Hi folks, we joined a debt managemetn plan with immediate finance a couple of months back after over a year trying to directly sort things with our creditors, I know that immediate finance have been paying £1 per month to each as agreed to keep the debt alive, however my wife has rung me to say one of the catalogues has sold the debt to a debt collector who is now chasing for it, is this legal? as I understand it they are not allowed to as long as you have made an effort to pay? will be ringing immediate financial when I get home to see what is happening but would like some advice first, thanks

Just need a bit of advice about my DMP. I'm expecting a pay rise in April and would like to save some of it to help pay for my wedding in September when i call them to give them my new budget. Does anyone know if this is possible, or will the banks see it as an unnecessary expense? I thought the DMP was going to be a life saver, while it has obviously eased stress it also makes me feel like my life is on hold. We are getting married in September and hoping my future father in laws will make it until then as he is quite ill, if it wasn't for his illness we would probably be putting it off because of the money. Regardless of this i only intend on getting married once and I still want to have my dream wedding so I feel like i need to contribute so that i can have more input.

I've been managing a DMP directly with my creditors for several years now and have never missed a payment. I'm currently 3 months pregnant and with the prospect of 6 months off work on the horizon from Sept this year, I wanted to contact my creditors and ask them to accept a drastically reduced payment for 12 months, while I am pregnant and then on maternity leave, with normal payments to resume once I am back at work. I would put the money I usually pay them to once side to help pay my priority debts while I am off work as SMP does not cover what I have to pay out as well as the cost of having a child. Does anyone have any experience of doing this? Or an advice about the best way to go about it?

Hi Just wondered if a loan account falls into arrears and goes into a DMP, whether the PPI payment is still included on the debt or is taken off?. I have a 2 loans that ended up being paid off via a DMP. Admittedly I do not have all the paperwork as I couldn't cope with the amount of debt at the time but on the paperwork I have it doesn't seem to have been cancelled. I am looking to claim back PPI but I'm not sure if I only paid it until the account went into a DMP or if the entire cost of the loan and PPI was sent to a debt recovery agency.

Hi I'm just about to enter into an IVA if all goes well (creditors meeting 25th March) so wrote to my current Debt Managment company to inform them to cancel my DMP with them selves with immediate effect. They emailed me today saying that want a termination fee of 1 months payment to close the account down. I emailed them back asking for documentation that I had signed agreeing to a termination fee in any sort of contract as I knew nothing about this procedure. Have I done the right thing and are they allowed to do this? Thanks M

Hi All First of all, I'm not overly convinced this is the correct area for this thread so please move if needs be (although it doesn't seem to fit in any category ) I have sent my SAR to Gregory Pennington so I can see exactly what I have been charged for doing what. My question is what is deemed as an "excessive charge"? Does it depend on the size of the debt or is there a scale used or a "suggested amount"? I'm a bit clueless here really but after spending 4 or 5 years paying off this debt I want to make sure I wasn't shafted too badly:D (Already guessing I was lol) Thanks Ustasi

