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StepChange_Allen

Dannyt1979 wrote: »

hello, i could really do with some advice I had taken out a second mortgage with Nemo personal finance about 12 years ago. myself and my then wife split up, she declared herself bankrupt and I was left with the debt. the house was repossessed and we had a shortfall on both the mortgage and the debt with Nemo. fast forward to now and I haven't paid anthing of what was left 41k plus I haven't had any requests for payment. I do receive a statement monthly but I have not contacted them since 2012. my life has changed now i have a good job 4 kids and want to move on with my life but I have this debt and I don't know what to do for the best. do I contact them and start payments or do i leave well alone? I want to be in a good financial possision and to get a new house in the future but I don't know what to do?

Hi Danny

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

It's important to deal with any debts you have if you want to look forward to a debt free future. We can look at your finances and debts and recommend the best steps to take.

You can either get advice via our anonymous online Debt Remedy tool or call our Helpline; all the details can be found here: www.stepchange.org/Contactus

I hope this proves helpful.

Allen

StepChange_Allen

Bevtherev wrote: »

Hi, My partner & I just need advice on how to consolidate our debts. We owe about £30k in credit cards and overdrafts. We run our own business (it’s in my partners name only). It is established and has been running for 20 yrs. our mortgage repayments are £210 a month. Our house is worth £200k or probably more. We have 12 years left on our mortgage to pay.
We think the best thing to do is to borrow the money against our house.

However, I have a bad credit rating and despite having a joint mortgage I’m not sure we will get a new mortgage due my bad credit rating.

Despite earning good money, all we do is pay bills and debt every month, with hardly anything left to spend on ourselves.

My question is will an independent mortgage broker be able to find us a mortgage? Our bank have said to make an appointment with their mortgage division but I’m sure they’ll say no because of my bad credit rating

I would appreciate any advise you can give us in the best way to deal with our debt.
Many thanks

Hi there

Thanks for posting.

I can't be sure whether you'd be able to find a suitable mortgage deal, I can only suggest that you speak to a mortgage advisor to have a look for you. Please consider that securing debt onto your property increase the risk on that property. You can't lose your house if you're unable to pay unsecured debts (barring exceptionally rare circumstances) but by re-mortgaging your payments and debt on the house increase, the risk increases.

If you'd like alternative debt advice around your debts, without affecting your property, I'd recommend contacting Business Debtline: www.businessdebtline.org - they can help people that are self-employed or running businesses to sort out personal and/or business debt.

I hope this is helpful.

Allen

StepChange_Rachael

Hi Neil

Thanks for posting.

As a debt advisor my aim is to find alternative solutions when the payments to creditors become a struggle, alternative debt solutions will have some impact on your credit file. The only way not to negatively impact your credit file is to maintain the minimum payments to creditors.

When the minimum payments are affordable without getting into more debt, some people choose to balance transfer to a cheaper provider. The products available would be based on a person’s individual situation and the lender.

As you’ve mentioned your treading water, I wonder if the real issue is the payments to creditors being unaffordable.

I’d suggest at least exploring alternative debt solutions, although they might have some impact on your credit file, credit files improve over time once the debts start to reduce and rather than having to rely on borrowing it might be better to concentrate on making the budget liveable and finding the quickest way to become debt free with what you have remaining.

At that point you can then concentrate on credit file rebuilding.

If you do decide to explore your alternative options you can find the link here.

Thanks
Rachael

neilied wrote: »

Hi all and thanks in advance.

Over the last 6 years I have managed to amass £15k across 3 credit cards. This was a change in income and mostly spend on a few large bills and day to day stuff.

I am currently treading water on this and have been for 2 years. I ensure I pay on time and none are in default however it is a huge financial strain and getting me very depressed. I have a new job, I have a future option of getting a p/t 2nd job to help. We are also getting some UC top up which helps. 1 provider is my main bank and the apr is great, in fact under 7% but I have the other two over 20%. My bank won’t up the limit, loans due to rating as I’m 90% utilised on card won’t offer a competitive loan rate. Looking for options to get a handle on this but I do not won’t to damage my credit as it is on the up! I would be so grateful for any advice

Thanks

Neil

rebeccaday

I
We are with Step change on a DMP. but I get very anxious and tearful when I telephone them and never seem to get anywhere with them on the phone. We also never seem to email the correct email address as I have several in my phone. My question really is should we leave step change and take back paying our debts directly. The 1st problem is..we are desperate to not pay any interest on 2 -3 of our 5 debts. We see martin stressing this is basic debt management....dont pay interest!.The other debts thankfully stopped interest.

