Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

Former_StepChange_Linsi

Hello

Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting.

It’s great to hear you’re up-to-date with your payments and paying more than the minimum amount. This will definitely help to reduce your debts sooner but I [FONT=&quot]appreciate [/FONT]it can still be a long time when taking interest into account.

I’d recommend calling StepChange Financial Solutions to see what options are available when it comes to remortgaging and refinancing. You can find more information including the contact details for StepChange Financial Solutions on our website. Here’s the link.

I hope this helps,

Linsi

possle wrote: »

Hi
I currently have around £30k of debt
Some is on 0% balance transfer cards ( I have 4)
Then I have two credit cards and a loan I'm paying alot of interest on which although I pay £150 over the minimum, payment it's working at far to many years to pay off.

I have my credit score from noodle and used that sites eligibility checker to get me the 0% cards which helped at first.

Now at the minute ny score is fairly low and I can't get any more cards which is because I have so many creditors.

If possible, what sort of plan should I set to pay them off.
I'm going with paying the highest interest first but like I said, it will be years.

Id be happy to remortgage, take some equity, pay everything off but also reduce the term of my mortgage by half the amount of years, still leaving plenty of money free a Month.
This however this boils down to credit scoring again.

We never miss Payments, but we just want to be Blessed to free up some cash and have a better disposable income. We know what we've done and have made cuts, but we want to get it done as fast as possible.
We did look at a consolidation loan but the interest was unbelievable

Thank you

Any pointers would help

Pudding123

Hello there,

I was wondering if anyone could help.
Over 5 years ago I left my job working in Dumfries and Galloway council. They wrote to me saying I owed them money from my wages. No explanation why but I paid it and finished paying last year. I have since moved to England and have received a final demand from Stirling Park for the same amount again. I'm not sure if it's a mistake or if I do actually owe more, and if I do would they be able to supply me with proof that there was an overpayment.

Any replies greatly appreciated

Bagi

I have a interest only mortgage. There is a shortfall of about £8500. My intention was to pay it off out of my pension. But to withdraw the amount i need, it means me having to pay around £4000 in tax, which i find ridiculous. Does anyone know a better solution please. I am 65 and find myself having to continue working at present .i earn £200 a week, and pay tax. I thought possibility a loan.but this means then i need to keep working, not ideal. My mortgage is due to be paid end of February. !!!128553;

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

A debt should only be defaulted once but all debts where there are missed or reduced payments made will show as a defaulted debt. This is usually near the beginning of missed payments or the start of a debt management plan.

This initial default will drop off automatically after 6 years and stop impacting your credit file. It may show on your credit file that you’ve been making reduced payments in a plan but no initial defaults should be added. However, the file may show that a particular debt is still in default.

I’d suggest contacting Experian to enquire in more detail about notes on your credit file. There are three credit reference agencies in the UK and they are each different.

As Linsi mentioned it’d be worth checking the MSE page on improving your credit file because there are other ways to improve it even while a default is showing.

Thanks
Rachael

jimmythedog wrote: »

Thanks for your response Linsi. I checked the credit report through the MSE club (experian) and the only visible defaults on there are for an unsecured loan. It says up to 6 months defaults and it looks as though we have defaulted every month, even though this unsecured loan is part of the step change DMP. As far as I know, stepchange have distributed my monthly payment amongst my creditors, so if payments are made on time to the unsecured loan, I shouldn't have any defaults ?

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for posting.

I think it’s really important that you do get a break down of why and if you owe the money. It sounds a bit suspicious that it’s the same amount as the one you've paid back and it’s possible that it's a mistake.

You're entitled to any information held on you, so they should provide you with a breakdown of how much and why you've been over paid.

I’d suggest contacting your previous employer as soon as possible for this information and explaining you’re now being chased by a collections agency for the same amount.

I’d then contact Stirling Park and explain that you feel you might have already paid this back and are checking this through your previous employer and ask them for a hold on the account. Follow the link for more information about asking for breathing space from creditors and collections agencies.