I have been asked if I can help a friend to manage their debt problems. After a troubled relationship broke down her partner disappeared leaving her with considerable debts. These were mainly on credit cards in her name, although at the time she hadn't realised quite how much he had run up the debt before finally vanishing. She accepted responsibility and approximately 5 years ago she voluntarily entered a dmp agreement with a non fee charging company. There were three main debts, an RBS credit Card (£14500), Natwest recoveries (£25000) and Santander (£12000) She has reclaimed PPI in respect of the Natwest one which managed to recover approximately £10,000, but no ppi is due from the others. She has never missed a payment. Where she feels let down is that last August after having paid off about £15000 to the RBS debt the DMC stopped making payments to them in the shared belief that that debt had been settled. She continued to pay the same amount and the balance was split between the other outstanding debts. RBS then issued a default notice saying that she still owes almost £9000 because they didn't freeze the interest and charges etc have been added to the debt over the last 5 years. She has contacted them direct and they have told her she 'sounds like she can afford to pay it so, tough, and she has paid for the last 5 years so if it takes her another 20 years then she shouldn't have got into debt in the first place'. After this last comment she was crying so much she just hung up on them. She has contacted the DMC who have said that it's not their fault because it is down to the banks discretion whether they freeze interest and she should have checked at the start of the DMP because it is her responsibility to check these details not theirs. even though they were clearly under the impression this was the case and the debt was finished they are offering no support apart from reinstating the payments to RBS. After one call to RBS they did offer to credit her with the £12 default fee. for a debt of £14500 she has now paid £16300 but still owes another £9000. This is just the RBS debt. She is at her wits end and is really beginning to suffer from the stress of this seemingly never ending saga. She thinks the interest has been frozen on the others but isn't sure, as far as I know has never requested a copy of the credit card agreements and apart from the ppi claim has not claimed any charges back (I thought that window was closed now). I'm not really sure where the best place is for her to start. She is willing and I think capable of managing the debt herself if she thought that the money she was paying was clearing the debt and not just taking her two steps forward and then one and a half steps back because of the interest. Any suggestions or advise would be very gratefully received.

I have contacted Step Change (formerly CCCS) to start a DMP, one of the loans involved is an almost £800 with 247 Money Box. (along 7 more) The due date is tomorrow, I still haven't received anything from the DMP company and I asked them about this but still no reply. What should I say to them?, I am not gonna pay of course, Step Change says in his web I think that in this cases you should make a payment, even when not full, just to show willingness to pay.. but I don't know. What do you advise? Thanks a lot!

I’m looking for some advice regarding my current DMP please if anyone can help. This is a little long winded, so I will try to stick to the pertinent points. I have been with a DMP for a few years now and all has gone well until now (it’s a fee charging DMP). Back in June of 2012 I noticed that I hadn’t received a monthly statement of payments made to creditors so I contacted the provider to ask whether payments had been made as I hadn’t received the statement. They said they would check and get back to me. The next thing I knew was when they sent me a letter about a week later saying that they were looking for new ways to help their clients and that they were introducing a debt reduction plan. This gave me the explanation that I was looking for regarding missing statement for June. I discussed with them the debt reduction plan and agreed that I would go for it on the proviso that they would keep me updated regarding progress and status of the programme. Essentially, what they do as part of this plan is SAR each creditor and then claim back any unfair charges and/or PPI on my behalf. I agreed to go onto this plan early in July. I continued to make my monthly payments, and token payments were being sent to my creditors until as the DMP put it ‘a true balance was provided by each creditor’. In September I contacted the DMP by e-mail to ask for an update as I had not received any communication from them. I was e-mailed back stating that PPI claims and credit agreement requests had been sent to each creditor and they would update me in due course. At this point I decided to drop my monthly fee to cover the token payments (all additional monies are supposedly in a ‘holding account’ until all information is received, etc. and then pro rata payments are meant to resume. I then heard nothing from them so e-mailed again in December to be told again that they are currently sending PPI claim requests, blah, blah, blah. I replied stating that I thought this had been done months ago as I had received the same response months ago – I told them that I though that creditors had 8 weeks in which to respond to PPI claims. They told me to be patient and that they couldn’t put a timescale on when they would hear back. I tried to ring them on 4 January and they kept cutting me off so I e-mailed asking them to call me. They never did. I rang them on 7 January and spoke to someone and asked for an update – someone was meant to call back but I’m still waiting today. I e-mailed them on 8 January saying that I was still waiting and would someone call me and guess what? I’m still waiting. So, enough is enough! I e-mailed them on Friday of last week to tell them that their reluctance to provide me with an update leaves me with the view that they have done very little on my debt reduction programme and that I want them to cancel it. I also told them that I want them to refund the money that is apparently sitting in my ‘holding account’. I also asked them for a copy of their complaints procedure I am extremely dissatisfied with their lack of support, etc. You’ve guessed it – still no reply. I’m now really suspicious – I have cancelled the standing order and will be contacting each of my creditors myself to manage my own DMP. Has anyone please got any advice on how to proceed with this – they have about £1700 in my ‘holding account’ and have let me down badly. I would be really grateful for any help, advice or guidance anyone can offer me. Sorry for the long post, but I needed to give you all of the info. Cheers.

