Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

StepChange_James

warchild75 wrote: »

Hi there, My problem seems trivial compared to most but here goes, I have around 5.5k on a virgin credit card and it is at 26.9% which is crazy, I have tried the eligibility checker on this site and im only applicable for 2 cards at 0%, One of which is a virgin card so only one then really, I got turned down though when I tried, should my next step be to speak to lloyds who I bank with and have done for 20 years to see if they can help!

Hello,

Thanks for getting in touch. I'm not that familiar with the mechanics of the MSE card checking tool, but it sounds like it's going to be hard to qualify for a better deal on your credit card.

You might want do copy and paste your query onto the credit cards board and see if any forum members have any tips.

Improving your credit rating might help, but this is easier said than done. There's a good article here with some good suggestions: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score#improve.

Because I spend most of my time giving advice to people who've taken out debts they can't afford, I'm not actually that clued up on taking out new credit. Our specialty is helping people get out of the debt they've already got.

Setting yourself a budget, sticking to it and paying as much as you can off your debts is probably a good idea. If you feel that you're struggling to keep up with the minimums then I'd recommend getting in touch with us for more in depth advice. Our contact details are in my signature below.

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

RedRobbo wrote: »

Dear All,

I have over the past couple of years been handling my debts and have now got down from £15k to 0 but I have recently found through a credit report review an outstanding debt of £3,185.12. Originally this was with Egg and the account has been dormant since December 2007. Recently I have received demands from Marling Financial services for the total amount or else, which I responded with a letter requesting a CCA on 1st September 2013. Marlin responded within days saying that they will find the agreement and send this on.

On the 19th of September I received a letter from Marlin stating that "enclosed is a copy of the document from the original creditor for your reference". this document is a 2 page spreadsheet with personal details, address, Bank details and employment. the Headed Letter goes "we are still awaiting a copy of the Agreement and statement of account and will forward to you upon receipt".

2 days later I receive a 2nd letter from Marlin titled Statement of Account and reads.
Following is a statement of your account covering 05/02/13 to 08/08/13 opening and closing Balance of £3185.12.
If you do no pay off the full amount outstanding, we will allocate your payment to the outstanding Balance in a specific order, which is set out in the next paragraph of this statement. The way in which payments are allocated can make a significant difference to the amount of interested you will pay until the balance is cleared completely.
Payments of less than the full amount will be allocated in the following order:1 to pay any amounts of interest applied to you account, 2 to pay any costs and charges applied to your account, and 3 to pay the principal sum owed. no interested is currently payable on the amount outstanding.

then the document goes on about if you have a problem with your agreement you can resolve this with Marlin then the FOS.

So I have requested a CCA and not received on so what do I do now can you help?

Thanks in advance
Charles

Hi Charles,

We usually recommend requesting a copy of the original agreements in cases where you're not sure if the debt is yours and you're looking for the company to prove it.

If this is the case and they've not been able to provide you with agreement then it may be that the debt in unenforceable. If they've said that they're going to get back to you with this information then it's reasonable for you to hang back and wait until they've found the paperwork you've asked for.

Kind regards

James

RedRobbo

HI James,

thank you for the advice, I will keep you up to date thanks.

charles

trilon

I'm so embarrassed to be admitting this, but I'm really struggling with money at present and owe around £6,200 in unsecured debts.

I take home around £1400 a month after tax, and the payments on my 2 personal loans are around £220 and then I'm paying off around 10% of the balance on my credit cards each month which is another £100.

I'm scared because although I haven't defaulted on any payments, my bank are starting to cut the tap and have taken my overdraft away and reduced my credit card limit. I'm always in my overdraft at the moment .

The thing is though, after my bank cancelled one overdraft on my account I applied again online for £100 a month later and this was accepted. I extended one of my loans in March then took out the other loan with the same bank for £1000 in July. I seem to remember that they have a rule about not giving out more than once a year, so does this mean I'm in breach of their terms and conditions? I'm so worried

At the moment I'm paying exhorbitant interest rates on my debts and wanted to get a consolidation loan from my bank for a much shorter period, but this was instantly declined online. When I phoned them the guy wasn't really understanding, but I get that that was just because he was working on the frontline sales.

