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StepChange_Jen

Mazcabs wrote: »

Hi


Just wondered if you could answer a few questions for me. My husband decided to leave me and my two children. He has since moved into a flat which he shares with a friend. However all his post still comes to the house. He has always been somewhat lax when controlling his money and before he left had a loan outstanding. Since then I have found out that he has built up £18K of debt on credit cards and the loan and some of it hasn't been paid leading to default notices. He is paying me a maintenance for the children and I cover all the bills associated with the house (mortgage is still in joint names)


I am led to believe that he has contacted and completed forms for you and is waiting to hear back from you. How long does this take to organise? Also once an agreement has been made what would happen if he didn't pay, could bailiffs come to my house for money?

Hi there,

Thanks for posting.

If the debts are solely in your husband’s name then you shouldn’t be liable for them.

It’d be worth asking your husband to update his creditors with his latest address details, as it’s important that they’re able to get in touch with him regarding the debts.

It’s good to hear that your husband has got advice from us to help him deal with his debts. It shouldn’t take too long for his debt solution to be set up although you haven’t mentioned what kind of solution he has with us.

If your husband fails to make payments towards his debts, it could result in court action from his creditors. If court action is taken and your husband doesn’t comply with the repayments towards the debts as agreed in court, it could lead to further action being taken and this could affect your home.

A bailiff cannot be sent to your home, unless a creditor has taken court action against the debt and your husband hasn’t complied with the court’s requests. However, if a bailiff was to turn up as your house you don’t have to answer the door to them or talk with them if you don’t want to. You could let the bailiff know that your husband is no longer living at that address. It’s also worth noting that a bailiff can only take possessions that belong to your husband and they wouldn’t be able to take anything belonging to you to pay off the debt with.

Although this might sound quite worrying, it’s important to note that these are just actions a creditor could take, it doesn’t mean they definitely will. It’s good that your husband is dealing with his finances by setting up a plan with us as it shows his creditors that he’s willing to deal with his debts.

I hope this helps,

Jen

StepChange_Jen

mum2one wrote: »

A question that came up in conversation tonight, if someone is on benefits, child tax credit, cb, esa, dla - what can or can not be used when working out the money for creditors - in soa x

Hi there,

Thanks for posting.

When we put together a budget, we make sure that we show all sources of income, including any benefits received.

We can then show any costs that the benefits are used for as an outgoing. For example, if you receive disability living allowance and have care costs, we’ll show the costs as an outgoing on your budget.

We do this to make sure that your budget is thorough and accurate, so that our advice bests reflects your situation.

I hope this helps,

Jen

Mazcabs

Thanks Jen for your reply.


I don't know what type of agreement he has with you as his mum set it up. All I know is that details of all his outgoings (rent, C tax and maintenance) have been made and a figure has been worked out by yourselves as to what he will need to pay you. I guess then you will pay his creditors (this is going to go on for about 3½ years.


He isn't dealing with any of this or got advice from you as its his mum that is arranging it so I doubt he would change the addresses . At present I just forward all his post to his mother.

dannyboybath

Nobody have any info ??

creed92

Hi. Before I begin I'd like to give you some background about myself. I'm currently in my fifth and final year of medical school, meaning from next August I will be working as a doctor and earning a decent wage.

Over the past few years I have racked up considerable credit card debt, mainly due to reckless spending on my part. I have not missed any payments, however I am now becoming aware that in the next few months I'm going to be unable to keep up with repayments. Here is a quick summary of my cards:

Barclaycard Initial (0%): £2100
Barclaycard Platinum (11%): £1900
Capital One (30%): £300
MBNA (0%): £1500
Tesco (0%): £2300
Vanquis (30%): £1300

My monthly income is around £400 a month (I recently had to give up my part-time work to commit to studies, and my student loan is severely reduced this year as I'm funded by the NHS). I have no real assets as I live with my parents and my car is paid by my father. My essential outgoings are £150 a month to my father for rent which has to be paid otherwise he himself will get in money trouble, and also fuel for my car.

I am aware that i have severely ****ed up. But that's not going to help me now. I've looked into several options. After some hard searching I think StepChange's information on a TPP seemed most useful. Can anyone advise on whether this sounds like it's the best option. To be frank I'm not sure what I can afford, if I could just get 10 months breathing space where I'm paying no more than £5 to each of my cards it would be a huge relief, but I know that's unlikely to happen. On the other hand I'm not too sure what the creditors can actually do to me, my credit score will be trashed - but I'm not going to be looking for anymore credit for many years to come after I've managed it so badly anyway. But aside from that I have zero assets as I live with my parents and drive my dads car. I'm committed to repaying the debt, it's just my stupidity has landed me in this situation where i'm unable to afford the payments for the next 10 months. From next August I will obviously be in a much better financial situation and will be able to make payments to reduce the debts.

Thanks for any help.

StepChange_James

Mazcabs wrote: »

Thanks Jen for your reply.


I don't know what type of agreement he has with you as his mum set it up. All I know is that details of all his outgoings (rent, C tax and maintenance) have been made and a figure has been worked out by yourselves as to what he will need to pay you. I guess then you will pay his creditors (this is going to go on for about 3½ years.


