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StepChange_James

curlyclaz wrote: »

I am in the process of setting up a DMP with stepchange, I have opened a basic bank account but when I looked at switching accounts there was a line about making sure there is enough in the new account to cover any debit in the old account ?
If I switch using the automatic system will the new bank send enough money to cover my old overdraft ? (from first direct to lloyds) I can't afford to loose that much money hence why I have opened the new account.

Hi Curly Claz,

Automatic switching services can lead to switching over Direct Debits that you don't want to follow you to your new account, so it's important to be careful.

You may find it easier to switch things over yourself so you have the extra amount of control over what's happening.

Kind regards

James

scottmoney

Hi,

Firstly thanks for this service. Judging from the replies it looks like you have helped lots of people. I'm sure everyone is very appreciative of your services. Equally I'm sure you all get some stick that sometimes makes you question why you give this advice for free - hopefully it doesn't stop your willingness to give advice in the future.

So as for me! I currently have a lot of unsecured debt stemming from a bit of a payday loan spiral, loans, credit cards etc... The standard problem by the looks of it.

However, over the last 2 years I have dramatically increased my annual salary. I earn 75k a year and once my student loan is paid (2 1/2 years remaining) it means my salary will no longer be deducted £450 per month towards student loan.

However, for the time being despite me being a relatively high earner I'm stuck in a bit of a spiral and much of my outgoings is going towards servicing debt.

I have a wonga loan due in August, a quickquid loan due, a sunny loan payment due, a 118 payment due, my natwest loan due.

I think I will struggle to service all these however maybe able to scrape through.

Ideally I could talk one on one with a bank manager explain my situation and he would see my annual salary and see I could service £1000 per month towards repayments and get one big loan to clear of all the debt and pay this pack over a 3 year period or something.

But since I have so much debt I'm not sure, in fact I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be considered.

So that leaves me here! Clueless as to the best option to continue on!

Thanks

S

Former_StepChange_Laura

scottmoney wrote: »

Hi,

Firstly thanks for this service. Judging from the replies it looks like you have helped lots of people. I'm sure everyone is very appreciative of your services. Equally I'm sure you all get some stick that sometimes makes you question why you give this advice for free - hopefully it doesn't stop your willingness to give advice in the future.

So as for me! I currently have a lot of unsecured debt stemming from a bit of a payday loan spiral, loans, credit cards etc... The standard problem by the looks of it.

However, over the last 2 years I have dramatically increased my annual salary. I earn 75k a year and once my student loan is paid (2 1/2 years remaining) it means my salary will no longer be deducted £450 per month towards student loan.

However, for the time being despite me being a relatively high earner I'm stuck in a bit of a spiral and much of my outgoings is going towards servicing debt.

I have a wonga loan due in August, a quickquid loan due, a sunny loan payment due, a 118 payment due, my natwest loan due.

I think I will struggle to service all these however maybe able to scrape through.

Ideally I could talk one on one with a bank manager explain my situation and he would see my annual salary and see I could service £1000 per month towards repayments and get one big loan to clear of all the debt and pay this pack over a 3 year period or something.

But since I have so much debt I'm not sure, in fact I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be considered.

So that leaves me here! Clueless as to the best option to continue on!

Thanks

S

Hi there scottmoney,

Thank you for your message (and your kind words!) and welcome to the forum.

I’m sorry to hear you feel as though you’re in a spiral of debt, but please know that you’re not alone in experiencing this, and from what you tell me about your situation there are things we can do to help.

You mention that you’re considering speaking to your bank manager and taking out a loan to pay back existing debts, but consolidating debts in this way isn’t something we’d usually recommend. We wrote a blogpost which outlines some of the pros and cons of debt consolidation, which you might find interesting to have a read through: http://moneyaware.co.uk/2013/01/to-debt-consolidate-or-not-to-debt-consolidate/

I’d suggest you get in touch with us for free debt advice. We offer a range of debt solutions which you can read more about here: http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou.aspx We can take a look at your situation in more detail, put together a budget, and recommend the best way for you to deal with your debt. If you have any questions about consolidating debt, or about the ins and outs of any of the debt solutions we recommend for your situation, the advisor will be able to talk you through them.

You can find out how to contact us here: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Laura

second_chance

Hi any advice would be gratefully received...myself and my husband are at the end of our tethers trying to repay our debts....i don't know how long we can continue like this as we don't seem to be getting anywhere....basically i would like to look at some sort of repayment plan...the issue is basically I have around £17000 personal debt my husband around £25000 this is all accumulated cards and loans that are associated with his buisness-he is self employed- can business debts be sorted by a repayment plan? and if so would we need separate plans one for my debts and one for his. many thanks in advance x

Former_StepChange_Rachel

second_chance wrote: »

Hi any advice would be gratefully received...myself and my husband are at the end of our tethers trying to repay our debts....i don't know how long we can continue like this as we don't seem to be getting anywhere....basically i would like to look at some sort of repayment plan...the issue is basically I have around £17000 personal debt my husband around £25000 this is all accumulated cards and loans that are associated with his buisness-he is self employed- can business debts be sorted by a repayment plan? and if so would we need separate plans one for my debts and one for his. many thanks in advance x

Hi there, thanks for getting in touch.

I’m very sorry to hear about what you’ve been dealing with and can imagine how stressful it’s been for both of you.

