Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

bert666

Hi,

I have a few questions that hopefully someone will be able to answer for me in this big scary world of horrific debt!

Both me and my hubby have debts of approx 10k GBP each. He's working and earns quite good money, I'm however at university so although I get a bursary each month (and occasionally I'm able to work at weekends/ holidays) I'm finding that my debts are becoming more and more of a burden.

My initial question is; can I do a DMP without my husband being involved? All of my debts are my own (as in, in my name only) but, like I said, on paper he earns quite good money?

Also, when (/if!) I do enter into a DMP, what happens to my credit rating and my ability to get a mortgage etc in the future?

I look forward to hearing from someone soon. Thanks

Guss

Hi,
I posted in another forum several days ago but unfortunately didn't get any replies so am reposting here so hope this is not a problem.

Through a combination of burying my head in the sand and underlying depression I managed to run up debts on my 3 credit cards about 5 years ago. I have already paid off one and am currently paying off the other two. One of the remaining two I hope to have completely paid off by the end of this year.

The last one is Barclaycard who unlike the other two have been aggressive in the past and happy to charge interest to increase my repayment. BUT my circumstances have recently changed and I have had to move (increased monthly outgoings) and my hours at work have reduced so this now puts me in situation where I can't meet the agreed repayments to Barclaycard.

I am going to approach them and offer to pay a token £10/month which is all I can afford though they are charging me £15 interest/month. The amount outstanding is just over £2500.00, not a lot I know but if you are on the low wages I'm on, it is. They have in the past frozen the interest on the debt but only for a temporary period. Note a portion of this debt includes charges for failing to meet repayments 5 years ago!

I currently don't own any credit cards and haven't done since I got myself into this mess. Though Barclarcard of all people have offered !! and of course would be charging me the minimum 17% interest on the outstanding amount I already owe them if I had accepted!!

Can anyone give me some nuggets of wisdom as to how to proceed before I contact them please.

Thanks
Guss

System

clb020 wrote: »

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone can give me any information on the following. I was recently in a lot of debt and entered a DMP. It is now finished and I am debt free!:j However, I am now checking my Credit Report and seeing how to improve it. It isn't as bad as I thought it would be but I have noticed something with I think shouldn't be the case. All creditors accepted my revised payments and everything was going fine with payments being made on time every month to the revised amount. However, one account has logged every payment that I made as missed. I contacted them and they said that since it was lower than the minimum payment (not by much) it goes down as a missed payment and there is no way to change it. Yet all my other creditors added that I was in a DMP but that the payments I made were on time and not regarded as missed payments. I've contacted the company and they are saying that they are in the right and won't change the credit report but I think they are in the wrong. Surely they should just have noted that there was an arrangement set up but that the revised agreed payments were made.

Any advice on this would be appreciated.

Hi and thanks for your post.

If the company won’t change how they have recorded the information you could get a ‘notice of correction’ added to the credit file yourself.

Martin’s article here is an excellent place to start –

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score

And this article from James Jones of Experian is excellent too-

http://moneyaware.co.uk/2012/01/make-2012-the-year-you-get-to-know-your-credit-report/

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Mat

beathebanker

HI
i have an outstanding cc debt 3800 with amex,i have sent off a ppi claim as i didnt ask for it and had no idea id been paying it,anyways havent made payments for couple of years,my claim is ongoing still had letter from solictors asking me to contact then regarding a advantageous settlent..no figure provided theyve said i must respond within 14 days

advice please x

System

bert666 wrote: »

Hi,

I have a few questions that hopefully someone will be able to answer for me in this big scary world of horrific debt!

Both me and my hubby have debts of approx 10k GBP each. He's working and earns quite good money, I'm however at university so although I get a bursary each month (and occasionally I'm able to work at weekends/ holidays) I'm finding that my debts are becoming more and more of a burden.

My initial question is; can I do a DMP without my husband being involved? All of my debts are my own (as in, in my name only) but, like I said, on paper he earns quite good money?

Also, when (/if!) I do enter into a DMP, what happens to my credit rating and my ability to get a mortgage etc in the future?

I look forward to hearing from someone soon. Thanks

Hi and thanks for your message.

You can do a DMP on your own; there could also be other debt solutions available to you.

However, if your hubby earns more than you and has debts himself it might be worth looking at your situation joint to sort both issues out.

A debt management plan will have an affect on your credit rating as will other debt solutions. This could make you less attractive to certain lenders for a period of time.

You can get advice by phone or online. Our number is 0800 138 1111. We’re open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm.

We do have an online debt advice tool that you could use with confidentiality to try different debt solutions either jointly with your partner or on your own. This tool is called Debt Remedy and is available here (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu).

