DRO

Savenotspend123

So after being advised by Stepchange that a DRO is the right choice my husband and I are going through the process individually with Money Wellness and I have to say that so far we are not at all impressed! It's all done online, which is expected nowadays I suppose however it is the most confusing system and when you try and phone them we are waiting in a queue for 40 mins. They are not filling us with confidence I must say. We have both signed off on it and are awaiting an appointment with an advisor to go over the documents finally before sending the applications off. If I hadn't got this far I think I would have found someone else. Just wanted to vent! Anyone else used them?

fatbelly

Yes we've heard a lot of stories like this.

swingaloo

You can check them out on Trustpilot. They do have some good reviews but the less happy ones are saying about not being able to get through on the phone.

There is a response from them 2 days ago saying there is a huge demand and a turnaround time of up a week at the moment.

Brie

If you've got all the paperwork together you might try instead contacting another agency.  Citizen's Advice or Community Money Advice or Christians Against Poverty.  All charities so free and as far as I'm aware they all deal face to face which can be reassuring.

fatbelly

I would persevere with MW for now. You could have a problem with anyone and you are already in their system.

Savenotspend123

Thank you. It is very frustrating but I feel we need to persevere this far into it. Hopefully soon it will be sorted and I can sleep at night again! 🥱 

sourcrates

Back when they were first introduced, not many people knew about them, and the application, processing, and granting, all took place within 48 hrs in a lot of cases, a week at most.

Now its ridicules as different organisations process them in different ways, Money wellness are new to the game and it appears to be pot luck how smoothly things go.

Savenotspend123

I actually don't know what to do now. They sent me a message yesterday to book an appointment on line following a link. I got through to a calendar which showed no appointments for Nov and Dec and ending up calling them and queueing again for ages. They make me an appointment for next Tuesday to go through the application and make sure all the documents have been loaded. My husband hasn't had an appointment message at all yet. Then today I have had another message saying I need to book an appointment!! I am losing all confidence with this company. Can I start again with another even though I have signed off on it with them? 

fatbelly

Yes you can but you start from scratch, and there's no guarantee anyone else would be better.

The major providers are MW and CAB, since the government gave them both large sums to set up Hubs and gave nothing to stepchange.

CAP can do them and various independent debt charities.