DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 4)

Kudox

Thanks rayday2 for my number and the welcome I'm going to add it to my signature right away.

tinkerbell12

sarriep wrote: »

Has anyone had student loans (the old style ones circa 1997..) included as creditors in their DMP? I am assuming that will be ok? I can't defer - I earn too much (ha ha yeah right so feels like that i don't think..) and have been pying £114 a month for the last year. I've had my 'you have cancelled your direct debit' letter from themn and wanted to phone them but wanted to be sure first.
Thanks

Hi - hope I can help with your query. When I joined CCCS I asked about my student loans which were taken out from 1997 - 2001. I pay £137 per month and still have 19 months to go ( I am nearly 30 - feel like its never gonna end!!) I was told by CCCS that it had to come under priority payment (i.e. with mortgage etc) as I had to carry on paying it.

I am glad I did this as I once cancelled my DD with them by mistake and they were on me like a shot - phonecalls on a Sunday, 3 letters within a week etc. I would hate not be paying them now!!

Hope that helps....

Ex-Spendaholic

Althea, hello and welcome. :wave:

I'm with CCCS and happy. I expect Payplan and CCCS are pretty much the same. If you really want to go with Payplan is it possible to arrange a lunchtime appointment and go out somewhere with your mobile? CCCS don't require you to talk to anyone. That suited me fine at the time.

As for the creditors, don't worry about them. They will write and they will phone. If you choose to answer the phone when they call just be firm, give them your DMP reference number and hang up. Do not be drawn into conversations about paying x number of pounds today to avoid further action on the account etc etc. They will use every trick in the book. It will all quieten down though. Once the DMP is up and running and they are getting payments they'll forget about you and go and hassle someone else. Barclaycard and Egg are 2 of my creditors and I've had no problems.

sarriep

Thanks Tinkerbell12. I'm sure CCCS told me to include it in the DMP? Hmm. I'm not 100% sure though! Will phone them in the morning I think! It's not a secured debt though is it? Surely only as enforcable as any other loan?

sarriep

...had an alert from experian saying there were changes to my credit report. I went in and one of my credit cards is now showing as 'settled'. I haven't settled it! Has this ever happened to anyone? Could it be a mistake? I am very confused!
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Kudox

Hi Ex-spendholic just read your post about giving your creditors your DMP reference number when they call to hassle you, is this ok to do before your DMP is actually set up? I only sent all my recent statements etc to cccs yesterday

sarriep

Kudox CCCS gave me a reference number to give to all of my creditors when I sent mu token payments. It just proves that you are trying to do something constructive I think!
Sx

Althea

Thanks Ex-Spendaholic, I appreciate your reply. I know, you're right, I should just mentally prepare to be firm and put them in their place ... but I get the collywobbles when I start thinking about possible court actions!

Mind you ... in sorting out info for my CCCS online thingy, I went hunting for my last water bill so I could put an accurate figure in ... and discovered I hadn't paid the last one, and was sent a threatening letter - in June! I'm appalled, I *always* pay my water bill on time; I actually can't find the last proper bill so wonder if I ever got it. However, I didn't open the threatening letter (didn't know it WAS one, it just looked like usual Water Company bumpf from the outside of the envelope and I knew I wasn't due a bill for a couple of months so consigned it to the "junk mail that I'll open later" pile ... and forgot about it! Well it's paid now (with the last few reserves of this month's money ), but my rambling point here is, if they can threaten court action (they did) 3 *months* ago .. and haven't done anything yet ... well then perhaps I can get up enough courage to deal with stroppy creditors once my DMP starts (if it ever does, at this rate ... !).

I'm leaning towards CCCS truthfully, simply because it's just so much easier arranging it all online and not having to talk to anyone (did I mention my hidey-hole rock? ).

Can anyone advise please, between my accepting to go for a DMP online and stuff being sent to creditors, roughly how long that takes? As I mentioned earlier my new shiny (untouchable ) bank account is only just in the throes of being set up now, and I want to have my salary and child benefit stuff redirected into there before Lloyds get told I'm on a DMP and freeze my account!

Also does anyone know, I have one of those Lloyds accounts that they charge money for (it was to get a higher overdraft that I did this, a long time ago); will they still keep on charging the monthly amount, or would that get automatically stopped/the account dropped back to a "basic" once they're notified of the DMP?

Thanks again for the welcome and the good advice

Kudox

Thanks sarriep, I will try to be strong now and firm with my creditors and actually answer the phone instead of having it unplugged the whole time or having my OH answer it!

Althea

Aaargh, sorry, I just thought of another question! If one month I have slightly more money spare (my salary fluctuates from month to month depending on whether I have any on-call payments; they are not guaranteed and not every month, so I didn't include them in my salary declaration), is it possible to pay slightly more off one debt or another, or is that not allowed? Or should I just keep the extra as savings against future outgoings/car bills/etc? I'll feel a bit bad about the latter, as I'd rather pay off my debt a bit faster if possible ... but is it allowed??

thanks (again again) ...