Hi all. Looking for some reassurance if thats possible. DMP has been set up and running since August 2012. The majority of creditors have been really positive and supportive through the entire process which has really helped. The only sticking point at the moment is we have had notification from stepchange (cccs) that 2 of our payments have been returned and an ongoing increase in rbs current account balance. 1.Payday UK (approx balance £800) are no longer accepting payments from stepchange on our behalf....and at present my wife is receiving calls from Credit Resource Solutions insisting she contact them asap. I understand that CRS is a DCA working on behalf of/ under the same umbrella as payday uk but we hve had no written communication from payday uk informing us of a change of arrangements. 2.Our payment to RBS personal loan (approx balance £11000) has also been returned, with the account no longer able to view on online banking. 3. Our rbs current account was sitting just below our £600 overdraft limit when we entered into our DMP. During that process we slipped over that limit by £4 or so. I have attempted to write to the rbs to ask them for support with our dmp but we notice now that our current account balance is now approx £1200 ......about £600 in charges. Help?

Hi there, I hope that somebody may be able to help me here and that the information is clear. I have had debt problems for years and years as well as mental health problems. For the best part of 15 years, I have banked with Barclays Bank and have constantly relied on the overdraft and the reserve usage fee, meaning that between £22-£88 would be coming out of my account every month. In February of last year, I had a particularly bad episode and had much less control of my finances than usual. I took out payday loans and maxed out credit cards. I finally came to my senses in March and started a DMP with CCCS, who were brill and at the same time I wrote to Barclays, asking them to stop all the payments to Speed Credit. At this time my account was £550 (£50 of this was reserve) The problem is that Barclays claimed not to have received this letter and then started charging me for the unsuccessful payments and being over my limit and they were ringing me constantly on my landline, mobile. They claimed that they had not received any paperwork from the CCCS, even though I had checked with them several times, and more worryingly that no money had gone to pay off my account. The stress of everything really had a negative impact on my mental well being that it was very difficult to function, so it was difficult to keep on at them. I wrote them a letter recorded delivery to complain, and received a phone call from a manager, saying that they had no evidence trail therefore no charges could be refunded to me. She also said that she would send me letter to that effect, she didn't. Eventually in July, after another threaten to default letter, I rang them up and insisted that they check all their records of a payment. They found payments made since April but insisted that they had still not received the paperwork. As it happens, my DMP was under review so I was able to pay more to my creditors, therefore they would have received a new batch of paperwork. Since then, I have not received any correspondance from them. Today, I checked my credit report and Barclays have reported a default, with months of missed payments, with the total sum of the debt at £975, that means that they have charged me £400 because they charged me for not paying them and ignoring my requests to stop speed credit emptying my account. I'm coping much better now and would like to know if I would be able to complain. I would like to dispute the debt and maybe get back some of the reserved charges back. Do I have any chance of winning? Thank you guys, I have been following the forum for a while and it helps to know that you are not alone.

