DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 12

ploppy57 wrote: »

Anybody got experience of sending off CCA's to L*nk? Sent the letters on 31st Jan and have heard nothing back from them. PR* were happy to out our accounts on hold, but no communication from L*nk at all. Would you just wait, or write again and chase a response. Currently paying them £1 a month to each account.

I had sent 3 CCA’s to Link 6 months ago. Heard nothing. At the moment debt UE. don’t intend to follow them up or pay unless they produce the original paperwork. Some people one on here hadn’t heard from them for well over a year. Just sit tight

MaryMorrow wrote: »

Hi
I hope this is the right place to post this, I am currently on a DMP with StepChange and about 18mths into the plan (2yrs 8mths to go) but have now reached the point where both Virgin and Halifax are adding almost as much interest as I'm paying them !!!128555; I've tried repeatedly to get them to stop and all they say is that I'm not in financial hardship anymore because I'm paying more than 1% of the balance!
So I'm wondering if I'm better off moving away from StepChange and doing my own DMP? That way I can reduce my payments to the creditors that keep adding interest? Has anyone done this or have any super duper ways to get them to stop adding interest?
Thanks

I have no experience of Virgin - but certainly have with Halifax and also Barclaycard, both of whom were a nightmare. Halifax continued to charge interest and refused to default us for over a year and as soon as we (via SC) started to pay what would have been the equivalent of a minimum monthly payment to Barclaycard they basically put our account back to a 'normal' status and reinstated interest :mad: Eventually, after much letter writing and complaining both companies ended up defaulting and selling the debt on at which time interest stopped (although I had to push for backdated defaults, but that's another story).

So, to answer your question - yes, go self-managed and reduce them both to token (or no) payments until they default and sell on. Set the money aside and save towards either an emergency fund or F&Fs down the line. Stepchange are great in so much as they help people get themselves out of what is often a very stressful situation - but their method of allocation and very stringent policy of playing 'fair' to the creditors allows for no flexibility even when they know creditors are refusing to stop interest charges because they are getting a payment above whatever the companies threshold for stopping interest is. A catch 22.

MaryMorrow wrote: »

Hi
I hope this is the right place to post this, I am currently on a DMP with StepChange and about 18mths into the plan (2yrs 8mths to go) but have now reached the point where both Virgin and Halifax are adding almost as much interest as I'm paying them !!!128555; I've tried repeatedly to get them to stop and all they say is that I'm not in financial hardship anymore because I'm paying more than 1% of the balance!
So I'm wondering if I'm better off moving away from StepChange and doing my own DMP? That way I can reduce my payments to the creditors that keep adding interest? Has anyone done this or have any super duper ways to get them to stop adding interest?
Thanks

I agree with Suseka - go self managed, drop to zero or token payments. SC are great, but are very inflexible when it comes to situations like this.