Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

belaynvnas

I wish you all a happy and peaceful xmas.Hi Nadmaj and thank you for your post.

Firefly_777

I'm a student, and I'm just wondering whether student loan payments are considered as income?

sickofdebt2

I need advice i am in debt and im sick of it i have 2 bank loans loan 1 has a balance of £12,260 left i pay 433 per month loan 2 has £1,962 .00 i pay 52 per month i have 2 ccs 1 has a balance of 7366 and the other has a balance of 3400 my limit on card 1 is 15000 am i best to transfer 3400 balance to my barclaycard is it better to have them in one place ?i owe 50 k on my house there is alot of equity in it well it must be worth 125 k at least any advice would be appreciated

nurserynightmare

I have a lot of debt with my hubby to various companies, we are just starting to get late payment fees put on some of them. I have looked at the cccs and national debtline and payplan and spoke to someone on the phone. Payplan says the best thing to do would be to do an informal arrangement rather than one of their debt management plans. I thought they would do this for me but i am making myself ill worrying about trying to send out letters etc. I burst into tears when the tiniest thing goes wrong ie tried to get 02 to drop my tarriff from online 45 to a £20 one but they said no i can only drop it £5. but my bills with tax on are about £55. I just dont underderstand all this budegeting and creditor stuff, i cant get the figures the cccs recommended to work. help please its making me so depressed.

mum2one

nurserynightmare wrote: »

I have a lot of debt with my hubby to various companies, we are just starting to get late payment fees put on some of them. I have looked at the cccs and national debtline and payplan and spoke to someone on the phone. Payplan says the best thing to do would be to do an informal arrangement rather than one of their debt management plans. I thought they would do this for me but i am making myself ill worrying about trying to send out letters etc. I burst into tears when the tiniest thing goes wrong ie tried to get 02 to drop my tarriff from online 45 to a £20 one but they said no i can only drop it £5. but my bills with tax on are about £55. I just dont underderstand all this budegeting and creditor stuff, i cant get the figures the cccs recommended to work. help please its making me so depressed.

I know it may seem your like a million miles away, but you've done the hardest step, and thats made the first move towards a new future.

I know it may sound daft, but grab an A4 file, have templates of the letters ready, have a section for each debt, and then note down when you have rang them, who you spoke to, Thou I think written communication is better - have the proof.

How much longer have you got left on the 02 phone contract, if they knock £5 off this month, then ask to speak to a supervisior or a manager there have more clout and be in a position to agree to better deals, at the end of the day, its better for them to have you as a paying customer, then not at all, I know that may sound so daft but its the clout behind it.

The other thing is, if this is affecting your health, go and speak to your gP, they may suggest councelling.

Sorry I couldn't be much help, but I can send a virtual hug. xx

StepChange_Pavan

terriblemess wrote: »

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

Hi terriblemess and thank you for your post.

You may have grounds to ‘set aside’ the judgement. This means that the proceedings go back to the claim stage and any enforcement action is also cancelled. You have a new opportunity to fill in the reply to the claim form, make an offer of payment or put in any defence or counterclaim.

Having a judgment set aside does not wipe out the proceedings but the details will be removed from the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines until a new judgment is made.

It is more likely that the judge will set aside the judgement if you can prove that you gave your creditor an up to date address. It may be more difficult if your mum’s address was your last known address as they won’t have had any other way of contacting you.

You will need to complete an N244 form which costs £75 (you may be exempt if you are on benefits or a low income).

If you don’t want to challenge the CCJ, it may be easier to complete a N245 which costs £35, and you can use this to vary the amount to an instalment that you can afford.

If you’d like some further advice or help in putting together a budget you can contact us through our online advice tool 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.

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.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Firefly_777 wrote: »

I'm a student, and I'm just wondering whether student loan payments are considered as income?

Hi Firefly_777 and thanks for your post.

You should include your student loan payments as an income especially if they are used for your living costs. You would need to spread the instalments and include them as a monthly amount on your budget and balance it out with the costs that it is used for, such as rent, books, etc.

If you’d like some help in putting together your budget, you can use our online advice tool Debt Remedy which will compile your income and expenditure based on the figures that you put in.

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.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

sickofdebt2 wrote: »

I need advice i am in debt and im sick of it i have 2 bank loans loan 1 has a balance of £12,260 left i pay 433 per month loan 2 has £1,962 .00 i pay 52 per month i have 2 ccs 1 has a balance of 7366 and the other has a balance of 3400 my limit on card 1 is 15000 am i best to transfer 3400 balance to my barclaycard is it better to have them in one place ?i owe 50 k on my house there is alot of equity in it well it must be worth 125 k at least any advice would be appreciated

Hi sickofdebt2 and thank you for your post.

It would only be advisable to transfer the balance if the interest rate is lower and you can still afford to repay it at the rate that they will ask for.

However, if you are struggling with your repayments, I would recommend that you get in touch with us for some more detailed advice. To do this you can 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.

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.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

nurserynightmare wrote: »

I have a lot of debt with my hubby to various companies, we are just starting to get late payment fees put on some of them. I have looked at the cccs and national debtline and payplan and spoke to someone on the phone. Payplan says the best thing to do would be to do an informal arrangement rather than one of their debt management plans. I thought they would do this for me but i am making myself ill worrying about trying to send out letters etc. I burst into tears when the tiniest thing goes wrong ie tried to get 02 to drop my tarriff from online 45 to a £20 one but they said no i can only drop it £5. but my bills with tax on are about £55. I just dont underderstand all this budegeting and creditor stuff, i cant get the figures the cccs recommended to work. help please its making me so depressed.

Hi nurserynightmare and thank you for your post.

Mum2one has given you some really helpful advice and she’s right that you’ve already made the hardest and most important step towards becoming debt free.

I’m not sure whether you’ve already spoken to us or if it was one of the other charities that you contacted. Either way, I’d recommend that you give us a call and we can take you through your budget step by step to help you to understand it and make it work for you. We can also go through the advice with you again to make sure you know what you need to do, and remember that you can always call back if you need more assistance.

The forums on here are also a really good form of support. There are lots of friendly people that are in the same situation as you and they often provide really useful and practical advice.


Kind regards,
Pavan

enigma247

hi, i hope im posting my message correctly, apologies if i'm not. i have just had to confess to my partner of debts on my b'card of £2500, Next £1000, i dont work and have no income apart from child allowance. i am not on the mortgage for our property and have no assets either. my partner cant afford to pay my debts off and we are now getting phone calls after i have missed one payment of each card. my partner says they have been irresponsible in giving me the amount of credit they have. i have never been in this position before and am desperatley seeking work as of today. i would appreciate any help/advice you could give me. my minimum payments are now at £170 per month and i have been using my partners account to pay them until today that is!!
please help me as i am at my wits end,
thanks
sam