Credit cards - payment plan

jones_guitar

Hi, I have been advised to post the following here, as opposed to credit cards:


Hi, I have 4/5 credit cards who I am now contacting to set up a payment plan/settlement figure. In total there is 17,000 dept. Does any one know how I would do this? Can a company set it up? I was going to consolidate with a loan but most 'high street' lenders will not lend to me at the moment. I want to try to do it in a way the will not damage the credit history so speaking to them is the best?

I do own a house and none of them are secured to my knowledge.

glentoran99

You have no way of agreeing a payment plan without damaging your credit file, its simply not possible, if you cant meet your contractual payments your credit history will reflect that

jones_guitar

glentoran99 wrote: »

You have no way of agreeing a payment plan without damaging your credit file, its simply not possible, if you cant meet your contractual payments your credit history will reflect that

Ok, but is is possible to set up a payment plan?

glentoran99

Its possible certainly, What you are essentially talking about is a Debt Management plan or DMP, you can do this yourself, plenty of guidance around here or on The National Debtline website, Or you can contact payplan or stepchange, do not use someone who charges.


First thing you need to do its work out your income and expenditure and how much you can afford to pay

sourcrates

cjonesguitar wrote: »

Ok, but is is possible to set up a payment plan?

Yes of course it is, you have a number of options, without knowing more about your personal details though, its impossible to suggest a specific route for you to take, but in general terms, you can either write to all the card companies, tell them your struggling, tell them what you can afford to pay to each debt, per month, tell them when they will be paid, and how, (ask for there bank details to make payments easier), and say you will review the matter in six months.


Or, you can go to one of the free to use debt charities such as stepchange, who will do most of that for you, then you just make the payment to stepchange every month, (don't ever use a company who charge for this service).


Or you may want a more formal; solution such as a debt relief order, or maybe an IVA, without knowing your income/expenditure its impossible to recommend a particular option yet.


Follow the link in the stickies to the SOA calculator (statement of affairs) fill that in, post it up, and we can take it from there.

jones_guitar

Thanks, I just checked as a relief order is for people who do not own a home.

I think a payment plan by one organisation is best, this is the next best option to consolidating with a loan?

sourcrates

cjonesguitar wrote: »

Thanks, I just checked as a relief order is for people who do not own a home.

I think a payment plan by one organisation is best, this is the next best option to consolidating with a loan?

If I told you the majority of people who post on this site, have consolodated there debts, at least once, some more than that, and are still coming back here for advice, now with twice the debt, would you think consolodation was a good idea ?

The problem is the temptation to re-use the credit cards again proves too great in the majority of cases, so you get left with the loan payment, and the card payments again as well.

Debt management with a free to use organisation such as stepchange, would be your best bet.