My Get-Out-Of Debt Beginnings!

BenL

Debt free direct, FAQ number 10

10. Do I have to pay any costs?
You pay only the affordable monthly amount you agree to. This covers both your payment to the creditors and our fees (which we will agree with the creditors). Providing you keep to the agreement for five years, any debt you can't afford to repay will be written off by your creditors.

deedee_3

Blomin' 'eck we missed that one. What a pain. :'(

Any one know if we will be able to change or should we just leave it with them and swallow the payment.

deedee_3

I must say though they have been absoulutly brilliant with us. We can't fault their service at all.

Debt_Free_Chick

Blomin' 'eck we missed that one. What a pain. :'(

Any one know if we will be able to change or should we just leave it with them and swallow the payment.

If you check out the National Debtline website, they walk you through the whole process of dealing with your creditors - provide sample letters to send them and give you "tactical" suggestions as to how to deal with any difficulties. So you can see exactly what DFD will be doing and decide if you want to do that work yourself.

Personally, I would not pay someone else to do this. It's relatively straightforward, but you may need to "tough it out" with some of your creditors. Only you can decide if it's worth paying someone to do this for you.

Go to the National Debtline website and work through the Self Help Pack .. it's all there. And you can call them for help if you get stuck along the way.

https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

HTH

Spendless

Hi Deedee

Only just back to this thread. I asked about Debt free Direct cos i'd never heard of it before, not seen it in Martins Book or mentioned on this board.

I am a bit surprised that CAB sent you to a company that charged :-/, i didn't think they would.

I agree with Debt Free Chicks post., to see if you can sort it out yourself if you wish too.

All the very best

System

Hello chaps

Thought I'd give a quick update before the festivities start -- I have now got 8K sitting in my savings account on LV 0% earning a few pennies for me before being used to pay off Cahoot in February. And I have just taken an extra 800 out on Barclaycard's 2.9% for life offer which will be used in part to pay off the currys loan with HFC (18.9% -- They charge a pretty high settlement fee but I'll still be better off ;D)THhe rest will wait (in my savings account of course!) until my Egg anniversary when I can use it and some of that to clear either another loan of mine or one of my beloved's as we plan to have taken them back from GP by then. Phew!

I would also like to publicly thank Ms_London for sending me such lovely messages ;D

Everyone is being so supportive -- I really feel that I can actually do this

Next job -- Spreadsheet of Doom (sorry Debt) Lets see exactly how much we owe and how long it will take to pay it back

Enjoy your festivities - Whatever your faith!

Kat

deedee_3

Sorry haven't been around for a while I'm not well at the moment. It is one of the reasons when the CAB suggested Debt Free Direct it was like a life line. My health is not the best and we were not sure that I could cope with it all and how it would effect my health.

Also I hadn't discovered this site and weren't aware of what we could do.

I will go and look at the Nationaldebtline website and have a talk with hubby.

How easy will it be for us to get out of this thing with DFD? Will we have to pay them anything? Has any one ever told a debt company that they don't want to use their services and did they have problems? Sorry to sk so many questions.

Debt_Free_Chick

How easy will it be for us to get out of this thing with DFD? Will we have to pay them anything? Has any one ever told a debt company that they don't want to use their services and did they have problems? Sorry to sk so many questions.

They are a private company charging you for a service. There's nothing "official" about them, so you are free to use them or not. If you decide not to, then just politely tell them that you prefer not to continue to use them. If they want a reason, you can either say that you are going to handle the matter yourself or you could tell them that you're getting help from the National Debtline - DFD ought to know who ND are that ND are a charity & do not charge.

Good luck. It's not difficult to handle this yourself, but ND will do it for you, if you prefer. And remember, that by using free help, the fee that would have gone to DFD will go towards your debt, meaning that you will get out debt quicker!

Regards

Malestrom

Agree with Debt_Free_Chick, we changed from Welcome Solutions (commercial company) to CCCS (registered charity) and after checking the Terms & Conditions of our contract, we only had to give 14 days notice in writing.

I simply wrote that we were changing to the CCCS so that all of our monthly payment would go to our creditors, meaning we would be debt free several years earlier. I got a phone call from Welcome Solutions offering to reduce the monthly charge but they didn't have a chance as why pay when I can get it for free?

A week later i received all our correspondence back from them and that was it, cancelled. I had already cancelled the Standing Order at the bank. The relevant info had already been sent to CCCS and it was as easy as that!

Lillekat2

The debt diary continues (Have had to change sign on but it is still me!)

Have cleared HFC and Barclays overdraft and have now transferred Egg 0% into savings account. So now I have a dilemma:

After Feb I will have 2800 - 3000 on 0% to "play£ with....

Do we use the money on 0% to clear some of my other loans (all at nice low % rates - 6% or less)

OR

Do we take back my beloved's debt from Gregory Pennington, clear one or maybe 2 of them and then attempt to renegotiate for the rest???

OR (option c)

Keep the money in Savings account to get some interest and then Pay back Egg as soon as 0% is over?

Have done budget too and that is all bad news so would like to decrease repayments if at all possible

Any help, advice, thoughts gratefully received.

Kat