Some advice on a debt situation...

mestone

Hey Guys,

I'm a complete newbie to posting, although i've found some very useful things on the forum before! Some very knowledgable and experienced people on here...

Anyway enough ego boosting!


I was wondering whether someone could tell me the best course of action for the following situation:

My partner found herself in a spot of debt trouble a few years ago, running up a shopping bill on several credit cards & store cards amounting to £6000 in a matter of months!! :eek:


She was unable to keep up with the payments, and decided to turn to Gregory Pennington, who provided her with a debt management program.

She's been paying it back ever since, and when I met her she'd managed to reduce this to around £1400 (woo), and now it stands at £1100!

Now we were wondering whther it was worth sticking with the DMP to the bitter end; as far as I can tell there are a few pro's and con's

Stick With It

• It's less hassle paying one lump sum.
• Paying 0% interest on all the debts.
• If we find a lump sum of cash, Gregory Pennington can negotiate a lower cash payoff with the debtors.
  

Get Rid of It

• We can do balance transfers onto a 0% interest credit card and wipe the slate (some are offering 13 months of 0% interest at the moment) .
• Gregory pennington charge £25 a month for their services, meaning about 22% of repayments aren't actually repaying the debt.
• Once the DMP is gone, my partner can start rebuilding her credit rating again.

At the current rate of repayments, she'll be debt-free in just over 12 months.

If we manage to offload the debt onto a 0% interest credit card (i still don't know whether this is the bestcourse of action, or even possible!) then i envisage her being debt free within 8-9 months.

All help and thoughts welcome! Even if it's just to say "stop being an idiot, you think you've got problems??"


Cheers!

Matt

Lucy1982_2

Hi Matt.

I'm not really sure what the best course of action would be. I suppose you could see if she was able to get a credit card and go from there. My one concern with this would be. She has run up credit card debt once... are you sure she wouldn't be tempted to do it again?

Good luck and I am sure whatever you decided to do she will fix the situation and you will both be stronger for it.

NoMoreDenial

Hi Matt,

How did you find Gregory Pennington? I know there fee charging but were they any good?Any info would be appreciated?

Thanks

Kevicho

It may be a good thing to move it all to 0% because obviously you will save on the interest, but also on the DMP fees.

Sounds like shes done well, still might be worth posting SOAs to see if we canhelp in any way

All the best

Kev

newlywed

Another option is to contact CCCS or Payplan and see if you can get them to take over the DMP. They are charities and do not charge any monthly fees.

One lump sum still and all the money goes to paying it off. Not sure whether this is likely to cause any difficulties during any swap over though.

rayday2

I self manage my DMP with the help of the template letters etc on the national debthelpline website, personally if I was you this is what I would do then every penny of your money goes where you want it to and will reduce the time you have to pay them.

Also on self managed DMP's you can be a little naughty and chisel away a little more to the smaller ones which is a huge morale boost.

Chances are none of the people you owe will care so long as the money is sent regular I sent most of mine by standing order so don't even pay the cost of a stamp!