Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

flossie58_2

Hi My husband is self employed, I work fulltime, can you have a damp whilst he is self employed? Not always sure what is earnings will be. any advice would be most greateful

StepChange_James

flossie58 wrote: »

Hi My husband is self employed, I work fulltime, can you have a damp whilst he is self employed? Not always sure what is earnings will be. any advice would be most greateful

Hi Flossie,

Thanks for posting. I suspect auto-correct has changed DMP into damp. Otherwise you might need a home improvement forum!

It is possible to have a DMP if you're self employed. That's not to say it would be the best option for you particular circumstances but it's certainly an option.

It's usually trickier to give advice to people with a variable income (whether self employed or not) but it's not impossible. The best way to plan a budget is to try to work out and average and then use that for the income.

Obviously this income figure won't accurate for every month but if it's a good estimate of the average then in months where the income is higher the surplus can be put to one side and then it can be used to bump up income in the lower earning months.

I'd suggest using our online advice tool Debt Remedy: http://www.stepchange.org/msehelp. If you answer yes to the self-employed question it will help plan out a business budget that can be used to work out your husband's net income to use when getting debt advice.

It will then look at your personal situation and produce a personal action plan which outlines the available options (including DMPs).

Kind regards

James

Sabyatz

Hi

I am struggling after having my hours reduced. I owe a PayDay Loan company and can't afford to pay them at the end of the month without not cancelling all my other payments. I am working overtime, cancelled my pension, reduced my outgoings as much as possible. The only solution is to release some equity in my house and remortgage. Need to know which is the most reputable company though as many that are advertised charge extorniate fee's. Need one with minimal payment upfront.

Any help welcome and greatfully received. I have been on your website and completed the questionnaire.

labadee_2

Hello, i am in France and can't call a 0800 number. is there another number i can call from abroad please?
Thank you kindly

Sabyatz

Google Say No to 0870 and find alternative number.... you should find a local number

StepChange_James

Sabyatz wrote: »

Hi

I am struggling after having my hours reduced. I owe a PayDay Loan company and can't afford to pay them at the end of the month without not cancelling all my other payments. I am working overtime, cancelled my pension, reduced my outgoings as much as possible. The only solution is to release some equity in my house and remortgage. Need to know which is the most reputable company though as many that are advertised charge extorniate fee's. Need one with minimal payment upfront.

Any help welcome and greatfully received. I have been on your website and completed the questionnaire.

Hello Sabyatz,

It sounds like you're already doing a lot of things right with your finances: cutting down costs where you can and earning whatever extra is available.

If you're still finding that there's not enough money available to pay your payday loans what they want then I'd suggest you follow the advice in this article: http://moneyaware.co.uk/2013/01/payday-loan-debt-help-what-to-do-if-you-cant-afford-the-payment/.

It contains links to template letters to cancel payday loans and suggestions about other ways to deal with them.

We don't tend to recommend secured loans to pay off unsecured debts as borrowing against a property puts it more at risk.

It would probably be a better option in the long term to negotiate affordable payments with your payday loan companies and pay them off that way. We can help you with this if you're going through our advice process.

Kind regards

James

StepChange_James

labadee wrote: »

Hello, i am in France and can't call a 0800 number. is there another number i can call from abroad please?
Thank you kindly

Hello,

Absolutely. Details are here: http://www.stepchange.org/LivingoutsidetheUK.aspx.

