Pension v Debt payment

billinghamfan

Hi

I just wondered what people's opinion was with my pension contributions.

Basically if I opt out of my pension I can put this to my dmp and be out of debt by sept 2013.

Would this be a good idea or would the lack of contribution for 16 months cause issues when I retire. (if ever!!) I'm 32 atm.

Thanks for any advice.

eyeopener2

Personally I wouldn't.

Yes your only 32 but that few years of pension payments now have 30 plus years to grow, if you don't put anything in, then nothings going to grow. You have to ask yourself, will you make up the difference which will cost you a lot more for the same pension?

If your comfortable with your DMP payments and your pension payment then just ride out the next couple of years.

E2

[Deleted User]

as things look atm you will be working till you are 70,therefore 16 months of payments now wont really be missed if you can make additional payments later on

Tixy

Its a hard call

How long do you expect it will take you to pay off your debt if you carry on with your current pension contributions?

How long if you stop them?

Does your employer pay anything towards your pension that you will lose if you stop your contributions?

I'm a similar sort of age to you and I personally I wouldn't stop my contributions.
If it was a choice of stopping them for a short while to be able to avoid a DMP and preserve a credit rating then it could make sense.
But as you are already in a DMP, hopefully most or all of your creditors have frozen interest, and if so then whilst it might take a bit longer to pay back your debts, presumably it just means living to a budget for a bit longer rather than actually costing you more overall.

billinghamfan

Well I've started a new job and my pension contributions start in two months which will be 5% of my salary the company then also contribute 5%.

I would finish my dmp at it's current rate in March 2016, however that doesn't take into account that Speed credit aka toothfairy/NDR/Marshall hoarse are still loading on fees £400 has turned into £1168 in 8 weeks. And I have also found out that Very haven't frozen the interest.

So I thought if I throw enough money at it now Speed Credit will get off my back and maybe freeze the interest and Very the same.

I just want this over asap so I can get on with my life. I don't really have any other wriggle room as I need to save up for a deposit so I can move nearer to work currently I'm spending 3.5 hours a day getting to and from work and trying to study.