MBNA sold debts that belonged to both me and my husband. Idem bought mine, Moorcroft bought my husbands. I emailed Idem regarding reduced payments that I would make, and eventually they responded agreeing to my reduced amount. However, Moorcroft ignore emails (sent day after day) and they will not reply despite my husband requesting that they not call, but put in writing instead. They call anyway, and to whomever called, I asked them not to call, but to respond to my husband's emails - however, the chap then called my husband's mobile immediately! I got a statement from Idem, and in exactly the same marked envelope (same return address, same statement format) my husband had one from Moorcroft. Does anyone know if this is the same company??? It's really cheesing me off that Moorcroft ignore all the emails. Also, they're sneaky so-and-so's: they are based hundreds of miles away from us, and yet they call the landline using a local number that they must buy to use, to look like they're someone local calling us - idiots! It doesn't take long for me to recognise the number and ignore it. But, they're making me so mad!!! I think I'm wasting my time re-sending the same emails but at least it proves the point that they're ignoring us, dispite contacting them on a daily basis!

please help i'm having kittens, I have set up a DMP with Step change and am terrified they won't accept the plan. Has anyone had experience of this? will they phone all the time? I have emailed step change with my fears and they keep reassuring me but its been two weeks now and i've had no confirmation that they'll accept. they are offering £70. Littlewoods apparently knew nothing of the DMP. Im so panicked i'm wondering if i've made things worse I can't believe i've got myself into so much trouble

I have already submitted a ppi claim to Natwest which I believe is with the calculations dept! 2 questions really. 1) They have just requested authority from my husband as the main policy holder which has really bugged me as this is the first time since the claim was submitted so surely they should have requested this before. Delay tactics? 2) We are on a DMP with cccs atm and the company I am claiming against are 1 of our creditors. The claims are for 4 closed loan accounts. The remaining loan account has already been ccj'd and has a court order to pay a set amount each month. My quextion is, can they or are they likely to offset any claim award against this account with a court ordered payment in place already. I could really do with the payment to fix a few house problems and fix my car which I need for work. any remaining would go to our credittors but I think it should go pro rata not just to natwest. Have any of you guys had the cheque straight to you? I don't intend to waste the money but think it should be my decision who get what! I am also considering a self managed dmp as I don't think cccs have helped that much and were useless when natwest took us to court.

Hi all, in a nutshell we are up the creek without a paddle with money.. or lack of it... and would be really grateful if anyone can help us to help ourselves please. Background is-dont think it makes any difference to how we continue but is how we got here so will put you in the picture... ....hubby is a fulltime student in his 2nd year of a 3 yr degree, I was a self employed nail tech working fulltime (and some) up until july 2011 when I ceased trading to have our little boy who is almost 1. We now have 3 children-one in comp, one in juniors, plus baby Since July this year we have been living on student finance, child benefit and child tax credits (since my maternity allowance stopped). Had a few problems along the way with getting ANY other help we were entitled to including free school meals, housing benefit, healthy start vouchers. Still dont know the exact reason why they were keep saying we didnt qualify but suspect it was due to tax credits not updating their systems correctly for months until I rang every Tom Dick and Harry to get it sorted including CAB who confirmed we should be getting them but the 'authorities' concerned still wouldnt accept this??? with determination I got everything exept healthy start vouchers backdated including 600+ in housing benefit (which was calculated wrongly TWICE by South Tyneside Borough Council might I add..) Usual story, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul and the debts we were once managing to pay pretty well are now totally consuming us. These debts include 3 online catalogues, 3 credit cards, 2 payday loans, 1 store card, and an overpayment of wages by a previous employer due to them not crossing their T's and dotting their I's when hubby finished work but legally we have to repay back to South Tyneside Council I have been scanning through past threads and have had a good look at a DIY DMP which sounds good, but also read things such as requesting CCA's and something els about waiting then letting the debts default you. ...these parts have confused me a bit as there's so much to take in and I'm just not sure what we should be doing first, CCA, DMP, something else?? Obviously would love to save our credit file from being totally wrecked but dont know if thats possible.. .seems DMP or default stays on file for 6 years from DMP completion/date of default. We dont have ANY CCJ's and the only letter we have had was today as we missed one of the catalogue payments last statement. PDL is due for payment on 17th and then the other on 2nd Feb(I think). Have printed out a letter to give to bank so they stop all CPA from my bank and have just applied for another account should they mess me about. Can anyone please advise us which of the aforementioned steps we should take first if any????? Any more info please ask... Thanks so much guys