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Mat

System

Guss wrote: »

Hi,
I posted in another forum several days ago but unfortunately didn't get any replies so am reposting here so hope this is not a problem.

Through a combination of burying my head in the sand and underlying depression I managed to run up debts on my 3 credit cards about 5 years ago. I have already paid off one and am currently paying off the other two. One of the remaining two I hope to have completely paid off by the end of this year.

The last one is Barclaycard who unlike the other two have been aggressive in the past and happy to charge interest to increase my repayment. BUT my circumstances have recently changed and I have had to move (increased monthly outgoings) and my hours at work have reduced so this now puts me in situation where I can't meet the agreed repayments to Barclaycard.

I am going to approach them and offer to pay a token £10/month which is all I can afford though they are charging me £15 interest/month. The amount outstanding is just over £2500.00, not a lot I know but if you are on the low wages I'm on, it is. They have in the past frozen the interest on the debt but only for a temporary period. Note a portion of this debt includes charges for failing to meet repayments 5 years ago!

I currently don't own any credit cards and haven't done since I got myself into this mess. Though Barclarcard of all people have offered !! and of course would be charging me the minimum 17% interest on the outstanding amount I already owe them if I had accepted!!

Can anyone give me some nuggets of wisdom as to how to proceed before I contact them please.

Thanks
Guss

Hi Guss and thanks for your message.

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

I think the first step would be to put together and accurate income and expenditure budget which you can send to them to show that what you are offering is realistically all you can currently afford.

We can help you put together a budget online with our online debt help service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu).

You could choose to go through a third party such as ourselves or other non fee charging organisations but there is no guarantee that we any third party can get interest and charges stopped as in this situation as it is entirely up to the creditor.

We do now offer a token payment service if this is all you can afford.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Mat

purplenicnak

Hope someone can help in regards to an unknown address listed on my credit file, appeared mid October 2011, couple weeks after starting a DMP with CCCS. Rang the creditor it is listed against and after finally speaking to someone helpful on the 3rd attempt over the phone had my address changed back to what it should be. Any advise on how to have the address removed from my files as I have never lived there, its the other end of the country to where I live! The lady I spoke to said she wasn't able to see how it was changed, either phone or post, so I am totally bemused as to how it has happened.

DebtFreeBy33_2

Hi,

My partner and I currently live together and he has recently asked me for help to sort out his finances. He has £9000 of debt between 3 credit cards, an overdraft and a personal loan. He was looking to get a personal loan over 2 years to consolidate his payments and reduce the amount of interest he is paying. However, he has recently gone back to college and is now struggling to get a loan from any lender. I have no debt and he has asked me to apply for a joint loan with him, which he will pay. We are hoping to buy the house we are currently living in at the end of this year, which obviously means applying for a mortgage. My concern is that having this loan outstanding will affect our ability to get a mortgage. I earn roughly £1500 take home pay each month, and my partner earns about £900, including his £400 bursary. Are there any alternative ways that we could clear his debt that may be more effective?

Thanks

Sangels_2

Hello,
I'm hoping someone can help me please. Me and my partner are in a lot of debt. (Over £50,000) We are a homeowner but have no bad debt/credit, never missed a payment etc. But it has come to that time now that I am really stuggling to cope with the fact that the debt isn't really going down. We have 2 loans which will be paid off in 5 years (nearly £20000) I don't really want to change these. After doing a budget and looking at the money we have left over after paying the loans aswell we have £400 left to pay everything else (Store cards, Credit Cards and Overdrafts.) No where will consolidate this for me due to the amount of debt I have already I'm guessing, not that I am saying a consolidation loan is the best option. Its just I don't know what other options I have, borrowing anything on the morgage isn't an option. None of my debt is secured either. Do I do a DMP or an IVA I just don't know where or who to turn to as ideally we don't want to end up with a bad credit rating as our credit rating is great. I want this debt gone ASAP (3-5 years) as in a few years I would really like a bigger house and to start a family but can't see this happening with all this debt and its ruining my life. Hopefully someone can help. Many thanks

StepChange_Pavan

beathebanker wrote: »

HI
i have an outstanding cc debt 3800 with amex,i have sent off a ppi claim as i didnt ask for it and had no idea id been paying it,anyways havent made payments for couple of years,my claim is ongoing still had letter from solictors asking me to contact then regarding a advantageous settlent..no figure provided theyve said i must respond within 14 days

advice please x

Hello beatthebanker and thank you for your post.

If you’re planning on using the PPI payout to settle the debt, it’s best to wait until you find out how much you will be getting. You can just let them know and update them when you can.

It’s best that you start at a low figure to see what they’re willing to accept and the most important thing is not to make any payments until you have written confirmation of their acceptance.

If you’d like some more detailed advice you can call our free helpline on 0800 138 1111.

Kind regards,
Pavan