letters to creditors to freeze interest

squizz11

My mum has got herself into a bit of a situation, my brother is an addict and she was unaware of how serious his issues were, she paid alot of his bills and helped him financiially for quite a while. her debts are now pracitically half her pension and my brother is in no position to help her due to his own debts.

she has 3 main debts , one is her bank which has already frozen the interest and come to an agreement. we want to get the other cards to do the same. we have to explain the reason why and i'm not sure what to put as a reason, can anyone help.

step change have said an iva might be a possibility but she would have to close her bank account and she is reluctant to do so so want to try this route first. should she also stop paying the 2 cards.

thanks

Deep_In_Debt

Hi

I don't recall having to put a reason when I asked the creditors to freeze interest.

How about using this template letter from the National Debtline. The template doesn't suggest you have to give a reason either. Just tailor it to your needs.
https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Freeze-interest-%28sole-name%29.aspx

Has your mum thought about doing a DMP? She will still need to open a basic bank account not associated with any of her current creditors. They will negotiate with creditors on her behalf and try and freeze interest. Give Step Change a call or National Debtline and see what her options are.

Good luck.

sourcrates

How much does she owe in total ?

There are a few options dependant on her circumstances.

A few more details would help, maybe pop up an SOA of her circumstances ?

squizz11

thanks for the replies. she has spoken to step change and as i said she seems reluctant to change her bank account as one of the creditors is her bank who have already frozen the interest to a managable level, as its only the two we want to try ourselves first.

the other 2 are both under 3000. she is on a basic single pension, rents through a housing association so just normal everyday bills.

for the three creditors its nearly 180 per month which she is really struggling with.

baggybreeches

Which are the cards? You don't have to explain why you are in financial difficulty, fill in the income and expenditure template on the national debtline website and send this with a cover letter that asks them to consider freezing interest (template available on here) to the two card companies. It calculates the available amount and how much you should pay each creditor.