Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

banwa

mark2004uk wrote: »

Did any one respond to my question ??

Yes, they did, on the previous page

CCCS_Pavan wrote: »

Hi mark2004uk and thanks for your post.

If they failed your IVA they should have sent you correspondence through the post advising you of this. I’d recommend that you contact your IVA provider for confirmation of what has happened – there may be ways of continuing on the IVA but because it’s a legally binding solution it depends on what was written into the terms and they would need to check this.

If your IVA has failed you can contact us and we can look at your situation in more detail to see what options are available to you.

If you feel that you weren’t advised properly by your IVA company you could also consider putting in a complaint. This leaflet explains how to do this in more detail: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/bispartners/insolvency/docs/publication-pdfs/ipcomplaint.pdf

Kind regards,
Pavan

BigCol

OK Guys, here goes...

The following debt was accumulated over a 10 yr period. It was relatively under control to begin with, but due to a combination of having to pay for lots of flights for various personal reasons, and a little bit of overspending and ignoring the problem, I am now mostly paying interest (minimum payments) and want to get out of the spiral...

I have tried to switch some debt to 0% CC's but I was recently refused a couple of cards and would primarily like help in avoiding such high interest rates...

Firstly, I have a Barclaycard which is 19.9% ARP. I owe just under £4300 and monthly minimum payments are currently £97ish.

I have a RBS Card which has just under £2500 on it. That's at around £58 per month (min payments). I think the APR on that is around 16%

I have a loan with RBS, which was taken out just over 2 years ago for 5 years. It's £5,000 at 16.6% APR and the payments are £120 per month. The current amount outstanding is a few pennies under £3000. (This was to consolidate all debt I had at the time - the debt above has appeared since).

I have an overdraft of £2000 which costs me around £25 per month in interest....

So in total I owe just under £12,000. I also owe around the same amount in student loans with the SLC.

That's the bad news.

The good news is, I am able to keep my head above water as I am relatively well paid (£23k) and I have recently been able to do some well paid jobs on the side (teaching and assessing first aid and lifesaving etc) which will start bringing in extra income. (The first couple of jobs I did helped get me through Xmas relatively unscathed).

I am also about to move closer to work and start sharing a car with my girlfriend so I will save around £60 per month, plus unexpected repair bills will be 1/2 what they were.

I am also about to make £450 selling my car and should get just under £400 back from the deposit on my old flat. I hope to put all of this into paying back debt.

My net monthly income is currently £1314 and I'm currently left with around £570 per month to live on (that should go up to £630 when the car goes as of next week) once all bills (inc all current monthly payments) are paid.

I can live on that but it's a bit of a nightmare when weddings etc come up and I'm going to struggle to get a holiday....

It would be great if I could get help and advice on the best way to move the debt, so that I can find a lower rate of interest and the money I pay back will actually lower my total amount owed a bit quicker.

Ideally I'd like to remain paying back £300 monthly, so that I have enough to live on, but also have the option to throw in a couple of hundred pounds here and there whenever I get paid for one off jobs.

For info, I don't think I was refused 0% cards recently due to a bad credit rating.... other than a bit of council tax that was paid after it went to a debt agency around 5 years ago, I have never missed any payments and last time I checked, my credit rating didn't have any blemishes. (The council tax thing didn't show up). I think they just knew that I had 2 maxed out cards.

Thanks in advance for your help.

MRSG2B_2

Hi there

I've been paying off my debts via CCCS for almost 2 years. I am now almost 7 months pregnant and am going to be starting my Maternity Leave soon. As I will be receiving SMP whilst on ML I obviously won't be able to keep to my usual repayments, and will in fact not be able to make very large payments at all whilst on leave.

My question is how can I work out my budget for ML to reduce my payments? And what is the minimum payment I can accept CCCS/creditors to accept whilst on leave? Obviously once I am back at work I will be happy to increase payments again.

Thanks in advance!

Scottish_Power

Hi beatinertia,

If you want to e-mail me with the details of the property you think this relates to and the ref number given by BCW I will look in to this for you.

My e-mail address is [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL]

Thanks

Graeme @ ScottishPower

StepChange_Pavan

fresh-start-needed wrote: »

Hi I have found myself in trouble with debts (cc's, o.d, catalogues). My debts total 6000. Would I be allowed to get a debt relief order based on my wage, child benefit and tax credits? My husband and I oay half of everything each.

