MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

[henryJSB]

Hi all, around a year ago I decided to get on a debt management plan as I had amassed debts of £6000 through credit cards, payday loans and overdrafts. At the point of going on my plan I was very naive and didn't realise I could obtain a plan that didn't charge, so I went with Gregory Pennington. I have been on a plan with them for a while until recently my circumstances changed. I recently lost my job and now no longer have the ability to make my payment each month. I've decided to take this chance to move away from them and go on a plan with stepchange.

I tried to ring up today and cancel the plan with them, and they were very aggressive in trying to get me to stay. They told me that my token payment plan with wouldn't be enough to keep creditors off my back and not take legal action, citing Northern Debt Recovery as one in particular that would make my life a living hell. They also told me that staying with Gregory Pennington would be better because the management fee they are paid means they can provide a better service with better resources. Is this true? Their final card was the fact I had been paying into an insurance plan that would potentially cover me from my loss of income. Whilst that might be true I am just very desperate to leave a fee paying DMP and join a charity in which all money is going to the creditors.

Does anyone have any advice here? Am I wrong to be leaving Gregory Pennington?

Thanks in advance.

[vint1954]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

There is no reason to pay for a DMP. Others will be along soon with better knowledge.

[MrsD]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Hi Henry

There is absolutely no reason as Vint says to be paying for any kind of DMP. It's fairly obvious they want you to keep paying for their share not to protect you from creditors which they won't anyway. Can you tell us a bit more about your DMP, what sort of debts are in it, how old they are and how much you were paying per month? It's useful to have the bald facts on your thread so that others can see what crooks these pay for DMP guys actually are.

There are quite a lot of options with debt, not all of them involve DMPs, so if you give us the detail, we can have a look and see what can be done. In the great scheme of stuff £6K is not huge and it can be sorted so try not to worry and get these bloodsuckers cancelled to-day. Be assertive and strong!

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Hi all, around a year ago I decided to get on a debt management plan as I had amassed debts of £6000 through credit cards, payday loans and overdrafts. At the point of going on my plan I was very naive and didn't realise I could obtain a plan that didn't charge, so I went with Gregory Pennington. I have been on a plan with them for a while until recently my circumstances changed. I recently lost my job and now no longer have the ability to make my payment each month. I've decided to take this chance to move away from them and go on a plan with stepchange.

Some questions:

1) How much are you paying per month to GP?
2) How much is their monthly fee?
3) How long is your DMP for?
4) Most important - do you have WRITTEN confirmation for ALL your creditors stating they have stopped interest and charges?

I tried to ring up today and cancel the plan with them, and they were very aggressive in trying to get me to stay. They told me that my token payment plan with wouldn't be enough to keep creditors off my back and not take legal action, citing Northern Debt Recovery as one in particular that would make my life a living hell.

Complete bollox - did they also tell you that being in a DMP doesn't prevent a creditor from taking legal action anyway? I'd bet they probably didn't!

They also told me that staying with Gregory Pennington would be better because the management fee they are paid means they can provide a better service with better resources. Is this true?

More bollox - Stepchange is actually funded by the finance industry so to say their resources are any less is ridiculous! And tbh as far as the 'service' goes they are doing NOTHING you can't do for yourself.

Their final card was the fact I had been paying into an insurance plan that would potentially cover me from my loss of income. Whilst that might be true I am just very desperate to leave a fee paying DMP and join a charity in which all money is going to the creditors.

What is this insurance plan? Is this something you took out through GP? If you've lost your job can't you claim on this insurance???

Am I wrong to be leaving Gregory Pennington?

No you're not - should have done it ages ago

[henryJSB]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Thanks guys for the responses. I'll start by answering some of your questions.

1. How much are you paying a month to GP?
It was originally 140, I then lowered it to 100.

2) How much is their monthly fee?
Unsure, I think it's around 25 pounds. Could be less or more though.

3) How long is your DMP for?
I think my last quote was around 8 years or so. Again, could be less or more.

4) Most important - do you have WRITTEN confirmation for ALL your creditors stating they have stopped interest and charges?

No, I don't.

5) Can you tell us a bit more about your DMP, what sort of debts are in it, how old they are and how much you were paying per month? It's useful to have the bald facts on your thread so that others can see what crooks these pay for DMP guys actually are.

It's a vast combination of debts from standard credit card debts to unsecured payday loans from companies like Wonga etc. Here's the actual rundown:
HSBC Overdraft
HSBC Credit Card
Capital One Credit Card
Aqua Credit Card/Capquest
MoneyShop
Reliable Collections
SpeedyCash
Speed Credit/Nothern Debt Recovery
Wonga
Vanquis

6) What is this insurance plan? Is this something you took out through GP? If you've lost your job can't you claim on this insurance???
Yeah, It's through Gregory Pennington and a third party company I think..I'm not entirely sure. I was in the process of claiming, but I've stopped and decided against it now. I know it sounds silly, but I don't really want anything to do with Gregory Pennington anymore. If I claimed on this insurance, it would cover my payments to GP. Except I don't want to be on a plan with GP anymore. So I decided to forget it and just go with stepchange and do a TPP.

Thanks again everyone for your responses, I really appreciate your help.

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Ok so heres the big issue:

You have nothing in writing that states your creditors have frozen interest and charges. So how do you know that the balances are actually being reduced?

Chances are, like many others discover, you will get to the end of your 8 year DMP only to have GP tell you that still have an outstanding balance with a few of your creditors as they have not frozen interest and charges and even still owe as much as your do now due to the increasing balances!

