Debt management plans - anyone on one?

[solidgoldbrass]

How are you finding it? Are they going to make me account for every penny and penalise me for buying a chocolate bar as it's not 'essential'?

They told me to stop paying people. I stopped paying them.
They asked me to pay them £170 per month.
After the 4th month they told me that they could not help me.
So, I'd incurred extra charges, had people battering the door down practically, paid some company each month to do nothing.
I asked them to refund me, they refunded one month as the first three were the initial fees.

I personally contacted all my creditors, told them my situation, begged, pleaded and eventually came to an agreement to pay in monthly instalments - to be reviewed every 6 months. I did have to break down every bit of spend, but in fairness they were all really good and understood.

I now pay less than £170 per month towards my debts. :)

To summarise, don't use a debt management company, contact your creditors yourself - the personal touch goes a long way.

I'm not on one but after seriously looking in to it, the advice everyone offers is to go with one of the free agencies. As the poster above found to their cost, avoid companies that charge you like the plague.

Hope you get sorted.

Thanks, it's CCCS I've applied to. I've got about 11K to shift as well though I think some of it may be written off or reduced.

CCCS are superb - non judgemental, helpful and work out a realistic plan where every penny goes towards paying off yr debt, not adding to it!

I know everyone always says to use one of the free ones but when I was at the end of my teether and desperatly needed help I rang Chiltern (as they were at the top of the page when I googled) who have been fantastic, I know I have to pay them a fee but the fact that i wasnt made to feel like an idiot for getting into debt and that all I have to do is ring them and they sort out whatever problem I have is worth every penny of the fee. I recently moved house and had to reduce my payments by £100 per month for a couple of months, they sorted everything with my creditors and made it so easy, the relief I feel now im in a dmp cannot be explained

One of my cc has already been paid off and hopefully I will be debt free in 18mths (god I hope so were really struggling at the moment even with the dmp )

Just read that back and realise that I sound like im advertising so DISCLAIMER I do not work for Chiltern

I think I was put off because I did also ring a free service (cant remember the name) and the lady was very disparaging and made me feel worse than I already did so I immediatly rang Chiltern back and have been with them for a year now, I think because I can see my debts going down (quite quickly compared to what they were when I was trying to pay them off) I have stayed with them despite the fee, if the debts werent reducing I think I would definatly switch to CCCS

Also because my debts arent over a certain amount most companies wont help me, but debt is relative and to me even a few thousand is a lot to be paying back so didnt really want to wait till I was over £10,000.

Does CCCS have a minimum amount that you have to be in debt before they will help?

Well, have got the paperwork through from CCCS, am feeling a little unsure. THe payment they have suggested is really, really low - I could afford to pay back more each month and at this rate I will be paying these debts off for about 20 years. Should I ring them back and suggest they've made a mistake?

Oh right, that would make sense, getting rid one at a time. Mind you, the letter also says that they can't stop creditors refusing to accept the payment plan and continuing to seek payment, which is a bit worrying: how bad could that get?

Go to C.A.B for this they will help you for free, also your council should have a welfare rights officer who can contact debtors or make sure you with a reputable company.

I've gone with CCCS who don't charge and are government back 3doors, but thanks anyway.

www.payplan.com will also do all of this for free. I am on a debt management plan with them and they contacted my creditors on my behalf, did a budget with me & arranged to pay each creditor whatever I could afford per month. I can log in to the website to see how much I've paid, how much I owe, roughly how long I've got left, and how much is outstanding with each creditor.

They are totally legitimate and will not charge you anything for their help. They were recommended to me by my Trade Union and the Civil Service Benevolent Fund charity.

They are also honest about the fact that a DMP is not a magic get-out-of-debt-free card - not all creditors will freeze interest, and you do have to stick to it. Best of luck SGB.

Sorry, xposted and see that you've already arranged it. Yours sounds similar to mine - I also got the warning that creditors might still chase me, but thankfully they all accepted my/Payplan's offer.

Do you have a named contact at CCCS who you can forward any correspondence on to? I do, and find that reassuring on the odd occasion that I get standard-issue default notices etc.

Mine did too, much to my relief - I'd been warned that one in particular (a 'credit-building' 50% APR credit card co) were usually v reluctant to freeze interest etc. but thankfully they agreed.

My debt was relatively small (around £5k) but the interest rates were just hammering us - we could make minimum payments but weren't touching the debts themselves. All the companies will get back everything I borrowed, but they won't make any more money out of me...still, I suppose they'd rather have the debt repaid than have to write it off with bankruptcy, IVA etc.

OK, major problem: when I started sorting out the plan I had a new contract for freelance work. The client (like every other fucker I work for) dragged his feet on payment and has now said he isn't going any further with the project. Am I now going to get busted for fraud or misrepresentation or something? I really thought this job was guaranteed, in fact I was told it was guaranteed for 18 months, so told people like the landlord and the letting agency and indeed the debt managers that my income was about to stabilise. Only now it's crashed again.

solidgdbrass- can I ask how you've got in and are finding this?
I just applied to cccs as left in debt from exdp and struggling to clear it all. I'm hoping it will help me sort it all out at last