2:We are fed up with Halifax as they send us 3 letters a month telling us we are in arrears by £8 every month as we are paying just under the minimum. We are paying the other debts OVER the minimum. I am getting nowhere trying to get an answer as to why we can't just pay them all the minimum and any money left over we will spread evenly. We are very close to taking the debt back again from Stepchange as its very confusing why they would want any clients to be in arrears if for the sake of paying Halifax another £8 a month it could be remedied.
Also would love to do as Martin L advises and take the highest interest rate debt (currently Halifax) , we are paying them £48 /mth in interest. Then we wish to work our way through the interest paying off all the debts and clearing them . We are hoping to do this by receiving a monthly cash sum ( approx £1,200) from a relative and pay a debt approximately every 3-4 months...Also really hoping for work bonus as well. so for example pay off Halifax with a family's gift of money in April. I am getting nowhere with stressing to Step change that we want to pay off our debts in 1 yrs time not drip feed it for the next 2 years paying all that interest. we feel we will have to leave Stepchange as we are tied to the same advice that "we will upset the other debts as they can look on our credit file and see we have made a payment"...will they really bother looking? why would they even look? and please could you advise me what could be the worse case outcome of that please.Thank you for your help. PS we wish to move house/new mortgage in 1 yr so hence important to pay off debts in this time frame so we have a tiny chance of getting a new mortgage. In the meantime our current mortgage fixed rate ends in August so we are dreading switching to the higher SVR. do we gain anything from moving whilst we still have debts or will we have no chance of getting a mortgage all the time we have debt? .

Also I don't understand how long after we have no debts does our chances of getting a new mortgage improve. We have never missed a mortgage payment. I have a 6yr number in my head . Does it take longer to regain a good credit file if we are currently in arrears as apposed to paying off minimal amount each month? Or just the mere fact that we are associated with Step change hinder our credit rating/do banks/mortgage providers see this? do they see that we are in arrears with Halifax. sorry for long post .. its so confusing tx

gemred_21

Hi,

We’ve hit the wall and are so confused with the right way to turn. We have £87 left for a month after bills are paid. We’ve two young children and have been surving month by month on partners overtime.

Our Morgage advisor has suggested loans (Tesco and Sainsbury’s refused) and remortgage. We do have some equity in the house but not enough to repay all the debt.

We have £38k on CC and £13k on a loan (2 years left)

We need to lower our monthly outgoings and work on paying our debts off.

We are confused to what would be the best way;

Debt management plan (know very little about)
Remortgage if they accept us
Loan but only for £28k as Morgage advisor can not find a one to take the full 38k CC debt

Could someone please advise,

Kind regards

Former_StepChange_Patience

Hi there Rebecca

Thanks for getting in touch and sharing your situation. I’m sorry to hear that when you call StepChange you don’t feel like you’re able to get anywhere, feel anxious and teary. If you’re unhappy with the service that they’ve provided, you can place a formal complaint, you can find out further information about this here: https://www.stepchange.org/legal/complaints-process.aspx

As you’re on a debt management plan (DMP) each creditor would receive a fair payment based on what you have outstanding (your surplus) each month, that's why it may be that Halifax are receiving the payment they are.

If you wish to pay more to clear it within a faster time frame or feel you can pay more to your debts, they’d need to complete a review with you to ensure what you are paying is still correct. However if you wish to leave StepChange, providing you aren’t in a form of insolvency then this is entirely your choice.

StepChange would recommend that if you’re paying a lump sum to any of your debts, to make sure you’re again treating them all fairly rather than showing ‘preference’ to one creditor over another, how realistic it is that your creditors would check your credit file to confirm this is difficult to say.

With that being said, if you have an annual review, your creditors may be able to see that this debt is no longer outstanding.

If you decide to use the lump sum for this, again it’s entirely your choice; StepChange would just make you aware of risk that it may influence whether your other creditors continue to stop the interest and charges and continue to agree to the payment.

If you’re in a DMP, you can cancel this at any time you wish if you no longer want or need their support, all you need to do is give them a call.

The ‘association’ with StepChange shouldn’t show on your credit file, but the reduced payments being made will and these will show on your credit file for 6 years.

In this case, it wouldn’t be impossible to get a new mortgage or move house, it just may be a little more difficult to do so.

I hope this helps.

Patience

rebeccaday wrote: »

I
We are with Step change on a DMP. but I get very anxious and tearful when I telephone them and never seem to get anywhere with them on the phone. We also never seem to email the correct email address as I have several in my phone. My question really is should we leave step change and take back paying our debts directly. The 1st problem is..we are desperate to not pay any interest on 2 -3 of our 5 debts. We see martin stressing this is basic debt management....dont pay interest!.The other debts thankfully stopped interest.

