Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

StepChange_Pavan

hillbees1 wrote: »

I owe £8,300 on a personal loan to Lloyds Bank, and my wife has a loan in her name with the same bank of £9,000 approximately. I have a Lloyds credit card which I owe £2,800 on. Our personal account is overdrawn by £900 with a £1,000 overdraft facility on it. That overdrawn amount of £900 never changes. My only income is £130.90 a fortnight in contribution based unemployment benefit. That goes in to our personal account and comes out straightaway for living expenses.

I also owe the vat man £2,400 because my last business crashed. I was as a "Thresher" franchisee and as a result of them going in to administration it had a knock on effect. Also owe £600 on the Thresher credit card.

My wife has a small business as a sole trader and has an overdraft facility of £4,000. It is always £3,000 overdrawn. The only income from it now is £1,010 per month inclusive of VAT. Bank charges on that are around £40 to £50 per month. The expenses of the business are such that the business makes no profit after expenses are taken out. Income from it is probably in the region of £40 per week. She has two employees and their combined salaries are around £500 per month. They have been there over two years, so it would be difficult to get rid of them and do the work ourselves.

My house is worth 190k and the balance is £159k. None of the loans are secured on property. Trying to get mortgage Interest Relief is proving to be a nightmare. Sadly I remortgaged the house in 2006 to the tune of 60k in order to become a "Thresher" franchisee. Of course that amount will not be taken in to account when assessing what benefit I am entitled to.

Any help or recommendation of a company to assist us would be appreciated. Thank you,

Hi hilbees1 and thank you for your post.

It certainly sounds like you could do with some in depth debt advice, but we would need more information to be able to do this.

We are completely free and impartial and will look at your situation as a whole in order to determine the best option for you.

If you’d like us to give you some advice 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.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

DAT65

Hi, first post so just a couple of questions please?

Can you ask CC companies if you can reduce your payments or do you need to go through a DMP ?

I am struggling to keep up with the payments on my CC's and I am trying to find out the best way to deal with it.

I am currently unable to access the CCC website but will keep trying.

I am also try to read as much as I can on MSE - so this is just a start of what I think will be a lot of questions!


Many thanks
DAT

stubruscooby

not so much a question

more of a thank you..you guys do so much for us and have done so much for me and i want to thank the whole CCCS team

my personal thanks to michelle bullock for helping through all this aswell

thank you guys

clarkec321

Don't really know where to start

Over the past year we've sold nearly everything we own to get by each month, our house is in negative equity so we have no room to manoeuvre there. My partner has 2 credit cards, one is £12,700 in debt and the other is £10,900 I am also £500 overdrawn on an unused old account and we live in our £2,000 overdraft in our main joint account.

We have just tried to apply for a personal loan to start paying the debt down rather than struggling to meet minimum payments and just have the debt continue to get more & more unmanageable, but after going through the money-supermarket process an selecting a loan we thought we had a reasonable chance of getting, the system turned us down without even seeming to think about it. We don't want to fall into the trap of being turned down for credit without succeeding and harming our rating by all the searches done.

Have been trying to get on the CCCS website to look for guidance but its not working.

the steps we've taken so far was to move the mortgage to an interest only deal to reduce the payments temporarily, we did this last year and it has now reverted to original deal except the payments are now a bit higher (meaning we're struggling more) this has put us off wanting to ask the CC companies to temporarily reduce the payments as it could hurt credit rating in the short term, leaving us with few alternatives to move the debt around & of course payments will still be wowing in the future and they may even be higher.

Looking into homeowner loans that we could pay off the total amount over the next 6 years, although these are generally advised against in most cases - but as we don't have 15% or more equity in our house I don't think we'd be accepted anyway.

Pretty desperate for advice on how to pay the debts down in a manageable fashion

Thanks

CCCS_Sue

DAT65 wrote: »

Hi, first post so just a couple of questions please?

Can you ask CC companies if you can reduce your payments or do you need to go through a DMP ?

