Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

StepChange_Pavan

J1000s wrote: »

Hi! I wonder if anyone can help with this.....
10 years ago I took out a credit card, it had a limit of £750. After I tool it out (with HBOS) I got a phonecall from someone there who really pressured me into takin out PPI- being only 18 I had no idea what they were talking about so I just agreed.
Anyway I didn't even use the whole credit limit but the PPI and charges quickly began to add up and soon I was over my limit, adding more charges etc etc. Soon they were saying owed something like £1800! I didnt pay it then around 4 or 5 years later a debt collection agency started really harrasing me and after a phone call i was basically forced to set up a payment plan of £25 a month which at the time I could barely afford. This went on for over 3 years, I payed more than £1000 of it, then when my card expired about a year ago the payments stopped coming out. I just left it as I has already payed more than even the limit of the card. Then recently I have again been bombarded with letters from these debt collection agency, saying I owe over £800. As ypu can imagine i am so fed up with this it has been 10 years and this is money I did not even spend- it is ALL charges, PPI etc.

I dont know what to do if anyone has any advice please help me!

(I am in Scotland)

Hi J1000s,

Thanks for your message and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry to hear you’re so fed up, but you’ve come to the right place.

You said that at the time you took out the PPI you didn’t fully understand what you were entering into. Here is a really informative guide to help you work out whether your PPI was mis-sold and the steps you could take to claim for a refund http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance?_ga=1.117979790.629453016.1401266074. If you are entitled to a refund then they may use that money to pay off the £800 outstanding debt, rather than refund it directly back to you.

You mentioned that making the repayments is something you struggled with in the past. If you’re still in a situation where the repayments are beyond what you can afford then you only have to make payments towards it when you have covered your essential costs such as food and household bills. If you get in touch with us we can work out a budget with you to make sure you can cover these essential costs and recommend the best way for you to deal with your debt.

You can get in touch with us is by calling our friendly advisors on our free and confidential helpline - 0800 138 1111. We're open Mon - Fri 8am to 8pm and Sat 8am to 4pm. Alternatively you could visit our online debt advice service Debt Remedy http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp, which will help you come up with an action plan.

I hope this helps.
Pavan

doorstep54

I posted on here over week ago about my debts I have rang step change and was told to go for bankruptcy now the problem is am worried about being evicted!!! ive read my tenancy agreement and found this!!! , (the tenant shall at any time fail or neglect to perform or observe any of the stipulations conditions or provisions herein contained and on the part of the tenant to be performed and observed or shall become bankrupt or have a receiving order made against him or enter into any arrangement or composition for the benefit of his creditors or permit any execution to be levied on the premises then it shall be lawful for the landlord to re-enter upon the premises and peaceably to hold and enjoy the premises thenceforth and so that the term shall absolutely determine as if this agreement had not been made but with out prejudice to any right of action or remedy of the landlord) am so worried what does all that mean please!! I couldn't read it all over the phone as my reading isn't very good as I don't want to lose my home its rented to me from housing association, I just don't know whats going to happen if I cant go bankrupt?? am so upset by this all

Forrester09

I know my problems are nowhere near as big as some other people's on here, but I feel like I have no idea where to turn to for assistance.

I've recently lost my job, part of a deterioration of circumstances that saw me battle the usual addiction, debt, ill health cycle a lot of people go through. I've managed to drag myself out of a funk, although I am still unemployed.

Via family assistance and selling unneeded items, I've cleared two of my debts: a Provident loan and a credit card (with a very, very low limit).

I still have, having checked on Credit Expert, around £3k in debt. Around £1k of this is owed to a payday lender, while the rest has been passed to DCAs (MKDP, Motormile and Gothia).

The question is, what should I be doing right now? I cannot afford to pay back at the moment, and am basically doing a bit of head-in-sanding. Should I write to these people and explain my circumstances? Should I be asking for a payment plan now? Discounts? Riding it out is not the right thing to do I know, but I have no clue what the right thing is.

Thanks.

stressed_out_dad

Hi I was wandering if anyone could help and advise.

I am in a bit of bother financially I am the sole earner for myself my partner and 3 young children (1,3&5) I was recently off work for 7 months (4 of which were 50% wage).

As a result I entered arrange arears with my bank (halifax) .

As things stand my debt seems to be getting worse my situation is as follows :

I live in scotland :

Mortgage of 235000 house value 300000-310000 (85/15 shared equity with builder so after 7 more years I owe the builder approx 45k on top of that so in theory the only equity I have is 20k of a £300000 home.

My income is approx 3550 after tax.

