Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

beth11

Hello! I wondered if an advisor could help me with a couple of questions? I've been working really hard to repair my credit score, and in the next month, three defaults will come off. However, I have one due to come off at the start of 2014 and one I'm trying to get removed (with Orange, grr) that wouldn't expire til 2016. My question is, does the number of defaults on your credit score matter? As in, will I see an improvement when the three in the next month disappear? They were all done when I went onto a DMP, and previously to that I had no late payments, and also made sure my DMP payments were full and on time.

I want to get a mortgage with my husband later this year, so am trying to get as much info as possible.

Oh, and one last question. My Orange default was put on my account, without notice, and when we were disputing something (it was only about £30, so would have just paid it if they'd told me they were never going to get back to me with the info they said, and then passed on debt!). I'm trying to get this removed, but having no luck with them. Is there a financial ombusman sort of service that governs them, that isn't one you have to pay for?

Thanks so much for all your help. MSE and everyone have been invaluable in turning things around for me, and I could never thanks everyone enough.
Beth

StepChange_James

beth11 wrote: »

Hello! I wondered if an advisor could help me with a couple of questions? I've been working really hard to repair my credit score, and in the next month, three defaults will come off. However, I have one due to come off at the start of 2014 and one I'm trying to get removed (with Orange, grr) that wouldn't expire til 2016. My question is, does the number of defaults on your credit score matter? As in, will I see an improvement when the three in the next month disappear? They were all done when I went onto a DMP, and previously to that I had no late payments, and also made sure my DMP payments were full and on time.

I want to get a mortgage with my husband later this year, so am trying to get as much info as possible.

Oh, and one last question. My Orange default was put on my account, without notice, and when we were disputing something (it was only about £30, so would have just paid it if they'd told me they were never going to get back to me with the info they said, and then passed on debt!). I'm trying to get this removed, but having no luck with them. Is there a financial ombusman sort of service that governs them, that isn't one you have to pay for?

Thanks so much for all your help. MSE and everyone have been invaluable in turning things around for me, and I could never thanks everyone enough.
Beth

Hi Beth,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Every lender makes their own decisions and use the facts and figures from your credit history to help with this. So it depends on the lender how much certain bits of information matter, but its safe to say that having fewer default notices showing on your report is generally going to make you look more credit worthy in the eyes of potential lenders.

Ofcom are the regulator for the telecoms industry but from what I can see they don't take up individual complaints. They do set guidelines for dispute resolution here though: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/tell-us/telecoms/adr/.

To save you reading it, basically every telecoms company has to be a member of a scheme to independently adjudicate. There are two different companies who do this and you can find out which phone companies use which scheme here: http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2009/12/adr-schemes/.

Again, to save you looking, Orange use these guys: http://www.cisas.org.uk/Makeanapplication-25_e.html and it looks like you can submit your complaint to them either online or through the post.

Orange should be able to give you more information about the dispute resolution process too.

I hope this is useful to you and good luck with your upcoming mortgage application.

Kind regards

James

beth11

Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it.

supersavershal

I filled in the debt remedy with stepchange late thursday evening. They have now emailed me with my management plan. I am happy with the plan even though it has been a very hard step to take and I feel so guilty about it.
I have now realised I have not included a couple of debts for payday loans and have only put the car tax for one car.
Are payday loans allowed to be included? and I also have a debt for tax credit overpayments which I have to pay back, can this be included?
Is it too late to add these now stepchange has emailed my plan? I was quite emotional at the time I filled the remedy in.

mum2one

supersavershal wrote: »

I filled in the debt remedy with stepchange late thursday evening. They have now emailed me with my management plan. I am happy with the plan even though it has been a very hard step to take and I feel so guilty about it.
I have now realised I have not included a couple of debts for payday loans and have only put the car tax for one car.
Are payday loans allowed to be included? and I also have a debt for tax credit overpayments which I have to pay back, can this be included?
Is it too late to add these now stepchange has emailed my plan? I was quite emotional at the time I filled the remedy in.

Youve taken the hardest step thats the asking for help, theres no need to feel guilty, look at it this way your not burying your head in the sand, what your doing is standing up saying yes I have debt, ok I can't get my head round it all, but I've asked for help (stepchange) and I'm starting a new stage in my life - the stage to a new debt free life.

Stepchange will ring to go through the info booklet, or you can ring them monday and explain the sitoation.