I've seen that my bank have a money management unit. Would it be worth contacting them? What I'd like ideally is to get a loan for 42 months of £6.5k to pay off the two loans (one of them is currently around 60 months at 29.9%) and 2 credit cards and for my bank to cancel my overdraft and credit card and I would cancel the other credit card that is not with them.

How likely would they be to respond to this? I really don't want to go on a Debt Management Plan.

Thanks for you help.

StepChange_Private_Messages

trilon wrote: »

I'm so embarrassed to be admitting this, but I'm really struggling with money at present and owe around £6,200 in unsecured debts.

I take home around £1400 a month after tax, and the payments on my 2 personal loans are around £220 and then I'm paying off around 10% of the balance on my credit cards each month which is another £100.

I'm scared because although I haven't defaulted on any payments, my bank are starting to cut the tap and have taken my overdraft away and reduced my credit card limit. I'm always in my overdraft at the moment .

The thing is though, after my bank cancelled one overdraft on my account I applied again online for £100 a month later and this was accepted. I extended one of my loans in March then took out the other loan with the same bank for £1000 in July. I seem to remember that they have a rule about not giving out more than once a year, so does this mean I'm in breach of their terms and conditions? I'm so worried

At the moment I'm paying exhorbitant interest rates on my debts and wanted to get a consolidation loan from my bank for a much shorter period, but this was instantly declined online. When I phoned them the guy wasn't really understanding, but I get that that was just because he was working on the frontline sales.

I've seen that my bank have a money management unit. Would it be worth contacting them? What I'd like ideally is to get a loan for 42 months of £6.5k to pay off the two loans (one of them is currently around 60 months at 29.9%) and 2 credit cards and for my bank to cancel my overdraft and credit card and I would cancel the other credit card that is not with them.

How likely would they be to respond to this? I really don't want to go on a Debt Management Plan.

Thanks for you help.

Hi,

The first thing to do if you’re struggling with money you owe your own bank is to open a basic account elsewhere and use that as your main account. Any bank can withdraw money from your account if you are in debt with them. A basic account is free and not run off a credit check. You are best to make sure your money is safe before contacting the bank.

A debt consolidation loan can be an option but if you’re in debt you’re likely to be offered a high interest rate loan which may mean you’re paying back more money in the long run. I would strongly recommend you get free impartial debt advice to see what’s best going forward. Use our online debt advice tool – Debt Remedy for a budget assessment and personal action plan explaining how to deal with your debts.


You can also contact us to speak to a debt advisor.

It’s a case of making sure your priorities are budgeted like rent, household bills, food, travel and living costs and then seeing how much you can offer towards your debts.

Once you’ve made sure your income is safe in another account and you have the debt advice from us you can contact the bank and make an offer based on what you can afford. You will then be in the strongest position possible to tackle your debts.

I hope this helps.

Thanks,
Jess

littlewolf75

If you owe around 10,000 and take home 1,880 pcm would it be better to consolidate a loan and be paying off the capital? Or would it be better to make arrangement through Step Change? I have 4 creditors and the charges are hitting hard.

StepChange_James

littlewolf75 wrote: »

If you owe around 10,000 and take home 1,880 pcm would it be better to consolidate a loan and be paying off the capital? Or would it be better to make arrangement through Step Change? I have 4 creditors and the charges are hitting hard.

Hello,

Thanks for posting. It's hard to say which course of action would be best for you. We tend to advise against consolidation loans in most cases because we speak to a lot of people that take them out but keep spending and get deeper into debt.

When you mention making an arrangement through StepChange I guess you're referring to a Debt Management Plan (DMP). You can read more on these here: http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPDebtmanagementplan.aspx.

As a general rule of thumb, as DMPs are a potential option if you're in a situation where you can't afford your full payments to your debts but you do have some money available to bring your debts down after you've covered your living costs.

So if you're in a situation where a DMP would be a good idea it's likely that you'll not have enough spare money to be able to keep up with consolidation loan payments.

On the otherhand, if you have the spare money available to keep up with a new loan then it could be that a DMP isn't a good option.

The easiest way to work out what to do next would be to use our online advice tool, Debt Remedy http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp. It'll help you plan an income and expenditure budget which it will then use to give you advice about potential options (and if it's a DMP it'll give you all the paperwork you need to set it up).

