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Had a phone call today from my first creditor, Barclaycard. Wrote to them 10 days ago and sent them a cheque for £75.00, I'm using the debt help charity so doing it all myself. It wasn't to bad but I do feel Barclaycard are taking advantage of the situation a bit. They told me they had my proposal and my cheque but they were not accepting it!

After I'd stopped having my heart attack I heard him say they actually were willing to accept £84.00 a month. Well that's not so bad, only £9.00 a month more than I'd proposed. That's when they started taking advantage though, he said they needed the £84.00 today and when I asked what happened to the £75.00 I'd already sent he said that was just going towards the balance and they needed a seperate £84.00 today. He also said I would be paying charges for not making the minimum payments for the next two months and then once I'd paid the April payment they would confirm everything in writing and I'd be on a proper agreement for the £84.00 a month on a "very very reduced interest rate".

So on the one hand I'm quite happy, they are accepting my DMP plan at £84.00 a month at reduced interest which is only a few pounds more than I proposed. On the other hand though I've paid the first £75.00 for no real benefit and I'm going to be hit with charges for not making the minimum payment for the next two months even though it's agreed I'm on a debt plan.

Another plus though is he said now that it's all set up they won't be ringing me again so I don't have to worry about numerous nasty phone calls from them.

One creditor down, two to go now

Good to hear a bit of positive news about Barclaycard as they often get a bad press here. Once the plan is in operation it should go smoothly and hopefully your other creditors are as quick to respond to your offer.

It does make a change for Barclaycard.

Good news that they are accepting the payments, but not so good that they are going to slap more charges on!

You can't win them all I suppose!

Yes I was a bit worried about Barclaycard as I'd read some peoples comments about them not being that helpfull but apart from the extra charges they do seem to have accepted what I've proposed which is good.

Still havn't heard from Tesco yet two and a half weeks after writing to them and cancelling my DDm with them. Last one is Sainsburys credit card which I'm writing to on Friday.

I don't know what Sainsbury's or Tesco are like. I don't think I've heard anyone say what they are like with regard to phone calls or letters, or accepting DMP's.

I tend to agree with Jan here, and would sound a slight note of caution in as much as they are wanting more than you can afford and are not freezing interest. If your other creditors follow suit then you may need to take professional help. The point of having a proper budget that you can live with is totally defeated if you are asked for money you haven't got and bow to the pressure. You will end up with a situation where you have no life at all.

I also strongly suspect that if your proposed budget allowed a payment of, say, £65 per month then they would have come back to you asking for £75, so a lot of emphasis seems to be placed by creditors on retaining control over the debtor.

Regards.

Well your right ofcourse in so far as if the other two creditors come back and ask for another ten pounds a month each then all of a sudden I'm £30 a month worse off than I budgeted for.

I did my expenditure form allowing a bit of leeway in any case but I did wonder when talking to Barclaycard if they had actually even looked at my form, or if they were working to their own guidelines about minimum acceptable payments.

Well anyway if it's just them wanting an extra tenner a month I can live with it if it means the DMP is all accepted. Just have to wait and see what the other two say.

Fair enough, good luck and let us know how you get on.

Regards.