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poorchoices1979

Hi


Will try and keep this succinct but I have a lot to get off my chest and would love some advice


I have made some immensely poor decisions in the past few years, mostly related to severe mental health problems. I am now better and repairing my life, but I am really struggling. We went into a DMP with step change last year (who were wonderful) and thanks to my husband taking on a new job with extra hours we have recently doubled our monthly payment. We have become budget masters and are making progress. Unfortunately some of the debtors are threatening to turn a bad situation worse, with threatening phone calls and letters. I am struggling to deal with this and want an end point. Even with our recent doubling of payments, due to the fact some of the debts are still charging extortionate interest, we are not really making progress in the long term. I initially chose a DMP as I wanted to pay my debts of in full, but if things stay as they are we just wont get out of water. I have tried speaking to the debtors in question, but they will only accept full payment plus back payments.


I am now seriously considering an IVA, however, I understand a proportion of the debtors have to agree to this, and 60% of my debt is with debtors who are being very reasonable and have reassured me that although defaults will be placed etc, as long as I continue make payments they are happy with the arrangement and will not pass to collection agencies or CCJ's. I am therefore not sure they would accept an IVA.


I also worry about my future. Is it better to be in a DMP that may never be satisfied, or will an IVA destroy my last chance of ever getting back on the housing ladder and having a chance of future normal credit file. I am 34 now.


Any advice is greatfully received


Thankyou

StepChange_Pavan

poorchoices1979 wrote: »

Hi


Will try and keep this succinct but I have a lot to get off my chest and would love some advice


I have made some immensely poor decisions in the past few years, mostly related to severe mental health problems. I am now better and repairing my life, but I am really struggling. We went into a DMP with step change last year (who were wonderful) and thanks to my husband taking on a new job with extra hours we have recently doubled our monthly payment. We have become budget masters and are making progress. Unfortunately some of the debtors are threatening to turn a bad situation worse, with threatening phone calls and letters. I am struggling to deal with this and want an end point. Even with our recent doubling of payments, due to the fact some of the debts are still charging extortionate interest, we are not really making progress in the long term. I initially chose a DMP as I wanted to pay my debts of in full, but if things stay as they are we just wont get out of water. I have tried speaking to the debtors in question, but they will only accept full payment plus back payments.


I am now seriously considering an IVA, however, I understand a proportion of the debtors have to agree to this, and 60% of my debt is with debtors who are being very reasonable and have reassured me that although defaults will be placed etc, as long as I continue make payments they are happy with the arrangement and will not pass to collection agencies or CCJ's. I am therefore not sure they would accept an IVA.


I also worry about my future. Is it better to be in a DMP that may never be satisfied, or will an IVA destroy my last chance of ever getting back on the housing ladder and having a chance of future normal credit file. I am 34 now.


Any advice is greatfully received


Thankyou

Hi there and thanks for your question.

It’s difficult to say whether you would be eligible for an IVA without looking at your circumstances in more detail. However the good thing is that you’re already a client of ours so you can just give us a call and we can review your situation and your options.

It sounds as though you've already made a lot of changes since you contacted us which all sounds great - and becoming a ‘budget master’ is no mean feat!

I hope we can help to put your mind at ease.

Thanks,
Pavan

smiffy64

Hi I wonder if you could give me some advice please.

my husband was made redundant 2 years ago but was not at the company long enough to get more than 2 weeks holiday pay as a pay out. when this happened we tried for a short time to keep on top of things where our credit cards etc were concerned but found it harder each month. we used the tools on this website to create a budget plan and to see where our money was going. My husband got a temporary job but obviously this paid far less than his permanent job. We used the template letters that we found to write to all our credit card providers and supplied them with a SOA there was only 2 that did not accept our plan therefore passed them to debt collection agency even though one was an inhouse one. they accepted our payment plan. after the first 12 months nothing had changed for us financially and we started to inform the credit card companies of this all were happy to continue with the arrangements previously made for at least another 18 months. except one who have now decided that we have enough money to pay them the full monthly amount even though the only thing that has changed for us financially is that our mortgage came down when our fixed rate deal ended. this was from £746 to £688 the extra money we saved from our mortgage went to our food shopping bill as prices were still rising for our weekly shop so we moved this from £50 per week for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 teenagers) to £110 per week this also includes packed lunches for all of us so not incurring any further costs for food.

