DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part Three)

rugby6ft8

Hi everyone,
Well what a week! So much has happened since last Saturday when I first looked at this forum and contacted Payplan. I got a call 2 hours after my initial internet request to Payplan and I had my expenditure phone meeting the day after, on Sunday. By Monday my details etc had been sent to an advisor who called and introduced herself and we eventually managed to talk things through on Wednesday. We went through my expenditure and massaged a few of the figures to make things manageable and last night at 1945 my DMP was agreed and i'm now awaiting my paperwork - really straight forward and friendly, and never once was I treated like an idiot for getting into so much debt.
I was so nervous and felt so sick this time last week, I still feel a bit as i don't know what to expect over the next few weeks. Payplan advised me, as did you guys to start up a new bank account and i'm awaiting approval from the Co-op on this. I managed to log into my Lloyds TSB bank account online and cancel loads of direct debits to my creditors, as advised by Payplan and send them token payments and covering letters explaining my current situation. (I know i shouldn't have, but I had great pleasure in cancelling them). I also cancelled my 2 loans and I have to send letters to them too - I felt dodgy cancelling the DD for these two as they were Lloyds TSB loans. I expect Lloyds will call and ask whats going on.

I've made a list of all the DD's I have to keep and will make arrangements to have them moved to my new bank account when its ready. I hope the DMP set up is smooth, but from what i've read I have to expect some problems.
I was so gutted to read that Smilealot has had problems with her bank. She has been wonderful in her support of me this week via private message. She guided me through everything and was a true star. Seeing her have trouble made me wobble a little as I wondered if i was doing the right thing, but I'm sure I am - the alternative doesn't bare thinking about!

Have a great time away Smilealot!!!

I just wanted to ask Rayday if I could have a proper number now please? I don't know what I do with it but can I have one lol.

Just so that i'm totally sharing everything with everyone (I've actually told my partner and my mother about my debt problems and i've so far got their support) i want to share the extent of what I thought was an 18k ish debt - THE TOTAL FIGURE WAS £36,741 so double what I realised. Now I know what it is I feel like i can manage it. Its a huge amount, but a challenge I want to get down.

Luckily I will have paid it off in 5 years as my monthly repayments to Payplan will £600, which is exactly half what I'd pay monthly to creditors before.

I really wanted to share whats been happening with me this week with everyone and say a massive thank you to you all for the support you gave me over last weekend. This forum is amazing and really the advice you all give is better than what the professionals would charge a huge sum for.

Thanks everyone - I'll be around for a long while yet !!!

RUGBY6ft8 DFD - MAY 2013

Gemmzie

andytwonames wrote: »

Given that I've not yet contacted any creditors, nothing is yet in default and my provisional figures for DMP are all set as if the cards were maxed, am I really risking anything?

Yes, some creditors will not agree to a DMP until the card has been unused for three - six months. In that time the charges and interest they will add will be horrendous.

Reformed_Shopaholic_2

rugby6ft8 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Just so that i'm totally sharing everything with everyone i want to share the extent of what I thought was an 18k ish debt - THE TOTAL FIGURE WAS £36,741 so double what I realised. Now I know what it is I feel like i can manage it. Its a huge amount, but a challenge I want to get down.

I really wanted to share whats been happening with me this week with everyone and say a massive thank you to you all for the support you gave me over last weekend. This forum is amazing and really the advice you all give is better than what the professionals would charge a huge sum for.

Thanks everyone - I'll be around for a long while yet !!!

RUGBY6ft8 DFD - MAY 2013

Hi Rugby, well done for taking the step and speaking to Payplan :T I'm so pleased that you're moving forward and I can only echo your thanks as Rayday, Smilealot and Whoopie have been great, reading their posts and replies to mine has helped so much.

My debt is 41,000 and I've sent my signed DMP agreement back to CCCS on Monday but am also having a bit of a wobble as apart from my first really quick phonecall on 3rd April before my paperwork arrived from CCCS I haven't heard anything else.

I've sent my 11 creditors a letter, DMP notification and token payment - i've also cancelled my direct debits -some of them have "kindly" :rolleyes: written to me already to let me know this..

I'm now desperately hoping to get final confirmation and payment slip etc. from CCCS to make first DMP payment on 1st May...

Anyway Rugby, just wanted to say Well Done and you really sound a lot more positive than this time last week - i'm proud of you! My poor OH knows everything about my debt level and with some of his own i'm sure I'm stessing him out ...feel very guilty about that...

Hope you have a good weekend and you've done the right thing facing up to your debt - once I hear back from CCCS with my first payment I will hopefully feel more positive and will repost my SOA for advice.

Thanks everyone..too many to name but you really have been invaluable over the last few weeks :A

loopylu36

Gemmzie wrote: »

Yes, some creditors will not agree to a DMP until the card has been unused for three - six months. In that time the charges and interest they will add will be horrendous.

CCCS haven't advised me that that would be the case. The problem here is that most people have been using credit to live on so it is almost impossible to enter into a DMP not having used any credit for at least 3 months, unless you are already 3 months in arrears, in which case the creditors give you even more aggro than they do when you start a DMP. So it's kind of lose, lose really.

