Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

geeka

Hello,
I have a question. I am nearing the end of my DMP and the biggest debt has nearly gone adn the smallest has the most left (I have 3 debts). Will the biggest one finish (as i was paying the most) then the money then start to pay off the others accordingly. CCCS wont overpay to the creeditor will they. How does it work?
I keep updating the balances on the website (I have a login) each time i get a statement.
Thanks
Tim

Charliebear1

Hello, I have just completed a CCS application form and am waiting to hear back. My Hubby and I have been juggling debt for about 3 years solid and it is just becoming too much. We have 33k of debt and have managed up until now to juggle interest free credit card deals but they aren't accepting us anymore and so here we are, finally facing the music. I'm petrified of what's to come! Are we still going to be able to get a mortgage? We have 3 children the oldest of which will want to go to uni in a few years, how does doing this effect our and our childrens future? I'd love to hear from anyone who has been in this situation and how it has changed their lives?

taracauc

I was with my partner for 6 years and during half that time he supported me whilst I was in school training. We accumulated a significant amount of debt on his credit cards. My share was about 12,000. After the first half of our relationship, I took over 3/4 of the expenses in the household expenses and have been trying to pay down this debt, while he has gone back to school. We split up about 1.5 years ago but I been trying to keep up with this debt obligation. I recently found out that he has been using these cards still so even though I'm trying to pay them off he is still accumulating on them. I'm worried that I'm going to be paying this off forever- especially since his interest rates are very high.

I tried to obtain a loan. I was initially approved through NatWest to cover this amount. But because I don't have a don't have an actually contract with my ex, NatWest is unwilling to issue a loan for this reason.

My question two fold:

1. Is there someone we can talk to to determine how much I actually owe on his cards and loans, taking into consideration my covering the last three years in payments, rents etc.

2.Is there a way to transfer the debt I've accumulated on his cards to me so that I can pay them off separate from him?

Thanks in advance

StepChange_James

geeka wrote: »

Hello,
I have a question. I am nearing the end of my DMP and the biggest debt has nearly gone adn the smallest has the most left (I have 3 debts). Will the biggest one finish (as i was paying the most) then the money then start to pay off the others accordingly. CCCS wont overpay to the creeditor will they. How does it work?
I keep updating the balances on the website (I have a login) each time i get a statement.
Thanks
Tim

Hi Tim,

Congratulations on getting near the end of your DMP.

Once the larger debt has been repaid the money you pay to the DMP will be shared proportionately between the remaining debts.

It’s good that you have updated the website with your most recent information, this will help us to know when the debt has been repaid and then start allocating more money to the other debts.

Regards

James

StepChange_James

Charliebear1 wrote: »

Hello, I have just completed a CCS application form and am waiting to hear back. My Hubby and I have been juggling debt for about 3 years solid and it is just becoming too much. We have 33k of debt and have managed up until now to juggle interest free credit card deals but they aren't accepting us anymore and so here we are, finally facing the music. I'm petrified of what's to come! Are we still going to be able to get a mortgage? We have 3 children the oldest of which will want to go to uni in a few years, how does doing this effect our and our childrens future? I'd love to hear from anyone who has been in this situation and how it has changed their lives?

Hi,

Thanks for posting. There are lots of different ways to deal with debts, so it is hard to say exactly how your life would be affected until we know what option suits you best. We always take your circumstances into account and tailor our advice to suit your situation.

If you are unable to afford the full payments on your debts then it is likely that your credit rating will take a knock, but the severity of this will depend on what debt solution you follow. This could make it harder to obtain some mortgages. Not paying your debts will only impact on your own credit rating and wouldn’t make any difference to your children’s future credit rating.

It can be daunting getting debt advice but nearly everyone I have given advice to over the years says that the first step is the hardest and after that things don’t seem nearly as bad.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

James

StepChange_James

taracauc wrote: »

I was with my partner for 6 years and during half that time he supported me whilst I was in school training. We accumulated a significant amount of debt on his credit cards. My share was about 12,000. After the first half of our relationship, I took over 3/4 of the expenses in the household expenses and have been trying to pay down this debt, while he has gone back to school. We split up about 1.5 years ago but I been trying to keep up with this debt obligation. I recently found out that he has been using these cards still so even though I'm trying to pay them off he is still accumulating on them. I'm worried that I'm going to be paying this off forever- especially since his interest rates are very high.

I tried to obtain a loan. I was initially approved through NatWest to cover this amount. But because I don't have a don't have an actually contract with my ex, NatWest is unwilling to issue a loan for this reason.

