bottom of what happened to your debt. Did it all get sold off except HSBC, Monzo, Paypal Santander ?

Once you know what is what you can use the support on this forum to do a better DMP that is self managed, The link below is a good starting point.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6496941/in-debt-and-wannabe-debt-free-first-steps/p1

sourcrates

@DisabledDan has a point, and its one method we advocate on the forum occasionally.

The nuclear option, as described above, frighten the life out of them all by stopping payments, get your bed sorted, and anything else you need to buy, these debts are all non priority, last on the list to be paid, type debts, don`t lose any sleep over them.

Allow everything to default, save your emergency/settlement fund up, over time they will all go through their standard debt collection letters with you, ranging from "we have been trying to contact you" to offering you massive discounts to settle quickly, and this is the point to start taking notice.

The discounts will start to be offered, anywhere between 25% and 75% off dependant on various factors, pay them off as and when you can, according to the offers, if a creditor gets legal, then deal with it as necessary, most won`t do that.

This way you are never stuck for money, but you must save what you do not spend in order for it all to happen.

s12c

DisabledDan said:

s12c said:

I think all of my debts are defaulted and some have transferred to debt management companies.

Stepchange are managing this for me. I don't know what an AP marker is.

The debt breakdown is as follows: 



I don't have any non-consumer debt included in my DMP

I take home around £2300 per month. My fixed expenses total £1300 (rent, bills, insurance) and then the DMP is £350 per month and I have £650 for variable costs (food, transport, presents, fees etc)

What a lovely bunch of scum you have there on the lower half particularly.

The way I see it is you are 29 and single so unencumbered, therefore the question is do you value credit, do you want to save for a property so in 30 years when you have paid it off the Council can take it to pay off your social care?

Or would you prefer to form a company and buy to let up north for the cost of your wedding as and when that happens?

These may seem like facile questions but if you determine that you don't really care and you don't mind having a bad credit record for 6 years, oh wait you already have that, so question is do you want to go nuclear on 90% of the debt?

Regarding AP markers, I am no expert, just been there, done that, got the T-Shirt, was an extra in the movie and the remake, as I understand it if you stop paying but a debt does not default then it does not fall off your credit record for 6 years from when the debt is paid.  While if all your debt defaulted and was sold it falls off the credit record 6 years from the default.

From the list above it looks as if you had a bit of a problem you funded with credit cards, none of our business why, just whether the debt is consumer debt because the ability to enforce is limited.

The idea of defaulting is to get a substantial discount on the debt after it is sold, but some of your debt looks like it is just being managed by the likes of Moorcroft and still owned by the original lender.  So maybe now is the time for Tactical Nuke in the form of a self managed DMP where you shock them all by stopping paying the lot, meanwhile you pay what you would have paid to a new bank unrelated to any of your creditors.

You then wait until all the debt is sold off, you make no payments and enter into no agreement until all are at the same place.  Then the debt will be passed to the same or similar scum who will send an automated series of letters until they are fired and the debt is given to a new debt collector to chase.  What you are waiting for is for a specific discount; initial letters don't give a percentage, later they offer 20% (not worth it), then more scare tactics and finally an offer for 60% off.  With a DMP that is self managed you make the offer when you are ready but keeping that many debts in sync will be tricky.  Still your credit record will be updated with what you pay so some will do the same offer while others will think you have more disposable income.  

I serviced my debt for years after the 0% percent would no longer be offered, then I was fool enough to pay £50 per debt, then £15 , then £5 and even £1 per debt all the time resetting the 6 year countdown.  Finally,  I just wrote them all a letter saying I would not be making any more payments and I could not envisage a time when I would be able to make any payments.  They then defaulted pretty quickly, I think all within 3 months except one.  My route was not DMP but rather a Full Nuke, waiting 6 years from default and never making a payment or acknowledging the debt.  I was able to take this Full Nuke route because I had nothing to lose and felt I had paid enough interest for debt that was created on their computers and never existed not was earned by work or sale of assets.

They can pretend the money exists and I can pretend it does not, in the end it does not matter.  Sure the likes of Lowell can but debt that is unenforceable but still write letters trying to fool me but they get nothing.  Nobody is coming here and if they do they have no rights nor would I engage with them, I enjoy wasting their time and seeing the expressions on their faces on the video doorbell. I am not suggesting you do what I did,  but you need to get to the bottom of what happened to your debt. Did it all get sold off except HSBC, Monzo, Paypal Santander ?

Once you know what is what you can use the support on this forum to do a better DMP that is self managed, The link below is a good starting point.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6496941/in-debt-and-wannabe-debt-free-first-steps/p1

Thanks for this! 

I hear what you're saying and I agree with some of the points you've made.

I'm trying to work out what has defaulted and what didn't default 

JadedAngel88

Can't help on the dmp/debt but regarding your bed. I recently purchased a mattress and bed frame from eBay for £120, (frame was £40, mattress was £80) not expensive and more comfortable than the bed I had previously. 

Just an idea that these things don't have to cost hundreds and once things are better on the financial front you could buy a better bed.

Edited to add: it was new not used btw. The frame was seconds but was perfect.