My outgoings are

Mortgage 1250
Credit card 1 - 180 (7k on card)
Cc2- 160 (5400 on card)
Cc3 -50 (1k on card)
Catalogue 100 (1800 overall)

Overdraft -3 off combined to 5k
100 a month charge

Car + insurance 210
Bills etc 700

Leaving £800 approx for living each month not including quarterly property fees of 100 road tax etc.

All of the above are minimum payment and whatever is freed up tends to be sient on the credit cards,

At the moment I'm finding it very difficult to stay positive I am hoping for a consolidation on my mortgage next week as I have made 6 months of payments without problem , I am then hoping to move to a new 4 -5 year fix and them look to a trust deed.

Do you think the above is possible , will halifax give me a 4 year fix , will I be eligible for a trust deed ?

Any help would be appreciated to get me out of this sorry mess ,

Kindest Regards.

S.O.D

StepChange_Private_Messages

doorstep54 wrote: »

I posted on here over week ago about my debts I have rang step change and was told to go for bankruptcy now the problem is am worried about being evicted!!! ive read my tenancy agreement and found this!!! , (the tenant shall at any time fail or neglect to perform or observe any of the stipulations conditions or provisions herein contained and on the part of the tenant to be performed and observed or shall become bankrupt or have a receiving order made against him or enter into any arrangement or composition for the benefit of his creditors or permit any execution to be levied on the premises then it shall be lawful for the landlord to re-enter upon the premises and peaceably to hold and enjoy the premises thenceforth and so that the term shall absolutely determine as if this agreement had not been made but with out prejudice to any right of action or remedy of the landlord) am so worried what does all that mean please!! I couldn't read it all over the phone as my reading isn't very good as I don't want to lose my home its rented to me from housing association, I just don't know whats going to happen if I cant go bankrupt?? am so upset by this all

Hi Doorstep,

Thanks for coming back to post. It sounds like things are moving forward even if there's now this issue with your tenancy agreement to resolve.

I'd suggest getting in touch with someone from your housing association and explaining the situation to them. The wording above suggests they could ask you to leave but it doesn't mean they will.

If you're up to date with your rent then it could be that they've got no interest in getting rid of you. The only way to know for sure is to talk to someone there and ask them.

Most housing associations are sympathetic to their tenants when they're having difficulty, so I'd be very surprised if they weren't helpful and understanding.

If you've got any questions after speaking to them then please give us a call and we'll do what we can to help.

All the best.

James

StepChange_James

Forrester09 wrote: »

I know my problems are nowhere near as big as some other people's on here, but I feel like I have no idea where to turn to for assistance.

I've recently lost my job, part of a deterioration of circumstances that saw me battle the usual addiction, debt, ill health cycle a lot of people go through. I've managed to drag myself out of a funk, although I am still unemployed.

Via family assistance and selling unneeded items, I've cleared two of my debts: a Provident loan and a credit card (with a very, very low limit).

I still have, having checked on Credit Expert, around £3k in debt. Around £1k of this is owed to a payday lender, while the rest has been passed to DCAs (MKDP, Motormile and Gothia).

The question is, what should I be doing right now? I cannot afford to pay back at the moment, and am basically doing a bit of head-in-sanding. Should I write to these people and explain my circumstances? Should I be asking for a payment plan now? Discounts? Riding it out is not the right thing to do I know, but I have no clue what the right thing is.

Thanks.

Hi Forrester,

Thanks for posting. It's good to hear you've drag yourself out of the funk and are trying to get things back in order.

If you're in a situation where you can't afford to pay anything towards your debts then there are a few things you can do.

One strategy would be to look at making very small payments towards each debt (if you can spare anything at all it's better than not making payments), then when things improve you can look to negotiate larger payments with your creditors.

Another option would be to look at longer term strategies to sort out the debts. I don't know enough about your situation to give firm advice but things like debt relief orders (DROs) or administration orders (only possible if you've got a CCJ) can be ways to deal with debts that aren't huge but aren't likely to be paid off either.

We can give you advice on what strategy is likely to suit you best and guide you through the process of getting things organised.

Don't worry too much about it being a while since you've been in contact with your creditors. We'll be able to give you some suggestions about how best to approach them and what to say.

You can get our help either by using our online Debt Remedy advice tool (http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp) or by calling our helpline (http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx). Either way our advice is free, impartial and we'll support you through whichever solution we recommend.

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

stressed_out_dad wrote: »

Hi I was wandering if anyone could help and advise.

I am in a bit of bother financially I am the sole earner for myself my partner and 3 young children (1,3&5) I was recently off work for 7 months (4 of which were 50% wage).

As a result I entered arrange arears with my bank (halifax) .

As things stand my debt seems to be getting worse my situation is as follows :

I live in scotland :

Mortgage of 235000 house value 300000-310000 (85/15 shared equity with builder so after 7 more years I owe the builder approx 45k on top of that so in theory the only equity I have is 20k of a £300000 home.

