Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

Former_StepChange_Matthew

Hello

I'm in a bouncing, spiralling debt on the rent half of a 50/50 Shared Ownership property. It started when my landlords outsourced, I was a carer for my mother who had cancer at the time, working, no landline and not online etc - so changing the payments over didn't happen. (I know, not good) After 2/3months I got a bill that said my rent had gone up by about £60 and I said that didn't sound right, but they insisted. I couldn't afford that AND the mortgage. 6months later I emailed the original agency who had been sending letters, and they couldn't understand why I had been quoted the new amount, said it was wrong. But by this time charges had been added to the account; letters @£21.00-£25.00 each, 2x land registry searchs @ £21.00 each, 4x £48 charge for the administration and 4x £207 for the referral back to the original agency - these charges have bounced around and are now in the thousands, I'm told they are fair and in line with the current market rate - but I've searched and searched and can't find the current market rate to check this against. I was wondering, how much should a referral fee be?

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum.
I can certainly understand your concern about the charges that you have faced.
I couldn't advise you on how much a refferal fee should be or whether the fees you have had applied are fair however, I'd recommend getting in touch with Shelter. Shelter has a dedicated housing advice helpline which may be able to help you with this. Their number is 0808 800 4444 and they are open 8am – 8pm on weekdays and 8am – 5pm on weekends.

You seem to have had mixed messages from the landlord about how much your payments are so I'd recommend you speak to them directly and get your payments confirmed. If you're in arrears they will likely ask for an increased payment until these arrears are cleared.
If you will struggle to pay the new increased amount and cover your other financial commitments, it's worth seeking debt advice.

We have an online debt advice tool called Debt Remedy which work out suitable ways for you to manage financial difficulties going forward. You can access Debt Remedy here.

Or you can have a chat with an advisor over the phone by calling our Helpline. .

I hope this helps.

Regards
Matt

Domsjo

Hi Matt
Thanks I'll see if Shelter know - their response of charges are fair and in line with current market made me think there must be a current market guideline, but internet search engine cant find one. They seem surprised at my confusion over confusing and inconsistent information - odd!
Thanks for your help

astradti

Hello,
I currently have a natwest loan that I took out to complete my postgraduate degree. The loan was from Natwest.

The loan currently stands at £8,800 with 4 years left to pay.
The loan initially stood at £16000 but I have been paying it for nearly 6 years at a rate of £257.00 per month.

I would like to pay a lower interest rate or have heard of balance transfer or 0% cc.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
Astradti

Former_StepChange_Richard

astradti wrote: »

Hello,
I currently have a natwest loan that I took out to complete my postgraduate degree. The loan was from Natwest.

The loan currently stands at £8,800 with 4 years left to pay.
The loan initially stood at £16000 but I have been paying it for nearly 6 years at a rate of £257.00 per month.

I would like to pay a lower interest rate or have heard of balance transfer or 0% cc.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
Astradti

Hi Astradti


Welcome and thanks for posting.

If you're able to pay the £257 each month, it's unlikely that the bank will agree to lowering the interest rate that you have agreed to pay. When you took the loan with the bank you will have signed a document agreeing to this rate of interest for the duration of the loan.

There are some credit cards that offer a 0% balance transfer for a limited period of time, in most cases 12 months only before the interest then changes. I think it would be unlikely that you could find one to cover the remaining balance for the loan though. Even, if you did find one, you wouldn't be able to 'transfer' the balance of the loan, you would have to use the credit card to pay the loan off with. This would likely incur an early settlement fee.

If you're no longer able to afford to pay the contractual payment to the loan then you may need debt advice to help you with this. We can help you if you are in this situation. Our Debt Remedy tool is a great place to start getting some help and free advice on the best way to deal with your debts.

I hope this has been helpful.


Richard.

CloudStrife7

Hi guys

Just sent you a Private Message...hopefully you can help me out.

