Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

StepChange_Allen

igaveupnowimback wrote: »

Hi Rachael, thanks. Called bank they at first said no, still balance on account but then said re letter that this was indeed the case and it would not be passed on anywhere, they were dealing with it themselves, and it would not affect my credit rating, (letter had stated that it will be removed from credit registers within 6 weeks). Why would they do this I wonder if it was perhaps an unenforceable account ? I didnt ask for comfirmation aside from letter I have, I could do this over next few weeks if see it removed from CRA records. Thank you.

Hi there

Thanks for responding.

It's difficult to be sure exactly what's going on with this debt without speaking with you and getting some more details, so I'd recommend you contact your DMP provider to discuss it further. If that's us, the details of how to get in touch are on Rachael's previous post.

The DMP provider could get in contact with the creditor for you to discuss what this letter is about.

I hope this is okay.

Allen

katie4

Hi I'v just got a full time job and I'm looking to now pay off my credit cards as i can put a substantial amount aside to this every month now Im wondering if it would be better to pay off higher interest card first which is 42% apr!!!! My question is would it be worth transferring some of the balance to a 0% card in order to reduce the interest and pay off the debt sooner?
Also the 0% card would be in my husbands name, can my debt be transfered to his card? (as i dont think i would get a 0% card if i applied)
Thanks

StepChange_Allen

Ansari27 wrote: »

Hi! I am looking for advice based on my situation.

I am currently looking after my father who was taken unwell a few months ago. He struggles with his health and completing tasks etc. I was previously working but had to quit my job and move back into my parents home to look after him.

Due to this I literally have no income and we live off my mothers wage and my dads pension. My mother is not the greatest when it comes to English etc and does not drive so she would struggle to look after my dad. I am the only person who is capable of looking after him.

I have approximately £4,000 of debt that I struggled to keep repayments on and therefore they are starting to come calling.

What options would I have available to me regarding this? I do not expect my fathers situation to change for the next year or 2 and therefore would find it very difficult to get back into work until this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

I'm very sorry to hear that your father's not well, I hope his health improves soon.

Did you know that you might be able to claim Carers' Allowance? This is an amount of around £62/week that's available to people that need to care for their loved ones. You can find more details here: www.gov.uk/carers-allowance

In order to give you some accurate advice we'd need to have more details of your financial situation. You can contact us by phone on 0800 138 1111 or use our online Debt Remedy tool: www.stepchange.org/DebtRemedy

I hope this is helpful.

Allen

StepChange_Allen

katie4 wrote: »

Hi I'v just got a full time job and I'm looking to now pay off my credit cards as i can put a substantial amount aside to this every month now Im wondering if it would be better to pay off higher interest card first which is 42% apr!!!! My question is would it be worth transferring some of the balance to a 0% card in order to reduce the interest and pay off the debt sooner?
Also the 0% card would be in my husbands name, can my debt be transfered to his card? (as i dont think i would get a 0% card if i applied)
Thanks

Hi Katie

Thanks for posting.

Depending in your overall situation it could help to balance transfer onto a lower rate credit card because 42% is indeed a high APR. I don't know whether you'd be able to get further credit though, so you'd have to check it out. There's an eligibility calculator on the main MSE site: www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/

I'm not aware of anything legally that means your husband couldn't get a 0% card and transfer your balance to it if you both agreed, however I believe it's unlikely that the credit card company would agree. I say this because effectively it'd be transferring debt from one person to another, which in other scenarios wouldn't normally be allowed. There's no harm in asking though.

You could also look at low interest personal loans, again there's more information on the MSE site: www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/loans-calculator/ - eligibility calculator, and www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/cheap-personal-loans - cheap loans.

Do be careful taking out further credit though; make sure it's affordable, check the terms and conditions carefully and so on.

If you're struggling to maintain the minimum payments to your debts and can't find the right way to consolidate them, please get in touch with us on 0800 138 1111 and we'll see how we can help.

I hope this is helpful.

