Anyone familiar with Stepchange?

[SarahAndQuack]

This my DP's problem, not mine, but I'd really appreciate any help on offer.

In your experience, what happens when you come to the end of a DMP with Stepchange? My DP had a DMP and paid the full amount off every month without missing any payments. A month before we expected the plan to end, her account closed. She says she rang to confirm it was all paid off, but she wasn't able to get into the account itself.

Why would this happen?

(There's a lot more to this, by the way, but I don't want to write an essay!)

That's very strange.

When I had finished my dmp I recieved a letter telling me so and was still able to log into my account for at least a month after.

Can she log in?

I received a pack with a card congratulating me I was debt free. I'd spoken with them quite a lot before hand though as I'd negotiated a settlement figure. Give them a call, they are ridiculously helpful.

She may have had a letter or a card. A problem is that DP thinks she changed her address when we moved, but may not have done. Which does not help matters.

She claims when they rang them they were entirely unhelpful and simply replied that the account was closed.

I'm tempted to see if I can call myself as I don't understand why they'd suddenly close the account and not let her log back in.

Sorry , but it sounds odd. They are the most helpful people.

Is she telling the truth?

No, don't be sorry!

It sounds very odd to me too. I am very concerned whether she's telling the truth. That's part of my reason for posting. Although I cannot for the life of me imagine what she'd have got out of lying at that particular point.

She could be having financial trouble again op.

As I understand , the only reason for closing a SC account (other than dmp completion) would be non engagement. They really do support you , even if you miss a payment , as I did once.

Well, what's confusing to me is this. She says she initially rang Stepchange to ask why the account had closed a month early, and they said everything was paid off. Then we got notice it wasn't, and there was a (comparatively) small amount owing. This notice came from a debt collection agency. So she paid that.

She's just done an in-depth credit check, which doesn't show any unexpected debts on it. I wouldn't have been surprised, to be honest, to find she did have money problems, but what I don't understand is that the credit check seems to indicate she doesn't, and yet - apparently - Stepchange closed her account early, when she still had a month's debt to pay.

I really appreciate what everyone's saying, which seems to be I'm right to think something does not add up at all.

Sounds strange. Maybe they were writing to her at the old address if she didn't tell them she'd moved? And they closed the account because she never got back to them, rather than because the debt was paid off?

It's my understanding Stepchange will also close accounts if you don't have an annual review. Is that a possibility?

Okay , so sometimes SC's figures are slightly off. They do advice you to check with your creditors in the last few months of your dmp to make sure everything is right.

What I question is SC being unhelpful. I thought they were amazing.

Advise

@HappyWipings

Okay , so sometimes SC's figures are slightly off. They do advice you to check with your creditors in the last few months of your dmp to make sure everything is right.

What I question is SC being unhelpful. I thought they were amazing.

This. I had a DMP with PayPlan and their figures were way off what I actually owed at the end. It may be that when it came to it the DMP was actually paid and therefore the account was closed. Towards the end I called my creditors myself to get up to date balances although PayPlan were a bit weird about updating them more than once year for some reason.

@melonportal - that's really helpful to know; an annual review would have been due in May, so maybe that's what happened.

@HappyWipings - that's interesting, that it's routine for them to suggest you check.

To be honest, my hunch is that DP simply didn't bother with any of this and hoped that, if the account was closed, it wasn't her problem any more.

I'm just trying to gather as much understanding as I can.