Anxiety Over Self-Managed DMP

Rob5342

gwynlas said:

Managing things yourself means that you will have to negociate with each creditor every year.

There's no negotiation involved, you simply tell them what you'll be paying. Normally whoever is collecting will have a website that you just log in to and set up a payment plan.

dankemp

Scarlet_to_Black said:

I was asking advice here a few weeks back re self-managing my DMP. It’s newly set up with StepChange who took first direct debit in April.  I’ve asked them to pause May as I had an unexpectedly expensive April 🤦‍♀️ and I haven’t yet built up an emergency fund to any great degree, which SC have agreed to. 

I was on the verge of being brave and cancelling with SC this morning after all the advice here but I’ve had an anxious day after a knock at the door this morning (which I didn’t answer) and I’m just not sure I’m brave enough to do it now! 

What do doorstep collectors tend to do?  Would they visit this early in the process? This guy had a clipboard and was reading off a two page letter at my door while waiting for me to answer.  When I didn’t, he goes down the driveway and stared back at my house/car. He then knocks next door but one, (next door looked like nobody home) but no idea if they answered and I’m too ashamed to knock and ask.  He then walks down the road staring at my house and then literally crosses in front of a small Royal Mail van, signalling the postie to stop, which he did. He had a five minute chat through the car window, pointing at my house while he was talking! 

It’s freaked me out a bit!  I live on my own with my two youngest kids (14 & 16) so I was a bit shaken but I don’t know if I’m totally overreacting (they weren’t home at the time). I admit I do suffer with catastrophising! 

I have five creditors:
* NatWest for £30k ish (2 x cc and 2 x loans which have all been passed to Moorcroft) who I currently have an affordability complaint with the Financial Ombudsman and I’m not paying anything to them while this is ongoing

* Sainsbury’s loan for around £2.5k remaining, (who are moving to NatWest). They have phoned and texted me constantly because they don’t have me on their ‘DMP’ spreadsheet, although received a payment from StepChange last month 
* Lloyds cc for around £6.5k - have been no bother - first SC payment April 
* Next account for less than £250, who have also been a pain with constant texts and calls - first SC payment April
* PayPal credit approx £3k, again no bother - also first SC payment April. 

I can’t actually speak to anyone at SC in person as the phone waits are crazy but they do respond to emails a few days later, so it’s not been ideal. 

I know the best thing to do is self-manage but I’m wondering whether I’m brave enough…🫣

You have had so much good advice that there is not a lot for me to add except to let you know that YOU ARE IN CONTROL now and well done for taking these first steps.

I suffered from profound anxiety because everything collapsed and I was like speedy gonzales on a mouse wheel trying to keep it all together.

Some of the tips I learnt included:

Give the debt companies new contact details, that means a new sim number (available for £1 from supermarket) and a new email address, use a different mail provider.  You might be able to edit the records yourself if they have a portal but otherwise you just send an email saying "please amend your records with my new contact details which I have had to get because of spam and scammers, these are private and confidential so please do not share with any 3rd parties.

Do not answer calls from withheld numbers or numbers not in your phone book and obviously not from known debt companies.

Do not answer calls, sms or voicemails from new number but listen to the messages and make a note of which company is using them.  Record a voicemail on the new sim so they can confirm it is you.

Create contacts for debt companies and then block them in your contact record.

If they continue to email you at old email then report the message as spam. 

Once you are sure every creditor is using the new details write to them requesting under GDPR that they no longer contact you via phone, SMS or email because this causes you profound anxiety. Say they are authorised to write to you using Royal Mail.

If you want to go one step beyond you can go off radar which means you change address, tell your energy company you have moved and make sure your broadband provider does not share credit reference data.  Going off radar means you no longer register to vote or use your address for anything, but you can redirect your mail from the new address you provide them with.  This is excessive but it guarantees no doorsteppers to where you live, if you use a friends address (with their permission) they can always say you are away or not at home or have moved.

What I have found is better than going off radar is a video doorbell, I never answer the door, I get a notification, look at who it is and decide if I want to engage.  Nuisance callers just turn around as soon as they see the video doorbell, while at the same time it gives you evidence if a delivery company fails to knock at your door and leaves a parcel which is subsequently stolen.  Perfect evidence for the supplier failing to deliver to an open door.

You do not have to buy one with an expensive subscription, look on YouTube reviews for  Eufy and Reolink, which both have options to store on a device in your home, these can be bought second hand on ebay.

While you are on YouTube you can look for debt collector videos and be highly amused by how people ask them to go away in the most colourful language.

TO be honest I do not think any of the lenders use doorstep agents, it is only very few of the people they sell the debt to that do use doorstep agents and they have no rights even if they come.  You can use a video doorbell to see who is at your door, if it is important they will leave something. 