I am struggling to keep up with the payments on my CC's and I am trying to find out the best way to deal with it.

I am currently unable to access the CCC website but will keep trying.

I am also try to read as much as I can on MSE - so this is just a start of what I think will be a lot of questions!


Many thanks
DAT

Hi Dat 65 and thank you for your message

Sorry to hear you were unable to access the website yesterday. We were experiencing some technical issues, but it is up and running again now.

You can write to your creditors yourself and offer a reduced payment based on what you can realistically afford, but you need to back it up with a copy of your budget.

If you would like some help and assistance with 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
Sue

CCCS_Sue

stubruscooby wrote: »

not so much a question

more of a thank you..you guys do so much for us and have done so much for me and i want to thank the whole CCCS team

my personal thanks to michelle bullock for helping through all this aswell

thank you guys

Hi stubruscooby and thank you for your kind feedback.

I have passed your comments to Michelle and I’m sure they will be much appreciated!

Kind Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

clarkec321 wrote: »

Don't really know where to start

Over the past year we've sold nearly everything we own to get by each month, our house is in negative equity so we have no room to manoeuvre there. My partner has 2 credit cards, one is £12,700 in debt and the other is £10,900 I am also £500 overdrawn on an unused old account and we live in our £2,000 overdraft in our main joint account.

We have just tried to apply for a personal loan to start paying the debt down rather than struggling to meet minimum payments and just have the debt continue to get more & more unmanageable, but after going through the money-supermarket process an selecting a loan we thought we had a reasonable chance of getting, the system turned us down without even seeming to think about it. We don't want to fall into the trap of being turned down for credit without succeeding and harming our rating by all the searches done.

Have been trying to get on the CCCS website to look for guidance but its not working.

the steps we've taken so far was to move the mortgage to an interest only deal to reduce the payments temporarily, we did this last year and it has now reverted to original deal except the payments are now a bit higher (meaning we're struggling more) this has put us off wanting to ask the CC companies to temporarily reduce the payments as it could hurt credit rating in the short term, leaving us with few alternatives to move the debt around & of course payments will still be wowing in the future and they may even be higher.

Looking into homeowner loans that we could pay off the total amount over the next 6 years, although these are generally advised against in most cases - but as we don't have 15% or more equity in our house I don't think we'd be accepted anyway.

Pretty desperate for advice on how to pay the debts down in a manageable fashion

Thanks

Hi clarkec321 and thank you for your message

Sorry to hear you were unable to get onto our website yesterday. We were experiencing some technical difficulties, but everything is up and running again today.

If you would like some help and advice regarding your situation, 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,

Sue

nobodysdriving

Hi,
my story is quite long but I will try to make it as short as possible....
HMRC has miscalculated my tax for 2 years when I suddenly started working a lot more hours through the same employer but in a separate job. Although the job was separate it was for the same big NHS employer (same hospital) and I was paid through the same payroll number through the same PAYE code too, they should have picked up on all earnings alright and indeed they adjusted all my NI contributions all those years to a 'T' but never my tax, indeed I was 'fooled' thinking all deductions were taken care for as I saw NI contributions going up and down in both wage slips and my employers said this was being done as the two job pays were amalgamated.
Anyway, last March to my surprise I received a letter telling me I OWE THEM £5500 as a result of THEM not doing their job properly. I have NO savings, no assets, never worked as self employed, never failed to declare any income that did not go through PAYE as I never had any, any money I earned went through them! this is ALL THEIR WRONG DOING! I have struggled with debt for the past 14 years! I just cannot ever get out of it! I pay one loan and I land into another one, it's 14 years I live my life on the line and count each penny coming in going out!

