mountain of debt

LianeB

I have been with payplan for 3 years now paying off a mountain - £28,013.25 from 9 creditors. Due to me becoming a student 2 years ago I can only pay £150.67 a month off them so I now owe £23,913.38. It is starting to get me down knowing I won't pay these debts off till April 2025!
I have recently moved house and my expenses have gone up since I sorted my debts out but I really need to lower how much I'm paying off every month but am also realistic enough to know the creditors prob won't except much lower.
Is it worth looking to lower the payments? Or any idea how I can get these debts paid quicker?

Tixy

Hi

Definitely talk to payplan again, if your circumstances have changed then your repayments should reflect this. The creditors won't like it but if payplan provide a new income & expenditure and you have what they would consider a decent reason for the move then they will have to lump it.

Whilst its showing as April 2025 at the moment I assume in a couple of years you won't be a student, hopefully will be earning a lot more than now and able to whack up your repayments. At that point your debt free date should start to drop down to something more reasonable.

When you set up the DMP did you consider other options such as an IVA? The other option you might have is to reassess whether the DMP is still the best option in your circumstanes.

LianeB

Thanks for the quick reply. I don't know much about an IVA and was told by payplan that a dmp would be the best option. Hopefully I will be a qualified nurse next year and by paying £350 pm once working I can be debt free by 2018. Would it be beneficial to get an IVA now?

Tixy

On the limited info probably not (especially as you need to drop your payments even further at the moment), but it might be worth raising with payplan to check that they still think a DMP is the right option.