unemployed spouse - Can I do a DMP for just me?

jellyhead

Hi, I'm only just starting to work my way through all of this, so I may find my answer soon anyway.

Just wondering ... I have credit cards, and I don't work. Can I do a DMP based on them being my debts and me not having an income?

My name is on the mortgage and there is a bit of equity, so does this mean I have to sell the house, or remortgage or borrow on the equity?

My husband has debts too, and there's not enough equity to clear the debts. If I could get mine frozen, and spread them out over a longer period we'd be able to pay his debts.

Tixy

Hi

You can certainly do a DMP on your own. Is you husband able to manage his repayments currently?

There would be no requirement to sell the house or release your equity for a DMP.

One thing to be aware if you havea DMP it will seriously damage your credit rating. As you have a joint mortgage you will be financially linked so that will mean your husbands credit rating will also be affected, and you could struggle to get a new mortgage deal with bad credit ratings (thats just if you want to move mortgage to a new company or fix your rate of whatever, it won't cause a problem with keeping the mortgage you have).

Best thing would be to get some advice from one of the debt charities. They will want to know about your household costs etc but thats just to help in assessing whether you would be suitable for a DMP not to make your OH pay towards your debts.

jellyhead

Thanks, I'll make an appointment. I just wanted to get some idea of the options so I know beforehand what the options are, and aren't wasting their time.

The mortgage is fixed for another 7 years and my husband could manage his own repayments if he didn't have to make mine too.

jellyhead

Another question, sorry ... various 0% deals have been ending and I've been shuffling money from card to card. Will this make me look bad? Barclaycard might think I've deliberately cleared other cards and built up a huge balance with them in the hope of getting it onto a DMP. One of the cards I cleared was in my husband's name.

Will they be more likely to say no, and start to hassle me? At the moment my debts are 18.5k (just over 10k of which is barclaycard, 6k of which was on my husband's virgin card until last week) and my husband's debts are 6k.

Tixy

Hopefully it shouldn't be an issue - providing you can show there was a logical reason why you did this at the time (maybe you hadn't heard of DMPs at that time or were not planning on doing one) I think it would be unlikely to be an issue. Obviously if you moved debt from a low APR in his name to a high APR in your name this might look a little odd but presumably its gone the other way, that you have shifted the debt to a lower rate.

Again hopefully CCCS or whoever will advise better.