As we’re a free and confidential debt advice charity, we can take a look at your budget and give you guidance on how to deal with these debts. We can recommend debt solutions for you and help you put them in place. The personal debts you’ve described are secondary to your living expenses, so the advice we would give is centred around making sure daily needs are always accounted for. Our online advice tool Debt Remedy can help you put together a personal action plan in just 20 minutes: http://www.stepchange.org/DebtRemedy.aspx

If your partner is a self-employed sole trader, we can recommend a debt solution for him and the debts he’s accrued while trading. We can still help him if he trades as a limited company, but Business Debtline are the best people to speak to regarding limited company related debt. You can contact them here: https://www.businessdebtline.org/

Best of luck with everything, and please know that we’re here to support you.

Kind regards

Rachel

seraphelle

Hiya,

I have a bit of a general query really. I current have a DMP with StepChange after we finally faced our situation and got some help rather than silently drowning. My query is really of two parts:

1. I am trying to negotiate a secondment at work to cover maternity leave of a colleague, this means my wages will temporarily go up by around £150 per month for a period of 5-6 months. Should I save this extra, or is it best to increase my DMP direct debit amount for this temporary period? I have heard of some creditors being difficult with alterations to the monthly amounts, particularly so soon after commencing a payment agreement.
2. Occasionally (and we by no means count on this to happen) my Mother in Law will gift us some money when she has dividend payments come through if there is nothing else she wants / needs to spend it on. In the past this has ranged from £200-£1000. If we were to be fortunate enough to be given that kind of money again, similar to above, should we save it, use it to pay off 1 creditor in full, or increase the direct debit amount for 1 month only to encompass the lump sum?

Our debts are around £38k and our monthly DMP figure is around £460 at present.

Thanks in advance.

StepChange_James

seraphelle wrote: »

Hiya,

I have a bit of a general query really. I current have a DMP with StepChange after we finally faced our situation and got some help rather than silently drowning. My query is really of two parts:

1. I am trying to negotiate a secondment at work to cover maternity leave of a colleague, this means my wages will temporarily go up by around £150 per month for a period of 5-6 months. Should I save this extra, or is it best to increase my DMP direct debit amount for this temporary period? I have heard of some creditors being difficult with alterations to the monthly amounts, particularly so soon after commencing a payment agreement.
2. Occasionally (and we by no means count on this to happen) my Mother in Law will gift us some money when she has dividend payments come through if there is nothing else she wants / needs to spend it on. In the past this has ranged from £200-£1000. If we were to be fortunate enough to be given that kind of money again, similar to above, should we save it, use it to pay off 1 creditor in full, or increase the direct debit amount for 1 month only to encompass the lump sum?

Our debts are around £38k and our monthly DMP figure is around £460 at present.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Serephelle,

Thanks for posting. It's an interesting question. I'd say in most cases it would probably be a good idea to pay extra into a DMP if you had an increase in income, even if it was temporary. You can then review your budget after the secondment ends and set the payment at what's affordable then.

A lot depends on the situation though. It might be that in doing this secondment that your expenses increase too, (if you had to travel further to a different work site for example) so it's a matter of reviewing things and getting the payment set at what you can afford.

It's the same for unexpected windfalls. Most of the time it's good to pay down debts as it'll mean getting them cleared sooner. Occasionally there are other priorities that need to be dealt with though - house repairs, essential appliances needing to be fixed, etc. So there's no hard and fast rule.

I'd suggest giving us a call when these things happen and having a chat about what's the best way to proceed.

Kind regards

James

seraphelle

StepChange_James wrote: »

Hi Serephelle,

Thanks for posting. It's an interesting question. I'd say in most cases it would probably be a good idea to pay extra into a DMP if you had an increase in income, even if it was temporary. You can then review your budget after the secondment ends and set the payment at what's affordable then.

A lot depends on the situation though. It might be that in doing this secondment that your expenses increase too, (if you had to travel further to a different work site for example) so it's a matter of reviewing things and getting the payment set at what you can afford.

It's the same for unexpected windfalls. Most of the time it's good to pay down debts as it'll mean getting them cleared sooner. Occasionally there are other priorities that need to be dealt with though - house repairs, essential appliances needing to be fixed, etc. So there's no hard and fast rule.

I'd suggest giving us a call when these things happen and having a chat about what's the best way to proceed.

Kind regards

James

Ok, thanks for your help James

jamiejackstone

Hi there,
Im looking for a bit of advice...
I have a terrible credit rating after missing payments on credit cards and loans and recently set up a debt management plan with Step Change (which is a big help!)

I live with my wife and child and our mortgage is entriely in her name, although i pay half of all the payments.

We recently had our house valued, and we have a good amount of equity in the house and wanted to look into releasing some of it by remortgaging so that we could pay off debts.

The problem we have is that even though we would do this entirely in my wifes name, when she spoke to the bank they wouldnt even consider the application because My credit rating was linked to the address.

Im wondering if anyone can advise on how we might be able to overcome this problem (Preferably without requiring her to divorce me or me living on the street!)

I guess we could sell the house and then pay off debts and relocate, but we are concerned we wouldnt be able to get a mortgage again because of my bad credit rating.

Any advice would be appreciated
Many thanks
Jamie

Puddle78

Hi,

After my partner tried to set up a business which then failed we were left with multiple debts (personal loan, credit cards, my student loans). We went to the CAB who wrote to the creditors asking if we could replay £1 a month to each (I appreciate this is a short term solution). They all agreed to this but my partner has found a good job since then and we have been busily saving up so we could repay some debts. We are in a position where we could repay my portion of the debts and I wondered if we could do that now or if it would be best to wait until our agreement period ends? When we first went to see the debt advisor they mentioned not treating any creditor preferentially as then the others could demand replayment too. I'm unsure what is the best course of action. Can you advise me please? Thankyou!