Allen

Martin_R

Please please do not judge me, I had problems and was very generous to people who helped me through my Parents’ deaths a few years ago.

I also have done serious illnesses, and the only wAy to forget about them was to spend money.

I am ashamed of myself, have accrued debts, one major one, and I am literally on a daily basis looking up suicide methods if things don’t get better, but please don’t give me any sympathy.

Amy main debt is on an Aqua credit card. I always used to pay at least the minimum payment, but for. the last 18 months I have only been paying the minimum.
I need September they raised the APR from 37.6% to 44.9%.
The debt is £4226.73, and I haven’t used the card in over a year.
When I asked why the APR was increasing I was told it was because I have a poor credit history, despite begging them, they wouldn’t reduce the APR.

The problem now is that I pay the minimum each month, don’t spend, yet payments go up- October £163, Novembef £163.78, December £175.37, and the interest amounts go up each month.
I’m literally paying around £30 a month with the rest in interest, yet it all goes up and I can’t fathom why. I am too scared to phone them in case they cancel the card, as, and again please don’t shout at me. IF there was ever a time and there was an emergency, this woukd be my only source of a kareem amount.

Ihave no friends of family that can help, Inan registered dusabled and have been cerificated as unfit for work for life because of my illnesses.

I honestly don’t know where to turn, can anyone tell me anything reassuring thang would want me want to continue living.

I apologise fir burdening you with thus problem

Former_StepChange_Linsi

Hi Martin

Thank you for posting.

I’m really glad you decided to get in touch as I’m sure we’ll be able to help you and just to reassure you we’re not here to judge. The advice we provide is free, impartial and confidential.

Being in debt can have such a big impact on mental health and whilst we can help you with your debts I also want to make sure you’re getting the right support to manage your wellbeing and any suicidal thoughts you may be having.

Organisations such as Mind and the Samaritans along with your GP can provide this additional support. You can call Mind on 0300 123 3393 or Samaritans on 116 123.

So that we can help you find the best way to manage your debts we’ll need to know a bit more about your situation. The next step is for us to put a budget together which will include details of your income, living costs and debts.

To do this you’ll need to call our Helpline. Their number is available here on our website and it’s free to call from UK landlines and mobiles.

Once we know more about your situation we can recommend a solution that will help you manage your debts and become debt free as soon as possible.

I hope this gives you a bit of reassurance and we look forward to speaking to you soon.

Linsi

Martin_R wrote: »

Please please do not judge me, I had problems and was very generous to people who helped me through my Parents’ deaths a few years ago.

I also have done serious illnesses, and the only wAy to forget about them was to spend money.

I am ashamed of myself, have accrued debts, one major one, and I am literally on a daily basis looking up suicide methods if things don’t get better, but please don’t give me any sympathy.

Amy main debt is on an Aqua credit card. I always used to pay at least the minimum payment, but for. the last 18 months I have only been paying the minimum.
I need September they raised the APR from 37.6% to 44.9%.
The debt is £4226.73, and I haven’t used the card in over a year.
When I asked why the APR was increasing I was told it was because I have a poor credit history, despite begging them, they wouldn’t reduce the APR.

The problem now is that I pay the minimum each month, don’t spend, yet payments go up- October £163, Novembef £163.78, December £175.37, and the interest amounts go up each month.
I’m literally paying around £30 a month with the rest in interest, yet it all goes up and I can’t fathom why. I am too scared to phone them in case they cancel the card, as, and again please don’t shout at me. IF there was ever a time and there was an emergency, this woukd be my only source of a kareem amount.

Ihave no friends of family that can help, Inan registered dusabled and have been cerificated as unfit for work for life because of my illnesses.

I honestly don’t know where to turn, can anyone tell me anything reassuring thang would want me want to continue living.

I apologise fir burdening you with thus problem

StepChange_Kirsty

Hi,

Thanks for you post and welcome to the forum. Apologies for the delay in responding.

