DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part Three)

Shazand

Angel_Cake wrote: »

HI Shanzand, I am in the process of a DMP (3 weeks in)
I cancelled all my DDs and SOs straight away and transfered to my new bank account.
One word of warning, if your current bank is one of your creditors, make sure you get your wages paid into your new bank account until you alert them to the situation, as they could 'arrest' your wages!

I sent a letter to all my creditors saying I was currently experiencing financial diffuiculties and quoted them my Payplan ref number. I gave them all a token payment of £1.

The phone calls (so far) have been not so bad. I signed up to caller display so I do not take any I dont feel like!

There seems to be a few of us on this thread at the same stage of DMP so I am sure we can offer each other lots of support
Angel Cake xx

A Big thank you to Angel Cake and Wen3 for helping and advising at this very uncertain and difficult stage. A massive support to see you are at a similar stage.

Good to know about the wages as I am due to get paid this week ! But I don't think that CCCS action anything until I have sent back the info pack ?

However I have also got alot of my creditors payments coming out on the same day, so not sure if I should cancel these payments and then send token payments next week?

Is there a rule about how much token payments should be ? I could do with paying only £1 so I can pay back money borrowed from a chq cashing facility (£100) stupid I know !!!

How long did your pack take to come through the post ?

Angel_Cake_3

Hi Shazand, I am with payplan and my pack took about 5 days to come through (bank hols inbetween)
I called them the day it arrived, they called me back that afternoon to go through it (a Friday) I sent it out on the Monday and the contacted me Tuesday to say it had been recd and wrote to my creditors on the same day! Pretty fast - still waiting to hear from creditors as this was only a week and a half ago.
If it was me I would cancel DDs (especially if you are going to struggle) and make a token payment with the covering letter (I made £1)
Hope that help
Angel Cake x

rayday2

Bedhead_Girl wrote: »

Hi this is my first time doing this so if anyone can help me I would be very greatful. -

I am in a debt management plan (started at the age of 22) but I wasnt told just how bad it would affect my credit rating, i cant even change my home phone provider as this is subject to credit checks.

Any ideas what I can do????

Thanks everyone x

There is nothing you can do to repair a credit history in time it will drop off (6 years) the further in your past it is the better.

Home phones have always been hard to get so this is not necessarily a huge indicator of how bad your credit history is. Definately out of all the debt solutions (bankrupcy and IVA) a DMP is the kindest. It only effects you depending on what the individual companies place on your history.

You could write to the three credit agencies and request a history make sure there is nothing on there that should not be.

rayday2

Shazand wrote: »

Is there a rule about how much token payments should be ? I could do with paying only £1 so I can pay back money borrowed from a chq cashing facility (£100) stupid I know !!!

How long did your pack take to come through the post ?

I would say keep the token payment as small as possible so a pound is ideal. It shows your companies you are struggling and is the minimum they could possibly get. Worst thing you could do is say send £10 and then find out that the regular payment they get offered is £4!

I used the time setting up my DMP to harvest as much money as possible into my new account so they got offered the bare minimum!

Miss_Marple_2

rayday2 wrote: »

There is nothing you can do to repair a credit history in time it will drop off (6 years) the further in your past it is the better.

Home phones have always been hard to get so this is not necessarily a huge indicator of how bad your credit history is. Definately out of all the debt solutions (bankrupcy and IVA) a DMP is the kindest. It only effects you depending on what the individual companies place on your history.

You could write to the three credit agencies and request a history make sure there is nothing on there that should not be.

Yes - Different creditors update your credit file differently. Some don't even mention it, yet one gave me a default. So I think it is not necessarily the DMP itself that hurts your credit file, but the defaults or late payments that are registered against you.

As rayday says, it is the kindest of all the debt solutions. I think it also depends who much of the contactual obligations you are meeting. Most of my creditors said they would not issue a default if I was paying over half the minimum payment

molly2174

Hi everyone

Ive just started to set up a debt management plan with cccs. I currently have a current account with Abbey. They are not one of my creditors but MBNA is. Ithen opened an alliance and leicester account to find they are linked to MBNA too. Will I have to open yet another account because Im worried that because of the links MBNA may try to take my salary !

What does everyone think ? thanks molly x

maz1964

hiya rayday and gemmzie,

many thanks for your reply ref defaults, yes you are right, if money was no object we wouldnt need to worry about our credit files,,,,,i wish i knew what i know now perhaps 20 years ago - life might be different, but you learn as you live so yes, going to have to get through this and with time we will.

Welcome to more newbies, we are really friendly here not like that thread someone mentioned,

have a fun evening i will update you all later in the week,

ciao for now MAZ

Just_Me_4

Shazand we applied online on Sunday and got the letter today which we will sign and return tomorrow.

We were going to make one last minimum payment on everything before cancelling our direct debits, does this sound like a bad idea? Our reason for doing the dmp is that we can afford to pay our debts but have nothing left over to live on each month.

Etherelda

molly2174 wrote: »

Hi everyone

Ive just started to set up a debt management plan with cccs. I currently have a current account with Abbey. They are not one of my creditors but MBNA is. Ithen opened an alliance and leicester account to find they are linked to MBNA too. Will I have to open yet another account because Im worried that because of the links MBNA may try to take my salary !

What does everyone think ? thanks molly x

Bum, I didn't know that either and I've just opened an A&L account and MBNA (virgin) is one of my creditors, EEK.

??

Gemmzie

They are only linked if you have an A&L credit card as the card is owned by MBNA I believe, it has been discussed before so it might be worth doing a search.