Switching to a Self Managed Debt Management Plan from StepChange

This month I have made the decision to go it alone with my debts. Regular readers of my Blog will know that I have a lot of experience dealing with debt and I am no stranger to it. In a previous post, I talked about my debts and the fact I was using StepChange to help me manage them. It was working well but wasn’t perfect.

One of the problems I face is the fact that when debts move about, it is a bit of a pain to get this changed at StepChange due to the time lag. I have recently had some fun with a Debt I owe to Klarna, this debt went to a debt collection agency called DRS who are part of Ardent Credit. By the time I got things sorted with StepChange, the debt had moved back to Klarna.

I informed StepChange of this then the debt moved back to DRS. It’s a bit of a pain to be fair. A complaint has been raised because it is just a bit silly for the debt to be going round the houses like this. To be clear, the complaint is to DRS and not StepChange.

How will I set up a Debt Management Plan?

I have contacted all my creditors to advise them that I will be managing the accounts from now on. I asked for: –

• An up to date balance.
• Details to allow me to set up a Standing Order.

Now it is a case of waiting for responses and then I will be able to set up the payments and begin managing my debts just like old times. At some point some of my creditors will want an up to date Income and Expenditure. This is just a document which lists what I earn, what I spend and shows that my repayment offers are affordable. Apart from that it is a fairly simple process overall.

Why do this?

The easy answer to that question is so I have complete control over my debts. Reacting to changes of debt collection agency will be easier and faster. The other benefit is it allows me to make settlement offers, especially for some of my smaller debts. I have a few debts that I could likely settle and be done with which would be a boost.

It will mean a little more work for me initially setting things up, but once set up it will just be a case of keeping on top of when debts move to a new debt collection agency or responding to requests to update my financial situation. The latter is usually an easy answer in that I say nothing has changed and please continue the current repayment arrangement. In my experience, so long as a debt collection is receiving a regular payment per an arrangement, they generally leave you alone with only the occasional contact to check the repayment is still affordable.

Anything else?

Not much to really report on at the moment. I realise I haven’t written much on the blog yet, but that’s more down to time than anything. In terms of an update around my credit score, that has continued to nose dive and has hit some new lows. Not an issue at the moment as credit is the last thing on my mind. However, we should start to see that improve over the next 18 months or so as the last of the defaults is registered and some of my debts have been repaid by then. Thanks for reading.