My question two fold:

1. Is there someone we can talk to to determine how much I actually owe on his cards and loans, taking into consideration my covering the last three years in payments, rents etc.

2.Is there a way to transfer the debt I've accumulated on his cards to me so that I can pay them off separate from him?

Thanks in advance

Hi,

Thanks for posting.

Just to be sure I’ve understood your question, here is what I have read:

You ex has a card in his own name which you both used but you are not named on the card. The bank wouldn’t let you take out a loan to repay this debt because it isn’t your debt. You want to pay your share of the debt back but this is being made hard by your ex continuing to use the card.

I’m not sure there is anyone who could tell you how much you owe on the cards. Legally speaking you don’t owe anything if you are not named on the debt. If you feel a moral obligation to repay your share then it may be easiest to discuss the this with your ex and try to come to an agreement about how much you wish to repay on the debt.

If you wanted to take on the part of his debt that represents the balance you spent then you could look to take out credit in your own name and then pay it towards his credit card but obviously there would be additional interest costs involved in this for you and it would mean you then will be obliged to repay the new debt in your name.

Please let me know if I have misunderstood your questions or if there is anything else you would like to know.

Regards

James

mrb90

Hello, my partner currently has an overdraft of £2300 and credit card of £500 which he is currently paying the minimum payment. We applied for the MBNA 0% balance transfer card as it claimed we could transfer the money from the card into his account that way paying it off a lot quicker and cheaper! Unfortunately he got declined, what else can he does about his overdraft? I can't see him getting accepted for a card and its really depressing him the fact that he can't get out of this mess. We've booked an appoitment with a financial advisor at his bank to see if there's anything the bank can recommend. Do you have any advice for us?
Thanks

System

mrb90 wrote: »

Hello, my partner currently has an overdraft of £2300 and credit card of £500 which he is currently paying the minimum payment. We applied for the MBNA 0% balance transfer card as it claimed we could transfer the money from the card into his account that way paying it off a lot quicker and cheaper! Unfortunately he got declined, what else can he does about his overdraft? I can't see him getting accepted for a card and its really depressing him the fact that he can't get out of this mess. We've booked an appoitment with a financial advisor at his bank to see if there's anything the bank can recommend. Do you have any advice for us?
Thanks

Hello,

It sounds like the pressure of these debts is getting on top of your partner, hopefully we can help. If he is finding it hard to bring the overdraft down it may be a sign that he needs debt advice. We can help him plan a monthly budget and recommend the talk about the best option for him to get back on top of his finances. Our online advice tool, Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) takes about 20 minutes and will provide customised advice based on his actual financial situation.

When your partner is talking to his bank I would suggest he makes sure any recommendations they make are in his best interests and be cautious before committing to any new debts. Banks will often suggest that taking out extra credit is the best solution but our experience is that it can often make things worse.

Hope this helps.

Mat

Magi74

I'm on a DMP with CCCS (going really well) - but I've got a question on how the money is divided. Some of my payments are for (example) £20 a month, owing £200 - whereas other payments are £7 a month, owing £500.

I thought that the payments were spread evenly between all the debts, meaning that the last payment for every debt would be at the end of the plan. But that's not the case with my plan; one of my payments will be finished in 6 months, but my DMP has 5 more years to run.

It's a particularly interesting question for me as I'm in a place to make a decent lump sum payment (15% of the total owning) - the "book" says pass it to CCCS to spread it evenly between the creditors. But if CCCS don't spread the normal payments evenly.....??

Easily confused!

StepChange_James

Magi74 wrote: »

I'm on a DMP with CCCS (going really well) - but I've got a question on how the money is divided. Some of my payments are for (example) £20 a month, owing £200 - whereas other payments are £7 a month, owing £500.

I thought that the payments were spread evenly between all the debts, meaning that the last payment for every debt would be at the end of the plan. But that's not the case with my plan; one of my payments will be finished in 6 months, but my DMP has 5 more years to run.

It's a particularly interesting question for me as I'm in a place to make a decent lump sum payment (15% of the total owning) - the "book" says pass it to CCCS to spread it evenly between the creditors. But if CCCS don't spread the normal payments evenly.....??

Easily confused!

Hi Magi,

Great news that your DMP is going well!

The payments on our DMPs are distributed proportionately between your debts based on what we would expect the monthly payment to be. If you have a look at your list of creditors in your paperwork from us the full monthly payment will be listed under “contractual payments”.

This will mean, like you say, that some of your debts will be repaid before others. When a debt is repaid we recalculate everything and the other debts all get a little bit extra every month.

If you might be able to pay a lump sum towards your debts then I would suggest giving us a call as we can talk you through how best to use it.

Hope this helps.

James