What do i do about paying off debts if made redundant?

mrelephant_2

Can anyone advise me what i should do if I'm made redundant?

I am currently paying off debts in the region of £47k spread over 7 credit cards and loans at agreed reduced payments, i have been doing this for @4yrs and at my current repayment rates it will take me another 8 or 9yrs to settle the debts. However i and have just been told my job could be made redundant.

If I am made redundant what do i do regarding my outstanding debts? I stand to get @ 12k in redundancy payment and live in a rented house, so I at least know i wont have to worry about mortgage payments.

Deep_In_Debt

Write to your creditors and explain the situation and offer them token payments - say £1.00, £5.00 each (whatever you can afford) until you find alternative work. This will show that you are trying to make an effort to pay - they won't like it but tough, they can't get blood out of a stone and it's better than nothing!

You may need your redundancy money to live off for a while until you find further work. Don't tell the creditors about it though!

mrelephant_2

Thanks Deep In Debt, but am i not legally obliged to inform them of any redundancy i get?

Merlinexcalibur

You may need your redundancy money to live off for a while until you find further work. Don't tell the creditors about it though!

Yes, good advice.

Thanks Deep In Debt, but am i not legally obliged to inform them of any redundancy i get?

They only need to know what they need to know. Nothing else.

Deep_In_Debt

mrelephant wrote: »

Thanks Deep In Debt, but am i not legally obliged to inform them of any redundancy i get?

Nope.

I didn't tell them about my redundancy money although they asked for bank statements, I refused to send as it's personal and they don't need to know.

becky_rtw

Or you could use the money to try and negotiate some f&fs if you want - I think thats what Numpty Monkey is planning to do, but its your choice I guess...

Deep_In_Debt

Yep you could make F&F's. I chose to keep my redundancy dosh until I had found alternative work and then made F&F's on some of my smaller debts when I had secured work with the money I had left. Still negotiating though and lost my last job in August...!

mrelephant_2

Deep in Debt

Lets just say i don't get made redundant, after reading other posts on making F&F payments what do you think to this idea?

I currently pay £435 a month to 7 companies but have recently started a part time job bringing in an extra £400 a month, therfore in theory if i didn't have debts i'd be able to save £800+ a month at a push maybe £1000.

So what i was thinking was cancelling my repayments and wait for the demand letters to arrive and as has happened in the past with 3 of the companies wait for the debts to be sold on, in the meantime i'd be accumulating savings.

Once the debts had been sold on i could then make subtancially reduced F&F offers for my outstanding debts using my savings. If i could get in the region of 20 - 30% settlements i'd only need about £12k, this would take @ 18mths to accumulate but i'm not sure this would be long enough to fend the companies off before they take court action against me?

I know some companies would take longer than others to take legal action so maybe i could make F&F settlements in stages over the 18mths. What do you think?

mrelephant_2

can anyone please give feedback on mu idea above...please