Possible debt advice

zenshi

Gavin78 wrote: »

Just thought I might add to this...How do these companies work that take over contact for the companies for you and then you pay the amount they have agreed on and they charge a fee as well?

Step change, Payplan and CAP are all charity ones that DO NOT. Charge a fee. You can also go self managed and do it all yourself, which is what I did. It's not that hard and I think you have more control than the likes of Stepchange.

sourcrates

Gavin78 wrote: »

So we have gone through our finances and paying about 1.5k a month out Zopa being the biggest at £330 a month. we have a meeting with credit union in a few weeks to go through our finances with them.

I get roughly £1250 - £1300 a month. the above debts I haven't budgeted for food or nappies or anything left to get through to the end of the month hence the Credit union meeting to try and balance the books a little.

With regards to Zopa I can make the usual payment to them in August but from Sept that is when wife wont have a wage anymore.

Do I contact Zopa now and let them know or do I wait and make the next payment and then cancel the DD and then in form them and come to some arrangement?

You usually have to default on a payment before individual payment plans are agreed.

If you have a few debts, then a debt management plan may suit you, rather than making individual seperate agreements.

Only use a free service offered by the debt charities, don't ever pay for this service, there are no benefits to paying someone for this, but there are many pitfalls.

Look at the stepchange website for more info.

snowbean

If you're talking about debt management companies, don't do it! There are charities such as Stepchange which can help in the same way, but you don't have to pay any fees.

Gavin78

Thanks for the advice...I was holding on before doing my income check as wife had about 8 interviews lined up so was kind of keeping our fingers crossed that she would find a job before I had to do all this and everything would have been ok I could have managed it.

Unfortunately her job she's just left has had to mention her sickness over the last 2 years on her reference and while it hasn't been a lot it has been enough to hinder her recent job interviews as per her feed back.

So she has about 5 interviews to go but decided to face the prospect she wont have a job by september.

She works in a school and has done for over 16 years so looking to get back into that area of work.


She is considering other jobs now just to get some money coming in and hopefully her reference wont hold her back for too long.

Just to be clear do I have to stop payments first to default on my first payment for example before I can start negotiating payment terms?

Do I also do this in writing only or over the phone.

I've read many posts that say only do written format?

thanks

nkkingston

If you're feeling overwhelmed by it all, I really recommend using one of the above mentioned charities to get everything set up for you. They can walk you through all the steps you need to take and the best ways of doing it, and a lot of them have contacts with the creditors that mean they can bypass some of the bureaucracy and make sure word gets to the right people that you're starting a Debt Management Plan. You'll need to do a realistic SOA (including nappies!) for them so they can work out what you can afford to pay each month without getting yourself into more debt trying to make up surprise shortfalls.

Gavin78

I had an appoinment with credit union but they have had change the date to Sept.

So going to use stepchange I've had a look and just gone through a few things. I break up from work week after next and getting daughter taken out for the day from family so going to sit down with the wife and go through every detail.

We have gone through most but just want to double check every thing.

I've got a CC with Natwest that I bank with so I won't default on that as dont want to lose my bank account.

But my Zopa loan at £330 a month I will default on, got 4 CC's inc Natwest. 2 of them Halifax and tesco are 0% finance atm around £25 a month each the halifax has around 2 year 0% still and tesco not too sure maybe 8 months left. both have around 1.5k debt on them

My barcley card card has some 0% deals but I've tranfered money around on it a few times at 0% so atm itis £28 a month at 3k so can see that going up a lot soon.

In total I have around 18k of debt I will probabably default on and have to start making min payments.

National_Debtline

Hi

I’m glad you’ve taken the step of contacting Stepchange.

Just to let you know, you will not be able to exclude one credit card from the reduced payment arrangements through a Stepchange DMP. Creditors expect to be offered their fair, pro-rata share of your available money. It’s unlikely they would allow you to make reduced payments to them while you pay another creditor correctly each month. Stepchange will expect you to set up a safe bank account where you do not owe any debt, and include the Natwest card in the DMP.

James
@natdebtline

thegreenone

Is your wife a teacher? If she is, could she look at tutoring? I know someone earning £40 per hour and it's usually done evenings and weekends.


If she was admin. perhaps it is time for a change. I used to work in the office of a secondary school, running the Medical Room. I picked up every sickness going. If she looks outside education and explains that to a potential employer, they may look more favourably, particularly if they have children themselves.


Good luck, I will have my fingers crossed for you.

BullShark

McDonalds are recruiting 5000 staff, good luck!!

Gavin78

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi

I’m glad you’ve taken the step of contacting Stepchange.

Just to let you know, you will not be able to exclude one credit card from the reduced payment arrangements through a Stepchange DMP. Creditors expect to be offered their fair, pro-rata share of your available money. It’s unlikely they would allow you to make reduced payments to them while you pay another creditor correctly each month. Stepchange will expect you to set up a safe bank account where you do not owe any debt, and include the Natwest card in the DMP.

James
@natdebtline

Thanks for getting in touch...So if I am going to default I have to do it on everything in order to setup a DMP?

That means possibly 30k of debt then. I could simply not mention my Natwest CC so at least that saves my bank account?

I'm worried that adding my debt even higher will result in Baliffs getting involved in the future and I am trying to stop that happening best I can I thought that if I could at least have a DMP on some of the debts it would help the burden?