The company that have not let us continue is Priority Club Rewards IHG therefore as of the 1st february this year we were put back on to the normal statements etc. in january i did not receive a statement therefore only paid what was arranged on the plan. i have now received a statement to pay by the 6th march with a late fee on it and cannot pay the £480.10 minimum payment (balance £8,416.13) and next months estimated interest is £111.76.

i would appreciate your thoughts on this as i feel lost with this one (this is the highest cc we owe) and i cant bring myself to confront them on the telephone as they were most unhelpful the last time i called.

elastic

Hi everyone, money has been getting tighter and tighter for a while but we have just about been coping. Then the car broke down! I work 15 miles from home and my husband works 50 miles away. He stays near work as often as he can to save petrol. We have no real social life and don't drink or smoke so there isn't really anything left to cut down on and we have NO money left in reserve. My immediate problem is getting the car back from the garage so I can get to work, but the problem is obviously much bigger! We have a mortgage, which is our priority, but we also have a bank loan (previously taken out to consolidate debts) costing £260 and two credit cards, costing around £150 per month. Last time I tried, I couldn't get a new interest free credit card. The only thing I can see, certainly in the short term is to default on these debts, in order to cover higher priority demands. Please help with advice! Thanks, Louise

Financiallyfrustr8ed

(Sorry for repeating, think I posted this on wrong forum. Never used a forum before so forgive me if I'm not doing it right)

Hello, I am searching for advice on IVA. I have read the very helpful and informative pages on IVAs on this site however I have a couple of extra questions if anyone can help...
My husband and I (and 3 small children) bought a house £225k 18months ago putting a deposit of 10% (£20k plus an extra £5 for immediate work needed) which was a loan from my father in law. We were meant to start paying that back last month but are not able to as out debts are now unmanageable at a total of £39500 which includes overdraft, credit cards, loan and inland revenue overpayment of child tax credits!) So my first question is are we able to include my father in laws loan in an IVA? Secondly I receive child maintenance for 2 of my children and need to know is this taken into consideration as it is money for the children? Finally we send our oldest to private school and our second is due to start September but currently at nursery, will this be taken into account when working out the monthly repayments? Any advice greatly appreciated.

StepChange_James

smiffy64 wrote: »

Hi I wonder if you could give me some advice please.

my husband was made redundant 2 years ago but was not at the company long enough to get more than 2 weeks holiday pay as a pay out. when this happened we tried for a short time to keep on top of things where our credit cards etc were concerned but found it harder each month. we used the tools on this website to create a budget plan and to see where our money was going. My husband got a temporary job but obviously this paid far less than his permanent job. We used the template letters that we found to write to all our credit card providers and supplied them with a SOA there was only 2 that did not accept our plan therefore passed them to debt collection agency even though one was an inhouse one. they accepted our payment plan. after the first 12 months nothing had changed for us financially and we started to inform the credit card companies of this all were happy to continue with the arrangements previously made for at least another 18 months. except one who have now decided that we have enough money to pay them the full monthly amount even though the only thing that has changed for us financially is that our mortgage came down when our fixed rate deal ended. this was from £746 to £688 the extra money we saved from our mortgage went to our food shopping bill as prices were still rising for our weekly shop so we moved this from £50 per week for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 teenagers) to £110 per week this also includes packed lunches for all of us so not incurring any further costs for food.

The company that have not let us continue is Priority Club Rewards IHG therefore as of the 1st february this year we were put back on to the normal statements etc. in january i did not receive a statement therefore only paid what was arranged on the plan. i have now received a statement to pay by the 6th march with a late fee on it and cannot pay the £480.10 minimum payment (balance £8,416.13) and next months estimated interest is £111.76.

i would appreciate your thoughts on this as i feel lost with this one (this is the highest cc we owe) and i cant bring myself to confront them on the telephone as they were most unhelpful the last time i called.

Hello,

Thanks for posting. From what you've said it sounds like you've been going about things the right way with these debts. It's important to make sure you're only paying them what you can afford after you've covered your essential living costs.

The reason you've been given for your payment offer to be rejected doesn't seem to match up with the reality of your situation. I wonder if they've had some sort of problem with your SOA.

It's hard to know but I'd be surprised if it was the food area that was the problem. £50 a week for a family of four sounds very low and £110 a week is nearer the average for this size of household.

I think the only way to know for sure what's going on would be to talk to them or maybe you could send an email if you'd rather not call.

They don't have to accept your offers of payment but at the same time their reasons for rejecting your offer don't add up, so it would be good for them to clarify.

