Advice on Debt elimination programmes

jorashid

I am in a lot of debt and obviously I am desperate to pay it off. We have been with the CAB for quite sometime but do not see a light at the end of the tunnel. A company called one debt solutions have contacted us to help. they say that if our debts are unenforcable they will write them off, it could take us only 1year and 11 months to pay it off as apposed to 6 years. We really don't know what to do as they are lowing our monthly payments dramatically too to help us live. The process is supposed to take 6 months where they contact all our creditiors to sort this out. we pay 150 a month and they take 75 for the first month to pay their legal side to get the ball rolling. If the majority of our debts are unenforceable then we pay them an 8% fee and then continue to clear the rest of the debts paying 150 a month. this all sounds too good to be true. does anyone have any advice or help on this situation.
from
A very sad and depressed person with a lot of debt

Mikeone

General consensus on these boards is to avoid any company that charges for advice on debt. There is nothing they can do that you can't get elsewhere for free.

Why not try posting an SOA here and see if we can help you? It's free!

dancingfairy

Arggggh. NO NO NO. At best they will take your money and provide you with a service (all of which can be done for free with help form on here) at worst they will take your money and either make a mess of the situation or do nothing.
See this thread here for help and info:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2532927
df

Mikeone

SOA calculator here:

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

jorashid

sorry what is an SOA - new to this

Mikeone

Statement Of Affairs. It lists your income and outgoings, plus any assets and debt and allows you to see exactly where you stand. If you post it here, other users can take a look and offer advice.

The link in my earlier post, or dancingfairy's one will take you to a handy calculator for it. Simply input your information, click 'format for MSE' and copy and paste into this thread.

dancingfairy

It is a statment of affairs - a very comprehensive budget. It shows all your income and outgoings and allows you to see areas where you might be able to cut back/areas where you might be paying over the odds etc. People can see different things you might not have noticed and can suggest whether you might want to consider a dmp/iva/dro/bankruptcy etc.
Also you might want to get advice from another free source like National Debtline or CCCS if you are not getting on with the CAB - no harm in getting a second opinion although you might have to wait a little while for help. They will probably ask for your SOA so probably a good plan to do one - even if you maybe don't feel up to sharing it with people on here.
df

dancingfairy

Sorry my link was meant to be on a thread regarding enforceability of debt etc. It wasn't the link for the SOA calculator.
Oh and doing the SOA as things stand is handy even if you do decide to go down the route of trying to prove the debts are unenforceable because the paperwork doesn't meet the legal standards necessary.
df
P.S trying to prove debt is unenforceable is not something I am necessarily in favour of but as the OP was going to do it anyway they might as well do it for free rather than pay for it.

Mikeone

@dancingfairy

We're just too keen to help!

jorashid

are you saying the then that I could do the unenforcable thing myself? How would I go about it?

Tixy

Explanation and all the info you would need to look into whether you agreements could be unenforceable are in the link df gave in post #3.

You do need to fully understand the implications and that your debts would not actually be wiped off and you would be seriously damaging your credit file (although if you are in a DMP with CAB then presumably it is already badly affected).