DRO advice needed

Pattie94

Me and my parner thinking about doing dro, we owe £20800 😔 I just need few claryfication. I saw a lady in CAB already and she was questioning every transaction on our bank statement, mostly pay pal transaction. Does in mean, once my DRO is in place I won't be able to buy or sell on Ebay?😕 It is obviously part of saving as I don't buy brand new items.. also we were on short holiday back in April and she was also questioning this.
Another thing, we had recent purchase on argos card 2 weeks ago.. the order still hasn't been delivered, should I cancel it? I think it might be seen as borrowing with no intension to repay
Also I took a repayment holiday on my loan this month to get my car repaired and I had small pay day loan which will be paid tomorrow by direct debit ( I haven't inculeded it in my DRO as I know it will be paid) that it all shows preferences? Is there anything I can do to reduce my chances of being not approved ?😓 Other than that I we tick all the boxes for DRO. And all above happened before we seen CAB. Thank you

Pattie94

Also Ive been given letters to all my creditors to ask them to freeze my accounts. I supose to make payments tomorrow and two of my credit cards are above the limit.. Shall I make the payments as normal expect the one that I took repayment holoday,or don't pay anyone? As I said, the pay day loan will be paid tomorrow so I am not sure what to do so Iam not seen as having preferences ��

National_Debtline

Hi Pattie94,


The first thing I would say is that you need to talk to the advisor at the CAB who has seen your application about these concerns.


As far as the other queries are concerned, you will need to owe less £20k each in order to qualify, if either of you are over this amount, I am afraid the DRO won't be able to start. With regard to Ebay, it may depend what sort of items you are buying and selling, but it will be easier to just stop doing this. Money earned through Ebay is taxable, which means you are self employed and need to do a business budget and tax returns to show that. You must also remain within all of the criteria of the DRO and that includes having less than £50 per month available and less than £1000 of assets.


With the payday loan, you do risk this being considered a preference payment. To avoid this you should cancel the continuous payment authority and ensure all debts receive the same token or nil offer of payment.


And with regard to the item ordered from Argos, it will depend what it is and how much it would be worth? More than £1000? You do also have an issue that this may be deemed as taking out credit with no intention to repay. It sounds like a complicated application and your intermediary will need to examine all elements carefully to see if this is likely to be approved.


Laura
@natdebtline

Pattie94

Thank you for your reply, thats very helpfull. With regards to the debt, we owe £20800 between me and my partner, so each of us owes less than £20k
I have just spoken to CAB advisor and she said, she will enquire directly to the DRO unit regarding my issues. She said if I need these items from Argos, then I can keep them as they were beds for the kids which are essential and it might be different as they are on buy now pay later basis. But I an still concerned about it.. Also she advices that we might have problems in gaining British passports later in the future, so I will have to have a read about it 🤔 We live here 10 years but as new legalisations coming in soon, we all will have to apply for settle status which I am not sure if DRO will cause us problems. For now, she adviced to send the letters to all my creditors and make payments of like £5 to every of them. ( i am a bit scared as never paid less than the minimum payment😞)

Pattie94

With regards to ebay, I am only selling my kids toys and clothing

National_Debtline

Hello again,


You will need to be very careful about doing a DRO as this may affect your ability to apply for a 'settled' status in the UK. Before applying for a DRO I would suggest you speak to an immigration specialist about the potential affect a DRO would have - http://home.oisc.gov.uk/adviser_finder/finder.aspx


Your situation seems to be very complex and there is a lot to consider with a DRO legislation. I think that speaking to any of the free debt charities will help, but I do also think that you should call or deal with them face to face as it is unlikely we will be able to establish everything that we need to in order to give you full advice on here. Best of luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

Pattie94

Thanks again. I had been adviced by a lawyer on a Facebook group run by lawyers that nobody actually knows anything yet. He also said for residency card they only look at criminal records and DRO/IVA etc are all civil debts which are not looked at so may be simillar with settled status.Well I don't know 😞

One more question if you don't mind.
With regards to budgeting for Christmas/presents/emergencies and MOT, obviously nobody spend money for these every month. Is it ok to transfer money for these to savings account or will they think that I have more thab £50 available each month? Same with clothing, you don't buy each month. I just don't want to make anything wrong but obviously I only have £50 left each month. Thank you.

National_Debtline

As long as the savings doesn't take you over the £1000 asset threshold, then it should be fine. However, I must stress that the issue with regard to insolvency and your ability to reside in the UK needs to be looked at by reputable immigration specialist. I would strongly advise you to use the link I posted to help you find someone to discuss this with.


Laura
@natdebtline

Pattie94

I will definately. Thank you

Johnsmith2016

Can you not do a deal via step change to repay 10k to your creditors with a payment agreement . A DRO may not be needed. Or can anyone help you get a 10k loan ?

Pattie94

Why 10k? We both owe over 20k and some are joint debts. If we only have £50 left each month I don't think we would be able to keep the repayments. And I can't constantly cut on food and essentials and have nonthing left for clothing and Christmas 😔 My son starts school in September, if we won't sort our debts out we won't be able to buy him uniform etc, we are literally only able to afford bills and food.