Step Change advises £1 month

woodgreen2013

Step change debt charity have advised me to pay £1 per month as a token effort.

I have gone through all my income and outgoings with them. They say as all my debts are unsecured my best bet is to pay £1 month as that is all I can afford.

But will I do this forever?

How can I get the debts writen off? Or ask them to settle for smaller amount?

jessie4109

what is the total outstanding of the debts? If you can only afford £1 per month per creditor then if you owe less than £15000 would you be elegible for a debt relief order?

woodgreen2013

jessie4109 wrote: »

what is the total outstanding of the debts? If you can only afford £1 per month per creditor then if you owe less than £15000 would you be elegible for a debt relief order?

Yes I am easily able to do a DRO. For some reason I am strongly advised not to do that but keep paying and keep the debts open.

Just as others are finding on this board............

lepidopterist wrote: »

Hiya.

A couple of months back, i completed Stepchange's DebtRemedy calculator doohickey, and it told me I should apply for a DRO. I didn't want to at that stage, and didn't.

I've just completed it again, and it's now telling me that I should apply for repayment agreements with my creditors. My situation has not improved in the intervening period, and I absolutely fulfill all the criterria (Debts in excess of 10k, no assets, on HB/JSA). Is this some kind of austerity-related cutback?

I am in the same boat. I could easily do that DRO. Its much simpler than bankruptcy, as long as you are poor and havent got any investments or assets. As long your car is old and not worth much, then I thought it would be my best bet.

But they are strongly advising me to keep paying £1 per month to each creditor. I at least want to consolidate all my loans so I only pay 1x £1 to one big one.

I suspect they are doing everything they can because of the global crisis.

The_Boss

What's wrong with paying off £1 a month? It's already a lot less than the actual amount...

Tixy

I would speak to step change again and ask why they don't think a DRO would be suitable in your situation.
There will be a reason why they have suggested token payments instead.
Perhaps you have indicated to them that you are expecting/hoping for a change in your circumstances soon?

Consolidating your debts is not going to be an option if you can only afford a few pounds in repayments a month.

FredWhispers

"I suspect they are doing everything they can because of the global crisis".

Not sure your £1.00 will help that much!

Either go into a DRO or pay the £1. Sounds a very generous deal.

woodgreen2013

Tixy wrote: »

I would speak to step change again and ask why they don't think a DRO would be suitable in your situation.
There will be a reason why they have suggested token payments instead.
Perhaps you have indicated to them that you are expecting/hoping for a change in your circumstances soon?

Consolidating your debts is not going to be an option if you can only afford a few pounds in repayments a month.

Yes I am looking to back into work.

Why would it not be an option to consolidate my debts? I would prefer just the one £1 payment than several.

Tixy

woodgreen2013 wrote: »

Why would it not be an option to consolidate my debts? I would prefer just the one £1 payment than several.

No new lender will be prepared to provide you with a loan to pay off all your old debts and accept a £1 payment.

And none of your current lenders is going to agree to lend you more money on top of what you already owe them to pay off all your other debts and then just accept a £1 payment from you.

midnight_express

woodgreen2013 wrote: »

Yes I am looking to back into work.

Why would it not be an option to consolidate my debts? I would prefer just the one £1 payment than several.

It wouldn't be an option because you have already proved that you don't pay your debts. Why would anyone want to lend money to someone who wants to pay it back at £1 a month.

jessie4109

They may be telling you to stick with the £1 token payments as you need to pay the £90 (i think thats the figure) fee to start the process, in the same way you would need to find the money to pay the fee for a bankruptcy.