Hello out there, thanks for maintaining such a great forum - i was wondering if anyone would be able to lend their wisdom to my predicament. I recently found myself jobless and juggling a number of payday loans - in scrambling for work and having no sociable hours to work with my payday loan providers i approached Debt Reverse - and established a DMP - the first payment has yet to be made but i'm hesitant to send it as despite DebtRev' describing a 'good working relationship' with my payday lenders, i have still received incessant contact from them ( i'm told this is all normal ahead of the first payments being made as part of the DMP - and i do expect something of it from the payday sharks - but the additional costs i've incurred in this period seem ludicrous) i have even had to send a token payment outside of the DMP myself to one lender? as instructed by DebtRev'.. . They are otherwise very curtious and allways at the other end of the phone but ahead of making my first payment to them i was looking for some insight from you guys and girls, i find it hard to place stock in 5 star reviews i find online... Many thanks for any info you can provide!

Hi everyone, Basically between me & my husband we have £18,000 of debt. £6,000 - Santander (Car HP) £5,990 - Lloyds TSB (Overdrafts) £1,700 - Top up for Car HP finance £2,000 - Hitachi capital (CSL sofa) £1,700 - ISME catalogue £700 - Next directory This is around £1,000 per month, NOT paying off the overdrafts, just interest! Hubby earns £1200 a month and i am unemployed due to a terminal illness. We have 2 children. Monthly income is £1600. So once petrol and food/baby items have been paid for, we're left with nothing. I have looked into a payplan DMP, and have been offered it at £330 a month, then £240 for car HP as they can not take that on. I have read that they often can't stop interest and that gets added on at the end of the plan, meaning we'd need to pay for a long longer. Does anyone have any advice for us, should we be taking this path? Or are there other options?

Hi all. This is the first time I have posted here but am now at my wits end with LINK /IDR Finance. After a number of months struggling to deal with my credit card debts I decided to go on a debt management plan through CCCS ( now step change). LINK /IDR had accepted the amount that was aggreed ie a monthly payment of 43 pounds for a debt of £3,415.14. They didn't receive money because of mis-communication between cccs and link/idr. I wasn't aware of the problem until I recieved a letter saying that I have incurred a Litigation Charge of £102. I received a ccj claim form a day after. On speaking to cccs and link it turns out that because there was a discrepancy between them about the account number the payments were not recieved and after a couple of months of non payment they have now gone down the ccj route. I accept now that I will have to go through the ccj process(which I am gutted about . I began the debt management plan to avoid this in the first place!) but I am wondering would there be any point in trying to go down the route of a cca? Or is it too late for that? Any advice or help would be very much welcomed. Just to add briefly. I spoke to MBNA about the account they said that the account was sent to LINK/IDR for collection. I cannot remember if it had merely been transferred or sold to them. Seeing as the service dept department is closed weekends I will have to wait till Monday to pursue that.

Please could someone advise me about my issues. I've already spoken to CCCS and was told that my options were either bankruptcy or token payments. Background: Currently working part time and earning just enough to cover a "low" budget according to CCCS's standards. Had health problems, including hospitalised. Now I need to get into a career which will allow me to work for the next few decades. Debt: Approx £28K over 6 credit cards (highest is £6k, lowest is £2.5K) and 1 overdraft. I was advised that I need to be in a position to pay the debt off in under 10 years so CCCS won't sort out a DMP for me.In my case, what I really need to do it pay reduced for around 4.5years. Then I'll be in a position to be making larger payments. In 6 years I need to co-sign for a re-mortgage of the family house. Currently NOT in my name in anyway. All debts are on my file with Equifax and most likely enforceable. Question: At the moment the only attraction for token/DMP is that I can keep two credit-rebuilder cards to boost my credit over the next 6 years. However if I risk getting some random default say 3 years from now if the bank sees my CR file and doesn't like me using it, then my record is tarnished for 9 years, not 6! I also wanted the option of using the credit card due to the inherent protection against fraud, purchases over £100 etc. Eventually I was planning on CCA and SAR'ing all of them as I set aside money each month for postal orders. I should have made a thread on here earlier and forgone the waiting time for CCCS appt. On the plus side, I now now for certain that I'm not eligible for any benefits or support from the State. Questions below and in earlier paragraph with “question” in bold. Do you think the creditors will accept token payments until July 2017, higher reasonable payments thereafter and consider that a DMP and not default me? CCCS said that they aren't able to negotiate that kind of variable DMP at the moment. I'd of course be frank about my health issues, how I'm studying pt time then fulltime, difficulty finding more work at present etc. However CCCS said that the banks probably won't care about my personal circumstances nor accept a DMP on such a low level of repayment (without defaults on my record and/or passing it onto an agency. Agency might accept it though...). so...DMP, bankruptcy, IVA, token payments or what? Thanks