As a Debt Charity we’re unable to provide you with advice on taking out further credit but the main MSE site does contain some useful information about consolidation. It also has some very useful hints and tips about how you can improve your credit score here.

If you’re generally struggling with debts we can provide you with help and advice as to the best solution for dealing with them without the need to take out further credit. We have an anonymous self-help tool on our website called Debt Remedy where you can enter details of your income, expenditure and debts. Once we have all your information we will provide you advice in the form of a personal action plan. You can find our Debt Remedy tool here.

I hope this helps.

Kirsty

Juggy1980 wrote: »

Hi. I have 15,000 worth of debt (cc's mainly and a personal loan). I have a very secure income but my credit is poor. I've applied for personal loans with my bank and others but been refused. My main concern is the huge interest i pay and will i still be paying of in 15 yrs +. If (dream scenario) i could consolidate i could easily make the repayments and i'd prob be paying out less each month. My monthly debt amount is 500 and nearly half is interest!
All help/advice would be gratefully received.

rhe93

Hi!
A few months ago i took out a fuel card, I was under the impression that it was monthly and not weekly!

So money was coming out of my bank weekly which until I checked my bank I was unaware.
Anyway, got in to some difficulty as they charged £50.00 for a bounced DD and because that £50.00 bounced I got charged another £50.00.

I have asked if I could pay £50.00 per month. They sent me an expenditure form and they said no as you have £100.00 spare then you will pay £100.00

So I had another look at my expenditures only the next day and revised it and now they want supporting documents. After only 1 day of sending it.

I don't have these supporting documents

Is there any way I can get around this?

Thank you

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forum.

Fuel cards aren’t something I’ve come across before. However, with any agreement it’s worth checking the details in the original contract first. It’s important to check the terms of the agreement to see what the process would be if the payments aren’t maintained.

With any debt you can only pay what is affordable after you’ve covered your household bills and general living costs, but it's important you know the consiquences of reduced payments and the action they can take going forward.

I’m not sure what kind of supporting documents they are asking for but normally a budget showing your financial situation should be enough evidence to show what is an affordable payment.

Quite often creditors will ask for a financial budget from a third party. If they are asking for this then you can complete a budget through StepChange which can be used with the creditors along with advice on any debts you have.

Alternatively if you’re self-employed then you can receive help and create a budget with aid of The Business Debtline.

Thanks
Rachael

rhe93 wrote: »

Hi!
A few months ago i took out a fuel card, I was under the impression that it was monthly and not weekly!

So money was coming out of my bank weekly which until I checked my bank I was unaware.
Anyway, got in to some difficulty as they charged £50.00 for a bounced DD and because that £50.00 bounced I got charged another £50.00.

I have asked if I could pay £50.00 per month. They sent me an expenditure form and they said no as you have £100.00 spare then you will pay £100.00

So I had another look at my expenditures only the next day and revised it and now they want supporting documents. After only 1 day of sending it.

I don't have these supporting documents

Is there any way I can get around this?

Thank you

Blueberry55

Hi, I wonder if I could get some advice please?

I hve an old credit card debt that was defaulted on years ago (approx2010). I have been on various payment arrangements since and was unemployed for a time. The interest was frozen way back in 2010 approx. More recently, through an unfortunate period, I missed a few payments and got a ccj. I am working now and able to pay. The ccj was applied for in December last year but was not finalised by the court until August this year ( as the dca had decided to accept my offer of £17 per month in between but decided in August that it wasn’t good enough any more). I offered them £75 per month with some assistance from my parents which they refused as they said they would prefer to hear what the court had to say. The court set the month payment to £10. I have paid this in full (or over) each month and in time. Restons applies for a charging order, which I attempted to defend on the ground that there is little equity in my home and I do hve other creditors. The court rejected this and the order has gone ahead. My problem is that the ccj was given for a debt of £2041 including the court fees. I have received the final charging order today for £18100.00. Is this possible? Or is it likely just a typo with an extra zero in it? Any response would be great.