It is far easier to come to an agreement independently with three creditors than with ten or more! I once took 18 months to effect an informal settlement for a client with two main banks, offering them a full and final settlement. Never again. To those commercial debt management companies out there, battling for clients like this every day, I salute you!
Well I know three is a lot easier than ten and as I said I may have been lucky, when I first started this DMP business people were saying Barclaycard were horrible to deal with but they've been very good to me so far.
If all goes according to plan I should of paid off all £30,000 of my debt in 7 years from start to finish which I dont think is to bad. Would take a whole lot longer if a percentage of my repayments were going to a management company!
I know it won't work for everybody but dealing with everything myself and not paying any extra fees has worked for me.
You have done a great job, and your post is bound to make others in a similar position give it a go. Most of the banks I speak to say they wish their customers would try to come to arrangements with them directly, sadly in reality this rarely happens well.
Hi Mel, Im surprised by this as it is contrary to the impression given by call centres which are really our only point of contact with a person in their banks. Many more people would liaise with banks directly if they trained their call centre staff so they are more helpful and informative. I was actually told by one creditor that we couldn't come to a payment arrangement because the reason I couldn't pay was debt with other creditors...didn't go on to explain about DMPs tho! It's not meant to be a criticism; more an observation that you might pass on. If haven't said it a thousand times already!
I think most of the banks know that their call centres are lacking good training and quality staff, but most of them I deal with are working hard to improve customer service.
You sometimes find it is a lot easier to sort out yourself once the debts have been sold on. Those companies then are usually quite happy to freeze interest and charges until the debt is paid off.
I found them to be quite polite as well!
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Its the usual story, if you are polite and senisble about the whole thing then they are usually the same with you. So far ( touch wood) I havn't had a single call from any of my creditors that I would consider to be rude or to forceful.
I'll be the first to admit that when a creditor rings me for a review there's always a fear that they are going to suddenly demand that I pay the whole debt off in 7 days or they are sending the baliffs round but so far that hasn't happened
Started all this in Jan 2009 and have to say in reality it's been pretty easy.
I think that this is a pretty difficult subject from the perspective of a bank callcentre.
As much as they want to help, and train their staff to help, it's not easy to build up a full picture of the other debts held with other institutions. With that in mind it's hard for them to work out what share of the disposable income that they can fairly expect to receive.
Of course this is a simpler situation with fewer creditors to consider.
A debt management plan proposal demonstrates the existence of other creditors and that they are being treated fairly compared to each other. That's why creditors are happy to work with debt management organisations (of whatever type) as it can save them a lot of work as well as helping to ensure prompt and regular distribution of payments.
Andrew Graveson
Bright Oak Ltd
UK Debt Management Company
Website: www.brightoak.co.uk
