Diy Dmp

GlassHalfFull

Hi everyone - lurker turned poster here

I have been on a DMP arranged through the CCCS since September last year and it really was one of the best moves I could have made towards dealing with my debt. However, I am now planning on going DIY on the DMP front for a number of reasons:

1) When I first contacted CCCS and set up the DMP it was such a relief to finally put a (albeit temporary) stop to the tirade of phonecalls and letters from creditors. I felt like I could finally breathe again...however I have found that I've taken my foot off the debt-free pedal and I'm starting to drift back into bad habits again. Letters from creditors start to remain unopened for days...money gets spent willy nilly (where does that phrase come from?! I like it though )...I no longer pay much attention to 'being in debt' and trying to tackle it...the list goes on. I think that dealing with my DMP myself will once again force me to take the interest I need in my woeful financial situation in order to work towards becoming debt free...

2) My debts are beginning to be pass-the-parcelled between OC's and DCA's. Although I update CCCS whenever I am notified of a change by letter, it seems that some payments don't make their way to where they need to be and so the calls have started again. As I'm not making the payments directly myself this is hard to control.

3) I no longer have a fear of dealing with the creditors :T After browsing these wonderful forums and other useful resources, I feel confident in tackling the BBB's (Big Bad Boys!) without fear of being rail-roaded. It's ironic actually, because most of my friends and family tend to turn to me whenever they have an official letter to write or problem that needs addressing - but I could never do it for myself :rolleyes:...no longer the case though - I'm on a mission for 2008!

So - won't bore you with any more, but you get the drift. I want to grab my debts by the short and curlies and take charge. No more faffing about (the word of the moment in the 20K challenge thread!). What I would like to know is any tips/advice/words of encouragement that those of you on DIY DMP's can offer - did you switch from a managed one to your own? If so, how did the creditors respond? As I'm not clear what I exactly owe at the moment (some creditors have reinstated interest and charges again ) I am going to start with requesting a copy of the CCA along with a statement of account from all my creditors and then take it from there...

Wow, a pretty long first post eh? Guess I've made up for my months of lurking LOL

Bismarck

Good luck....sorry I can't offer any actual help...just moral support and wishes for the best. Can understand you wanting to do it by yourself though...

Gemmzie

Welcome to posting GlassHalfFull

There's a few of us doing DIY DMPs. There's a DMP support thread, come and join in

GlassHalfFull

Thanks Bismarck & Gemmzie...heading over to the DMP support thread now!

earthmother

I'm not on a DMP at the moment (hoping to stay snowballing), but I did do a diy DMP for 3 years from 2001 (after having been daft enough to sign up with Gregory Pennington for 6 months).

I took mine back as Penningtons were making no efforts whatsoever - I was still getting all the calls, all the charges - in fact the only difference was that someone else was getting my money.


So I got the help pack from National Debtline, and just started writing letters. I became stubborn - I stuck to my guns and refused to budge whenever a creditor tried to raise their payment unfairly. And I was very very transparent - every creditor got a full soa every 6 months (as most will require), including a full list of debt and pro-rata offers, not just their own, so they could all see they were being treated the same.

Most of them were fine with it - it perhaps took a couple of months for their systems to catch up and GPs name to disappear from letters, but other than that no real problems. Financially, Natwest took a year to stop the charges, but everyone else was great and stopped them virtually immediately, and they were generally easier to adjust agreements with in a short-term emergency than it would have been under someone like the CCCS etc. Also, as you have already realised, doing it yourself means you pay a heck of a lot more attention to what's going on.

If you have a PC and printer, and the time and organisational skills, it's easy (although for the first year I was doing it on a typewriter - oh I hated that typewriter, lol).

Good luck going DIY

GlassHalfFull

earthmother wrote: »

I'm not on a DMP at the moment (hoping to stay snowballing), but I did do a diy DMP for 3 years from 2001 (after having been daft enough to sign up with Gregory Pennington for 6 months).

Thanks for the advice earthmother Did you come off the DMP once you were able to meet minimum payments again? If so, did you just return to the original terms of your CCA's or did you have to sign new agreements (for example if a default had been issued whilst you were on the DMP)?

earthmother

We had one catalogue (can't recall who though - might have been Index) where at one point we were paying the equivalent of the minimum payment, and they did send a letter pretty much saying 'you're paying the right amount so we're starting the account up again', and so interest was charged again. Unfortunately for them it only lasted a few months as our available income dropped on the next review (new baby) and the payments all went down in turn. To give them their dues, they stopped the interest just as quickly.

After we cleared all the credit on the DMP (8 years early, with a lump sum we came into), a couple of our original creditors did allow us to shop again on those accounts without reapplying etc after they'd been cleared and a few months had passed, so I assume if the lump sum hadn't occured they would have just resumed normal terms on the accounts once the balance reached the correct level.


Sadly, we were just daft enough a few years later to forget our lesson and slip again.

We're not in DMP territory yet (very fine line though), but if we did end up there again, I'd have no qualms about DIYing again.