Some basic advice from an ex CAB counseller

I_love_Pink_2

Kenny, ask the branch if you can refer on your case to the debt management unit (as far as I know every bank should have a department similar), this may affect your credit rating if you do this. If you are within your overdraft limit and keeping up with your repayments on your loan there is no need for your account to be within the debt management unit. However if there has been a dramatic change in circumstances & you really feel that you cannot cope with your repayments then maybe this is an option. How about keeping up with your loan payments and then worring about your overdraft when this is cleared? Again, as with Kenny, this is the first time I have posted so sorry if this is in the wrong place!

bubblesb

I need to rearrange my loan payments (half them if possible) - one is with Nationwide and the other with Egg. I did try with Nationwide but they just said I had to pay regardless of circumstances. The thought of speaking to these people over the phone makes me feel physically ill. Any advice greatly appreciated.

TheDebtCollector wrote: »

Well, I thought I would chip in and say a few things...

To be honest, it is better for the "debtor" to try and arrange a repayment plan with the creditors themselves than going through a "Debt Management Company", saying that, CCCS are advisable only because they do not charge the debtors for their services.

Unfortunately though, which I understand, there are creditors out there that will not listen to the "debtors" problems and will demand an amount far beyond the reach of the "debtor".

I would like to think that I am one of the many "collectors" out there that are willing to listen and more or less accept any offer of repayment put forward by the "debtor". (Excuse the " " but debtor is what we call you all, no disrespect)

Feel free to put forward any questions on the companies you deal with and I will be more than willing to aid and assist, or even tell you the correct things to say to them on the phone.

Thank You All.

spenderblender

TheDebtCollector wrote: »

Well, I thought I would chip in and say a few things...

To be honest, it is better for the "debtor" to try and arrange a repayment plan with the creditors themselves than going through a "Debt Management Company", saying that, CCCS are advisable only because they do not charge the debtors for their services.

Unfortunately though, which I understand, there are creditors out there that will not listen to the "debtors" problems and will demand an amount far beyond the reach of the "debtor".

I would like to think that I am one of the many "collectors" out there that are willing to listen and more or less accept any offer of repayment put forward by the "debtor". (Excuse the " " but debtor is what we call you all, no disrespect)

Feel free to put forward any questions on the companies you deal with and I will be more than willing to aid and assist, or even tell you the correct things to say to them on the phone.

Thank You All.[/quote



i would appreciate your help in this matter. I have dealings with Lloyds, Virgin, Marks, Capital One and Tesco to name a few. We were coping fine until I ended up on the sick and have been struggling now for a year to pay them. The problem I have is my husband works full time so will they expect him to cover my bills or do they just look at what I am bringing in?
Can you advise me how to go about getting them to close each card and lose the interest. I did try with Marks and Virgin who stopped the cards but were quite nasty when it came to reducing the interest.

QueenDebbie

As a current CAB Money Advice Caseworker, I'll just post and give you a few tips about coming to a CAB:

CABx are usually very busy. It's usually best to check the opening times and arrive a bit before they open. It's first come, first served, and you might get turned away if you come any later. It's not usual for there to be queues of 20 people, and that might be all the people they are able to see that day.

If you're not able to get in first thing to see them, see if they have any outreach surgeries. My CAB has about 50 outreach surgeries which all operate on appointment systems, and many other Bureaux do too.

You probably won't be able to see a Money Adviser on your first visit - a general adviser should assess which Money Adviser you should be referred to, give a bit of basic advice, and deal with any emergencies. You'll usually need proof of your income (best if this is dated within the last 28 days - some Advisers are funded through Legal Aid and they can't see you without this), and copies of your most recent letters from all of your creditors. If you don't have these, you can bring these along to the debt appointment.

When you come along to your debt appointment, it's useful if you bring details of all of your usual household bills. Then the adviser will complete a financial statement, and based on this, advise on your options (token offers, pro-rata offers, IVA, Admin Order, Bankruptcy, write off [not applicable for many clients] or sometimes refer you to an Independent Financial Adviser if you're thinking of remortgaging). They'll also discuss what the creditors can do to get their money back, and how likely they are to take that action (e.g. going for a Charging Order, whether bailiffs get involved). If you're able to deal with things yourself at this stage, they can give you letters to send yourself, but if you need more help, they will write on your behalf. Cases are usually open until creditors accept offers, or until we have written to them a few times and have had no response and there is nothing more that can be done. If offers are accepted, creditors usually review offers every 3 - 6 months. Your file will probably be closed before then, but hopefully you should be able to deal with this stage yourself. You will usually have to make arrangements about methods of payments with creditors yourselves.

It is difficult to get into a CAB, but under the goverment's Financial Inclusion Fund, we received a whole lot of new debt advisers who have all had lots of training, so hopefully they'll be able to fit you in and sort you out!

If you've got any other questions about going to see a CAB, I'm happy to answer them. However, each Bureau is an independent charity so things may work a little bit differently in each one. Hope this is useful.

daisey22

my husband was a doctor with a very good income, however he got MS and cant work. he employs doctors and the business runs itself. However there is no profit and to top it all I have become disabled too and cant work. Our income is mainly benefits and the mortgage is paid by an insurance we had. We have a lot of debts and can't pay them now, we give what we can but are struggling badly. The business is in a property we own but it is mortgaged with some equity which is meant for our pension and to get carers when we eventually need them. How can we get out of this mess. We want to pay our debts as it is what we took on when we were doing great. Will we be made to sell our business? Don't really know which way to turn...any advice?

jen_jen_2

Mortgage_Master wrote: »

Fran, Ice,

Fran, I feel you are being a little harsh with your reply.