Whether you can get an agreement accepted or not, I'd still recommend sticking to your payment. If you start paying them more then it's likely you'll come up short for a more important payment.

If you'd like more in depth advice about the long term strategy for dealing with debt then you might want to get in touch with us (details in my signature below).

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

elastic wrote: »

Hi everyone, money has been getting tighter and tighter for a while but we have just about been coping. Then the car broke down! I work 15 miles from home and my husband works 50 miles away. He stays near work as often as he can to save petrol. We have no real social life and don't drink or smoke so there isn't really anything left to cut down on and we have NO money left in reserve. My immediate problem is getting the car back from the garage so I can get to work, but the problem is obviously much bigger! We have a mortgage, which is our priority, but we also have a bank loan (previously taken out to consolidate debts) costing £260 and two credit cards, costing around £150 per month. Last time I tried, I couldn't get a new interest free credit card. The only thing I can see, certainly in the short term is to default on these debts, in order to cover higher priority demands. Please help with advice! Thanks, Louise

Hi there elastic,

It's hard to be definite when I don't know your full situation, but it does sound like cutting back on your unsecured debt payments might be the best way to free up money to cover car repairs.

That should hopefully sort out the immediate problem of having a way to get to work. The bigger picture is something we can help you with in more detail.

I'd recommend you put your details into our Debt Remedy tool and see what it says. You'll get a detailed personal action plan which will go through the options. When you pick your solution we'll then guide you through the process. It's free, impartial and anonymous.

Here's the link: http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp.

Another thing that can be useful is that companies will usually back off if they know you're getting debt advice. So if you go through Debt Remedy you'll be given a reference number you can give to your creditors and many will give you a few weeks to get advice before they start with their debt collection process.

By making lower payments to your debts to cover the car repairs you'll probably incur some penalty charges but some creditors might be willing to stop these if you explain the circumstances and let them know you're getting advice.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

Financiallyfrustr8ed wrote: »

(Sorry for repeating, think I posted this on wrong forum. Never used a forum before so forgive me if I'm not doing it right)

Hello, I am searching for advice on IVA. I have read the very helpful and informative pages on IVAs on this site however I have a couple of extra questions if anyone can help...
My husband and I (and 3 small children) bought a house £225k 18months ago putting a deposit of 10% (£20k plus an extra £5 for immediate work needed) which was a loan from my father in law. We were meant to start paying that back last month but are not able to as out debts are now unmanageable at a total of £39500 which includes overdraft, credit cards, loan and inland revenue overpayment of child tax credits!) So my first question is are we able to include my father in laws loan in an IVA? Secondly I receive child maintenance for 2 of my children and need to know is this taken into consideration as it is money for the children? Finally we send our oldest to private school and our second is due to start September but currently at nursery, will this be taken into account when working out the monthly repayments? Any advice greatly appreciated.

Hi there and welcome to the forum,

You can include personal debts in an IVA. Your father in law would then vote on whether he agreed to the proposed IVA and if it went through he'd receive payments (though he'd only be paid the same proportion as everyone else).

The child maintenance would usually be included as a source of income but the outgoing side of the budget would account for costs associated with the children so it would balance out in most cases.

With the private school fees I'd expect most creditors would be reluctant to allow these as an expense in a budget. Each IVA is different, so I'd never say never, but it would be hard to justify the costs to creditors.

Every IVA application is looked at individually, so it's only possible to give a broad idea of what would usually happen. The best thing to do is to get some debt advice and see what options you've got.

I noticed in your other thread you mentioned that you're going to the CAB today to ask for their help. That should be a good way to work out what options are available to you.

If you'd like a second opinion then you could use our online Debt Remedy tool: http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp. It takes you through our full debt advice process online. There's a good chance it will give you the same advice as you'll get at the CAB but it can be useful to get a few opinions.

I hope this helps.

James

EddieSpaghetti

Hi,


Looking for some advice, I am currently in a DMP and have 1 year left to becoming debt free. The debts in this plan were through the breakdown of a previous relationship.


I have the opportunity to emigrate with my partner who has been offered work. Costs for the move would be covered by him. I will be able to work once there, the problem will be finding a job quickly.


I don't want to run away from my debt, I want to continue with the DMP, however, I will be out of work so will be unable to make payments to the plan whilst looking.


What are my options?

EddieSpaghetti

Just to add to my post - I have no assets here in the UK at all and we will be staying with family when we first emigrate until we can rent our own place. Obviously I think my circumstances will change and that i'll be able to continue my payments but this won't happen straight away.