Do not confuse these goons with High Court Enforcement officers who themselves can't enforce consumer debt, I had HCEO's for a former business debt but my home had never been used by the business.  It seems that the creditor gets a fixed number of visits and has to pay more for them to come again, they did not get a penny and I never engaged with them. HCEO's only have power if you engage with them, letting HCEOs in is detrimental as it allows them to exploit what you care about, your possessions.   Anyway, nothing you have said suggests an HCEO will ever call on you.

The person who called could have been anyone, no point speculating, clipboards are often carried by people trying to LOOK official but are not welcome.  I had one that was from an energy company trying to get people to switch.

If it is genuinely important they will come back and I mean important to you not them!

As you say it is early in the process, usually they write and say someone will come, do you not say if any of them have threatened to do so and to be honest even when they do make such threats nobody does.

Just remember you are in control, let's assume he was a doorstep agent, so what, he has no rights, you do not have to talk to him or answer the door.  He was probably asking whether you worked so he knew whether coming during the day was a waste of his time.

Tell your kids to never answer the door as there have been scammers operating in the area and always keep the door chain on.  Get a video doorbell and if such a person turns up remember YOU are in control, you do not even have to answer, if you do answer and they ask who you are you can respond with "this is my home, who the hell are you" and whatever they say you can reply, please leave the property, NOW.  I remember a TVL guy turned up at a temp housing place I was moved to, I asked him who he was and he said he could not tell me until I confirmed I was the occupier, the door just hit his nose as I slammed it shut.  I got him banned from that place and got the person who let him in chastised by the management.

Just remember you are in charge, it is your home, your debts and your life, the only power others have is the power you give them.

Scarlet_to_Black

Thank you @dankemp 🙏 Great advice. I do have a Ring doorbell and this is what I watched him on 🤣. I should have just spoken into it and asked if I could help him, and then sent him on his merry way. At least I would have known now who he was! 

dankemp

Scarlet_to_Black said:

Thank you @dankemp 🙏 Great advice. I do have a Ring doorbell and this is what I watched him on 🤣. I should have just spoken into it and asked if I could help him, and then sent him on his merry way. At least I would have known now who he was!

I hear you but if you are not expecting a parcel, a gas safety engineer or the NHS then how many people who come to your door are genuinely worthy of your time.

The golden rule is if they are important they will leave something, even take what they leave with a pinch of salt.
I got the letter from the HCEO telling me they would be coming in the next 30 days some years ago, they put some daft notice through the door with the mobile number of one of them. The notice had deliberate misinformation on it which was a ploy to get me to contact them and argue about the amount.
Even the TVL do not come here any more or bother writing their daft letters, occasionally I get a leaflet from one of the political parties or the Jehovah Witnesses. Whoever it was they will come back if it is important to them, but it still may not be important to you. I have a strict do not engage approach if I do not know who it is or if they have not identified themselves.
If you do decide to engage via Ring then rather than saying can I help you, take control and say "who are you and what do you want", if they do not answer your question or answer with a question with something like "I am after Ms Scarlett" then you respond, "are you deaf, I said who are you and what do you want", then be silent, if they do not answer just reply "get off the property now, your presumed right of access has been revoked".
You are in control, there is nothing any of them can do to you and you do not have to put up with anything.

dankemp

As usual with Ring, great on close up but not so good on other items in the photo.

I wonder if any of the companies on your case have a similar logo, i.e. have any of them said they are passing collection to a debt collector?

I did a search for debt collection companies and looked at image tab but nothing similar I could spot, the logo in the photo is a bit blurred but seems to have some pink in it

I don't recognise it, maybe someone here will, it could be anything from a chugger to an energy company salesman or even BT or other broadband provider.  Obviously the fact that they went to ask postman suggests it is related to your debt but so what, I say BRING IT ON. 

Information is power, look at the DMP sticky threads , you are early in the process, review the first steps

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6496941/in-debt-and-wannabe-debt-free-first-steps-to-take-are-here-please-read-then-ask-questions#latest

and DMP mutual support

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5897083/dmp-mutual-support-thread-part-13#latest

If you are stopping step change then let them know and just wait for the something to hit the fan.

Do not engage, do not pay anything, just wait for the default letters saying "we have sold your debt to XYZ and the letter from XYZ saying they have appointed UVW etc.

Get yourself a lever arch file and file all correspondence regarding debt, sort it by debt and then by date.

Try to remember that there is no catastrophe here, this is what you want.  These vermin will eventually give up and then it is just a matter of preset letters for each collector.

I love the fact that it costs them money and they will get nothing from me.

sourcrates

Usually you would have been written to prior to a visit from a doorstep collector.

Resolvecall are prominent on these boards, there are one or two others, but on the whole, most debt collectors work out of call centres, and if they do call, tend to leave a contact card.