DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part Three)

rugby6ft8

Hi Tigert,
Good news about your promotion, well done!!!
How have you found Lloyds TSB sime you've been on a DMP? Have they been understanding or just after their money? Have they piled loads of interest on to your debts, or were you able to get interest frozen?

tass

We have been on DMP for nearly five years and pay our car insurance and house insurance monthly - changing for better deals where necessary. The companies know if they don't get their money you won't be covered. I don't think they do credit checks - and if they do ours must be shot to pieces and it didn't affect the outcome.

Also Lloyds feature quite highly in our list of creditors.

Does anyone have any experience with M&S? I have recently noticed that that they have started adding interest again which is amounting to more than our monthly payment - pointless ...

Tigert

rugby6ft8 wrote: »

Hi Tigert,
How have you found Lloyds TSB sime you've been on a DMP? Have they been understanding or just after their money? Have they piled loads of interest on to your debts, or were you able to get interest frozen?

They piled on interest and charges :mad: I'm coming up to the 2nd payment in my DMP and so far they have added over £400. This has put me over my limits and they charge more for that. Therefore my debt is increasing with them.

Somebody on the board here suggested waiting for 3 months and then making a formal complaint to them. I shall certainly be doing that and claiming back the charges as being unreasonable.

I'm with Payplan - It was Lloyds TSB that suggested I phone them and Payplan tell me that LloydsTSB are one of their sponsors. So you would expect a little more co-operation.

rugby6ft8

How can they justify those charges? Surely they must realise that when you are on a DMP you are already in it deep! Is this something they do at first and then they calm down, or is it because they see it as defaulting on payments.
I wonder if a DMP was a good/bad thing TBH for people.

Tigert

rugby6ft8 wrote: »

How can they justify those charges? Surely they must realise that when you are on a DMP you are already in it deep! Is this something they do at first and then they calm down, or is it because they see it as defaulting on payments.
I wonder if a DMP was a good/bad thing TBH for people.

I'm sure it will calm down based on other peoples experience. The advice from others is to see what happens after 3 months as thats when creditors start accepting things. I hope so - We'll see.

So far the only creditor that has been helpful is Amex. They were very polite, almost helpful on the phone. They passed the debt straight onto RMA, but even then it was ok. They phoned once got my Payplan details and it was sorted. If only it was all that easy.

I still think DMP is the best option for me as realistically if interest is stopped within 3 months - I'll be debt free in 4 years 8 months.

Some of my creditors are still very quiet - Not sure what to think about them yet!

tass

For us DMP was a good thing. Although the interest wasn't stopped instantly eventually all of it was. Some have even reduced the balance of our accounts because of interest that was added early on in the DMP. I think we were just so relieved to be dealing with it that it didn't really matter. Also because we were look at 13 years to clear everything it was a drop in the ocean.

M&S have recently (I think) started adding interest again - not sure why

loopylu36

rugby6ft8 wrote: »

Loopy, we should form a united front against Lloyds TSB. We'll certainly have to share our experiences over the months with each other. I'm more concerned with how the bank will react than the credit cards. I think its because i've got a face/faces who i relate to when I think of the bank, whereas with a credit card its just a voice in India.

I've never met my bank "manager" - I've always kept a safe distance as it would have been far too embarrasing to go in there and go through all my finances with them! So I don't really worry about them any more than anyone else, except that Lloyds are supposed to be a bit difficult. However, I've actually not heard a peep out of them about our loans and cc that have gone unpaid from last month. I was expecting them to just take the payments and increase our o/d which would result in charges etc, but so far they haven't. I did have a letter yesterday to tell me that we were £12 over our authorised limit (that was only cos of account charge and interest!)

I had a call today from the Co-Op tho (credit card) They phoned to say that they had rec'd proposal from CCCS (£89 v £144 it SHOULD be) and they were happy to accept for 12 months. No charges but "minimal interest" of £3.50 per month - she mentioned 0.5% guessing this is annual? The lady I spoke to was actually extremely nice and said that they were much more receptive when people went via CCCS rather than ignoring the problem. So that was quite a nice start to my DMP. Not expecting all creditors to be that cooperative (no pun intended!) but I can live in hope! It does make me feel a bit more positive that the rest will accept tho.

I will definately keep you posted as to LLoyds Rugby - it will be interesting to see if they deal with us in the same way or differently.

yellowmonkey

I only have 3 creditors and none of them are charging interest :T. A DMP was the best thing i have done recently regarding my finances. I am in control and am no longer trying to tread water whilst slowly sinking.

Lloyds are notoriously difficult to deal with.

ym

Reformed_Shopaholic_2

loopylu36 wrote: »

I had a call today from the Co-Op tho (credit card) They phoned to say that they had rec'd proposal from CCCS (£89 v £144 it SHOULD be) and they were happy to accept for 12 months. No charges but "minimal interest" of £3.50 per month - she mentioned 0.5% guessing this is annual? The lady I spoke to was actually extremely nice and said that they were much more receptive when people went via CCCS rather than ignoring the problem. So that was quite a nice start to my DMP. Not expecting all creditors to be that cooperative (no pun intended!) but I can live in hope! It does make me feel a bit more positive that the rest will accept tho.

Hi Loopy glad to hear it's going well with the DMP,

Feeling a wee bit worried as my DMP is only going to be sharing out a tiny £130 between 11 creditors - the worst one MBNA is used to getting £169 out of me every month so I can't see any of them accepting or being happy with their proportional share of £130.....

Definitely going to unplug the phone for the next few days...._pale_

Please has anyone else started on a low DMP with large debts to pay??

I work so I really can't see them being happy but, I just couldn't manage anymore...I will definitely be cutting back to try and increase the amount I can pay but, having buried my head in the sand for so long it's difficult to know how i'll manage just paying with cash from now on - it's such early days that I hope I can trust myself not to overspend...Have just bought some food for the week and buying it with cash totting up as I went along was a good feeling but I'm having lots of worries about how i'll manage day to day.

I'm rambling a bit now but fingers crossed will get CCCS formal agreement tomorrow so I can sort out first payment but I would welcome a bit more info and advice from anyone else who started on a low DMP.

When will they review it? And (answering my own question) I expect the creditors will hammer me with interest if i'm offering such a low amount compared to their usual minimum payment from me...MBNA for instance have kindly increased the interest rate to 34.9% :eek: I think I've mentioned that one before..sorry

Thanks everyone advice appreciated x

10past6

Reformed_Shopaholic wrote: »

Feeling a wee bit worried as my DMP is only going to be sharing out a tiny £130 between 11 creditors - the worst one MBNA is used to getting £169 out of me every month so I can't see any of them accepting or being happy with their proportional share of £130.....

Definitely going to unplug the phone for the next few days...._pale_

Please has anyone else started on a low DMP with large debts to pay??

Hello reformed

I have huge debts and am also on a DMP, I like you, used to worry in the early stages, but now, my attitude is so be it.

Look at it like this, whether your creditors are happy or not, you can only pay what you can afford, it's not for them to dictate what you can / cannot pay.

If you can ride the storm until things settle down, you'll be fine.

One of the most important aspects of financial difficulties is, DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CREDITORS TO STRESS YOU OUT, easier said than done, but we've all been there, and it really is not worth any stress

Edit: I forgot to mention, don't worry about the letters or the wording on them, most are system generated, it's just a formality these companies to go through.