Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

HK1989x · 6 October 2016 at 1:07PM

Hi there,

Just wondered if anyone would be able to give me some advise on a wage arrestment. I'm in scotland too..

basically i've had an arrestment schedule through for unpaid council tax, and I called a council tax arrears helpline & they've advised the best bet would be to collate all my old debts along with this council tax debt & get set up on a trust deed. thats fine its currently in the process of being set up for me & this will get the wage arrestment lifted.

the only thing is it takes 5 weeks approx to set up & the wage arrestment will still happen at the end of this month, is there nothing at all I can do to get round this? after all my bills i'll be left with £205 and the wage arrestment will be around £251 !! my cars due for an MOT early november & I know its needing some odds and ends done, and I've got a son to feed, what can i do!!??

prime1 · 6 October 2016 at 2:09PM

I hope someone can help. We are in an awful situation which has spiralled so badly. we had a house which we rented out when we moved as we hoped it would provide some money in the future. Sadly although it was rented out it needed urgent repairs so we borrowed via a personal loan to pay for the repairs. Since then my husband has lost his job 4 times in 1.5years and now has half the salary he used to have and it took collectively 12 months to find each new job so we had nothing coming in for a 12 month period (2 or 3 months each time he lost his job). We haven't enough money coming in to cover the mortgage and living costs on this house and this house is in need of repairs so wouldn't sell easily but we haven't the money to fix it. we have had the other one for sale since April 2016 unfortunately the tenant moved out immediately so we had to pay that mortgage as well and council tax. it still hasn't sold and the debts are rising. The mortgage on the house for sale is rolling on sort of on 'hold' until it sells. we have an offer from someone who is in a chain. the offer is over £5ooo short. what can we do? If the mortgage lender forecloses they will sell it for even less but we cannot get into any more debt as we are about £1000 short every month. we are desperate and grateful for any help and advice.

Former_StepChange_Richard · 7 October 2016 at 5:13PM

HK1989x wrote: »

Hi there,

Just wondered if anyone would be able to give me some advise on a wage arrestment. I'm in scotland too..

basically i've had an arrestment schedule through for unpaid council tax, and I called a council tax arrears helpline & they've advised the best bet would be to collate all my old debts along with this council tax debt & get set up on a trust deed. thats fine its currently in the process of being set up for me & this will get the wage arrestment lifted.

the only thing is it takes 5 weeks approx to set up & the wage arrestment will still happen at the end of this month, is there nothing at all I can do to get round this? after all my bills i'll be left with £205 and the wage arrestment will be around £251 !! my cars due for an MOT early november & I know its needing some odds and ends done, and I've got a son to feed, what can i do!!??

Hi

Thanks for getting in touch and welcome to the forum.

I appreciate time is at a premium here so the best thing to do would be to speak with the council direct. You may be able to agree with the council direct a fixed deduction from your wages. I can't guarentee this, unfortunately but if you explain your situation and the financilay difficulty this will cause you, they may be willing to make an allowance for this month.

Something to look at for the longer term would be that you may be able to apply for a time to pay order. There are fees involved with this so given that you are about to enter into a trust deed, you may not be able to afford this. You can find more informaiton about this here though if you would like to look into this further.

I hope this helps.

Richard

Former_StepChange_Richard · 7 October 2016 at 5:24PM

prime1 wrote: »

I hope someone can help. We are in an awful situation which has spiralled so badly. we had a house which we rented out when we moved as we hoped it would provide some money in the future. Sadly although it was rented out it needed urgent repairs so we borrowed via a personal loan to pay for the repairs. Since then my husband has lost his job 4 times in 1.5years and now has half the salary he used to have and it took collectively 12 months to find each new job so we had nothing coming in for a 12 month period (2 or 3 months each time he lost his job). We haven't enough money coming in to cover the mortgage and living costs on this house and this house is in need of repairs so wouldn't sell easily but we haven't the money to fix it. we have had the other one for sale since April 2016 unfortunately the tenant moved out immediately so we had to pay that mortgage as well and council tax. it still hasn't sold and the debts are rising. The mortgage on the house for sale is rolling on sort of on 'hold' until it sells. we have an offer from someone who is in a chain. the offer is over £5ooo short. what can we do? If the mortgage lender forecloses they will sell it for even less but we cannot get into any more debt as we are about £1000 short every month. we are desperate and grateful for any help and advice.

Hi there

Thanks for your post. I'm sorry to hear of your husband's experience with his jobs and I can appreciate how hard it must have been with the loss of this income. Please try not to worry though as we will be able to help.

There's a lot of different variables to be considered and number of things which could change and affect your situaiton, like the offer in the chain. Because of this, I would suggest calling our Helpline and speaking with an advisor about your situation. We'll help to build a budget for you. We'll then use this informaiton to give you advice on the best way to deal with this. All our contact details are here.

Once we have discussed your situation in more detail, we'll be able to create a clear plan of action for you.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Take care
Richard

Gus1855 · 10 October 2016 at 1:16PM

Hopefully a fairly quick query. Having been rather silly over the last 10 years I had buried my head in the sand with a few debts. Nothing particularly terrible, but of course had an impact on my credit file.

