Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

riverladone

i have credits card debts of 20k also a bank loan of 20 k and i am unable to afford the repayments, cccs adviced me to send £1 repayment monthly for each debt but the credit card company are sending me reminders for full monthly arrears otherwise a debt collector will call also they will be able to contact my employer, i am 2 to 3 months in arrears. my morgage payments ,hefty secured loan, council tax are up to date. what do i do about the loan and credit card debts as i cannot afford the repayments.

smoore40

My main concern before writing to creditors is, as i received approx £23k after clearing our mortgage, will creditors now want the full amount of this as full and final settlement... If i use Moneysolve who will charge £4k for this service, I WILL have to offer everything i have in the bank basically,, so not using Moneysolve only really benefits the creditors, as its THEY who would expect the extra £4k not paid to Moneysolve as charges?
Maybe im being greedy? but after losing my house i just wanted to be able to have a few ££'s in the bank for emergencies etc

CCCS_Sue

kier333 wrote: »

Thread Stats

Views:
0


WW Factor
Coming Soon...

Share This Thread:

[URL="http://twitter.com/?status=https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2934886 [/URL]



I have got myself into a bit of a mess through excess spending and bad money managment. Any constructive advice would be really helpful.

So here goes-

Mortgage- £112,000 fixed until feb 2010 @ 6.79%= 740pcm
Credit card- £4000
Bank loan-£7500

Income £600pw after tax outgoings around £1800pcm to include travel to work, run a car, maintenance payments, mortgage, bills, council tax, phone etc, plus paying the loan and also min payment on cc of £100pcm

I have recently had a letter saying that i have had an old debt of £5k secured against my house (sorry its not secured but linked to the land registry or something), I also know that i have a few old debt kicking about, unpaid bank loan of £1.5k and a mobile phone bill £400. What i would like to do is somehow contact all the above and put all the debt into one. i can continue paying of the 1800pcm for mortgage etc, however not sure about how i can get all the old debt into an affordable monthly payment around £100pcm would be good.

As you can tell i am not the best with money and any advise on where to turn, i was thinking CAB?

Many thanks

Hi kier333 and thank you for your message

In order for us to be able to provide you with advice on your financial situation you will need to either use our online advice facility Debt Remedy, or ring our free Helpline to book a telephone appointment with a counsellor.

Debt Remedy will assist you in completing a financial statement which includes information on your household, employment, income, expenditure and debts. All this information is used as a basis to determine the options available to you to deal with your situation.

Once you’ve followed the process through and completed all the required information you will immediately be presented with an advice booklet, which will provide tailored advice for you based on your current circumstances. It will also provide advice on ways you may be able to improve your situation. If you would like to get immediate advice on your situation, follow the link to go directly to Debt Remedy: http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu

Alternatively if you would prefer to talk to a debt counsellor about your situation, you can book a telephone based appointment by calling our helpline free on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00.



Regards,
Sue

CCCS_Sue

sbgr wrote: »

Hi,
I would like advise on what to do about debt that has become unmanagable due to a change in circumstances. I owe 6 creditors. carcraft & blackhorse(original debt £7999 not including interest payed £774), argos (£1500), additions (£500) Natwest(overdraft £250) Nationwide (overdraft £400). My partner is currently out of work and there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, jobseekers and taxcredits are only just getting us through with nothing to spare.Whatever i do i need to be able to keep the car. I do not have ppi on anything as i new i would not quilify for the protect as i do not have a paid job.
Please help, i think we may be able to get through January but if circumstances do not change soon i know i am going to have debt collectors knocking at the door.
Thankyou

Hi sbgr and thank you for your message

The first thing you need to do is put together a budget showing all your income and expenditure.
This will show how much you have left after paying all your priorities. This surplus, if any, is the amount you have to make a realistic offer to your creditors. Send a copy of your budget and an offer of payment to each creditor.

If you would like help to do this and also to look at the options available for your situation, you can use our online debt advice facility, Debt Remedy

As we advised in the previous post,Debt Remedy will assist you in completing a financial statement which includes information on your household, employment, income, expenditure and debts. All this information is used as a basis to determine the options available to you to deal with your situation.

Once you’ve followed the process through and completed all the required information you will immediately be presented with an advice booklet, which will provide tailored advice for you based on your current circumstances. It will also provide advice on ways you may be able to improve your situation. If you would like to get immediate advice on your situation, follow the link to go directly to Debt Remedy: http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu
alternatively, if you would like to speak to a counsellor, you can call free on 0800 138 1111.

Kind regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

riverladone wrote: »

i have credits card debts of 20k also a bank loan of 20 k and i am unable to afford the repayments, cccs adviced me to send £1 repayment monthly for each debt but the credit card company are sending me reminders for full monthly arrears otherwise a debt collector will call also they will be able to contact my employer, i am 2 to 3 months in arrears. my morgage payments ,hefty secured loan, council tax are up to date. what do i do about the loan and credit card debts as i cannot afford the repayments.

Hi riverladone and thank you for your message


Your main priorities are your mortgage payments, secured loan and council tax. It is good to hear that you are managing to keep on top of these.

With regard to the unsecured credit cards and loans, whatever is left after paying all your priorities, is the amount you can realistically offer to pay them.
So, if you have no surplus, then all you can do is continue to offer the token payments. Even if they refuse your offer, send it anyway. You can’t pay them money you don’t have.

