Am I ever going to be debt free!

notsolucky89

I am currently on a DMP, it's joint with my husband through CCCS.

I've just been going through the balances as it had taken 7 months of me going back and forth to some creditors to get them to freeze interest. I updated all the balances and it says I will be debt free in June 2020!!

That seems far far away, my budget is already cut to a minimum, I reviewed my budget a few months back as lost CTC and also my job moved to a new office 8 miles away, some months we are fine, some are a struggle so no way we can put the payments up.

So should we look at an IVA so it is all over in 5 years? we have been told bankrupcy may not be an option due to me working for a local authority- although I may look up on this
We have a mortgage but are in negative equity so no spare cash there.
Also one of our creditors have red flagged our credit report with 8 months on non payment so don't think there is much more damage which could be done!

Any advice would be appreciated

billyboing

Hi notsolucky89

Sorry to hear this. I was in a very similar situation to you last year, we entered a DMP for 6 months, short term this kept the wolves from our door. However, long-term we knew we had to do something more 'solid' to protect us as the size of our debts meant, like you, we'd be paying forever and ever! We're now 17 months into our IVA and it's been smooth sailing (so far). We use PayPlan and they're very good.

I honestly think if I was in your situation I would seriously explore both an IVA and bankruptcy, though if I'm honest, I think I'd chose bankruptcy. For 1. you have no equity to protect and 2. bankruptcy is over and done with a lot quicker than an IVA.

Good luck with everything.