StepChange_Allen

CloudStrife7 wrote: »

Hi guys

Just sent you a Private Message...hopefully you can help me out.

Hi

Thanks for your post.

I will check our private messages now and get back to you very soon.

Thanks

Allen

sc03tye

Hi!

My longterm girlfriend has had major debt issue for a number of years now, and I have over time managed to get hold of all of the details of these loans etc to help her out.

Her own debts come to around £20,000 - some of this is debt thats been sold to other agents. Looking on Noddle I can see a horrifying 52 defaults... not sure if it's right or not, but still, wow. Is that kind of record?

I went through both Noddle and ClearScore to get that £20,000 total.

In addition, I took a loan out for her (before I knew how bad her own debt was) and that stands at circa £12,000.

Then theres the £13,500 I lent her from my savings, over time, it wasn't a bulk loan from me, it was from many failed rent payment (paying half) as a big contributor.

I realise the debt I'm in, for her, is my own doing (I do still have some savings, not paying the loan off with my own money).

Circa £45,500 total.
£25,500 debt in my name.
£20,000 in hers.

She's been destroyed by this, and thats why I'm trying to help her get back on her feet. Her entire £25,000 salary goes on paying this off but the repayments total more than the monthly income. She has taken on 3 part time jobs to help her out, but mainly these extra jobs she considers as fun money to use on trying to enjoy the life she has as to not let the debt keep her down and depressed.

I've mentioned IVA's, DMP's, DRO's and going bankrupt to her before and it was chucked out the window with no reasoning. My thoughts are that now we know the extent of the Defaults and missed payments, would doing any of the above really be a bad idea, any worse that whats happened?

I have no idea which option would be the best for us. I'd obviously like her to pay me monies for the debt in my name so the option we pick would need to allow this somehow.

We also really want to buy a house at some point soon, or if absolutely needed, longterm rent (we've rented before a couple of times but gone back to parents to try and help her money situation). For getting a mortgage eventually (I'm 32 and had one before, she is 26 and not had one) we would want to avoid marking something on the form that would kill any opportunity of getting a good rate/mortgage...

Can I have some serious help/advise from the officials here and any user that can offer ideas?

Thank you in advance

Confusedcash

Hello, just needed some advice. I stupidly got into debt on my student overdraft and made a debt of 5,400. I've paid off 1,550 by paying 50 a month over the last 2years or more. I would like to know how long before the debt is cleared from my credit file or stops affecting my credit rating. And also is there a point the debt gets to in year where it can stop being pursued or because of having already made some payments that doesn't apply? I've stopped making payments for the past few months as I couldn't afford it. What are my option? I have 3,850 still outstanding what can I do?

Thank you for taking the time out to read and help.

Former_StepChange_Matthew

Hi!

My longterm girlfriend has had major debt issue for a number of years now, and I have over time managed to get hold of all of the details of these loans etc to help her out.

Her own debts come to around £20,000 - some of this is debt thats been sold to other agents. Looking on Noddle I can see a horrifying 52 defaults... not sure if it's right or not, but still, wow. Is that kind of record?

I went through both Noddle and ClearScore to get that £20,000 total.

In addition, I took a loan out for her (before I knew how bad her own debt was) and that stands at circa £12,000.

Then theres the £13,500 I lent her from my savings, over time, it wasn't a bulk loan from me, it was from many failed rent payment (paying half) as a big contributor.

I realise the debt I'm in, for her, is my own doing (I do still have some savings, not paying the loan off with my own money).

Circa £45,500 total.
£25,500 debt in my name.
£20,000 in hers.

She's been destroyed by this, and thats why I'm trying to help her get back on her feet. Her entire £25,000 salary goes on paying this off but the repayments total more than the monthly income. She has taken on 3 part time jobs to help her out, but mainly these extra jobs she considers as fun money to use on trying to enjoy the life she has as to not let the debt keep her down and depressed.