If they send a debt collector to your property, they have no special powers and are not bailiffs. You do not have to let them into your property.
Explain that you are paying as much as you can afford.
I have attached links to our CCCS website that have more information on debt collectors and the collection process.

http://www.cccs.co.uk/InfoCentre/EnglandandWales/Creditoraction/Debtcollectionagencies/Homevisits.aspx

http://www.cccs.co.uk/InfoCentre/EnglandandWales/Creditoraction/Debtcollectionprocess.aspx

Token payments are only a temporary solution until your circumstances change.
Please feel free to contact us if your circumstances do change and you require further advice on your options

Kind Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

smoore40 wrote: »

My main concern before writing to creditors is, as i received approx £23k after clearing our mortgage, will creditors now want the full amount of this as full and final settlement... If i use Moneysolve who will charge £4k for this service, I WILL have to offer everything i have in the bank basically,, so not using Moneysolve only really benefits the creditors, as its THEY who would expect the extra £4k not paid to Moneysolve as charges?
Maybe im being greedy? but after losing my house i just wanted to be able to have a few ££'s in the bank for emergencies etc

Hi smoore40

An emergency fund is always a good idea for the unexpected incidents that might crop up so it makes sense to put something aside.


As I recommended in my previous post (1223), in order to advise you on this in more detail, it would be better if you call us for an appointment to speak to one of our counsellors.

The counsellor with look at your whole situation and discuss all your options.
Our help is completely free and confidential.

If full and final settlements are your best option, we can help you with the amounts to offer and how to proceed.

Kind Regards
Sue

nadmaj

Hi


I've been trying to pay off my cc debts for the past 7 years at the minimum payments (i Know) but thats what i could and can afford.

The debt was at last time of calculation at 5k i've rechecked and i do balance transferes and the actual figure is 7k do not know why it's that much as i've never spend on the cards.(will I be able to get some kind of statement showing the total amount of debt incurred including balance transfres and fees from the previous couple of years)

I need to get rid of the debt as it seems that nothing has really been paid off in the 7 years. my husband works and pays for everything including my cc . I'm a stay at home mum and only have child tax credits and child benefit as an income. I worked on a supply basis for the council but with all the job cuts I've been made redundant We share the payment of the cc between us which leaves us with no savings.

I don't spend money that we don't have.We'v been paying the debt for a long time but not getting anywehere near to paying them off and its getting us down.

The mortage is comming for a renewal and we could get extra money to pay the cc off but i feel really bad getting my husband to do that.

Please could you offer some advice.
Thank you

StepChange_Pavan

nadmaj wrote: »

Hi


I've been trying to pay off my cc debts for the past 7 years at the minimum payments (i Know) but thats what i could and can afford.

The debt was at last time of calculation at 5k i've rechecked and i do balance transferes and the actual figure is 7k do not know why it's that much as i've never spend on the cards.(will I be able to get some kind of statement showing the total amount of debt incurred including balance transfres and fees from the previous couple of years)

I need to get rid of the debt as it seems that nothing has really been paid off in the 7 years. my husband works and pays for everything including my cc . I'm a stay at home mum and only have child tax credits and child benefit as an income. I worked on a supply basis for the council but with all the job cuts I've been made redundant We share the payment of the cc between us which leaves us with no savings.

I don't spend money that we don't have.We'v been paying the debt for a long time but not getting anywehere near to paying them off and its getting us down.

The mortage is comming for a renewal and we could get extra money to pay the cc off but i feel really bad getting my husband to do that.

Please could you offer some advice.
Thank you

Hi Nadmaj and thank you for your post.

Although you say that you have made balance transfers, the debts may have increased due to the fees involved to do this, and they may have charged you interest if you didn’t pay off the balance before the promotional offer ended.

You can pay for a Subject access report and the link gives you more information on how to do this. You can ask for information such as what payments you have made and details of any fees or interest charged.

If you really want to try and repay the debt, you will need to take a look at your budget to see if there are any areas that you can cut back on to free up some extra money. You could also look at increasing your income – see if there are any part time jobs near you so that you could earn something extra (I know it’s easier said than done, especially with kids, but it’s worth a try).

You will need to start paying more than the minimum payments; otherwise your debt will never reduce. If you were to remortgage to include the debt, you would really need to ensure that you could afford the new payments first, otherwise your house would be at risk.

Good luck, and if wanted to, you could post your income and expenditure on one of the threads - other forum users are really good at suggesting ways to improve it and can provide support and encouragement that is difficult to find elsewhere.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your questions and comments during 2010; we've enjoyed reading and responding to them and being a part of the MSE community. We hope we've helped you with any debt problems you may have had along the way.

The CCCS MoneyAware team are now off for a well-earned Christmas break. We'll be back in the office for one day on Wednesday 29th December and then back to work fully on Tuesday 4th January 2011. Apologies for any delay in replying to your questions.

In the meantime you can still get debt counselling through our online service Debt Remedy 24 hours a day, or phone our Helpline on 0800 138 1111 (our Christmas opening times).

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a very happy and debt-free 2011.

Regards,

Sue and Pavan from the CCCS MoneyAware team
http://www.cccs.co.uk
http://www.moneyaware.co.uk

terriblemess

Hi

I've just had a CCJ against me this week for £2000.
2 questions:
1) This ccj was sent to mums address which i havent lived there for over 3 years, hence why i missed the original summons. Does this invalidate the judgement in any way?
2) Once a judgement is made can the total amount still be negociated?

any help would be greatly appreciated