He isn't dealing with any of this or got advice from you as its his mum that is arranging it so I doubt he would change the addresses . At present I just forward all his post to his mother.

Hi there,

From what you've said it sounds like he's set up a debt management plan with us. There's more informatin on them here: http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPDebtmanagementplan.aspx.

It's usually best for people to have their correspondence going to their actual address, so it's possible to respond to things quickly. For example, if he was to get a County Court judgment he'd only have a set amount of time to respond. So by the time he receives it the time could have run out.

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

dannyboybath wrote: »

Nobody have any info ??

Hi Danny,

It looks like Jen replied to your question higher up the thread: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=69238466&postcount=2702.

It can be easy to lose track on the forum though. Please post again if there's anything else you'd like to know.

Thanks

James

StepChange_James

creed92 wrote: »

Hi. Before I begin I'd like to give you some background about myself. I'm currently in my fifth and final year of medical school, meaning from next August I will be working as a doctor and earning a decent wage.

Over the past few years I have racked up considerable credit card debt, mainly due to reckless spending on my part. I have not missed any payments, however I am now becoming aware that in the next few months I'm going to be unable to keep up with repayments. Here is a quick summary of my cards:

Barclaycard Initial (0%): £2100
Barclaycard Platinum (11%): £1900
Capital One (30%): £300
MBNA (0%): £1500
Tesco (0%): £2300
Vanquis (30%): £1300

My monthly income is around £400 a month (I recently had to give up my part-time work to commit to studies, and my student loan is severely reduced this year as I'm funded by the NHS). I have no real assets as I live with my parents and my car is paid by my father. My essential outgoings are £150 a month to my father for rent which has to be paid otherwise he himself will get in money trouble, and also fuel for my car.

I am aware that i have severely ****ed up. But that's not going to help me now. I've looked into several options. After some hard searching I think StepChange's information on a TPP seemed most useful. Can anyone advise on whether this sounds like it's the best option. To be frank I'm not sure what I can afford, if I could just get 10 months breathing space where I'm paying no more than £5 to each of my cards it would be a huge relief, but I know that's unlikely to happen. On the other hand I'm not too sure what the creditors can actually do to me, my credit score will be trashed - but I'm not going to be looking for anymore credit for many years to come after I've managed it so badly anyway. But aside from that I have zero assets as I live with my parents and drive my dads car. I'm committed to repaying the debt, it's just my stupidity has landed me in this situation where i'm unable to afford the payments for the next 10 months. From next August I will obviously be in a much better financial situation and will be able to make payments to reduce the debts.

Thanks for any help.

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. I wouldn't be so harsh on yourself. It's very easy to get into difficulties with debt and it's a good thing that you're now taking steps to deal with this.

I can't give specific debt advice without knowing a lot more about your finances but making reduced payments when you're struggling is a common way to deal with debts.

You're right when you say that reduced payments will have a knock on effect on your credit file. What else your creditors do to you would depend on whether they co-operate with your payment offer or not. Generally speaking though, if you're offering the most you can afford then that's the best you can do.

There's a bit more information on token payment plans (TPP) on our website here: http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/TPPTokenpaymentplan.aspx.

I'd recommend that you get more in depth advice from us, so we can help you work out the right debt solution for you. If it's a TPP we'll help you set one up, if there's something else that's better we'll talk you through that.

You can get adive by either using our Debt Remedy online advice tool: http://www.stepchange.org/DebtRemedy.aspx or by giving our Helpline a call: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx. Either way it's free and our advice is impartial.

Kind regards

James

strugglingtocope

hi me and my partner both work full time and bring in a very good wage between us each week yet we still cant seem to clear any of our debts. we have un secured loads and over drafts and payday loans coming out of our ears and amongst our "usual bills" we are basically "robbing peter to pay paul" each week and in total we have about £8000-£10,000 in debts that we are eager to clear but we just cant seem to get anywhere, misse dpayment charges and intrest payments just seem to take whatever we pay. pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee help us as we are at our witts end.

thank you

StepChange_Jen

strugglingtocope wrote: »

hi me and my partner both work full time and bring in a very good wage between us each week yet we still cant seem to clear any of our debts. we have un secured loads and over drafts and payday loans coming out of our ears and amongst our "usual bills" we are basically "robbing peter to pay paul" each week and in total we have about £8000-£10,000 in debts that we are eager to clear but we just cant seem to get anywhere, misse dpayment charges and intrest payments just seem to take whatever we pay. pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeee help us as we are at our witts end.

thank you

Hi there,

I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling at the moment.

It’s good to hear that you want to deal with your debts and this is something we’d be happy to help with.

I think you’d benefit from some free debt advice and there are two ways you can get in touch with us to get this.

You can give our Helpline a call and talk with one of our advisors about your situation. They’ll use information about your debts and income to recommend any debt solutions available to you. You can find out how to get in touch with our Helpline here:


http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

Or you could use our online debt advice tool, Debt Remedy. It works in a similar way to our Helpline except instead of talking with an advisor you just need to enter your information online. You’ll then be recommended a debt solution suited to your situation and you’ll get advice about how to move forward with it.

You can find Debt Remedy here:

http://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx

I hope this helps but if you’ve got any more questions please let us know.

Jen