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StepChange_Pavan

rdpixie wrote: »

Evening guys!

Looking for some advice for my situation...

* Been self-employed for 1 year
* Not a home owner

Current debt:
Credit Card 1 = £7900 (Halifax 17.9% and has been closed)
Credit Card 2 = £3100 (Virgin 7.9%)
Loan = £4000 (Halifax 4 years remaining)

Between them all I pay approx. £280 a month in repayments however this is only covering the minimum on the CC's and so my debt isn't really going down. I can just about manage to keep this up but at times it can be a bit of a struggle.

I have never missed a payment on my cards or my loan and I have only been refused credit once and that was over 6 months ago. I haven't got my credit report but I am looking to get that now.

My question really is am I better to try and go for a consolidation loan or to try and apply for a credit card with 0% on transfers to try and clear some of my debt? Are there any particular places that are better to apply if you are self employed? Or as I have only been self employed a year am i likely to be declined on that basis?

Hi rdpixie and welcome to the forum.

It’s difficult to say whether you will be accepted for credit as they could decline you on the basis that you’re already overcommitted and/or because you’re self employed. It’s a good idea to take a look and see what’s on there at the moment.

We don’t usually recommend consolidating as it could make your situation worse if you’re unable to afford the new repayments. A 0% balance transfer could work but this would depend on you being accepted and would only solve the problem for a short period of time – once the offer period expires the interest rate usually jumps.

I’d recommend that you put together a budget to work out how much you can realistically afford to repay each month. You say that sometimes you struggle – this could be because you’re not budgeting carefully enough month by month.

If you’d like some help with this or some free and impartial advice on your options you can call our free helpline on 0800 138 1111. We’re open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

crob wrote: »

hey just need a bit of guidence, i have never been great with my money and i have fed up of spending more and want to try and save, it feels like each month i end up having to spend thought.

i have a over draft from being a student on £2346
its a halifax one and i have a feeling they will start to charge me interest on it, im not sure either to try and pay it off with a loan or just wait and see what the interest will be?

also did the budget brain here are my resultsStatement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,748.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.00
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.00
Entertainment
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Big One Offs
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Odds & Sods

Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,769.00

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,138.00

any advice

Hi crob and thanks for your post.

Firstly, your figures don’t seem to add up, and you’ve accounted for your one offs in your monthly amount.

I’d recommend that you re do your budget and look at areas that you feel you can cut back on. You could easily afford to repay your overdraft at a reasonable rate if you cut back on your entertainment costs for example.

In terms of paying back your overdraft, you might find it easier to budget if you pay your income into a different account and pay towards it like any other debt.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

trevorsw

I have posted on the main thread but the basics of my debt are we have £45k problem debt, £36k is credit cards and the rest is overdraughts x 2 and loans from family members.... we dont know what the best thing for us is... we have seen CAB but tunfortunatley they werent very helpful. we are meeting the minimum payments but because of this we are using ccards for food and petrol during the month so it is an ever decreasing circle.

we have an excellent credit reference as i have checked it. I think our options are debt consolidation loan over 7 years or so and pay off the lot for £750 a month or take out a personnal loan for £25k @ £500 a month and pay the minumum on the rest for the 5 years then sort out the remaining debt at that time.

IVA and DMP seem a bit drastic for us but we are open to all seggestions.

Please help with advise

look forward to hearing from you

regards

StepChange_Pavan

trevorsw wrote: »

I have posted on the main thread but the basics of my debt are we have £45k problem debt, £36k is credit cards and the rest is overdraughts x 2 and loans from family members.... we dont know what the best thing for us is... we have seen CAB but tunfortunatley they werent very helpful. we are meeting the minimum payments but because of this we are using ccards for food and petrol during the month so it is an ever decreasing circle.

we have an excellent credit reference as i have checked it. I think our options are debt consolidation loan over 7 years or so and pay off the lot for £750 a month or take out a personnal loan for £25k @ £500 a month and pay the minumum on the rest for the 5 years then sort out the remaining debt at that time.

IVA and DMP seem a bit drastic for us but we are open to all seggestions.

Please help with advise

look forward to hearing from you

regards

Hello trevorsw and thanks for your question.

If you’re using credit cards for essential payments, this suggests that you’re not budgeting properly.

I’d recommend that you draw up a realistic budget that shows all your income and your essential outgoings. This should show you how much you can afford to offer to your creditors.

You should maintain your budget so that you can afford to pay for food and petrol before you pay your creditors.