My income is approx 3550 after tax.

My outgoings are

Mortgage 1250
Credit card 1 - 180 (7k on card)
Cc2- 160 (5400 on card)
Cc3 -50 (1k on card)
Catalogue 100 (1800 overall)

Overdraft -3 off combined to 5k
100 a month charge

Car + insurance 210
Bills etc 700

Leaving £800 approx for living each month not including quarterly property fees of 100 road tax etc.

All of the above are minimum payment and whatever is freed up tends to be sient on the credit cards,

At the moment I'm finding it very difficult to stay positive I am hoping for a consolidation on my mortgage next week as I have made 6 months of payments without problem , I am then hoping to move to a new 4 -5 year fix and them look to a trust deed.

Do you think the above is possible , will halifax give me a 4 year fix , will I be eligible for a trust deed ?

Any help would be appreciated to get me out of this sorry mess ,

Kindest Regards.

S.O.D

Hi S.O.D.

It'll be down to Halifax whether they're wiling to offer you a better deal for your mortgage. Consistently making your payments will make you look more dependable in the eyes of your mortgage provider but they take a lot of information into account when making decisions, so any number of factors could help or hinder you.

Your message mentions you're looking for a consolidation of your mortgage. If this is to borrow more against your home to repay unsecured debts then I'd advise caution.

It's not that this is always a bad idea but I've spoken to many people over the years who've extended their mortgage to pay off unsecured debts and ended up a few years later with even more unsecured debt and arrears on their mortgage.

So I'd advise being very cautious before borrowing more against your home to repay unsecured debts. Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick, it may be you were just saying you're changing your mortgage.

On the trust deed side of things it would depend on your circumstances. One of the qualifying criteria is that you need to have more debts than you do assets, so it would depend on whether the equity in your property would be valued at less than the total unsecured debts. There's more information on our website: http://www.stepchange.org/Debtinformationandadvice/Debtsolutions/Trustdeed.aspx.

To get full advice you could use our online Debt Remedy tool: http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp. It takes about 20 minutes and after you've given your details (anonymously) we'll make a recommendation about what solution suits your situation - if it's a trust deed we'll give you more information and tell you about the next steps.

I hope this is useful.

Kind regards

James

mol3

Deleted post

Andad

Hello, I am after some advice please.

I've managed to get myself into a financial mess due despite the warnings to investing in margined products on the stock market, these positions went wrong and I funded the positions via my credit cards.

I can no longer maintain the repayments on the credit cards due to the number of them and the high interest rates, but could do 'fairly' comfortably if I could consolidate them into one payment.

I already have a loan with circa £7k outstanding with my bank for a car and some house repairs, I approached them to increase the loan to £25k
over 7 years to consolidate all my debts into one, they advised that before going through with the application that it would likely be rejected due to going over my overdraft limit once in a recent month.

So I googled my options and discovered that Nationwide do a 'soft check' for loans, I did this and received a favourable response, so I went through with the application only to be declined.

I'm now stuck as to where to go next. I've had a look at a DMP online, which looks good, but ideally I'd like to pay my own way rather than asking for interest freezes and extensions etc. It's my bed i'll lie in it.
Also the DMP plan I looked at leaves me with virtually no disposable income, which admittedly is better than where I am now, but with two young girls is not my ideal plan.

Essentially what I am asking is, are there any reputable companies that would lend a consolidation loan in my current situation, or is a DMP my only option.
I am a homeowner, but with very little equity.

Thanks

blueben1

Hi I'm after some advice I have debts of £26500 in which I pay roughly £800 PCM minimum payments it's got to the point now that I just can't carry on but I'm so ashamed and embarrassed the situation I've got myself in just don't no where to turn or who to trust .. 2mths ago I plucked up the courage and went into my local CAB who seen me but there was a 4week wait to see the debt advisor they gave me 3 numbers of companies that offer free advice .... So the same day I decided to phone payplan spoke to advisors who got back to me the next week said they'd worked out a payment of £152 per mth dmp over 15years or an Iva the Iva sounded right for me as I'm 38 I didn't want the dmp hanging round my neck . But over the next week or two I started reading reviews on payplan and cosquenceses of an Iva and I got cold feet I worked out that if the payments stayed at £152 I would of paid £9120 back then read that the ip charge on average between 5kand7.5k to set up an Iva I just can't get my head round it I feel like scum of the earth I've tried releasing equity they won't lend it I've spoke to the card companies if they could reduce the interest rate they don't want to no ... Have any of you used payplan or other company I really just don't no what to do any advice or experiences would be gratefull thanks