I've mentioned IVA's, DMP's, DRO's and going bankrupt to her before and it was chucked out the window with no reasoning. My thoughts are that now we know the extent of the Defaults and missed payments, would doing any of the above really be a bad idea, any worse that whats happened?

I have no idea which option would be the best for us. I'd obviously like her to pay me monies for the debt in my name so the option we pick would need to allow this somehow.

We also really want to buy a house at some point soon, or if absolutely needed, longterm rent (we've rented before a couple of times but gone back to parents to try and help her money situation). For getting a mortgage eventually (I'm 32 and had one before, she is 26 and not had one) we would want to avoid marking something on the form that would kill any opportunity of getting a good rate/mortgage...

Can I have some serious help/advise from the officials here and any user that can offer ideas?

Thank you in advance

Hi there,

Thanks for posting and welcome to the forum.

I can understand the worry that you and your girlfriend are going through however, you've done the right thing and taken that first step to get on top of the debts.

To find the right option for your girlfriend, she would benefit from seeking debt advice. This will involve putting together details of her income and expenditure.

IVAs, DMPs and DROs are all solutions to help people manage debts however, it's impossible to say which would be the best one for your girlfriend without being aware of her financial situation. This is because solutions are not just based on the amount of debt that's outstanding but the amount your girlfriend has available to pay towards them.

Your girlfriend can put a budget together and seek advice on-line using our anonymous Debt Remedy tool or she can speak to an advisor over the phone by calling our Helpline.

However, there are a few things you have mentioned that I would like to address.

Firstly, you have mentioned that you would like the money back from your partner that you have lent which is understandable however, the majority of debt solutions would not allow her to prioritise your debt above the other creditors that she owes. Some debt solutions will allow her to pay you back but anything higher than a fair payment (pro rata) will be seen as "preferential treatment" and may have a negative impact on her debt solution.

Secondly, any debt solution that your girlfriend looks at will have an impact on her credit score. This is because debt solutions will be looking at reducing the debt repayments to less than the contractual amount or writing debt off. It sounds like your girlfriend's credit score will already be impacted due to the defaults however, anything that goes on a credit report lasts for 6 years. As a general rule of thumb, the lower the credit score, the harder it will be to obtain credit so this would be something you would need to consider if you're looking for a mortgage. The other thing to consider when looking at a mortgage is the amount of debt that you both have as this will go against you when applying for a mortgage (see more here).

I hope your girlfriend manages to get back in control of her debts.

Regards
Matthew

Former_StepChange_Matthew

Hello, just needed some advice. I stupidly got into debt on my student overdraft and made a debt of 5,400. I've paid off 1,550 by paying 50 a month over the last 2years or more. I would like to know how long before the debt is cleared from my credit file or stops affecting my credit rating. And also is there a point the debt gets to in year where it can stop being pursued or because of having already made some payments that doesn't apply? I've stopped making payments for the past few months as I couldn't afford it. What are my option? I have 3,850 still outstanding what can I do?

Thank you for taking the time out to read and help.

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

The debt would remain on your credit file until it is cleared or "settled" however, any missed payments or defaults are visible on your credit file from 6 years from the date it is applied.

An unsecured overdraft under the consumer credit act becomes unenforceable after 6 years if the following is met:

• You have not acknowledged the debt in writing within 6 years
• You have not made a payment to the debt in 6 years
• The creditor has not obtained a county court judgement (CCJ) against you within the 6 years

If a debt becomes statue barred this should then drop off your credit file but as it's only a few months that you have missed payments, you'd have to avoid the debt and hope the creditor doesn't obtain a CCJ within this time. This wouldn't be the best way to try and manage this as avoiding the debt could result in a larger balance due to interest and charges and a possible CCJ being registered against you.

If you're struggling to pay your debts, I'd recommend seeking debt advice and looking at what options are open to you.

You can use our on-line Debt Remedy tool which is anonymous and free to use. You can access this here.

If you would prefer speaking to someone over the phone, you can also call us and our details are here.

I hope this helps

Matthew