As a result of this 'tax mess' now it meant that I have gone into the 'higher tax rate payer' and some of my earnings are taxed at 40%! so they have 'rightly' adjusted my tax code and it was a SHOCK as all of a sudden my income has gone down by £300 a month!!! needless to say I had to cut down and get rid of EVERYTHING i could get rid of in my life! you name it it's GONE! my son does not get any games/videos/cds (he's 15) we do not get any holidays, we don't go to the cinema anymore, no take aways, we stopped our cable tv, I stopped my professional contributions (I am a midwife), I stopped my life insurance payments, I stopped everything I could stop in my outgoings!

after ALL THE CUTS I could do in my spending I STILL had to find money to pay the TAX debt! I told HMRC my debt situation, I called them with a break down of my income and expenditure and told them I could pay them £20 a month, I explained that once I paid off 2 huge loans I have which are due to be paid off in 2 and a half years then I can pay them £450 a month (these 2 loans together are £440 a month). They threatened me with sending an officer to my house to seize ALL my goods even though I did not refuse to give money, I was offering £20 a month, then they said, after going through my expenditures that I have £100 disposable income a month (which is not true as they did not take into consideration my 2 huge overdrafts for which I get charged £50 a month in fees/interest for both put together) and as my disposable income is £100 then I can pay £100 a month to them! They abruptly ended the call by saying the expect that from me end of story!

Sorry for the long story but what I want to know is:

- Can they leave me with NO disposable income AT ALL?
- Can they really send an officer to my house to 'seize' my goods even though I have offered £20 a month? where do I stand 'legally'??? what can I do?

this has now began to put a real strain on me, I have been working 6 days a week (legally I am only obliged to work 37.5 hours a week and I work 50 since 2 years ago to pay my debts as I made a decision NOT to go on a debt management plan or IVA and NOT to go bankrupt) and now because of this I HAVE to work my annual leave too as I have no money left at all and I honestly don't think I can leave my life working like a slave and not even buy myself one treat or my son something, also my car needed 2 new tyres this month and broke down too and had to spend £350 to fix it and had to take 2 weeks annual leave AND work them to pay for it!!! like this I will never rest, will I get ill one day? I am really really beginning to get stressed now
AND they are even still charging me interest on the tax owed, I know that in theory they can but THIS IS THEIR MISTAKE, it was not me not paying in the beginning or hiding information, it was their wrong-doing!

I really feel like I have been treated VERY badly/unfairly! help!

Lucy111_2

Hi, would appreciate a little help from the CCCS people on here. Thanking you in advance.

I am in quite a considerable amount of debt, but I have stopped burying my head in the sand and am trying to sort it out myself before going down the route of an IVA. I do have extra income at the end of the month, but I need to pay less on the debts to try and clear the overdraft. I have already successfully got one loan reduced for one year to a more affordable amount. I have 2 other smaller loans and a credit card. I intend to write to these companies asking them to reduce my payments and freeze all charges for a year. In the meantime as the direct debits come out my overdraft is increasing each month. Can I cancel the direct debits for the debts before sending the letters or will that just really upset them? Should I wait until they receive my letters and consider what I have to offer?

Thanks

Snugglebunny8

Hiya, I wonder if I can ask for some help as Im worried sick!.

My husband has an oustanding bill on a chargecard, which is overdue. We have kept in touch with the card company and kept them informed. We are in a position to pay the amount shortly.

On 1st March a letter arrived serving Notice of Default, the letter was dated 24th February.

The letter states that the amount must be paid within 14 calendar days of the letter date. It states that if the amount is paid within the 14 days no further action will be taken. It states this in upper case, bold and underlined.

We rang this morning to advise them of when we will be able to pay, to be told the matter has already been refered to a debt collection agency.

My husband has said he will call back Monday to speak with somebody in charge, but my question is re the following;

The letter states very clearly the date of 24th February and that payment must be made within 14 calendar days. It clearly states no further action will be taken if the amount is paid before that date.

Surely they are in breach of the Notice of Default by having already refered it? I do not know what date they refered it, but the letter dated 24th Feb arrived Tuesday 1st March, and 14 days even including the 24th itself, is 9th March, and today is only the 5th.

Surely they are in breach? please could you advise us on this as Im very upset and concerned and also very worried now about incurring a lot of extra charges which would then give us more problems than the ones we are sorting out.

Many thanks for your help.