DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 4)

Rabbit-in-headlights

Hello all, I am about to start a DMP in October with CCCS and am in the "avoiding the phone" stage, hoping that the proposals sent by CCCS will keep the creditors quiet once everything gets started:o

Today I received a text msg from a company called Aegis asking me to call them about MBNA - has anyone else had any dealings with Aegis? It seems strange if MBNA have already passed the debt to a DCA? All my payments were up to date until the end of July, so it's only the August payment missed so far.... (I stopped using that card many months ago and just paid minimum payments and the balance just didn't seem to move at all - one missed payment and their charges have put me over limit grrrr! But I have to thank MBNA for being such bloodsuckers, they pushed me to my LBM! :eek:


PS, I notice lots of you have "DMP Support Thread Member xxx" and /or "long hauler" in your signatures - is this something I could join, and if so, how do I get a number? Sorry if it's obvious, it took me a week to find the usercp!

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Rabbit

sarriep

I haven't had my telephone meeting with the CCCS yet and would like to be better informed before I do. I've read all I can (I think!) and wondered what helped you all come to the decisions you did.

How much 'at risk' is your house with an IVA? We owe £220000 on a £250000 (well last year anyway!) house.

Thanks

Will be doing my token payments this week so it's all becoming real!

Also, my daughter (12) is on her own for an hour after school each day - I'd hate her to have to deal with any unscrupulous creditors by phone. Is there anything I can do about this? (Other than tell her not to answer the phone?) Is there a chance we could get personal calls at the door?

Sorry, so many questions - this is a confusing time!

ameratsu

sarriep wrote: »

I haven't had my telephone meeting with the CCCS yet and would like to be better informed before I do. I've read all I can (I think!) and wondered what helped you all come to the decisions you did.

How much 'at risk' is your house with an IVA? We owe £220000 on a £250000 (well last year anyway!) house.

Thanks

Will be doing my token payments this week so it's all becoming real!

Also, my daughter (12) is on her own for an hour after school each day - I'd hate her to have to deal with any unscrupulous creditors by phone. Is there anything I can do about this? (Other than tell her not to answer the phone?) Is there a chance we could get personal calls at the door?

Sorry, so many questions - this is a confusing time!

Your house is at risk in an IVA if you fail to keep up the payments - you are also expected to give up any equity in year 4 of your IVA, so your debts aren't written off like the ads claim.:rolleyes:
A dmp is much preferable but you need to have at least £100 a month spare to pay one ( or more depending on your debt level).
IVAs are very rarely the answer, you need 100% certainty that your income will stay the same for the duration as they are very inflexible.

sarriep

Thanks ameratsu, I must admit IVAs look very scary. I have worked out we should have at least £500 pm to pay towards a DMP at the moment. Hopefully more when we get stuck into dedicated moneysaving! That's £6000 pa so 8 years of paying back if my calculations are correct! Then hopefully £500 pm to SAVE. (Not something I have EVER done in my life I might add. )

Just out of intere4st does anyone know if creditors view/ treat low start dmps any different to a standard one? What actually determines whether it is a low start one or not?

Thanks x

ianmak

Rabbit-in-headlights wrote: »

Today I received a text msg from a company called Aegis asking me to call them about MBNA - has anyone else had any dealings with Aegis? It seems strange if MBNA have already passed the debt to a DCA? All my payments were up to date until the end of July, so it's only the August payment missed so far.... (I stopped using that card many months ago and just paid minimum payments and the balance just didn't seem to move at all - one missed payment and their charges have put me over limit grrrr! But I have to thank MBNA for being such bloodsuckers, they pushed me to my LBM! :eek:

Same here MBNA passed me onto RMA. I think it's the fact that you owe money and are over your credit limit that they pass your details over to another company.

MBNA also made me sort out the problem (although it took a few months to realise). 0% special offer suddenly increased to 36%. :mad:

maz1964

Hiya all and any newbies, seems like hundreds have joined our clan here, welcome!!

i just wanted to check in and see how everyone is doing, ive tried to read back to where id read upto last time and it was quite a few pages phew!

ive thanked you all along the way for your inspiring posts or who have answered my babble ie cca, sorry should have put it in full credit card agreement in the first place.

Rabbit - yes ive got mbna, and used to get the text message like ianmak mine was from rma - call them urgent yaahayayaya, really me call them, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

all by recorded and letter only, i learnt that lesson very early on - in the early part of my journey early this year, doing my own dmp and the help from Ray and this thread mainly on this forum and nationaldebtline - quickly learnt a lot.

i did have to send quite a stern harrasment letter as im still off ill and they kept calling my work place every day, and texting me and calling me, so have used the harrasment letter from here on the forum

at the moment all calls have stopped i did change my mobile number but not my home no as at the mo its all calm all been accepted have been paying my offers from day one and stuck to my guns, some have stoped interest and charges, mbna were the last,

but am getting better in myself and im now persuing the angle of the cca because if they dont produce the real copy of my agreement they cannot force action in court, thus when i do go back to work i will be only offering them all a silly amount for full and final settlement, need to get debt free as fast as possible.

my credit file s do show that im on a payment plan with some of my creditors,

anyway its still a bit of a slog, but hey life has to be interesting at times, otherwise without a bit of a struggle - you dont really get to appreciate the highs in your life.

So continue and dont ever open the door to these people arriving on your doorstep saying they are from whoever, they dont have the power to enter and enforce entry. Should you get a postcard with pretty pictures from the likes of RMA saying they are calling , they dont actually mean a home visit its implied to panic you and then you contact them on the phone no given on the card thus hey presto they have you on the phone to try and squeeze a bit more money out of you, lol

keep it all simple and you will survive all this madness i promise.

