I have setup this blog to hopefully record our progress through our Debt Management Plan (DMP) and our journey from debt to debt-free.

If you have any questions then please let me know however if they are financial questions then can I suggest you speak directly with a free debt management company.

I am recommending the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) as I have found numerous forum posts and success stories from people who have been where we are - all the information I could find about the CCCS was excellent and they come highly recommended.

I shall be updating this blog regularly with any information/letters/phone calls I receive from both the CCCS and/or my creditors to hopefully give you some idea of the process involved in a DMP.

I hope this site proves helpful.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

it never rains, it pours...

A little off topic but I thought I'd mention this as it does have some important points to consider with a DMP.

With a DMP you have to submit a monthly budget which will be used by your debt management company (in our case the CCCS) to work out what you can afford to offer your creditors.

You are allowed to put aside the costs of running a car (such as tax, insurance, servicing etc).

I was concerned that by doing this and starting out on a DMP with no saving we'd be left high and dry if anything happened in the first 6 months as we wouldn't have had time to build up any of these 'savings' towards such things.

As a result (and because money is tight at the moment anyhow) I decided to send our DMP Notification letters out to our creditors a month before the DMP was due to start and make token payments of £1.  My intention was then to put away the money that we would normally pay them to act as a buffer in case of anything.  This may or may not be frowned upon by my creditors (or even the CCCS) however consider what would happen if you didn't do this and then the second month into a DMP you have to shell out £££ on a repair to your car - it's only going to affect your DMP anyhow.

Anyhow, it's a good job I did this!  Our family car (currently our only car) decided to start playing up yesterday.  The cambelt snapped on the car 3 months ago and we had to pay over £1000 to have a second-hand engine fitted.  Since we had it back the termostat has never been 100% but I parted on bad terms with the garage who did the work (due to the bill which was more than I was quoted!) so I never went back to get it looked at.

Anyhow, after calling the AA yesterday I found out that the O2 sensor needed replacing.  I'd had this done on the car previously and it can cost anything between £160 - £250 depending on whether you use a small local garage or a main dealer.

Due to my relationship with the local garage I decided I'd have a go at replacing it myself (and also because we HAVE to have a car at the moment for getting to work and just getting about; we live in a small village with no public transport so a car is vital).

I sourced an O2 sensor for £82 + VAT and I fitted it myself in under 10minutes!  The car now runs again however the temp guage is still wrong so I have now booked it in with another garage local to my place of work who have quoted £104 total for fitting a new thermostat which should resolve the temp gauge issue and also stop the new O2 sensor from being fouled up.

The point to this long-winded post is that if you are considering a DMP, make sure you are aware of the implications of anything you may not have considered in the short-term and take appropriate advice/action to protect yourself and also your DMP.