Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

Fruball

Fruball wrote: »

Q. for Stepchange please...

I recently received some paperwork from you with my budget details etc and some of the income figures are incorrect and there are a couple of essential annual spends that I forgot to mention. Shall I correct them and send it back or do it over the phone and wait for new paperwork?

Many thanks for what you do

StepChange_Rachel wrote: »

Hi there,

It's probably best that you give us a ring so we can make sure we get all the details right as quickly as possible.

Thanks and best of luck

Rachel

Thank you - snowed under with tax return atm but will call to amend

Madchickenlady

Hi thanks for the reply and the link

ChilliQueen

Hi there,

I'm looking to get some advice on behalf of a friend of mine.

She is an Indian citizen, married to another Indian citizen, with a 5-year old child. She is here on her husband's visa, which is dependent on him being in work (I assume that his employer was sponsoring their visa). While her husband has been working, she has been looking for work but not claiming JSA (she's ineligible). The family has been privately renting a property, paid for by the husband.

A few weeks ago, she admitted that her husband had been beating her, and she had eventually decided to go to the police. Since then, her husband has fled back to India, abandoning her and her daughter here in the UK. She has no means of supporting herself. To make things worse, she's now in hospital due to a post-operative infection, so she's in no state to seek help for the situation she's in. I'm visiting her on a daily basis, and helping her as best I can.

The first problem is the debts the husband has left behind, which are now (somehow) in her name alone:

• £1650 rent arrears (3 months rent),
• £805 liability order for council tax.

The landlord has given a deadline of 4th Feb to make an agreement to pay the debt in full, otherwise they will take the case to court by the 28th Feb. The council have requested details of her earnings/benefits, which she needs to return to them by 6th Feb.

So, what are her options? Is she entitled to any sort of help, such as housing benefit, council tax benefit, or even social housing?

Then, how do I go about negotiating these debts when she has no means of repaying them?

I would add, that she has considered returning to her family in India. However, she is worried for her and her daughter's safety should they return, as she says her husband's family have made veiled threats against them. It seems that marital breakdown, especially of an arranged marriage, is still taboo in their culture. And now that her husband's visa has been cancelled/revoked - due to him no longer being in the role he was sponsored for - she's facing deportation proceedings too from the UK Border Agency.

Your expertise/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

ChilliQueen

unsound_methods

Hi People!

1st time post so go easy on me!

Right why I'm here is this:

I'm currently about £20,000 in debt to various lenders. They all defaulted in 2010 and to be honest I haven't done much since then to sort it. I was out of work so just got used to the idea of letters & phone calls coming through. The people I owed money to haven't really tried that hard to get me to pay.

Ok, so here we are in 2014 - I'm now after a mortgage (which my IFA has got me on a great rate - I just have to pay a 15% deposit) all fine there! Until yesterday, one of my lenders sends a CCJ notice for immediate payment of £714. Totally out of the blue, its been in arrears for 4 years.

My Question is, by applying for a mortgage have I just opened the floodgates on my credit file for all my other lenders to see and therefore present me with more CCJ's? By creating this activity have I angered the wasps nest? Will I get more now from other Companies?...

I can sort this £714 one out but the others at £5000, £2500, etc I cant, the good lady and I have a baby on the way and this could be a major stop to our plans.

On a side note my IFA said if they haven't chased you that much over the 4 years keep going for 6 and you'll be debt free!... Here's hoping.

olivetrees

Hi there


OH and I are in horrendous debt and have been on a DMP since 2007, still with no light at the end of the tunnel. I was wondering what you thought of just paying the interest on the mortgage and putting the rest to the DMP so it can be paid off quicker?


Many thanks

Notsosharp

Hi,

I'm not really struggling to pay my debts but I am unhappy about having them. I was declared bankrupt in 2007 and I would really like to improve my credit rating so that one day I am able to get a mortgage (once I earn enough but that's a whole other thread!)

My debts are:

Vanquis Credit card : £1400
Very.co.uk : £165
Simply Be : £35
British Gas : £2000 (I'm not sure of the exact figure because I'm paying off what I owe them a bit at a time)

I don't earn very much (about £1300 per month) and my outgoings at the moment are £1015 so that leaves around £80 a week for food and everything else.

Is there anyway I can start to reduce those debts at all? I'm just looking for advice on where to begin really. I know it's not a lot of debt but it'll start growing if I'm not careful and I don't want it to.

Thank you in advance.

ammarah

Hi
Just wanted some advice.
I have just set up a dmp with 5 credit companies using stepchange.
I had a letter from step change to say that they had spoken to all our creditors and the plan has been set up.
Today I got another letter from step change to say that Halifax have rejected the payment they offered. It says no need to worry and step change will carry on sending the reduced payment on my behalf and that I need to tell them if my debt is passed to a collection agency.

I don't understand why I don't need to worry. ..the interest won't be frozen and my payment offered probably doesn't cover the interest so I will struggle to pay. Plus I'm worried about being passed to a debt collection agency.