I'm now earning enough to clear them and having reduced my debt considerably in the last month, I hope to be debt free in a matter of months. However, naturally I'm keen to improve my score. I can certainly do that my avoiding debt (which ought not now be a problem), and one of the best ways to do it appears to be to get a credit card and pay if off religiously. But of course I cannot get one with a low score, so may need to wait for 6-12 months to improve my score (p.s. I'm on CreditLadder and similar).

The query is, having contacted my creditors over the last month and reduced debts, my Equifax scores has dropped further. The only thing I can see if that one of my debtors who had a old address on file have updated the address to my current one. Is that likely to be the cause of the drop, and if so, is it right that they can do that?

StepChange_Private_Messages · 10 October 2016 at 6:15PM

Gus1855 wrote: »

Hopefully a fairly quick query. Having been rather silly over the last 10 years I had buried my head in the sand with a few debts. Nothing particularly terrible, but of course had an impact on my credit file.

I'm now earning enough to clear them and having reduced my debt considerably in the last month, I hope to be debt free in a matter of months. However, naturally I'm keen to improve my score. I can certainly do that my avoiding debt (which ought not now be a problem), and one of the best ways to do it appears to be to get a credit card and pay if off religiously. But of course I cannot get one with a low score, so may need to wait for 6-12 months to improve my score (p.s. I'm on CreditLadder and similar).

The query is, having contacted my creditors over the last month and reduced debts, my Equifax scores has dropped further. The only thing I can see if that one of my debtors who had a old address on file have updated the address to my current one. Is that likely to be the cause of the drop, and if so, is it right that they can do that?

Hi there

Thanks for your message and welcome to the forum.

Understanding your credit file can be difficult and it's not always easy to pinpoint the reason why your score has been affected. Having multiple addresses listed often has a negative impact on your file so it's hard to say if changing to just your current address is the reason your score has dropped.

Equifax has a section on their website that explains the things that can affect your score and there's a FAQ section that might help to understand this better.

It is your responsibility to update your creditors when you change address, but the creditor should only have updated your address if you have provided this inforamtion to them.

I hope this helps.

Take care
Richard

RyanOwen_ · 11 October 2016 at 10:27PM

Hi,

I currently have 4 years out of 5 left to pay regular payments of £196 for my car. When that's complete it will be mine. With me leaving university next year and renting my own house, money will become short.

My question is, how can I decrease the amount that I owe other than paying my regular payments or overpaying? Can I get one of them credit cards at 0% then transfer the balance over? My total left to pay for my car remains at around £9000 with no payments missed.

Thanks in advance
Ryan

StepChange_Rachael · 12 October 2016 at 11:32AM

Hi Ryan

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your post.

It might depend on the type of finance you have on your options. I assume the car is on finance or Hire Purchase which means it’s important to keep up with the regular payments as missed payments mean the company could look at ways to repossess the vehicle.

I can see that with the change in your financial situation it may make it more difficult to keep up with the regular payments so it’s important to look at your options. It might be possible the company would be able to look at options of making payments more manageable with a different vehicle or changing the period of time it’s repaid.

In general I wouldn’t advise on taking out further credit to pay a debt as the chances are the 0% interest would end before the debt is paid and could cause further financial difficulty when the interest rates are added.

If you did decide to take this route I’d suggest researching your options and checking your car contract or discussing with the finance company to check this would be an option for you to pay it back early.

If you do feel that you are struggling financially at any point and would like advice based on your financial situation you can find our contact details here for free and impartial debt advice.

Thanks
Rachael

RyanOwen_ wrote: »

Hi,

I currently have 4 years out of 5 left to pay regular payments of £196 for my car. When that's complete it will be mine. With me leaving university next year and renting my own house, money will become short.

My question is, how can I decrease the amount that I owe other than paying my regular payments or overpaying? Can I get one of them credit cards at 0% then transfer the balance over? My total left to pay for my car remains at around £9000 with no payments missed.

Thanks in advance
Ryan

Jeffiner84 · 15 October 2016 at 8:54PM

I've just realised I'm completely out of options.

I'm in 22k of debt, missed payments and living in a flat. My flatmate is moving out so I'm being stuck with everything so I have no disposable income.

I haven't had any up til now but was hoping that my flatmates contribution would allow me to get a DMP or similar - but if he goes I can't. I'm stuck in flat til xmas.

HELP

Former_StepChange_Richard · 17 October 2016 at 8:26AM

Jeffiner84 wrote: »

I've just realised I'm completely out of options.

I'm in 22k of debt, missed payments and living in a flat. My flatmate is moving out so I'm being stuck with everything so I have no disposable income.

I haven't had any up til now but was hoping that my flatmates contribution would allow me to get a DMP or similar - but if he goes I can't. I'm stuck in flat til xmas.

HELP

Hi Jennifer

Thanks for your message. I'm glad you got in touch because there are ways we can help. I know how worrying it can be when you miss payments, but we'll find the best option to help with your debts.

First thing we need to do is a build a budget with you that will show us your finances. Using this information we can then see what options are best suited for you and we'll then be able to identify the best solution for you.

You can use our Debt Remedy tool on our website to make the budget in your own time.

If you prefer, you can speak with one of our advisors on the phone who will make the budget for you. Our contact details are available here.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Take care
Richard

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