Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

System

loudmouth wrote: »

Hi, and thank you for reply.I have double checked and it is a new default date.I actually think this will be my 3rd with this one debt. It is like a dark shadow hanging over me since May 2002 when car was taken away. I wish I had never heard of Welcome, but it seemed a good idea at the time.

Hi and thanks for your reply.

I’d recommend getting in touch with the credit reference agency. 3 defaults on the same debt definitely should be looked into.

We’d be interested to hear what the response is.

Kind regards,

Mat

System

walker1627 wrote: »

Hi, I am currently in a debt management programme with total balances of £12,900. I pay £110 each month to this, of which the debt management compant takes £30. I am looking into switching to payplan to save fees and pay off the debt more quickly, is it easy to switch from 1 plan to another? The threatening letters have ended now and payment plans have been agreed with all lenders with the interest frozen or reduced. Does all this have to be re negotiated if i swap plans? I am happy with the amount i pay, i budget to afford it so am happy to keep paying the £110.


Also my husband has unsecurred debts of aprox £11,000 which he is struggling to pay so he is also looking to contact pay plan about this.
Are we able to combine the debts into 1 DMP if they are in our seperate names or do we have to take out 2 seperate plans? None of the debts are in joint names.
Many thanks

Hi and thanks for your post.

It should be fairly straightforward to switch provider. By moving to a non fee charger such as PayPlan or ourselves all of the money you pay into the plan would go to your creditors.

I would recommend that you look at your situation jointly to begin with make things simpler.

When approaching non fee chargers such as ourselves or PayPlan you might find that you could be offered other solutions dependent on your circumstances. Some of these solutions you might not be currently aware of.

We have an online debt help solution called 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.

To help you fill in the form, it’s best to gather together information about:
• Your income
• Your expenditure
• The creditors you owe money to

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.

If you phone us it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor for immediate advice. Alternatively, we will arrange for an appointment to be booked at a time convenient for you.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Mat

scared-sick

I am really struggling to pay all of my debts, bills etc however, up to this point have not missed any payments. This however is due to the fact that up until this point the bank allowed me to go over my overdraft limit and paid out. However last month it decided to stop allowing me to do that and bounced 3 of my direct debits. 2 of these have been re-presented and I have managed to cover this with income from a second job. (this is the short version of a long credit history story).

Anyway, I realise the bank had every right to do that, but seems a bit harsh that they allow you to go over for months then suddenly stop! So after a lot of deliberating, I have decided to try and struggle on, however, because of the bank situation, need a solution for the short term (2 months) to get me kind of back on my feet.

I cant get loans, maxed out on credit cards and on overdraft. Any ideas if there is anything I can do? I got into this mess and am trying to get out of it without going down the dmp routes as I think once I even ask one creditor to ease off, my credit rating will be trashed and therefore may aswell go the whole hog.

Tinkerbe11_2

Sorry if this is long and complicated but looking for some advice on how to best consolidate mine and my partner’s debts. Combined we owe just under £15000 on credit cards and the repayments are taking a really large part of our income although we are managing (just about) to meet them but paying little over the minimum every month. We own our property and are currently just paying the interest on our mortgage which is with Northern Rock (now NRAM who no longer have a loaning license so can’t increase the mortgage or whatever). Our credit rating really isn’t great and we have been turned down for a personal loan with Halifax. I have looked at getting a secure loan but Ocean Finance refused us, as the amount we’d need to borrow (£15000) as it would mean it takes us up to more or less 100% of the value of our property. They did refer us to various other loan companies but I’m a bit reluctant to use them. One of the other issues I think we may have is that on paper it looks as if we have far less income then we actually do, as I am in full time employment but my partner is a stay at home dad, however we do get an extra £800 a month, every month, from his mum but I doubt that any loan company would actually recognise this as additional income so when they are looking at the figures we probably look like we wouldn’t meet the repayments. Any advice on a way to consolidate our debts and lower our repayments without further damaging our credit rating by getting refused again and again!?

mje79

Hello Debt Busters,

Need to pick your brains as I'm not sure if I'm being taken for a ride. I've been in a debt managment programme for about three years and I've just had a letter from Gregory Pennington with an update. I pay £255.00 a month and am being told i'll be debt free in 39 months but the will also charge me £1491.75 in the process. Is there any way I can get this cost down? or indeed get them to work harder in reducing the debt? Or is there another company I can use?