Could someone please advise me?
Many thanks in advance

Pickle29

ammarah wrote: »

Hi
Just wanted some advice.
I have just set up a dmp with 5 credit companies using stepchange.
I had a letter from step change to say that they had spoken to all our creditors and the plan has been set up.
Today I got another letter from step change to say that Halifax have rejected the payment they offered. It says no need to worry and step change will carry on sending the reduced payment on my behalf and that I need to tell them if my debt is passed to a collection agency.

I don't understand why I don't need to worry. ..the interest won't be frozen and my payment offered probably doesn't cover the interest so I will struggle to pay. Plus I'm worried about being passed to a debt collection agency.

Could someone please advise me?
Many thanks in advance

Hi
A similar thing happend to me when Santander wouldn't accept our DMP payment and threatened to take our car from us. I wrote to them (advice given on here) asking them to freeze interest and threatened them with FOS. A week later I had a letter saying they had accepted it!

Please try not to worry (easier said then done), but I suggest writing to them (and keep paying them thro sc) and it will only look good for you that you have kept up the DMP. You can't pay what you haven't got!

daydream_believer_2

Hi, this is my first post, and would just like to say that reading other peoples experiences on here has helped me realise that I am not alone in the situation I am in, which I have really thought I was!! I have now got to the point that debt is insurmountable, and have to do something! It is due to a bad investment in a property in the US that was in terrible negative equity that has bled us dry trying to keep it hoping the market would improve...we have been having to use credit to pay normal things due to having to send money to pay for this property, and now have nothing left. I have been looking at the option of DMP or DRO through stepchange, but have lots of questions...

We currently live in EU, but have maintained a postal address in UK, which is my parents. Will we be accepted for a DMP or DRO as living abroad, and will it have any impact on my parents credit rating (really don't want this to happen!!).

DRO says debts need to be below 15,000. Is this total for me and OH, or individully.

Will the house in US be taken into account in either instance? We are trying to sell it, and will not be able to make any more mortgage payments on it after March.

As we currently earn an income in the EU not UK, will this be OK when working out our disposible income.

We are self employed, and our income is very erratic, so we would probably have to go worst case scenario, and pay extra as and when we can, is this possible?

I personally would rather go down the route of DMP, as I feel the need to be responsible for the mess we're in!
Any advice gratefully received!!

Former_StepChange_Rachel

ChilliQueen wrote: »

Hi there,

I'm looking to get some advice on behalf of a friend of mine.

She is an Indian citizen, married to another Indian citizen, with a 5-year old child. She is here on her husband's visa, which is dependent on him being in work (I assume that his employer was sponsoring their visa). While her husband has been working, she has been looking for work but not claiming JSA (she's ineligible). The family has been privately renting a property, paid for by the husband.

A few weeks ago, she admitted that her husband had been beating her, and she had eventually decided to go to the police. Since then, her husband has fled back to India, abandoning her and her daughter here in the UK. She has no means of supporting herself. To make things worse, she's now in hospital due to a post-operative infection, so she's in no state to seek help for the situation she's in. I'm visiting her on a daily basis, and helping her as best I can.

The first problem is the debts the husband has left behind, which are now (somehow) in her name alone:

• £1650 rent arrears (3 months rent),
• £805 liability order for council tax.

The landlord has given a deadline of 4th Feb to make an agreement to pay the debt in full, otherwise they will take the case to court by the 28th Feb. The council have requested details of her earnings/benefits, which she needs to return to them by 6th Feb.

So, what are her options? Is she entitled to any sort of help, such as housing benefit, council tax benefit, or even social housing?

Then, how do I go about negotiating these debts when she has no means of repaying them?

I would add, that she has considered returning to her family in India. However, she is worried for her and her daughter's safety should they return, as she says her husband's family have made veiled threats against them. It seems that marital breakdown, especially of an arranged marriage, is still taboo in their culture. And now that her husband's visa has been cancelled/revoked - due to him no longer being in the role he was sponsored for - she's facing deportation proceedings too from the UK Border Agency.

Your expertise/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

ChilliQueen

Hi there, thank you for contacting us. I’m terribly sorry to hear about this situation your friend is in.

As her status here in the UK is up in the air at present, I would advise that she gets in touch with the Consulate general of India in Birmingham. They should be able to advise her on her rights while she is here in the UK and how to ensure her safety should she indeed return to India - http://www.cgibirmingham.org/

In regards to the violence she has had to deal with, it may also be a good idea to speak to a charity called Refuge. They seek to support women and children who are suffering from domestic violence. Details of how to get in contact with them can be found here http://refuge.org.uk/

It sounds like your friend’s husband may have taken these debts out fraudulently. We would recommend that she seeks advice from the police about this. If she doesn’t lodge a complaint of fraud, she will continue to be liable for these debts herself.

In the meantime, please reassure her that creditors are very limited on what they can do to enforce a debt and that her priority right now is ensuring her welfare moving forward. What’s most important is that she first gets in touch with the consulate who can give her that very specific advice and guidance she needs. Hopefully they’ll be able to tell her what she’s entitled to in regards to benefits/ right of stay here in the UK. Once this is established, we can then advise her on her debts if this is what she wants.

Hope this helps

Best regards

Rachel