I know it sounds daft but I was had tears when i filled my debt remedy in, it must have taken me 4 or 5 attempts to press that send button, - because I felt an idiot, that I had got into debt, that I had tried to manage it, and that didn;t work, that I was 40 how could I get into this mess. But I had some really brilliant advice and support from the stepchange team, I'm sure i filled there inbox with all these questions, - and when I did go through the process, it felt like a weight off my shoulder, I've made 5 payments so far and the difference to my life is amazing, - not that I'm rich, but I can see my debts coming down, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel, in my case its a long tunnel, but each month is one step closer.

I'm no expert - but from memory your over payment will come before your standard payments, but just explain everything to the advisior and there send a new schedlue out, (mine changed when I had the review).

Your not the first, and I'm 100% sure you won't be the last, just remember to be pround that your dealing with your debts, xx

supersavershal

Thank you for your help.
Its really good to hear from someone who has gone through this.
Ive thought about going down the DMP route for a while but carried on firefighting my debt as I thought I would be in debt for the rest of my life. Stepchange has estimated it will take me around 6 years to pay off all my debt which is sooner than I thought. xx

mum2one

supersavershal wrote: »

Thank you for your help.
Its really good to hear from someone who has gone through this.
Ive thought about going down the DMP route for a while but carried on firefighting my debt as I thought I would be in debt for the rest of my life. Stepchange has estimated it will take me around 6 years to pay off all my debt which is sooner than I thought. xx

Glad u didn't mind the babble for England, I spent 12 mths doing self managed DMP then they just kept wanting more and more money, and each creditor thought they were more important that another, in the end I shouted help, but like you felt guilty.

6 yrs est is brilliant, mines a bit longer, need a rich man or the winning lottery numbers, (guess I can dream!!) but the difference that has been made is a lot, - all for the better.

Its just balancing the books, and budgeting everything, I hit the Jan sales for presents, - saves money, recycle xmas cards into gift tags, and for families, at xmas - may do 1 family hamper (film ngt - dvd, can of pop, popcorn, small bottle wine for mum, bottle beer for dad) say £10 for the family - compared to £10 each person.

I run an xmas thread - its not just xmas its bdays and getting organised for the yr and most importantly we all help each other to save money, if you to pop by

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4367477

xx

nicki342001

Hi.

I would like to ask a stepchange advisor a few questions.

We have been on dmp with them for 1 year now. review due in may. A few things are going to need replacing in our house shortly. boiler is 24 years old and stuggling on but british gas advised us not to use it but obviously we have to. How could we go about replacing it without borrowing further or causing upset with our creditors. They have all been very helpful so far, only a couple charging small percentage of interest. Can we reduce our payment to save for a boiler?

supersavershal

Another question, sorry!
I work full time but during my holidays I could try to work the odd extra shift. What do I do with the extra money, its not guaranteed and not regular. Do I pay it straight to my DMP or do I save it one side and pay it as a one off lump sum when its a decent amount? OH can also occaisonally get an extra shift.
Also have just got all my forms ready to send with the DD form. My next payday is at the end of the month, will stepchange expect me to start my payment before then because I have more or less paid what I could off all my debts for this month with my last pay on the 30th Jan, and have very little left.

Edintherightdirection

Hi everybody,

It's my first time posting here so thanks in advance for providing the forum to do so. Writing this up will be a help in itself.

I'm self employed and have a range of debts:

Barclaycard Credit Card £4500.00 @ 20%
HBOS Credit Card £5500 @ 29%
HBOS overdraft £700

My income fluctuates but is close to 1500 a month. The tricky thing is that I'm paying the minimum on both cards for almost a year now with is around £210 a month and of course it's making no difference. Also because of the HBOS Ultimate reward account I regularly pay anywhere £15 and £23 in overdraft fees every month.

What I can't decide is what to do with this. Should I cut out the overdraft charges first, switch to a First Direct account (which I want to do) and take £700 hit up front or would this be better going on a card?

My initial plan was to pay off the Barclaycard first then hopefully renegotiate a new cc with 23 months interest free so I could transfer the HBOS card and pay the balance in instalments of £240 or so a month to clear it fully. This would be affordable and only a small bit more than what I'm paying at the moment. Of course I don't have a £4500 windfall to start doing this.

My credit rating was ok but not brilliant he last time I checked so I could maybe apply for a consolidated loan for £10,000 which might take 4 years or more if I get it.

The third option would be to clear one of the cards via a loan my wife could take out as she has a better credit rating than I do (we don't have joint accounts). I would pay her the repayment amount directly and then deal with the other card through a balance transfer. This could end up costing more per month but the payments would be fixed and one would be at 0% hopefully and the other at a lower interest rate than I'm currently paying on the cards.

What should I do? Any advice is appreciated.

Cheers