would a DRO be a the best option for me?

Hampshire345

Hello, I am currently on benefits ( jsa under 25) and have debts of nearly £5,000, I have been severely struggling to pay my monthly payments on my debts( 2 credit cards, a store card and a catalogue accounts, the vast majority of the debt is with the 2 credit cards)

my current minimum payments are £172 each month
credit card 1 - £110 per month
credit card 2 - £50 per month
store card- £7 per month
catalogue - £5 per month

I am also using my overdraft on my bank account at the moment too

I also pay £19 a month for my broadband, if I were to do a dro would my contract be cancelled?

I keep on having to use my credit cards in order to meet daily living costs as my minimum payments are so high

longtermplanner

You have two realistic choices - a DRO as you say and a DMP where you pay a token £1 a month to your creditors. If you think you are likely to find work soon and could then make the normal debt repayments, then a DMP may be a good options for you. But if this seems unlikely then a DRO will get rid of them all.

No your broadband contract would not be cancelled in a DRO.

Hampshire345

longtermplanner wrote: »

You have two realistic choices - a DRO as you say and a DMP where you pay a token £1 a month to your creditors. If you think you are likely to find work soon and could then make the normal debt repayments, then a DMP may be a good options for you. But if this seems unlikely then a DRO will get rid of them all.

No your broadband contract would not be cancelled in a DRO.

I will probably try to do DRO later this month, I want to try and pay off my overdraft on my bank account first before I do the DRO( thankfully it is less then £200).

fatbelly

Hampshire345 wrote: »

I will probably try to do DRO later this month, I want to try and pay off my overdraft on my bank account first before I do the DRO( thankfully it is less then £200).

How are you going to do that on £56.80 per week? Particularly when you will need to find £90 for the fee.

Open a new account with someone else and put the £200 debt into your DRO.

The DRO process is not instantaneous - it may take a long time to even get an appointment with an intermediary. Where I work (CAB) there is a 6-week wait for a 1st appointment. The Experian report may take 3 weeks. Then it's a question of when you can pay.

Do you own a car? What's it worth?

Hampshire345

fatbelly wrote: »

How are you going to do that on £56.80 per week? Particularly when you will need to find £90 for the fee.

Open a new account with someone else and put the £200 debt into your DRO.

The DRO process is not instantaneous - it may take a long time to even get an appointment with an intermediary. Where I work (CAB) there is a 6-week wait for a 1st appointment. The Experian report may take 3 weeks. Then it's a question of when you can pay.

Do you own a car? What's it worth?

I do not have a car

I don't really want the hassle of changing my bank account because it could cause problems with my benefit payments and my broadband monthly payments

debt_doctor

Hi,


You cannot pay off your overdraft as this would be a preference and may prevent your DRO or have it removed.
As FB implies, this is just another debt and needs to be included.


Changing banks can be inconvenient, but being debt free is worth it!


DD

Hampshire345

debt_doctor wrote: »

Hi,


You cannot pay off your overdraft as this would be a preference and may prevent your DRO or have it removed.
As FB implies, this is just another debt and needs to be included.


Changing banks can be inconvenient, but being debt free is worth it!


DD

I have just opened a new account online

National_Debtline

Hello there,

I can see that you have had some brilliant advice already. The only thing I wanted to add was that if you decide to go for a DRO you will need to ensure that you continue to meet the DRO criteria for the twelve months that it runs for.

If you find work, do bear in mind that the DRO *could* be revoked if your disposable income increased to more than the £50 limit of a DRO.

If anyone is reading this thread and would like to know more about Debt Relief Orders, here's a link to our fact sheet: https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/37%20EW%20Debt%20relief%20orders%20%28DROs%29/Default.aspx

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.

fatbelly

Hampshire345 wrote: »

I have just opened a new account online

Well done.

If you are the sort of person who spends some of the month in the red, some in the black, then you could maybe make out a case for just timing the application so you are not 'in the red' on that date.

However, if you are permanently overdrawn, then as debt doctor says, it's just another debt and needs to go in.

Hope this works out for you.

Aloofdragon

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hello there,

I can see that you have had some brilliant advice already. The only thing I wanted to add was that if you decide to go for a DRO you will need to ensure that you continue to meet the DRO criteria for the twelve months that it runs for.

If you find work, do bear in mind that the DRO *could* be revoked if your disposable income increased to more than the £50 limit of a DRO.

If anyone is reading this thread and would like to know more about Debt Relief Orders, here's a link to our fact sheet:

Best wishes,

David @ NDL.

Hi I have been searching for information regarding DRO and IVA for days now we (hubby and I) are in £13,000ish of debt mainly a Barclays loan we had to take out to pay back an overpayment of rent from council til then we were managing paying back our credit card etc but now pay is going into the bank by the time child maintenance, rent, loan are taking out put a few pound on our gas and elec meter we are in the overdraft and going round in circles credit card to pay council tax etc well we are at the max on credit card so it really isn't an option anymore...


I read the link completely about the DRO and something that stuck out for me was some tenancy agreements wont accept a DRO on the house we are not in arrears with the house at all but we rent from a housing association would this mean we would not be eligible please as I would rather keep paddling if it meant losing our home I have a 7 year old son.


Also I have applied for a Experian report so waiting for a pin to see what debts are actually still on my name, would we be able to do a joint DRO as some of the debt is my name and some on my husbands we are married. Although most is on his name.


Many thanks for any advice x

fatbelly

Aloofdragon wrote: »

Hi I have been searching for information regarding DRO and IVA for days now we (hubby and I) are in £13,000ish of debt mainly a Barclays loan we had to take out to pay back an overpayment of rent from council til then we were managing paying back our credit card etc but now pay is going into the bank by the time child maintenance, rent, loan are taking out put a few pound on our gas and elec meter we are in the overdraft and going round in circles credit card to pay council tax etc well we are at the max on credit card so it really isn't an option anymore...


I read the link completely about the DRO and something that stuck out for me was some tenancy agreements wont accept a DRO on the house we are not in arrears with the house at all but we rent from a housing association would this mean we would not be eligible please as I would rather keep paddling if it meant losing our home I have a 7 year old son.


Also I have applied for a Experian report so waiting for a pin to see what debts are actually still on my name, would we be able to do a joint DRO as some of the debt is my name and some on my husbands we are married. Although most is on his name.


Many thanks for any advice x

You would need 2 DROs so husband could usefully get an Experian report too.

Housing Associations have no problems with DROs - yours won't even know about it as it's not a creditor so won't get a mention.

You'll need to find an Intermediary from one of the organisations that can do these things.

Here's link to the official booklets:

http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/insolvency/Publications