Myvesta now charging - advice please!

olivetrees

Hi all

Have had a DMP with Myvesta for nearly a year now and we recieved a letter this morning saying that they will now be charging £15 per month for administering the DMP.

We currently pay £60 a month and have nothing at all left at the end of the month so although £15 might not be a lot to some people it is a huge amount to us. Anyway if I had an extra £15 a month I would be paying £75 not £60!

So my question is what to do? Is £15 a lot? Do others companys charge more? The CCCS wouldn't help us which is why we went to Myvesta.

We were getting on track y'know and now this...

Thank you as ever

xxx

rog2

Myvesta are NOT a Charity - there have been varied reports about them, on this forum - some good, some bad - but they do seem to be one of the better 'Private' Debt Management Companies.
That said, they ARE a private Company and, as such, will generally charge fees for their services, whether initially or after a certain period.
Charities, such as CAB, National Debtline or CCCS, on the other hand, will administer a DMP for nothing, meaning that ALL money that you pay into the plan will go directly to your creditors.
Whilst you have been paying into your DMP for a year, I would still advise you to contact one of the above charities to see if they can help:
CAB: www.citizensadvice.org.uk
CCCS: www.cccs.co.uk Tel. 0800 138 1111
National Debtline: www.nationaldebtline.co.uk Tel. 0808 808 4000

It will cost you NOTHING to phone them.

Good Luck.

dancingfairy

I'm guessing as you don't have 15 a month spare it would come out of the amount you are paying creditors? Can you do it on your own? As Rog says I'm sure you can get some help from one of the free charities.
Has your SOA changed much - you can always repost it in case someone can save you some money- it might help a little? Always a thought.

olivetrees

Firstly thank you so much for such quick responses. It never ceases to amaze me how generously people give thier time and advice on this site.

Anyway SOA:

Wages £2284
Mum £100
Child benefit £120
Tax credit £45

Total £2549

Outgoings:

Water £28.03
TV £11.37
Gas £50
Elec £40
C Tax £128
buildings ins. £17
Contents £23.90
Travel £20
Mobile £30
mortgage £1292 (inc. £100 arrears cleared by Feb 09) Interest only
Car £268.38 (until November 08)
Food £300 - 2 adults 2 kids under 5
Petrol £50
NTL £40
Car Insurance £40.00
DMP £60
Husbands personal spend £50
My personal spend £50

total £2558.90

So you see my problem! The personal spends generally don't happen as the kids might need shoes or car tax comes up etc. Everything is the cheapest - believe me!

The only thing I was considering was that we do have a little bit of equity in our house and once the car payments are up in November I was considering getting out a £15,000 secured loan (i know!) to clear the debts and I will offer full & final settlements and I think £15000 will cover it. Although I'm sure that the extra £15,000 will add less to my mortgage that the car payments are (if you see what I mean). I think the extra £15000 will be about a £100 per month.

I know that F&F are 'cheating' but there is no other way out other than to keep paying for ever and ever.

I will try the CCCS & national debt line again but they turned me down in the past (£38 per month for haircuts I ask you!) and I can't see that changing.

Advice gratefully recieved (even if it's not what I want to hear!):rolleyes:

rog2

olivetrees wrote: »

I know that F&F are 'cheating' but there is no other way out other than to keep paying for ever and ever.

'Full and Final Settlement' offers are NOT cheating - often it is better, for a creditor, to see a lump sum rather than a 'slow trickle'.
However - I must advise you against jumping into the 'consolidation' trap, especially if it is with one of the 'glossy' companies that advertise on TV/National Press. Whilst the reduced monthly payments may appear less, you WILL be paying for ever, and a lot more, if you go down this route.

Donedoingdebt

You could write to your creditors & request standing order forms (NOT DIRECT DEBIT) in order to enable you to pay them direct from your bank account.
This would enable you to ditch the middle man (Myvesta) & they would probably receive your payments a week or 2 earlier than they do now, as Myvesta probably hang onto your payment for a while to earn interest off it.
After your car loan ends in Nov 2008, you can offer to pay your creditors an equal amount extra each month from the £268.38.
This way you should end up paying no extra interest on your debts, whereas with a secured loan, you'll end up paying vast amounts more over the length of the loan.

Tirian

olivetrees wrote: »

I will try the CCCS & national debt line again but they turned me down in the past (£38 per month for haircuts I ask you!) and I can't see that changing.

Advice gratefully recieved (even if it's not what I want to hear!):rolleyes:

Sorry, could you elaborate what you mean here when you say CCCS 'turned you down'? And what does it have to do with haircuts?? Are you saying that they wouldn't take you on because you wouldn't accept a budget of £38 per month for hairdressing? As it's not in your SOA, I am guessing not, but I'm not sure what else you could mean!

Gemmzie

As others have said, your creditors should be happy for you to go it alone if they've been okay for a year. It's worth writing to them.

olivetrees

Thanks guys - I think I will try and go it alone. The only people we have had hassle off is HSBC - no surprise there.

I really like the idea about just dividing up the car payments and giving that to the creditors - I hadn't thought of it at all so thank you ever so.

As for the haircuts - yes well CCCS made me budget for various things we didn't buy as in haircuts at £38 a months - there were a few other things but I forget now - anyhow due to thier figures and not mine they wouldn't take us on for a DMP, which is how I ended up with Myvesta!