hi all i have debts with around 7 different lenders owing around 10k in total. i am currently earning around 1300 a month my rent is 250 and i pay family debts of 600 a month. I am thinking about going down the dmp route as i am struggling to afford the monthly payments. my question is will they accept me if im paying out family debts? these have to be paid i cant not pay them. are these priority debts compared to my unsecured debts? any help will be helpful thanks

Help please, I am a Newbie and have been reading lots of threads but I am now totally confused. I had two credit cards with MBNA and they agreed to my repayment offer. They subsequently sold on the debts. The first DCA have honoured my agreement with MBNA and have only written to me once telling me this. However, the second debt was sold off and I immediately started receiving calls from DLC. I refused to discuss my situation with them over the phone and told them to write to me, which they did, I sent them I & E, but they said repayment was too low (but never told me how much they wanted), I told them that I had an agreement with MBNA but they still refused to honour the agreed repayments. I have received letters from their solicitors to inform me that they would proceed with court action if I failed to pay the full outstanding amount. Which I again responded with the proposed repayment. They have now started court proceedings 'to obtain Judgement for payment forthwith then applying for a Charging Order' but then state 'the Judgement will not be enforced if you maintain the payments at the proposed rate' to be reviewed in six months. I have now received the court papers what do I do now?

Hello, I'm new to this sight but have been reading several posts and would like to put my situation to you (developed over many years which I am ashamed of). I have a DMP with the CCCS for debts around £67000 unsecured and have been successfully paying off my plan to date. I've had this DMP since 2009. I moved to Australia just over a year ago without telling the CCCS (had a job opportunity and was afraid they wouldn't let me go - in retrospect I should have told them!), and now my review is due - in fact a little late. If I tell them I am now in Australia, which I think I should do, will this affect my DMP and do you think the creditors will not accept the review especially as I haven't told them of my position? Should I let them know my Australian address and telephone numbers? I have a house in the UK with no equity that I know of and the mortgage is with NRAM, if the review is not accepted, is it likely that the creditors will want the house sold? The situation gets worse - the mortgage is for about £199000 with an additional secured loan of around £47000. Last valuation of the house last year was for £250000. I have been renting the house out to my stepson but he's now moving out and now I will be renting the house to new tenants. I have no property here in Australia and just rent a house. Could I possibly ask your thoughts on this please?

Can someone please offer me some advice on ths matter please, i have some registered defaults on my credit file from credit card companies for the last 3 years, i am in a dmp with payplan with who i make a token payment to all companies as i am unemployed. I have written to all card companies asking for my cca, some have replied that they cannot find any paperwork and that the account is unenforcable, and others have said they cannot find the cca and will suspend payment to the account until the cca is found. 1, what is the position on this, do i carry on paying them or just stop until they find the paperwork,if they ever do? 2, if they dont get back to me until after the 6 year time period for the defaults has elapsed, and the defaults are removed , what then? 3,if i was to be given a cash sum to make an offer of a f+f payment to all is there any benefits to pay them off now,before the 6 years, if accepted, or just keep paying the token payments until the 6 years has passed and defaults are removed anyway, am i still liable to keep paying after the defaults are removed, until the total debt is repaid, as at this rate it would take me 25+ years to clear with the token payments, i make to them. THANK YOU FOR ANY ADVICE ON THIS MATTER