Take care
Rachael

Pudding123 wrote: »

Hello there,

I was wondering if anyone could help.
Over 5 years ago I left my job working in Dumfries and Galloway council. They wrote to me saying I owed them money from my wages. No explanation why but I paid it and finished paying last year. I have since moved to England and have received a final demand from Stirling Park for the same amount again. I'm not sure if it's a mistake or if I do actually owe more, and if I do would they be able to supply me with proof that there was an overpayment.

Any replies greatly appreciated

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Welcome to the forum.

I think it’d be worth looking at your options with an advisor. There are likely to be different routes you can take rather than further borrowing but you’d need specialist advice.

I’d suggest speaking with a mortgage advisor as soon as possible to look into your viable options.

You can find the details for StepChanges financial solutions team to explore these options by following this link.

Thanks
Rachael

Bagi wrote: »

I have a interest only mortgage. There is a shortfall of about £8500. My intention was to pay it off out of my pension. But to withdraw the amount i need, it means me having to pay around £4000 in tax, which i find ridiculous. Does anyone know a better solution please. I am 65 and find myself having to continue working at present .i earn £200 a week, and pay tax. I thought possibility a loan.but this means then i need to keep working, not ideal. My mortgage is due to be paid end of February. !!!128553;

jimmythedog

Thanks Rachael.

I Contacted Experian a couple of days ago to query the defaults as it shows the unsecured loan as defaulting every month (all other creditors on the DMP are not showing as defaulted). They take up to 28 days to get back to me apparently so I will wait and see what the outcome is.

Thanks you.

Tawny_Owl_3

Hi there..have been reading all the threads and replys and wondering if there are any other ways forward to address depts than D.M.P. or I.V A. We have about £50 thousand in dept with 3 MBNA cards " Barclays and 1 M&S.
We are typicial of the property in France owner that needed renovating for a purpose, took on an English builder who half finished the work and walked of with a great deal of our pensions and money on cards which we hoped would be repaided once finished. Then due to us finding out the quality of the work done was not secure we had to go into more dept to secure the roof etc!
The bottom line is in September the interest only morgage we have on our property in England is due.
Yes we have put our property on the French market ..But with things being unstable in Europe our property is only worth half what it was a shortfall if it sells of about £30 thousand.
So while we are now struggling, to meet payments and are going further into dept and after speaking with C.A.B who suggested I think a D.M.P. we would not be able to get even a small morgage if our credit file is effected..that is beliving our property will sell.
We are both pensioners at 66 and while some supply work has helped us along it is not at present due to injury.
Is there do you think any other way forward? BIG thanks

willyloman

Hi there - I'm looking for some advice on what to do next. I've done the really scary thing amd faced up to my debts and I'm keen to tackle them - most of all I want to get back to a position where I'm not getting texts from the bank a few days after payday and feeling depressed for the remainder of the month.
I am a home owner with my wife and have

• a mortgage and about 12 years left on that - never miss a payment.
• a car loan with about 3 years left at £230pm.
• half a dozen credit cards with £40k of debt. Many of the cards are now comingor have come to the end of their promotional rate. Unfortunately for various reasons some payments have been late, but paid. No proving difficult/impossible to get new promotional cards to transfer to.

My annual salary is £55k and my wife's around £20k.


We have an endowment due next year which should pay off probably about £30k of debt.


I've done some great MSE homework and managed to reduce my car insurance, home insurance, energy and broadband costs to a fraction of what we were paying. However, I still need to reducve the amount ougoing to service cc debt whci is getting near £1k pm.


I was thinking of getting a loan for £30k with a repayment of about £400pm until the endowment came through and then pay that off. I'm not confident I'll get an unsecured loan, so was considering a secured one - as I know I'd be ableot keep up repayments and it should only be for a year. Don't want to go down the debt settlement routes for a variety of reasons.


Is this my best choice? - thought of remortagaging but currently on base rate so remortage would hike interest rate for total payment.


Really need some good advice please...

Hope132

Hi, I am currently in a DMP & have been for the last 6 years, never missed a payment, no CCJ,s, etc. I still have another 9 years to go before i am debt free! I have been approached by a Finance Barrister who claims most of my debt can be wiped off due to the consumer credit act. As my debts have now been passed over to third party debt agencies. Is this too good to be true?