Hi Caroline,
If you are paying £188 per month towards debts of £41883 it would take eighteen and a half years from the start of the DMP to repay the full debt (presuming interest and charges have been frozen).
This isn't good news for you. It also isn't good news for your creditors. Some of them could be paying back a percentage of your monthly £188 contribution (to the DMP company) so they will not make a full recovery even in that long period.
I think therefore that your creditors would be delighted to consider a fair full and final setttlement offer. Perhaps you could ask your DMP company for a list of who they are currently paying for your debts. I'd bet that many of them are companies who have purchased your debts. They may have paid pennies in the pound for the debts and therefore an offer could equal a quick profit for them.
One idea might be to find out from a mortgage broker how much equity you could release from your home without your mortgage going up in cost by more than the £188 per month you pay to the DMP now.
If that raises a decent sum then you could have a really good chance of clearing debts and managing your ongoing finances in a sensible fashion.
You could handle the negotiation of the settlement yourself or pass it over to a company that would handle it on your behalf. If you do that I'd suggest that you choose a company that charges you a percentage of the saving negotiated. That way their motivation is the same as yours and if they fail it will not cost you anything.
Andrew Graveson
Independent Mortgage Broker & Bright Oak Debt Management
andrew@brightoak.co.uk
www.brightoak.co.uk