Martin and Tonight with Trevor McDonald looking for people in debt

(Land_of)_Maz

Good luck to those who are brave enough to apply! What an opportunity!!!

I do agree that someone at the start would be a good person to go with, but also a good example of someone who has adopted MSE principles and show how far they have came.

Not me though, they say the camera adds 10lbs!

immoral_angeluk

southernscouser wrote: »

I see a small flaw here! :think:

Anyone volunteering from this board would already have had all their finances ripped to pieces and may I even be bold enough to say given all the advice Martin possibly could give, if not more!

that's what I thought when I saw it... I thought 'ooooh that'd be great.. .oh.. we've already pretty much sorted ours!'

k999jde

I would excercise caution.....
I appeared with Martin on Tonight with Trevor just over 12 months ago.
Immediately the programme went out, my wife lost her job owing to the publicity, and the bit of credibility that I had at my work was undermined.
The programme that I featured on gave no help at all, I ended up feeling quite humiliated.
That said, the humiliation allowed my wife and I to steel ourselves to work towards a resolution, this will take years but it is progressing.
And finally, do remember that if you take part, the Tv crew are there for one thing, to make a programme and this will happen at almost any cost.
Good luck

Is_It_Worth_It_2

Well a bit cautious at first but then decided:

The shame of announcing my debts is clearly out weighed by the relief of sorting them.

So I have sent an email and put my name in the het.

After all I am at the stage where I cannot afford to send another £2 postal order to Experian to actually get a list of my debts (did this twice now and still got credit report, 1st time only did first class, second time did recorded delivery and the wife has lost both postal order reciepts and the recorded delivery slip).

Fingers crossed I get a response bother I get a bankruptcy...lol

MSE_Martin

I would excercise caution.....
I appeared with Martin on Tonight with Trevor just over 12 months ago.
Immediately the programme went out, my wife lost her job owing to the publicity, and the bit of credibility that I had at my work was undermined.
The programme that I featured on gave no help at all, I ended up feeling quite humiliated.
That said, the humiliation allowed my wife and I to steel ourselves to work towards a resolution, this will take years but it is progressing.
And finally, do remember that if you take part, the Tv crew are there for one thing, to make a programme and this will happen at almost any cost.
Good luck

Hi,

I'm very concerned to read this; I think I have a feeling I know who you are. If I remember correctly you had already been in a debt managment plan with one fo the non-profit debt counselling agencies, and had then built up a lot more debt aftwards?

First of all its terrible you feel you were humiliated and I can assure you that wasn't the aim; the goal was to help in a very severe situaiton, which from memory you simply hadn't been able to accept the black hole of debt you'd got into. I'm very pleased to hear that the end result was a positive one for your finances, though saddened to hear how much distress it seems to have caused.

As for your wife losing her job due to the programme; I'm shocked to hear it as that I would consider breaks the law by the employer; and is a ridiculous scenario (you weren't bankrupt which can legally impact employment) I find it unbelievable they'd do this.

I'm really sorry you feel it was a bad experience; in fact in all the programmes I've ever done; its the only negative feedback I've ever had and I find it rather distressing as its the opposite to my aim.

Please do contact me via PM

And let me know more about this; as

i. I'd like to find out more about the job loss
ii. I'd like to find out what you feel went wrong so i can ensure it doesn't happen again.

Martin

Broken_hearted

k999jde wrote: »

I would excercise caution.....
I appeared with Martin on Tonight with Trevor just over 12 months ago.
Immediately the programme went out, my wife lost her job owing to the publicity, and the bit of credibility that I had at my work was undermined.
The programme that I featured on gave no help at all, I ended up feeling quite humiliated.
That said, the humiliation allowed my wife and I to steel ourselves to work towards a resolution, this will take years but it is progressing.
And finally, do remember that if you take part, the Tv crew are there for one thing, to make a programme and this will happen at almost any cost.
Good luck

Huge huge hugs. Some people can be shameful my son won an award a few years ago and was in the local press. Some sick !!!!!! contacted the paper to say he had been abused and was now in care. No idea what made them do it and TBH it did frighten me a bit. I guess they just couldn't stand us getting something they didn't.
I enjoy watching debt help programmes, the people who go on are so brave to realise that they need help. I'm sorry it went bad for you it certainly wasn't your fault and I wish you luck with your future.

Toto

Ahh Martin you're such a sweetie.

K9, that does sound horrible for you, I really can't see that your wife's employer have acted legally by sacking her. I would certainly follow that up and get legal advice.

Stick around here and we'll help you every step of the way on your debt free journey, the support here is amazing and we'd love to have you on board.

sweet1980jojo

Hi guys.
I just sent an email and applied and now I'm excited and really hopeful to get picked - I know the chances aren't that high, but it would be such a life saver. I'm new to forums but have been gettin MSE emails for a few months. I'm not worried about outing my debts as it's nothing to be ashamed of, it's so easy to get into and most of our problems is down to the way the banks have prayed on our poverty by slapping charges on.
Martin Lewis is one of my 3 main heroes, I would love to do what he does - he's so clever!

corris3

Hi
I don't want to apply as fortunately we don't have any debt, but having recently sorted eldest daughter out with her debt problem please please please include a warning on the programme about debt management companies, the one our daughter had contacted ( unbeknown to us) were awful and expensive and most unhelpful, in fact downright rude when we took over to sort everthing out. We never did receive a reply or any confirmation of anything in writing, all communication was by phone, letters our daughter received were never dated so very difficult to keep track of and reference in other correspondence. They were also recommending a voluntary agreement( can't think what they are called properly) which surprse surprise was managed by a company at the same address with the same directors. They hadn't cancelled payment protection insurance on a credit card which was an unecessary expense( I am pursuing the mis selling bit and it took two attempts for me to get it cancelled and I don't usually have a problem with the hard sell approach but they were persistent,) they didn't sort all the bank accounts out and agreed a fixed repaymetn fee per month for one accout but then paid it off another and were no where near stirct enough with daughter... because obviously the more she had to spend on herself the less she had to pay off debts with so the longer she would be with them and the more money she would make. She was being charged £46 per month for a managed account and the mangement of her debts, minimum repayemts were extra... we worked out she would be debt free this way in 14 years. We sorted it in 3 weeks despite the uncopoeration from the debt managment company ( and a lot of denial from daughter) and she will be debt free in just over 2 years. She is fortunate that we have been able and willing to help her but when all this came to light we were scared because when we offered to help her respnse was " I don't know if you can... it's lot of money". As I say fortunately we can and we can keep an eye on what she is doing, and although I am not convinced that she has totally learnt her lesson yet she is definitely spending less and staying in more which means she is not subsidising friends all the time. Any way I could go on ... but please on the programme reinforce the message, as you do this website, that debt mangement companies are not the way to go... try citizens advice or your trade union... they can often help as well.