iva or dro

National_Debtline

By the time most people get to the stage of DRO, IVA or DMP they’ve most likely already been missing payments or making reduced payments, so the creditors are very used to this.

As part of our process for referring people on to one of these options we have a template ‘hold action’ letter to send to creditors, explaining what is happening and why payments have stopped. I would expect Stepchange to have something similar. A good adviser should be able to assess your chances of being accepted for one of these options before you start.

Your husband's reluctance to deal with his debts sounds frustrating but there’s nothing stopping you from dealing with your own debts, which should ease the burden on your household.

If you can encourage your husband to call National Debtline we could at least explain everything to him clearly and make sure he understands each option fully, which might help to move things along.

James
@natdebtline

gawebb99

thank you for the replies. so my husband has reluctantly agreed but says ill regret it...

i have cancelled direct debits to creditors from the bank, and will start calling them all over the next few days to let them know we are discussing with stepchange our options

anything else i need to do? want to do it right

fatbelly

gawebb99 wrote: »

thank you for the replies. so my husband has reluctantly agreed but says ill regret it...

i have cancelled direct debits to creditors from the bank, and will start calling them all over the next few days to let them know we are discussing with stepchange our options

anything else i need to do? want to do it right

TBH I'd do it in writing, if I did it at all.

I know that's a lot of stamps but by phoning you give them the opportunity to say unpleasant things that they would later deny. You can't expect all creditor employees to be lovely and helpful. The postal route slows the process down and makes them stick to the rules.

Why does your husband think you'll regret taking professional advice about your debts? Particularly with DROs I've done several hundred now and can't think of a single client who told me they regretted doing it. In fact I'm now getting some second time around clients who had one in the early days and 6 years later are back again. Obviously that raises separate issues - Most people having their debts dealt with once, learn lessons and never get in the same problems again.

gawebb99

fatbelly wrote: »

TBH I'd do it in writing, if I did it at all.

I know that's a lot of stamps but by phoning you give them the opportunity to say unpleasant things that they would later deny. You can't expect all creditor employees to be lovely and helpful. The postal route slows the process down and makes them stick to the rules.

Why does your husband think you'll regret taking professional advice about your debts? Particularly with DROs I've done several hundred now and can't think of a single client who told me they regretted doing it. In fact I'm now getting some second time around clients who had one in the early days and 6 years later are back again. Obviously that raises separate issues - Most people having their debts dealt with once, learn lessons and never get in the same problems again.

He's just worried to be honest . As im I but I'm accepting to the fact we need to take action . Need to somehow find out all account details some are old and we don't have the cards anymore payments are made by direct debit etc .

Still not sure if to do a joint IVA or DMP or to seperate out debts and me do a DRO and he do IVA Or dmp . Will call stepchsnge when I get a chance probably Monday now .

Really appreciate the advice it's quite lonely and daunting at the moment

gawebb99

just spoken to barclaycard

gawebb99

they want to arrange a payment plan of £5 per month should i agree to this?

fatbelly

gawebb99 wrote: »

they want to arrange a payment plan of £5 per month should i agree to this?

No !

midnitegremlin

fatbelly wrote: »

by phoning you give them the opportunity to say unpleasant things that they would later deny. You can't expect all creditor employees to be lovely and helpful..

personal experience is that the credit cards and banks are lovely, and do their best to come up with something. I can't speak for other forms of credit.

fatbelly

midnitegremlin wrote: »

personal experience is that the credit cards and banks are lovely, and do their best to come up with something. I can't speak for other forms of credit.

The OP is in the process of phoning 22 creditors and will no doubt report back in due course...