2:We are fed up with Halifax as they send us 3 letters a month telling us we are in arrears by £8 every month as we are paying just under the minimum. We are paying the other debts OVER the minimum. I am getting nowhere trying to get an answer as to why we can't just pay them all the minimum and any money left over we will spread evenly. We are very close to taking the debt back again from Stepchange as its very confusing why they would want any clients to be in arrears if for the sake of paying Halifax another £8 a month it could be remedied.
Also would love to do as Martin L advises and take the highest interest rate debt (currently Halifax) , we are paying them £48 /mth in interest. Then we wish to work our way through the interest paying off all the debts and clearing them . We are hoping to do this by receiving a monthly cash sum ( approx £1,200) from a relative and pay a debt approximately every 3-4 months...Also really hoping for work bonus as well. so for example pay off Halifax with a family's gift of money in April. I am getting nowhere with stressing to Step change that we want to pay off our debts in 1 yrs time not drip feed it for the next 2 years paying all that interest. we feel we will have to leave Stepchange as we are tied to the same advice that "we will upset the other debts as they can look on our credit file and see we have made a payment"...will they really bother looking? why would they even look? and please could you advise me what could be the worse case outcome of that please.Thank you for your help. PS we wish to move house/new mortgage in 1 yr so hence important to pay off debts in this time frame so we have a tiny chance of getting a new mortgage. In the meantime our current mortgage fixed rate ends in August so we are dreading switching to the higher SVR. do we gain anything from moving whilst we still have debts or will we have no chance of getting a mortgage all the time we have debt? .

Also I don't understand how long after we have no debts does our chances of getting a new mortgage improve. We have never missed a mortgage payment. I have a 6yr number in my head . Does it take longer to regain a good credit file if we are currently in arrears as apposed to paying off minimal amount each month? Or just the mere fact that we are associated with Step change hinder our credit rating/do banks/mortgage providers see this? do they see that we are in arrears with Halifax. sorry for long post .. its so confusing tx

Debthelpneeded

i I am due to default with MBNA , I have 2 credit cards, £3000 and £9000. I have not made a payment for 6 months as after an income and expenditure form was completed with them I was -£98 per month.

What will happen next. I have a mortgage and worried they will sell the debt and get a charging order on my house.

Really worried.... I don't know what to do as I really can't afford to pay them anything at the moment.

Sarahandmelissa

Hi, I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I owe 3 credit cards, totalling £16k. They all have an element of 0%. I think (from my working) £5000 is subject to interest. Although the combined income of mine and my husband SHOULD be sufficient to pay these off (minimum payments plus about £300 overpayment a month), due to his gambling and withholding funds from our household budget I can barely achieve the minimum payments! I wouldn't have this debt if it weren't for him- paying off extortionate phone bills, paying for food and fuel when there's not enough in the bank. I just don't know what to do any more! My anxiety is at an all time high! I'm snsppinv at the kids and I'm worried about our future.

StepChange_Kirsty

Hi there,

Thanks for your post.

I’m sorry to hear about the difficulties you’re experiencing with debts at the moment.

There is definitely help and advice available for you and your partner and I would recommend contacting us at StepChange for further support. Please give us a call on 0800 138 1111 so we can look at advice for you both, we’re available Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturdays 9am to 2pm.

We won’t be able to offer you advice about re-mortgaging or consolidation but we’ll be able to look at other solutions such as the debt management plan (DMP) you have mentioned. You can find out more information about solutions we recommend on our website which you can find here.

It’s important to bear in mind that re-mortgaging is not always the best option because if you were to find it difficult to repay your new mortgage, it would mean your home would be at more risk than if the debts remained unsecured.

With consolidation loans, in our experience this option rarely works due to the high level of interest usually attached to these loans. Most people we speak to who have tried consolidation actually end up in further debt but if you did want to review these options it would be best to seek impartial financial advice.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Kirsty

gemred_21 wrote: »

Hi,

We’ve hit the wall and are so confused with the right way to turn. We have £87 left for a month after bills are paid. We’ve two young children and have been surving month by month on partners overtime.

Our Morgage advisor has suggested loans (Tesco and Sainsbury’s refused) and remortgage. We do have some equity in the house but not enough to repay all the debt.

We have £38k on CC and £13k on a loan (2 years left)

We need to lower our monthly outgoings and work on paying our debts off.

We are confused to what would be the best way;

Debt management plan (know very little about)
Remortgage if they accept us
Loan but only for £28k as Morgage advisor can not find a one to take the full 38k CC debt

Could someone please advise,

Kind regards

liselle

A retired friend (aged 70) has 3 credit cards all on 0 percent for another year.She says that she will be unable to pay when they revert to normal interest rates and doubts if she would be accepted for another balance transfer.However she has £2500 in savings but says that she needs that for emergencies and would not be able to save that amount again.
Some advice would be most helpful,thanks.