Hi, Just wanting a little point in the right direction if anyone can help please! Last month I lost my job and now myself and my 5 year old daughter are back living with my mum as could not afford the rent on our flat. I currently have the following debts: £6138 Halifax -have told them my situation and CCA'd them, got a signed agreement back (unlucky me) and I have missed one payment which they have sent me a collection letter for, it has also sent me over the my credit limit with the late payment charge and interest. Grrr Cooperative Bank Loan - £8232.18 is the balance showing on my online account although I'm sure the settlement figure would be more, they don't yet know of my situation due to me having my only current account with them - (I've been accepted by HSBC for a current account, just trying up the loose ends on that one.) but I'm up to date on payments due to my mum bailing me out this month. (Loan was originally taken out in 2010) £597 Cooperative credit card also currently up to date with payments at the moment (card was taken out 2009) Around £1000 to another bank , can't remember who without checking my paperwork, for an iMac I got 3 months ago, when i first got wind I might be made redundant (whilst my credit rating was still ok) with the hope of setting up my own photography business if I did. (I did) So I'm not quite sure what to do. I've gone on the CCCS's website and filled in their questionnaire which pointed me to a DMP, but without the iMac debt I would be (just) under the £15000 DRO limit. Can I even get a DRO or do a DMP if I am self employed (although not earning much as just starting out!)? Should I send the iMac back? Or can it be disregarded as a personal debt as it's for business use? Also I don't think I've been mis-sold PPI in the past (I had a loan with the Halifax back in 2004 which was paid off but can't find any details on it) and I think my only late charges have been in this last month with the Halifax Thank you for any advice in advance. Thriftyloz

Hi there, new to the forum but have read a number of threads where the knowledgeable responses give really good advice and a sense of hope for people in tough situations. The problem is I’m unsure as to what I need to do in my circumstance, I know it’s not unique but I find it difficult gathering all the information and knowing what do next etc, hence this post, where I’m hoping to get some step by step pointers if you like. Some background info; a little over a year ago things came to a head where all our ‘disposable’ income was being swallowed up paying the minimum payments to our creditors. We faced up to our debt, which amounted to £24k, and although it was a tough time, we entered into a DMP with payplan. We have just completed our first annual review, and thanks to a change in our circumstances we were able to up our monthly payments from £100/month to £350/month . Roughly our outstanding debt stands as follows: MBNA (Credit card): £13k – default served, interest and charges frozen, has now been passed to Link Financial ltd. Santander (loan): £8.5k – default served, interest not frozen so now owe £1k more than last year HSBC (Credit card & overdraft): £2k – default served, interest and charges frozen Remaining debt on store cards - defaults served, interest and charges final frozen! Although we haven’t really moved on in reducing our debt (particularly thanks to Santander’s interest charge!!), we are in a much better place financially and can face the future optimistically. We have moved all our banking to Nationwide, and their online banking facility really helps us manage our money. Our aim is to be debt free within the next 5 years, a tough but realistic target we feel, but having completed our first year, I would like some guidance which could possibly reduce this time frame, particularly if Santander are going to keep applying their interest charges! So my questions to the good people of the forum are: 1. Interest and charges have been added at the start of the DMP, is it possible to get these removed? 2. Is there a template letter I can send to Santander to get interest frozen, and possibly remove the interest applied recently? 3. Our credit card with MBNA was taken out pre 2007, does this make it unenforceable? If so what are my options with repaying this debt, and how do I go about proving this? 4. Finally is there any other things I should of done/be doing? I apologise for the length of this post, and hopefully I’ve posted it in the correct forum, Thank you in advance... Trev