MBNA phoned me today and wanted to know why we were going on DMP when up until now all our payments were up to date (same with everyone else, we never went over our o/d, never bounced dd's and always paid our loans on time). The only reason we could do this was because we were borrowing on credit cards to either pay another or, to pay money into c/a to cover everything and basically living on credit. It wasn't until i found this site, that I realised that this couldn't go on as I would never ever get out of debt, that i realised i needed to do something (well I kind of new that i did but it was ostrich syndrome). So I contacted CCCS.

If the CC companies won't accept until you haven't used for 3 months, it's as broad as it's long isn't it? One way or another they will be charging interest and applying additional charges, either because you let the account fall into arrears, which you will have to do if you are using credit to live on cos obviously you will need the cash that you are not committing to minimum payments to live on, or take the proactive approach and do something more positive to sort it out.

I'm not saying Andy is right to want to max his cards out, but I know a lot of people on this form have had to borrow cash on their ccs, to see them through the month prior to a DMP. If he hasn't signed his agreement with CCCS yet, technically he isn't breaching it by taking out more credit. Have you spoken to CCCS Andy and explained the situation to them? CCCS Sarah, if you are about, what is your view on this?

Reformed_Shopaholic_2

meant to say thanks Marru
And loopy, thanks for your post...

I haven't defaulted on any ccard payments until now...When I phoned CCCS they were really helpful but I didn't realise about the 3 month arrears either so would welcome some advice?

This will be the first month i've defaulted on most of my accounts and stupidly had this image of them being happy that I hadn't made my payment but they'd had a letter from me with a token payment and a signed DMP notification...stupid aren't I...

To be fair to CCCS they said to be prepared for scary interest and other charges for next month or two whilst they get everything in place.

The way I look at it, I sure as hell wasn't getting anywhere on my own so thank God for Martin Lewis, this site, all of you and CCCS...

This is not my Oscar acceptance speech, more like wine filled end of week speech.

Thanks for your help everyone, hope Sarah or Alan can reply - both CCCS

And a big thank you to everyone else for helping me to keep my sanity this week..

And the award for best film director goes to....................

Gemmzie

Doesn't have to be three months arrears. I'm just saying if you use the cards when you've started making inquiries, the companies will be more peed off. Someone on here had a lot of difficulties because they'd used the card so recently so the company went charges crazy.
Once you make the first enquiry you should start making £1 token payments and stop using the cards - it just seems to help in your favour a bit.
If there's another way around living for the meantime, don't do it.

Reformed_Shopaholic_2

Reformed_Shopaholic wrote: »

The way I look at it, I sure as hell wasn't getting anywhere on my own so thank God for Martin Lewis, this site, all of you and CCCS...

This is not my Oscar acceptance speech, more like wine filled end of week speech.

Thanks for your help everyone, hope Sarah or Alan can reply - both CCCS

And a big thank you to everyone else for helping me to keep my sanity this week..

And the award for best film director goes to....................

By the way, sorry if the above sounded flippant, I didn't mean it too..I would really welcome a bit of advice from the more experienced amongst you and CCCS re:the 3 month limit.

Well done everyone who has had a light bulb moment (lbm) this week

Reformed_Shopaholic_2

Gemmzie wrote: »

Doesn't have to be three months arrears. I'm just saying if you use the cards when you've started making inquiries, the companies will be more peed off. Someone on here had a lot of difficulties because they'd used the card so recently so the company went charges crazy.
Once you make the first enquiry you should start making £1 token payments and stop using the cards - it just seems to help in your favour a bit.
If there's another way around living for the meantime, don't do it.

Thanks Gemmzie, I think I'm ok but have definitely used 1 card in particular before I phoned CCCS to live on.....also had a big splurge before phoning CCCS on this one card - the others haven't been used for a long while but the interest charges were crippling...

Just hope I hear from CCCS soon to set up my first payment...thanks again Gemmzie:A

Gutted

Hi all.

I finally decided to get my head out of the sand and contacted CCCS today. My plan was emailed to me, a payment amount sorted and the lady I spoke to was fantastic. I'm a bit unsure about what happens next after I've sent all the details of my creditors back.

All my debts are with collection agents, (Moorcroft and Link Financial) and total around £7000.

If they accept the DMP will that mean they will stop calling/sending letters or will that continue? I know I should've asked these questions earlier but I was so upset/relieved to be speaking about it that I didn't really think.

Any advice/information any of you can give me about what to expect will be appreciated x

Reformed_Shopaholic_2

Gutted wrote: »

Hi all.

I finally decided to get my head out of the sand and contacted CCCS today. My plan was emailed to me, a payment amount sorted and the lady I spoke to was fantastic. I'm a bit unsure about what happens next after I've sent all the details of my creditors back.

All my debts are with collection agents, (Moorcroft and Link Financial) and total around £7000.

If they accept the DMP will that mean they will stop calling/sending letters or will that continue? I know I should've asked these questions earlier but I was so upset/relieved to be speaking about it that I didn't really think.

Any advice/information any of you can give me about what to expect will be appreciated x

Hi Gutted, sorry can't give advice but well done on phoning CCCS I think we are in the same boat...my debt is bigger but I know we are both wondering what will happen next and hoping everything will be ok...