Kind regards

James

Former_StepChange_Rachel

knmnhsun wrote: »

hi my son has been threatened with been taken to court by 2 banks, he has no job, if he goes to court what will happen to him he owes just over £8000 thanks anne

Hi there Anne, thanks for posting.

It's quite common for creditors to threaten court when a person is behind on payment. Don't worry, there's always something that can be done to put situations like this right.

When a creditor goes to County Court with a debt it's not as scary as you may think. Your son isn't expected to go stand in the docks in his 'Sunday Best', for instance. It's pretty informal and not part of the criminal justice system.

The County Court is simply there as a mediator between the bank and your son, there to work something out when communication between a creditor and a person in debt breaks down. They look at things from both sides and put in place payment arrangements that are realistic. If you're concerned about bailiffs and the like, please don't be. Bailiffs only get involved if your son ignores correspondence from the court or misses payments without acting quickly to rectify it. The court will even accept a pound payment each month if that was all he could afford.

I would advise from what you've told us that your son gets in touch with us and we have a look at his budget. We can give him long-term advice on what he can do about his debt. his creditors are also more likely to accept a reduced payment for the time being if they know he's seeking advice from us.

Our online advice tool Debt Remedy can provide a solution in just 20 minutes: http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp

He can also speak to one of our friendly debt advisors over the phone: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

If your son is not claiming benefits at the moment, we have a benefits checker that can identify what he may be entitled to:http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/Benefitscheck.aspx

Hope this helps

Best regards

Rachel

gamby111

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

If you need help with your debts, this is the thread for you.

Trained advisors from StepChange Debt Charity (formerly CCCS) are here and waiting to answer your debt questions. They’re a friendly bunch so please don’t be shy!

There are three ways to get in touch:

1 - Simply post your question below and James, Mat or Rachel will reply. If your question is about bankruptcy, then pop over to the Bankruptcy board.

2 - If you would prefer to ask a question in private, feel free to send a message to StepChange Private Messages.

3 – StepChange Debt Remedy is a free and confidential online debt advice tool. You can put a budget together at your pace, and you can also talk it over with an advisor through online chat.

If you're a StepChange Debt Charity client already, please contact its Aftercare team rather than posting in this thread (their contact details are in your Welcome Pack).

This is discussion thread part three, see parts one and two.

not sure wether im in the right place?
im in arrears of
£2,300 council tax and im paying my council tax and an extra £40.00 per month for the arrears they have now sent me a letter saying i have to pay £50.00 per week as i did an expendure form and ive made a terrible mistake on it and put that i had £50.00 left a week for personnal expendure but i carnt even remember putting this as i didnt really understand the form i dont have n anything to live on after all my priority debts are paid could some one advise me on what to do please x

RachDFW2010

Hi All

Myself and my husband have been on a DMP for around 2 years. I unfortunately let Credit cards and loans get out of hand by keep borrowing to pay for general living. (I am not a spender really). However, I was under the impression that after a year or two we could maybe borrow money from family to get the debt paid off in order for us to move house. Our house is too small now as we only have a 2 bedroomed house and have a son and daughter.

My husband has been working hard ever since, working all overtime offered including weekends to save some money in order for us to make some settlement offers also asking family for help. (Overtime is never guaranteed) However, on contacting our DM Company they asked for some wage slips to send to our creditors. We sent these but unfortunately for the first 3 months of this this year (April - June) my husband was earning a good wage (due to overtime only), then in July he had to have an operation so now is back to basic wage (July - present). I say "unfortunately" because apparently it does not look good that he is earning more money - even if it is overtime. So now we are in a catch 22 situation. We have asked our DM Company to ask for settlement figures but they say they cant because the creditors may ask for wage slips and will see our income has increased and may increase our monthly payment and put this in jepardy.
I know the DM Company usually have our best interests at heart, but how are we able to move on and move house if we are not allowed to get extra money together to pay off the debt ??

I always presumed non-guaranteed income would not be counted (we have wage slips with and without overtime).

Are we only able to move on if we pay the full amount back (which is 25,000) and this is not possible. We were looking at around maybe paying back £10,000 in settlement figures, I know that's cheeky but it is realistic).

Can we ask for settlement figures without giving up to date income ?

Any advice would be helpful, I know some of you are the total opposite and cannot pay off debts, but it is still depressing having the DMP stopping us from moving on.