Would I be allowed a debt relief order whilst living in a mortgaged property (the mortgage is in his name only but I have lived here for 14 years). There is no equity in the property so selling up to pay things off isn't an option. Would I be allowed to declare myself bankrupt in the situation?

Thanks for your advice

Hi fresh-start-needed and thanks for your post.

In order to qualify for a DRO you must have debts under £15,000, a surplus of less than £50 per month after paying your share of the household bills. You must have lived in England or Wales in the last 3 years and have assets under £300.

With regards to the property, consideration would have to be given to whether you have a beneficial interest in the house. Beneficial interest is determined as follows:

· Is your name on the deeds of the house or the mortgage?
· Have you made any payment to the mortgage?
· Have you made any payment towards house improvements?
· Did you contribute towards the deposit on the property?
· How long have you lived in the property?

If your answer to the first 4 points is no then you may qualify so please get in touch with us and we can discuss this further with you.

If you were to consider bankruptcy then any interest you might have in the property would be investigated. Although it has no equity now, the Official Receiver would review the value after 2 years to see if it has appreciated. If so then they could request that your partner buy out your interest or at worse could enforce the sale of your property.

I’d recommend that you get in touch with us so that we can look at your situation in more detail and advise you on your options. We have specialist bankruptcy and DRO teams and we can support you through whichever process is best for you.

You can use our online debt advice service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) or call our free helpline on 0800 138 1111.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

9780ninjalt wrote: »

Completed the Debt Remedy Tool on the CCCS site and they advised a DMP which we accepted. Received the E-mail pack today in which it says to send the agreements for our debts and proof of income and the booklet will tell us what is acceptable. But there's no booklet. Will they be sending it in the post or should it have been attached? Can somebody tell me what to send? Will a P60 do or will they require payslips. OH gets paid weekly, so how many will they need. TBH we don't keep them as he gets paid the same everyweek so it could take a while to get together.

Thanks

Hi 9780ninjalt and thanks for your post.

The booklet should be attached to the email pack, but if not there should be a contact number and we will be able to post you another. His P60 should be fine and if he has a couple of wage slips it’s a good idea to include those too.

If you’re unsure of anything just give us a call.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

serendipiciousuk

Hi there,

Please help. my husband and i have managed to get ourselves into a total of £9000 debt over 3 credit cards...we started with 1 then got another to pay off the other etc.

My husband now out of work (actively seeking) and we are beginning to really struggle.

we have been looking at loan companies or ones that take over your debt but not sure how they all work...they say oh pay what you can and you will be debt free after 3 years. How does that work. Also once the three years is up...can you get credit again....ie mortgage.

Im really making myself ill with worry.

StepChange_Pavan

beatinertia wrote: »

I have received what I suspected was a suspicious automated phone message from Buchannon Clark and Wells asking me to call them back with a unique ref number.
I googled them and discovered that they are a debt collection agency.
I am not aware of any debts ie have had no letters from any company asking me for money that I have not paid.
I suspect it relates to the following and would REALLY appreciate your advice.
When I moved into my flat six and a half years ago I phoned the gas company, scottish power, to say that I had moved in and to give them readings. They insisted that there was only one gas supply to the property when infact there were two. No gas bill came for my flat. Occasionally a letter from British Gas came for the previous tenant with a bill for nothing ie no gas used. I thought one day it would catch up with me and it has. I wish now of course I had perservered with proving that there were indeed two supplies but I didnt. Recently a bill for £485 came for the previous tenant for gas used from sep 11 to jan 12. I paid it in full and then set about switching companies.
So I suspect Buchannon Clark and Wells are after me now for the gas bills that I have not been receiving.
I am a single parent on income support with a disabled child and have no assets or savings.
I dont know whether to phone them to find out what the debt is and who its owed to... british gas or scottish power. r to wait until I hear from the gas company.
Any advice would be very gratefully received.

Hi beatinertia and thanks for your post.

Graeme from Scottish Power has kindly offered to look in to this for you (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=50440757&postcount=2887)

I’d recommend that you try this and if you do find out that there is an amount outstanding that you can’t afford, you can get in touch with us and we can look at your options with you.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

edlondon wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm hoping you can give me some advice. I currently have the following debts:

Credit card (open): £4500. Paying min payment £110 per month but then spending approx £50 per month on card
Credit card (now closed): £1900. Paying £50 per month
Credit card (open): £300. Paying minimum payment £10 per month
Overdraft: £500
Loan: £1900. Paying £105 per month, will be paid off November 2013.