We don’t usually recommend consolidation loans as it can sometimes make the situation worse in the long term. If you are considering this, you need to ensure that you can maintain the payments – your budget will help you to work this out.

If you’d like us to look at your situation in more detail you visit our online debt advice service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) to help you find a solution to your debt problem quickly.

Debt Remedy will assist you in completing a financial statement with information on your household, employment, income, expenditure and debts. From this the service will automatically determine your options.

You’ll receive a downloadable advice booklet providing a tailored solution for you based on your current circumstances and advice on ways you may be able to improve your situation.

If you’re not confident with computers or would like to speak to an advisor then you’re welcome to ring our free Helpline on 0800 138 1111. We’re open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Mooglet71

Me again
Which is the best department to send my creditor letters to informing them I am going on a DMP. Do I have to send a token payment too?
Thanks:o

sc85

Mooglet71 wrote: »

Me again
Which is the best department to send my creditor letters to informing them I am going on a DMP. Do I have to send a token payment too?
Thanks:o

Thanks for asking this Q - I was just coming on to ask the exact same.

Will keep an eye out for the reply.

kjnealon

Firstly let me apologise if this post is in the incorrect forum, Im sure it'll be moved if necessary,
My story is as follows....
I recently had a look at my Equifax report and found a defaulted credit agreement in my Mis-spelt name at my Previous address.
I moved house in 2003 and this agreement was set up in 2006 !!.
The agreement is in default to the tune of over a thousand pounds!!.
Obviously I neither knew about this till now and could never have recieved anything from this agreement (im presuming its a catalogue or something similiar).
I presume whoever moved in after me used my details to create this account.
I feel irate that the cheeky !!!!er has done this and they feel they will get away with it.
I have contacted Equifax who have gave me a phone number for the creditor saying I should contact them to discuss.
What should I do ?? Any advice on the best way forward for me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Bruce_in_NZ

Hi,

I really hope you can help me with this one.

We decided to emigrate to New Zealand towards the end of last year. I thought I had planned it all fairly well and identified three main things that needed to happen in an ideal world:

- Our house selling
- My wife's business selling
- a large tax rebate arriving in time

We had some manageable debt in the UK and I was hoping that the equity in the house and the tax rebate would help start us up over here and clear all UK debts. I had contingencies in place to cover one or two of those things not happening (i.e. use house equity to clear business overdraft if business didn't sell etc etc). We put the house and business on the market as early as we could. In the end, what happened was that I got offered a job much more quickly than I thought so I had to leave the UK before my family. In the meantime, we found buyers for the house and business and although we were effectively covering two lots of living expenses (including rent here in NZ) we thought we could just about cover it. Then in quick succession the buyers pulled out of both the business and the house and there was no sign of the tax rebate. We were then left in the situation where I was paying a mortgage of 1100/month in the UK and the bank sold my wife a loan to pay off the business overdraft and buy her out of the lease on the business premises (it was a small shop). This added considerably to the monthly payments we had to make. We dropped and dropped the price of the house and have just sold it this week for just less than the value of the mortgage. In the meantime we have maxed out our credit carsd to keep us going. The tax rebate eventually came in but also had to be used to continue making payments. I am now left with around 44k of debt in the UK (credit cards, bank loan, overdrafts, one store card) which I am sending money back to cover from here. I am pretty sure that my credit rating will be poor as I missed a few payments through cashflow issues and then getting behind (I am up to date now). I can make regular payments back to the UK to cover all my creditors as things stand but this leaves me very short now out here and I will be very vulnerable to changes in the exchange rate. We have nothing as security now and cannot Afford to come back to the UK. I am not a resident here yet so I think my only option is to do something that is UK based? I owe this money and take responsibility for that but if there is a different way of paying it back then I would really appreciate some guidance. Any assistance much appreciated.

StepChange_Pavan

Mooglet71 wrote: »

Me again
Which is the best department to send my creditor letters to informing them I am going on a DMP. Do I have to send a token payment too?
Thanks:o

Hi there,

It’s best to send it to the same address that they send you correspondence from – this will differ as it depends at what stage in the collections process you are.

It’s a good idea to send them a token payment as a gesture of goodwill, especially if you will be missing a payment before the start of your DMP.

I hope this helps but if you need clarification, just give us a call.

Thanks,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

sc85 wrote: »

Thanks for asking this Q - I was just coming on to ask the exact same.

Will keep an eye out for the reply.

Hi sc85,

Hope I answered your question above too!

Thanks,
Pavan