I wish i knew what i know now early part of this year, gosh my confidence would have been so much better, but you learn as you go along, and im learning every day something worthwhile

keep happy and shout if anyone needs help

have a fun day ciao MAZ

tranceaddict

Rabbit-in-headlights wrote: »

Hello all, I am about to start a DMP in October with CCCS and am in the "avoiding the phone" stage, hoping that the proposals sent by CCCS will keep the creditors quiet once everything gets started:o

Hi, I'm in exactly the same position as you, first payment to CCCS due on 1st October, 9 creditors all up to date until August, all written to with token payments for September, have just started receiving the standard "you direct debit has been cancelled please contact us to set up a new one" type letter, should I respond to them refering them to the letter I sent them last week and quote my CCCS number, or should I just ignore this standard letter as the two have probably just crossed in the post or are sent by diffrent departments?

I don't have to do the "ignore the phone" thing, my home phone is constantly on silent (due to shift work) so I never know when it rings anyway, as far as I am aware none of them have my mobile number either, so it's letters only for me, which I will just keep sending back quoting my CCCS number, hopefully that should be quite easy.

Reading through the forums a lot of posters say "never sign any letters you send", why is this? Is it a good idea?

Rabbit-in-headlights wrote: »

I notice lots of you have "DMP Support Thread Member xxx" and /or "long hauler" in your signatures - is this something I could join, and if so, how do I get a number? Sorry if it's obvious, it took me a week to find the usercp!

I'd be intrested in that as well, but can't seem to find it out either, anybody help?

Keep up the good work and keep posting, there is loads of help and support on here, I couldn't have done it without them.

Just one more question, as my DMP starts on 1st Oct should I send another token payment to my creditoors on this date (as they won't get money from CCCS until 25th) as that will be nearly 2 months they have got nothing, or do I just let them wait.

Thanks agin for everyones help

R

ameratsu

sarriep wrote: »

Thanks ameratsu, I must admit IVAs look very scary. I have worked out we should have at least £500 pm to pay towards a DMP at the moment. Hopefully more when we get stuck into dedicated moneysaving! That's £6000 pa so 8 years of paying back if my calculations are correct! Then hopefully £500 pm to SAVE. (Not something I have EVER done in my life I might add. )

Just out of intere4st does anyone know if creditors view/ treat low start dmps any different to a standard one? What actually determines whether it is a low start one or not?

Thanks x

A low start dmp is for when you don't have the required £100 surplus for a normal dmp, if you have £500 spare then that is fantastic - have you done an SOA?
Your amounts for things like groceries etc. should be at the top of the amounts allowed, to give you an emergency fund, if that £500 you can afford is at the expense of day to day living, then increase your living expenses and you can always save any excess to make full and final settlement offers in say 3 years or so.
Our living expenses are actually a lot less than the "allowed" amounts but if we have to go onto a DMP, I will increase them to allow for at least £250 a month to save and for emergencies, don't forget you will not be able to have credit at all and big bills have a nasty habit of appearing when you least expect them.

Forgetmenot68

Thanks Gemmzie...here's the link to my diary

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=980059

I'm filling in the forms for all our creditors to let them know we're working with the CCCS on a DMP at the moment. £207 a month for them all.... I hope they can agree to it.

FMNxx

maz1964

hello all again, good morning -

in reply to RABBIT and TRANCEADDICT

when rayday2 comes on, hope she notices that you wish to have a number and will give you one

so no worries, she will be on maybe a bit busy these past few days, but ill remind her for you incase ok

i appreciate your thanks to my earlier post, i do hope it has helped to ease the pressure these creditors try and put onto us with all their tactics.

i had been upfront with all mine and been proactive before the problems escalated yet they still gave me a hard time initially, some were fab like M & S stopped interest and charges from day one, the others were just pants like really throwing their dummy out of the pram as they wanted more money etc etc. but I DID STICK TO MY PRO RATA PAYMENTS helped by the calculations by national debtline and continued sending the payments on time, so in my mind early on, i convinced myself, if they did take me to court, the judge could see my income and expenses and my fair pro rata payments being continually being made to everyone.

Yet for all their letters and pay immediately or your credit file will be affected for the next years yaayayayay - i already knew that and had no intention of getting more credit - you muppets! it was really all a big puff of smoke, quite frankly i wish one of them would cos i would want to see the judge myself and explain quite a lot of stuff ref the harrasment id had, being off ill, still ringing me when offers and payments being received okay,

So you see guys, i may still see the court house as im now on the battle field so to speak and the clock is ticking for the copy of my credit agreements with a few of the creditors, i had paid them this week, but if they dont supply i will be reporting them to the trading standards and the FOS should they start any court proceedings against me.

So am learning and will continue, but you are doing great, just get to a position of where all your creditors have accepted your payments you feel comfortable and can live then you can if you choose to tackle what im doing.

Anyway everyone have a fun day i will be back laters

Ciao MAZ


Hiya again sorry just noticed the comment from transaddict, re the not signing your letters, well ive used a different font for my signature on my letters and just my initial and surname, the theory behind this is that creditors have been known to cut and paste your signature onto the credit card agreements copies they portray to say you signed at the start of your agreement - so ive been very cute with my signature, and lo and behold, ive been asked to supply evidence of identity including my sigature for data information,which they have 40 days to supply oh yeah,,,, makes me already very suspicious,

However, im not that silly, id asked for the copies of the credit card agreement at the same time in the same envelope and the CCA has to be SUPPLIED WITHIN 12 WORKING DAYS, this creditor has until friday this week, they dont supply i will be reporting them to the trading standards and making a complaint to the FOS. My compliant to the FOs will cost the creditor money too, so lets see how far this fight is going to take us. I want to see the judges eyes, lol

Will keep you posted, hence the reasoning behind the signature bit of info ,

Ciao laters MAZ