So my total debt is £9100. My payments are managable however I am concerned at how long my credit cards will take to pay off as I can't really increase the payments on those. In addition, I am looking to try to get another loan of £5,500 for a private operation I need to have.

My questions are:

1) how likely am I to be accepted for an additional loan of £5,500 given my current situation?
2) would I be best off consolidating my current debts? If so, would I be likely to be given a loan of £14,600 to pay these off including the £5,500 for my operation?

My situation is I am employed full time earning £35,000 per year, of which £150 per month also gets deducted for a student loan. My rent is £700 per month. I am on electoral role and have been in my job and flat for a year. I have never missed a payment on a debt, however I think my rating may be down as last year I made a succession of applications which were all declined- so may need to wait a while before applying again.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi edlondon and thanks for your post.

It looks as though you’ve already been given some really helpful advice from Tixy. As you’re not struggling with your repayments or looking at debt solutions this isn’t something we advise on.

However you might find this article on how to improve your credit file useful: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score

Good luck.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

BigCol wrote: »

OK Guys, here goes...

The following debt was accumulated over a 10 yr period. It was relatively under control to begin with, but due to a combination of having to pay for lots of flights for various personal reasons, and a little bit of overspending and ignoring the problem, I am now mostly paying interest (minimum payments) and want to get out of the spiral...

I have tried to switch some debt to 0% CC's but I was recently refused a couple of cards and would primarily like help in avoiding such high interest rates...

Firstly, I have a Barclaycard which is 19.9% ARP. I owe just under £4300 and monthly minimum payments are currently £97ish.

I have a RBS Card which has just under £2500 on it. That's at around £58 per month (min payments). I think the APR on that is around 16%

I have a loan with RBS, which was taken out just over 2 years ago for 5 years. It's £5,000 at 16.6% APR and the payments are £120 per month. The current amount outstanding is a few pennies under £3000. (This was to consolidate all debt I had at the time - the debt above has appeared since).

I have an overdraft of £2000 which costs me around £25 per month in interest....

So in total I owe just under £12,000. I also owe around the same amount in student loans with the SLC.

That's the bad news.

The good news is, I am able to keep my head above water as I am relatively well paid (£23k) and I have recently been able to do some well paid jobs on the side (teaching and assessing first aid and lifesaving etc) which will start bringing in extra income. (The first couple of jobs I did helped get me through Xmas relatively unscathed).

I am also about to move closer to work and start sharing a car with my girlfriend so I will save around £60 per month, plus unexpected repair bills will be 1/2 what they were.

I am also about to make £450 selling my car and should get just under £400 back from the deposit on my old flat. I hope to put all of this into paying back debt.

My net monthly income is currently £1314 and I'm currently left with around £570 per month to live on (that should go up to £630 when the car goes as of next week) once all bills (inc all current monthly payments) are paid.

I can live on that but it's a bit of a nightmare when weddings etc come up and I'm going to struggle to get a holiday....

It would be great if I could get help and advice on the best way to move the debt, so that I can find a lower rate of interest and the money I pay back will actually lower my total amount owed a bit quicker.

Ideally I'd like to remain paying back £300 monthly, so that I have enough to live on, but also have the option to throw in a couple of hundred pounds here and there whenever I get paid for one off jobs.

For info, I don't think I was refused 0% cards recently due to a bad credit rating.... other than a bit of council tax that was paid after it went to a debt agency around 5 years ago, I have never missed any payments and last time I checked, my credit rating didn't have any blemishes. (The council tax thing didn't show up). I think they just knew that I had 2 maxed out cards.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi BigCol and thanks for your post.

As we’re a debt charity, we advise people that can’t afford their debt repayments, so this isn’t really within our advice remit.

I’d recommend that you look at improving your credit file and this article will help you: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score.

It sounds as though you’ve already looked through your figures quite carefully, so it’s important that you continue to budget carefully to make sure you can afford everything. Also if you do move your debts around, it’s vital that you don’t start using any old credit again as this could make our situation worse in the long term.

You might also find it helpful to repost under a different thread as I’m sure other forum posters will have lots of valuable advice too.

Kind regards,
Pavan