Please can you help? :'(

chrislee765

Hello,
I'm typing this on behalf of my father whom has just rung me in tears.

He has never been good with figures and after a divorce with my mother (who used to deal with the finances) he has now his the financial world.

He owes 15k to igroup loans (secured), paying some stupid amount of interest (he hasnt even payed off arrears, the original loan was 12k). He pays £350 a month to this company.

Today he had a visit from bailiffs (he was out but a letter was hand delivered) they are wanting £450 up front, because his £100 payment was a week late.

He doesnt know where he stands now with all of these companies and i try and help and for me i get confused.

(per month)
Total income:
£1400

Outgoings:
£350 igroup loan
£100 Council Tax
£100 Equita Bailiffs
£60 Natwest loan
£50 Water Bill

Total: £660 on top of this he runs a car, pays electric (on key) etc.

We think in total he owes approx 20k.

He is lucky that he owns his own property out right worth about 135k.

He wants to cover all these loans with 1 loan, hes learnt his lesson but due to bad credit rating is finding it hard to even open a current account.

We dont know where to look next! Please help.

file_wizzard

Right first things first

Bailiffs:

http://www.debthelpuk.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=DHUL;action=display;num=1128353557

Read this and follow to the letter !


Second: DO NOT GET ANOTHER LOAN

This is not solving the problem only prolonging it, if you find he is having problems even opening a current account then the only way forward is to contact CCCS / Payplan and see if they can help.

In this way they can take the pressure off of him and hopefully negotiate a sensible repayment plan with his creditors

If worse come to worse the only way forward may be to release some of the equity in the property but you should seek some sound financial advice before you consider this option, turning unsecured loans into secured loan should be a VERY last resort

Bossyboots

His council tax seems very high. Is he claiming the single person's reduction or does he have another adult living with him?

System

Just to clarify, you say he owns the house outright, but the igroup loans are secured. Do you mean the loans are secured on the house?

chrislee765

He is claiming single person occupancy, but has only just started paying council tax. So its spread out over a lot less time span.

Thanks for the link, thats really cleared things up!

Who's CCCS/Payplan?

Yes the igroup loan is secured on the house, hes missed payments before and afaik igroup have got a repossesion order if he fails to pay again (it went to court twice i think).

Thanks again

southernscouser

Have a look athe CCCS here. They are a registered charity that deal with debt. They will help you and won't charge a penny!

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

System

chrislee765 wrote:

Yes the igroup loan is secured on the house, hes missed payments before and afaik igroup have got a repossesion order if he fails to pay again (it went to court twice i think).

So the No 1 priority is to make sure the igroup loan repayments are covered and made on time.

You say your dad's missed payments before - has he got a monthly standing order or direct debit set up to avoid missing payments in the future?

I know little about repossession orders, but CCCS should be able to help. Or a Financial Adviser. My gut feeling - and I know this goes against everything people say about not getting another loan - would be to shift the loan to another company if possible. And that's solely because igroup have a repossession order. The other thing that seems curious is why is the interest on a secured loan so high?

But get some proper advice on that. Good luck.

Xbigman

20k of debt and no mortgage should be almost straightforward on 1400 per month. His igroup payment is the same as my mortgage and he takes home more than I do so he should have plenty of money. I think CCCS and the other free organisations might not be very interested because the debts are too low. His problem seems to be that he has ignored the arrears he has built up. 2 court actions with what looks like a charging order on his house sounds really bad. He is likely to get little joy from any bailif coming after him in these circumstances.

It is not too late to sort this out. You must go through his finances with him and be damn ruthless about it. Work out an exact budget for him and make sure he realises he must stick to it. If you post it on here you will get lots of help with cutting back where you can and ensuring enough is allowed for the long term elsewhere. But do it soon.
Regards




X

Jen_Jen_5

the igroup loan is a mortgage, and there is a possession order on it, what this means (from what you have said) is that if your father does not keep up with his payments as planned then the house will be repossessed he MUST pay his igroup payment as per the terms of the order - check out what these are and make sure he is keeping up - its usually something like monthly installment Plus £x towards arrears.

bailiffs, i assume they are coming for council tax arrears, has your father signed any agreements with them in the past, if he has promised £100 per week so they dont take his belongings then he needs to pay this too. it may be possible to renegotiate with the bailiffs, offer them 50 a week. it may also be possible to offer payments directly to the council too.

your father has 750 left over each month for his car, electric etc, he really needs to do a proper budget and work out where this is going and what he can cut back on.

with regard to a new loan, igroup are not a high street lender, he has got a loan with these (probably high interest) because of his poor credit in the past. any new loan will be with less favorable lender and likely to be secured on the house (ie a mortgage) and will put you father in no better position.

chrislee765

I know little about repossession orders, but CCCS should be able to help. Or a Financial Adviser. My gut feeling - and I know this goes against everything people say about not getting another loan - would be to shift the loan to another company if possible. And that's solely because igroup have a repossession order. The other thing that seems curious is why is the interest on a secured loan so high?

This is one of the main reasons i suggested moving this loan. We will try and find out how much is owed to each company and negotiate a reasonable amount within his budget.

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

idiot_3

would it maybe be possible to take out a mortgage on the house and pay this igroup off? i would have thought that a mortgage would have a considerably lower apr.