help quick please on phone..

gawebb99

dancingfairy wrote: »

Hi gawebb, personally I would avoid ivas. They are only really suitable for a small proportion of the population, mainly if you have equity in a property. In an iva you are fairly well bound to pay the payments for approximately 5 years. If the iva fails you are back where you started ( but it may in fact be worse as a lot of the fees are taken out before money goes to your creditors). You would then end up probably looking at bankruptcy anyway.
Dmps are great for informal solutions. Bear in mind that part way through you may be able to offer settlement figures or hopefully over that time you may get a pay rise so that 9 years should hopefully come down ( obviously if you struggle or lose your job the opposite is true and it can drag out longer).
With bankruptcy its pretty much done and dusted on the day you go to court and pay your money. Yes there an interview with the or and you may have to make pYments for 3 years towards your bankruptcy but the debts are wiped instantly.
Don't forget you can start off on a DMP and then, if after say 6 months you can still go bankrupt. Obviously if bankruptcy is the right option its best to do it sooner rather than later but there's nothing to stop you doing a DMP and seeing how you get on and possibly changing tack.
Have a look at the debt camel website, it should go r you the pros and co s of a DMP vs bankruptcy. Also have a look on the bankruptcy y board, they can tell you all about it and you can make a decision as to what will suit you best.
There are no wrong answers, some people go bankrupt when others would have done a DMP and others, despite owing 1000's of thousands can't go bankrupt due to their job or choose not to for personal reasons.
Best of luck
Df

thanks very much. im going to ring stepchange tonight, amend our budget as didnt budget correctly when i first spoke to them. im then going to ask to move forwards with either :

1) DRO in my name and dmp for my husband

2) joint dmp

like you say, hopefully we can settle some early over time etc.

how long is ok to make token payments for, and do stepchange offer this on our behalf or do i need to arrange all of this?

we need 3 months before we start ideally. so would like to start in may .

sourcrates

Take as long as you like,

it's you who dictates the timetable, no one else.

The creditors fit in with you, not the other way around.

You just need to keep them informed.
You are dealing with your debts, part of that involves you starting to take charge and telling them how it's going to go down, instead of seeking there approval.

Keep it nice, but be insistant.

gawebb99

sourcrates wrote: »

Take as long as you like,

it's you who dictates the timetable, no one else.

The creditors fit in with you, not the other way around.

You just need to keep them informed.
You are dealing with your debts, part of that involves you starting to take charge and telling them how it's going to go down, instead of seeking there approval.

Keep it nice, but be insistant.

thanks - so can i clarify. Should I be calling my creditors , or do stepchange arrange this for me?

thank you

sourcrates

gawebb99 wrote: »

thanks - so can i clarify. Should I be calling my creditors , or do stepchange arrange this for me?

thank you

I would assume SC would want you to start straight away, they tend to concentrate on getting you in a routine of paying, rather than saving an emergency fund.
So it depends when your going to set the ball rolling, if you use them, they tend to deal with creditors for you, you don't normally have any contact with them.

As your planning two seperate courses of action, only you know how long it will take you to save up some cash, if it were me, I'd save my emergency fund first, then do the debt solution, most people would agree that would be the way to go.

gawebb99

sourcrates wrote: »

I would assume SC would want you to start straight away, they tend to concentrate on getting you in a routine of paying, rather than saving an emergency fund.
So it depends when your going to set the ball rolling, if you use them, they tend to deal with creditors for you, you don't normally have any contact with them.

As your planning two seperate courses of action, only you know how long it will take you to save up some cash, if it were me, I'd save my emergency fund first, then do the debt solution, most people would agree that would be the way to go.

thanks, so ive spoken to them again. they said im not eligable for a dro at the moment so we are going to do a joint dmp for now at least and see how we get on, its for a long time but hopefully we can budget and shift the debt sooner than stated?!

we are going to wait 2 months at least- and then start the dmp. id like to have some cash behind us first. mainly because our car is due its mot in april and its so old im sure itll fail!

really appreciate all the advice again. Now i need to get my head around budgetting as we've always just kinda 'gone with' hence being here in the first place i guess... but its all changing now.

sourcrates

Good luck with it, don't under budget !!!!

gawebb99

sourcrates wrote: »

Good luck with it, don't under budget !!!!

im hoping we've budgeted well- so ive put an amount per week for food for example so i'll have to try keep well under that to save whats left, is that the kinda thing people do?!

gawebb99

can i ask please, how long into a dmp can you make full and final payments (ive read a little on these) and how exactly do they work...

if anyone can link me to where i should read more about this that would be lovely.

really pleased to have found all of this support, only a few weeks ago i was sick with worry, not sleeping nor eating but i feel much happier now knowing it is 'ok' and i can feed the family . we went weeks without buying food shopping and literally scrapping the barrel!

sourcrates

gawebb99 wrote: »

can i ask please, how long into a dmp can you make full and final payments (ive read a little on these) and how exactly do they work...

if anyone can link me to where i should read more about this that would be lovely.

really pleased to have found all of this support, only a few weeks ago i was sick with worry, not sleeping nor eating but i feel much happier now knowing it is 'ok' and i can feed the family . we went weeks without buying food shopping and literally scrapping the barrel!

Well there are no rules on this, it's entirely up to you, when funds and circumstances allow.

However,

Offers to settle accounts are best made after debts have been sold on, passed around debt collectors a few times, and have had time to "grow a little stubble", or in other words, have hung around a bit.

Debt purchasers buy defaulted accounts in bulk, they pay pennies in the pound for each one, hence they are open to fairly large discounts to settle them quickly.

Original creditors do not offer such good discounts, simply because they can make more by selling on the account, and then claiming tax relief on it, so they in effect, get paid twice, for your defaulted account.

It's a lucrative Buisness for some, debt !!

gawebb99

hi, me again

so we cancelled our direct debits, have had a few letters already!!

am in the process of printing and sending letters saying we will be offering £1 per month until a longer term solution is reached with stepchange.

tsb loan have sent a letter today saying our direct debit has been cancelled, and if we dont pay they will/ could take payment from the account linked to that loan.

we are changing banks at the moment to a basic one, but its not fully set up yet .

should i just send the letter anyways about the £1 situation?