Here is my personal view of your debt portfolio:

HSBC Overdraft - depends on balance but you could take the overdraft UE route
HSBC Credit Card - possible chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started
Capital One Credit Card - very good chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started
Aqua Credit Card/Capquest - possible chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started
MoneyShop - they can go and whistle tbh
Reliable Collections - I'm guessing this is a catalogue debt?
SpeedyCash - Another payday loan and can go whistle for your money
Speed Credit/Nothern Debt Recovery - Is a PDL company that has shut up shop - tbh they can go whistle too
Wonga - As above
Vanquis - possible chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started

Have you read up on UE yet? I'd have a read through things here and see if this is something you'd like to consider - http://forums.all-about-debt.co.uk/s...enforceability

But at the very least ditch GP - they have taken advantage of you and actually not helped your financial situation one bit - but instead have behaved like blood sucking leaches.

[henryJSB]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Ok so heres the big issue:

You have nothing in writing that states your creditors have frozen interest and charges. So how do you know that the balances are actually being reduced?

Chances are, like many others discover, you will get to the end of your 8 year DMP only to have GP tell you that still have an outstanding balance with a few of your creditors as they have not frozen interest and charges and even still owe as much as your do now due to the increasing balances!

Here is my personal view of your debt portfolio:

HSBC Overdraft - depends on balance but you could take the overdraft UE route
HSBC Credit Card - possible chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started
Capital One Credit Card - very good chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started
Aqua Credit Card/Capquest - possible chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started
MoneyShop - they can go and whistle tbh
Reliable Collections - I'm guessing this is a catalogue debt?
SpeedyCash - Another payday loan and can go whistle for your money
Speed Credit/Nothern Debt Recovery - Is a PDL company that has shut up shop - tbh they can go whistle too
Wonga - As above
Vanquis - possible chance this is unenforceable depending on when the account was started

Have you read up on UE yet? I'd have a read through things here and see if this is something you'd like to consider - http://forums.all-about-debt.co.uk/s...enforceability

But at the very least ditch GP - they have taken advantage of you and actually not helped your financial situation one bit - but instead have behaved like blood sucking leaches.

Yeah, it is weird that my balances have barely moved I don't think since I started. Especially with some of the credit cards. Some looks like it's reduced, others not. It's all very confusing.

What do you mean by 'go whistle', do you mean not pay them? How's that possible?

I don't think any of my debts are UE. I say this because they are all debts that have been accumulated in the last 3 or 4 years. The earliest year I got one of my debts/cards was my HSBC credit card which was in 2008. The rest of my cards were all opened in 2010-11.

Needless to say I've found some of the validation I was looking for here - that I am right to be leaving GP, insurance plan or not. I've already sent everything through to stepchange so should be on the road to solving this asap. 6k probably doesn't seem like much to some but I'm still pretty young (23 years old) and to be saddled with this much debt already and a bad credit file is proving to be a horrific anchor. I just really want to get it sorted so I can move on with everything.

Thanks again SaltnVinegar.

[PriorityOne]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

I got my friend out of a DMP with Best Solutions about 3 years ago by writing, not 'phoning. Everything should be in writing.

After it was cancelled, she reduced all payments down to £1 a month and we informed her creditors (in writing) that's what she would be doing. They weren't best pleased about this and after trying to get her on the phone and failing miserably, the debts were eventually sold to debt collectors; none of whom have been able to substantiate any paperwork, let alone the correct balance alleged to be owing.....

Happy days

[henryJSB]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Is there a way I can cancel without speaking to them on the phone at all? I don't want to go through that conversation again if at all possible.

[PriorityOne]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Is there a way I can cancel without speaking to them on the phone at all? I don't want to go through that conversation again if at all possible.

In writing (as above) and by rec. delivery for peace of mind.

Don't ever talk to them on the 'phone....

[SaltnVinegar]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Yeah, it is weird that my balances have barely moved I don't think since I started. Especially with some of the credit cards. Some looks like it's reduced, others not. It's all very confusing.

Ok well that should be final nail in the coffin - the fact they have not placed such in writing, and the fact that your balances are not going down, says everything you need to know. You are paying GP to do NOTHING with your debts. You'd still be in the same place in 8 years time as you are now, but having a paid a huge amount of money to GP.

What do you mean by 'go whistle', do you mean not pay them? How's that possible?

. I mean they can F.O/play tag on the motorway/kiss backside. Payday Loans are the bottom of the pile when it comes to dealing with your debts - have any of the PDL balances reduced?

I don't think any of my debts are UE. I say this because they are all debts that have been accumulated in the last 3 or 4 years. The earliest year I got one of my debts/cards was my HSBC credit card which was in 2008. The rest of my cards were all opened in 2010-11.

Needless to say I've found some of the validation I was looking for here - that I am right to be leaving GP, insurance plan or not. I've already sent everything through to stepchange so should be on the road to solving this asap. 6k probably doesn't seem like much to some but I'm still pretty young (23 years old) and to be saddled with this much debt already and a bad credit file is proving to be a horrific anchor. I just really want to get it sorted so I can move on with everything.

Ok well if UE isn't an option then a sensible DMP may be the route to take here. But before we go there are you in any position to maybe make full and final payment offers?

[PriorityOne]

Re: MY DMP, my story and where I am now! (Advice needed)

Can I just add that I successfully challenged a £13K debt on behalf of a friend that was only around 4 years old.... so it's best not to assume anything at this stage :-)