DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 4)

GhostHunter_3

Thanks for that info Ossi, I think I will cancel my appointment this afternoon at branch, can get on with trying to reduce my SOA then and maybe just maybe get a DMP in place by weekend

Does anyone know if I have to tell my existing telephone & Internet providers that I am wanting to move my services elsewhere? Im not entirely sure when my contract tie ins expire so dont want to switch and find a big bill on my doormat!

Also can I ditch and switch my gas & electric if my recent bill (combined bill arrived yesterday) shows I am almost £400 in DEBIT? I really expected it to have evend out by now as we dont have lights on or heating in summer.

I really dont know where the money is going on the Gas & Electric unless we have a fault somewhere .

I would love one of those gadgets that tells you how much energy everything is using but cant afford £50. Is there another way to figure without all the faffing about (online calculator or something)?

Thanks

:rolleyes:

WhoopieDoodle

Afternoon all

Hello to any new peeps!

Regarding Alliance and Leicester and an MBNA credit card (but not through A&L), apparently although MBNA cannot help themselves to money in the bank account they can ask for information on the account as A&L and MBNA share information. So, we are going to change bank accounts as we don't want them nosing at what we have (it's not much, but we do have some emergency savings and a car tax/christmas fund and if we lost this bit of money we would be well and truly stuffed)

Why are we going to do our own DMP? Well, since it started I have been writing to all creditors before passing letters onto PayPlan, OH speaks to creditors on the phone, etc so we decided we would rather have control over the situation rather than sit back and let someone else do it. I'm the type of person who would rather do something myself if I can (i.e. a control freak tee hee) and I like to be "in the know" at all times and I love a challenge.

Regarding receiving statements - I think you do need to look at these as the creditors may be applying interest and you won't be aware of this until you get statements. Also, the DMP company usually has a different figure which does not reflect the true amount owed (for example, ours shows a lot less than it actually is as the company have not applied the interest).

At the end of the day there are no hard and fast rules. Everyone has to decide what works for them and go for it.

WhoopieDoodle

Ghosthunter, I have my gadget to see how much electricity we are using ... it's a candle. When it burns out we can't see!

andytwonames

WhoopieDoodle wrote: »

Ghosthunter, I have my gadget to see how much electricity we are using ... it's a candle. When it burns out we can't see!

:T :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

GhostHunter_3

LOL @ woopiedoodle thats cool!

:T :rotfl:

andytwonames

GhostHunter wrote: »

Does anyone know if I have to tell my existing telephone & Internet providers that I am wanting to move my services elsewhere? Im not entirely sure when my contract tie ins expire so dont want to switch and find a big bill on my doormat!

Just phone and ask them when your tie-in ends. Also, ask them if they can reduce the price bucause you are a loyal customer "and I really don't want all the bother of switching to another provider". I got a £20 discount on my Orange mobiles (still within contract tie-in) and £9 off of internet with Virgin that way.

GhostHunter wrote: »

I really dont know where the money is going on the Gas & Electric unless we have a fault somewhere .

You really can make a dramatic difference to electricity consumption by the type of bulb you use. It's difficult to tell how much power you're using with the old spinning disk meter and I got a surprise one day when the electricity board installed a digital meter. It had an LED which flashed once for every .05 of a unit used and I noticed it flashing quite frequently in the middle of a bright warm summer afternoon. It was a few lights left on.

Incandescant bulbs and the 'low voltage' and mains voltage dichroic bulbs use a scary amount of juice. Switch to energy saving lamps where you can.

Have a look around the MSE site for other tricks and tips each one will make a difference.

GhostHunter_3

:eek:


Just opend another letter I received today from our Gas & Electric supplier (we had the bill statement yesterday) was expecting it to be a general letter to say prices are going up.

It was to tell me they are increasing our monthly Direct Debit to £130 a month starting in August

I have no way to pay that, am struggling with £50 a month (combined bill) and as we are almost £400 in DEBIT with them (I found out yesterday to my shock) I cant ditch and switch as they will want payment in full first!

_pale_

GhostHunter_3

andytwonames wrote: »

Just phone and ask them when your tie-in ends. Also, ask them if they can reduce the price bucause you are a loyal customer "and I really don't want all the bother of switching to another provider". I got a £20 discount on my Orange mobiles (still within contract tie-in) and £9 off of internet with Virgin that way.



You really can make a dramatic difference to electricity consumption by the type of bulb you use. It's difficult to tell how much power you're using with the old spinning disk meter and I got a surprise one day when the electricity board installed a digital meter. It had an LED which flashed once for every .05 of a unit used and I noticed it flashing quite frequently in the middle of a bright warm summer afternoon. It was a few lights left on.

Incandescant bulbs and the 'low voltage' and mains voltage dichroic bulbs use a scary amount of juice. Switch to energy saving lamps where you can.

Have a look around the MSE site for other tricks and tips each one will make a difference.

Thanks for the advice I will, all but 2 of our lights already have energysaving bulbs in I think will have to double check. The 2 that havent are dimmer switches, as yet to my knowledge they dont have energy efficient lightbulbs made for them types yet? We dont very often leave lights burning away, the dogs have got those solar powered garden lights

Have been looking round this morning to see what we have switched on.

My only thoughts so far are the tropical fish tank in the front room and the stand alone electric fan we have on all night in the bedroom . Our bedroom has no direct access to the outdoors and as its in the middle of the bungalow it gets very stuffy, hot and airless in there so the fan makes a big difference when trying to sleep. We only have a very small bungalow.

We dont leave mobile phone and other chargers plugged in as we always put them away after use else we never find them again!

Our bungalow is already well insulated we have cavity wall insulation and a huge wad of loft insulation, so we rarely have the heating or gas fire on even in winter we have it on only in the coldest of cold snaps.

We have a boiler for our hot water and heating.

Surely the tropical fish tank, the bedroom fan and my treadmill wouldn't cost that much?

andytwonames

GhostHunter wrote: »

:eek:


Just opend another letter I received today from our Gas & Electric supplier (we had the bill statement yesterday) was expecting it to be a general letter to say prices are going up.

It was to tell me they are increasing our monthly Direct Debit to £130 a month starting in August

I have no way to pay that, am struggling with £50 a month (combined bill) and as we are almost £400 in DEBIT with them (I found out yesterday to my shock) I cant ditch and switch as they will want payment in full first!

_pale_

You're really having a bad run of things. There WILL be a way out but I'm not sure that many on here will have experienced ALL of the issues you are facing right now.

Try phoning the national debt line. http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/ They are a friendly bunch and they know what's what and are more likely to know the answers.

GhostHunter_3

Thanks, I have tried National Debtline online calculator already but they show I have more going out than coming in so again cant help, just like cccs & payplan

More bad news I have just received an email from Co-op bank to say they have declined my application to open an online account with them.

Will it ever end?