Anyone on DMP or thinking about it?

[therealmrsk]

After struggling for the past 2-3 years trying to keep on top of debts, we are facing up to the fact that we need to do something. Paying minimum payments means we have barely touched the debts and in effect means we have spent all this time, going without food, stressing, just to make those payments and still we are struggling. I've been on a website today and made enquiries about a DMP with a charity who will sort it for free. I'm not sure???? It means we will default on everything (except mortgage) and although I'm not bothered about having more credit, the mortgage deal finishes in 12 months and I'm worried we wont be able to move it if its going to cost more!

I'm stressing about money constantly, but realise something has to be done.

You will struggle to remortgage if you are on a DMP, so ideally would be better off without doing it. You can contact your creditors and ask them to freeze the interest without defaulting, however it's up to the individual companies if they are happy to do this.

Have you gone through all your outgoings to see if you can cut back at all? This is (part of) what I used to do for people in my old job, even people who said they had cut everything right back could usually find other ways to save with a bit of guidance :)

We are with Pay plan, they are very very good - i would absolutely recommend them. I think your first stop should be the "National debt line" they have a great website. You need to be thinking about getting interest frozen etc, we have done this - we are now paying back about 15k of non priority debts over 11 years. Im a bit the worse for wine just now, but please please PM me if you want more info. Ive been through it all, and we are ok now, thanks to pay plan. The national debt line will also do DMP as will CCCs. They will talk you through the whole thing. They will be great.

The thing is, if you can't manage your debts you will start to default on your mortgage - so it really is worth it. I promise you, our lives are infinately better now. We had already defaulted though and were in serious debt, we have CCJs etc so our credit is fucked. Talk to the National debt line, it may well be that whilst your credit rating will be adversly affected, you still may be able to get another mortgage deal. FWIW our mortgage deal ended last year and our payments went DOWN, so you never know!

It is all very well cutting down and cutting down but if you are only making minimum payments you will never pay off the debts. We were paying over 200 a month on a credit card and i think only 10 of this was actually paying off any of the actual debt. Getting the interest frozen is a MUST. If you are in financial difficulties they have to be lenient. You will need to do an income and outgoings sheet, and it will need to be detailed, the national debt lines have great templates for this, it does the maths for you. Template letters to creditors etc.

im probably waffling, but really, DMP was the best thing we have ever done, we were borrowing our way out of debt and it just made things worse. Now we make one payment to them each month and we don't have to deal with all the bastards creditors personally, they do all of the negotiations for you.

They wont deal with priority debts such as fuel companies, council tax etc but will give you plenty of excellent advice to help you deal with this if you need to. I WISH someone had mentioned a dmp to us before we remortgaged, life woud be so much easier now.

Just to reiterate, be CAREFUL who you deal with - payplan, national debt line and CCCS are the only companies i know of that wont charge you for a DMP.

Thank you so much for your replies rockchick and lucy. I've been feeling so stressed for a few years and gradually its got to this point where I know deep down I cant carry on living like this. I really dont want to default, so I'm going to contact them today and see what my options are and have an application pack on the way from CCCS should we choose to do this.

At the moment, the minimum payments are being met, but we're not living, its a constant struggle (going without food) and barely touching the debts so I think a DMP has to be the best option. The mortgage deal is fixed until August next year, but as you know, the interest rates being so low, it will probably cost us less.

Its something I have never had to deal with before, I am soooo scared to make these calls. Do I just ask them to reduce the interest? What is the most I can ask for without them laughing in my face? a 6 month payment break is obviously out of the question!

Sorry this is a me rambling on but I'm at work and its hard to concentrate!

We have a DMP with Payplan too and it has been a lifesaver. We have nearly cleared 18k in 6 years. 6 months to go. Payplan are brilliant and will be able to help you