Kind regards

Mike Edwards

OsborneSaint

Hi,

Please bare with me as i'm a newbie to this site. I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post but here goes.

My current situation is as follows and I wondered if anyone had any advice as to get my debt level down or whether i'm already on the right track.

I have a personal loan (£20k over 7 years with halifax) that I have had for a year now paying £390 a month.

I also have some credit card debt as follows: £1500 on a 0% interest halifax credit card paying the minimum, £6000 on an old now 0% interest for 9 months halifax credit card paying the minimum.

Now here is the tricky bit, my partner and I are getting married next year and i have around £12,500 in shares that are about to come in. I planned to use the shares to pay for the wedding but should i do something different with this money? Do i pay off debt and then use credit again when i need it for the wedding?

I ultimately want to get my debt repayments down as they are currently at £450 ish in total. Any ideas on what's best?

Thank you very much in advance.

pinknoodle

Please help! Over the past year and a half I have been paying off my council tax debt through baliffs Goodwillie and Corcoran. After checking how much was outstanding I discovered that infact i have overpaid them by approx £400. When I rang them they fobed me off, I have sent them bank statements by fax, email and post to prove what I have paid but they will not give me any answers as to why there is a discrepency in our figures. Can anyone advise how I can get this money back?

System

scared-sick wrote: »

I am really struggling to pay all of my debts, bills etc however, up to this point have not missed any payments. This however is due to the fact that up until this point the bank allowed me to go over my overdraft limit and paid out. However last month it decided to stop allowing me to do that and bounced 3 of my direct debits. 2 of these have been re-presented and I have managed to cover this with income from a second job. (this is the short version of a long credit history story).

Anyway, I realise the bank had every right to do that, but seems a bit harsh that they allow you to go over for months then suddenly stop! So after a lot of deliberating, I have decided to try and struggle on, however, because of the bank situation, need a solution for the short term (2 months) to get me kind of back on my feet.

I cant get loans, maxed out on credit cards and on overdraft. Any ideas if there is anything I can do? I got into this mess and am trying to get out of it without going down the dmp routes as I think once I even ask one creditor to ease off, my credit rating will be trashed and therefore may aswell go the whole hog.

Hi and thanks for your post.

It sounds like you would benefit from some free and impartial advice.

I’d recommend opening a new basic bank account without an overdraft with a different bank not connected to any of your other debts. I would then suggest you have your wages and direct debits swapped to the new basic account.

Even if you don’t wish to go down the DMP route there could be other solutions open to you. It’s worth trying our online service to see confidentially what your opens are. It’s also useful in regards to putting together a realistic budget.

The first thing to do is 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.

To help you fill in the form, it’s best to gather together information about:
• Your income
• Your expenditure
• The creditors you owe money to

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.

If you phone us it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor for immediate advice. Alternatively, we will arrange for an appointment to be booked at a time convenient for you.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Mat

tinkerbell12

I am looking for some advice please - I have been on a CCCS DMP for nearly 4 years. 2 of our 3 credit cards are now charging 17% interest each month after a few years of kindly freezing the interest. One of these refuses to acknowledge that we are on a DMP any longer as we now meet the monthly repayments on our card. Our other debts are loans and one which has been passed onto a debt collection agent.

If we could get a 0% credit card to shift these two debts onto to save money (my credit file isn't looking too bad), would we be breaking the rules of our DMP? It makes sense to us as we would be saving so much money on interest.

Many thanks.

Sillygirl_2

Hello,
We have got ourselves into a real sticky situation. We have lots of debt, which we have always managed to pay without problem. However my husband lost his job earlier in the year, he has just accepted another job but at a lower salary with much higher travel expenses, on top of this I am just going back to work after maternity leave so overall we have a lots more going out with less coming in. We have Bernard living on our savings and haven't missed any payments. I have calculated, being thrifty and cancelling non essentials like satellite etc. That we would have about £400 left to pay about £900 of loans, overdrafts and ccs. Would be accepted on any plans? Is there anything we can do? We run one car, value about £150. And haven't got any equity on house etc ...