Let me first of all reassure you I'm not trying to do anything underhand, I'm trying to understand the approach of these organisations. Apologies for not having highlight my status in the first post, this is why I corrected my mistake in the second post.

My first question was in relation to CAB but then when I checked one of Martin's guides I came across the other organisations. I included csss in my second reply due to their debt calculator.

Fran, your post makes me feel as if I've done something wrong, if so I can only apologies as this was not my intention. I'm not in anyway trying to infer that ice, csss, cab... are wrong as I believe these organisations do a great job! And in many cases people would be wise to use these organisation before they contact some of the brokers that operate in the adverse market. There are some real horror stories.

Ice, when you said "personally" that's the way I took it. Fran, I didn't contact csss directly, as highlighted in my post as I didn't want to waste their valuable resources.

When I said "Ice, in this type of situation are you saying that all these organisations would advise that the creditors be contacted to negotiate suspended payments etc...?" I did say "you saying" and "thank you for your insight". I was asking for Ice's views, sorry if this wasn't clear.

I would like to discuss this further as I'm genuinely interested in this topic and would like to further my understanding. As I said my intention was not to offend anyone.

Mortgage Master, i think you raise a good point. I too have been/am a money advisor. the work CAB do is fabulous, there are diffiulties getting in for advise for a number of reasons as mentioned by others in this thread.

Whether to secure debt through reloaning is in my opinion an area where it is difficult for CAB advisors to provide advice on. This is moving into the realms of financial advice, advisors cannot provide all solutions, they are unable to predict how the client will behave in the future (i.e. will the cause of the debt stop) and although in some cases this will fix the problem in many its just a temporary measure which will make the situation worse.

From a training point of view, i think the discussion/information about other options is limited, maybe because it is a vast area. Primarily CAB advisors are taught how to negotiate with creditors and offer repayments on behalf of clients. They are not financial advisors and will not always suggest to clients that they can move debt around for cheaper finance e.g. low balance for life offers. Financial advisors are trained in their field and have to take exams, it would be wrong to expect CAB advisors to be experts in the field of finance too.

All advisors will inform clients about the action they are taking on a clients' behalf, if there are other options they should be discussed and clients can choose whether to take this advice or not.

In my experience, by the time a client approaches CAB for advice their options are limited and teh CAB process of negotiating affordable repayments with creditors is the only option. (credit rating no longer good, no available income to make loan repayments etc)

Remember if you cant get an appointment this process can by done by yourself. Its honestly not rocket science, it requires organisation skills, a thick skin (especially if its your own debt because creditors make loads of horrible stuff up) lots of time writing letters as creditors often ignore you/pass the debt on to someone else, and a commmitment to solving the problem

misinformed

I found this very useful and have been trying to tell my partner to do this for some time. We have a shared bank account that pays all our joint bills which is in my name due to his reckless spending and debts he ran up in the past. He now it appears has run up debts in his own private bank and credit cards. He is requesting now that I agree to use our joint home so he can take out a secured loan claiming this was advice given by a debt councellor and would reduce his outgoing payments.I find this hard to believe considering that he is due to retire in a few years and secured loans surely are only cheaper each month because they are over long periods therefore making them far more expensive in the long run.He has also talked about us releasing equity on our home another thing I am very reluctant to do. Am I being mean and unsupportive? I have sorted out our finances many times before and since keeping all living costs under my name and paying half each we have managed many years to keep a steady bank account, paying for everything each month. I dont know which way to turn as he is not an easy person to live with under this strain, refuses any advice from me and more or less implies that he is entitled to one if not both of these options as a shared owner. The house is on an endownment and only has a couple of years to run and luckily appears to be mainly on track.I have no idea how much he owes as he wont say and am considering going to an IFA with all my paperwork for his advice but really dont have surplus cash to do this. Silly question really as realise there is no real answer that anyone can give me as to what to do but feel a little better offloading my concerns.

[Deleted User]

Clearly despite all your help and efforts to keep your finances above water your partner has no appreciation of that and from what you describe I seriously doubt he will change.

Therefore you have tough choices to make - which may mean the end of your relationship. A relationship is nothing without trust - which I doubt you have.

This man is selfish leech. KICK HIM OUT.

Stop helping him. Consider giving what is his and only his .

YOUR financial security for YOUR future is in serious jeapardy if you continue to allow him to be secretive with money, spend what he likes and then still expect you to put your house - even if it is jointly owned - up as collateral.

Do NOTHING at this time except take some legal advice regarding safeguarding what is YOURS.

Do not seek any IFAs, consolidated loans, or anything else until you have decided.

You now need to protect what is yours.

ajames_2

Hi im having difficulty paying off my career development loan and wondered if there is any way i can get out of it as im in the process of moving country and do not have an income at the moment. I should owe £1595 but because of the interest i still owe £2696 which is more than half of what i borrowed in the first place.

If anyone can help it would be much appreciated

thanks Alex

janes__addiction

my partners currently having an issue with an old unsecured loan he once had he missed a few payments when he lost his job and tried claiming on the insurance n never heard anything from them again this was 4 years ago now and he's recently checked his credit report and its stated as settled altho he hasnt recieved any paperwork on this matter and today a debt collection agency called to collect on this debt what i wanted to know is why have they sold the debt on yet stated on the credit report that the debt is settled? no one seems to know why...not even the ppl who work at experian
so any information would be a blessing as we refuse to offer payment to these people because its on his credit report as settled...could they be frauds? or is there another explination?

thanks for taking the time to read this