Kind regards

James

sillymeme

Hi I hope its ok to ask this here. I do have a DMP with stepchange (about to make first payment) but I cant call to talk to someone today and emails can be slow.
I set up a new bank account which my wages have gone into today, thankfully. I had payday lons due outtoday and wrote to my bank and the loan companies to cancel any CPA's. However, and this is my own fault, despite sending signed for I didnt check the bank actually recieved the letter and looking now it seems to be lost somewhere in the system.
I did have email confirmation from PDUK that the account was on hold while they waited to hear from stepchange, but of course they still tried to take the loan, and succeeded in geting about one third from my old bank (£218).
I did not have an overdraft on this account, so its now in an unplanned overdraft which is charged at £5 per day.
Im guessing there isnt much I can do since i was stupid enough not to follow up with the bank (I think i was most concerned my wages wouldnt go there and once that was sorted forgot).
Is there anything I can do here? I now owe the loan company less but the overdraft is going to cost more anyway, and I cant afford to clear it now im making my first DMP payment this month. Is it worth contacting the bank at all?
Im guessing i will need to call and talk to someone at stepchange, but I cant do that or contatct the bank today, but was wonder if i should be doing anything as the overdraft charge will quickly build.
Thanks:)

StepChange_James

sillymeme wrote: »

Hi I hope its ok to ask this here. I do have a DMP with stepchange (about to make first payment) but I cant call to talk to someone today and emails can be slow.
I set up a new bank account which my wages have gone into today, thankfully. I had payday lons due outtoday and wrote to my bank and the loan companies to cancel any CPA's. However, and this is my own fault, despite sending signed for I didnt check the bank actually recieved the letter and looking now it seems to be lost somewhere in the system.
I did have email confirmation from PDUK that the account was on hold while they waited to hear from stepchange, but of course they still tried to take the loan, and succeeded in geting about one third from my old bank (£218).
I did not have an overdraft on this account, so its now in an unplanned overdraft which is charged at £5 per day.
Im guessing there isnt much I can do since i was stupid enough not to follow up with the bank (I think i was most concerned my wages wouldnt go there and once that was sorted forgot).
Is there anything I can do here? I now owe the loan company less but the overdraft is going to cost more anyway, and I cant afford to clear it now im making my first DMP payment this month. Is it worth contacting the bank at all?
Im guessing i will need to call and talk to someone at stepchange, but I cant do that or contatct the bank today, but was wonder if i should be doing anything as the overdraft charge will quickly build.
Thanks:)

Hello,

Thanks for posting. I wouldn't beat yourself up about this, there are so many things to sort out when starting a DMP it's very easy to miss something like this.

I'd suggest speaking to your bank first. If they received the letter you sent and didn't act on it then it would be reasonable to expect them to refund the transaction back into your account. Though reading back on your message it does look like the letter perhaps didn't reach them.

If the bank didn't get the letter it's probably going to be hard to convince them to reverse the transaction but you could always try.

I'd say there are probably two directions you could go to sort things out if nothing can be done about the payment that's just come out:
Delay your DMP start date until July and clear the forced overdraft this month.
Carry on with the June start but add the overdraft onto the DMP for July.

Neither option is ideal. Delaying the start date will mean having to make a small token payment to each of your other debts for June and explaining to them that the start of your DMP has been delayed. It's not the end of the world but might mean a few more phone calls.

Adding the overdraft onto your DMP isn't great either as it will mean sending new payment offers to all your debts, to make room for the new overdraft debt that's being added on. Because the overdraft debt is small it shouldn't mean huge reductions in payment for your other debts but it may cause confusion with your creditors and adding debts onto a DMP makes it look like you've been taking out new debts (though obviously it's been out of your control with this one).

I couldn't really say which of these two routes is the best way to go but if you give us a call one of our team will be able to give you a bit of guidance.

If you call on Tuesday next week there should be time enough to cancel your direct debit before the June payment is due if needed, so I wouldn't worry too much if you can't speak to us today.

Hope this helps.

James

sillymeme

thank you.
The bank wont do anything - and it wasnt really their fault since my letter was not recieved so cant blame them for that.
I got home early enough I was able to call today and have added the debt onto my DMP from July. Its a tiny amount in comparison to what I actually owe so hopefully wont upset anyone too much as the payments dont change much. Plus my largest creditor has agreed to freeze interest so want to start paying asap before they change their mind!
Thanks again for your reply.