Credit & Store Cards. Best method to consolidate?

RAS

marcopolo1975 said:

Hey,

Thanks so much for your really helpful advice so far. I cannot say how much I appreciate it.

How do I post my SOA calculations here?

Many thanks

If you read back to Essex Hebridean's Post above, there is a little blue link in their signature "SOA  calculator."

If you are a couple some people assume you pay half the household costs, or pro rata if there is a disparity in earnings. If you each take responsibility for some costs, then list everything and add a little note "partner pays".

You may end up with a household and personal SOA. That doesn't matter so much as understanding the dynamic; sometimes the debt is an attempt to pay equally when incomes aren't equal and sometimes one party has been making the payments through habit when both salaries are needed.

RAS

marcopolo1975 said:

Oh. And another thing. I'm Self-Employed and a lot of these so-called services don't seem to want to know if you happen to be Self-Employed 

In which case avoid IVAs as they need a regular stable income.

A couple of things about self-employment. 

You must put aside 20% of your earnings (not turnover) into a savings account which is just for the HMRC. You can always redistribute anything left over after the tax is paid.

You need to keep business debt and personal debt separate; all to often people are subsidising their work by taking on personal debt.

If your job is the sort that requires you to spend out up front (mileage, materials, kit), you can only do this going forward if you have an adequate cash buffer. You won't be able to get credit, at least at any reasonable rate, so it's essential that you have enough saved to manage the ups and downs of self employment. If you can't fund the inputs, you can't work self employed. It's not you aren't allowed, to be, just the practicalities are very difficult.

In which case, you may well be looking at self-managing the DMP. Once you've got the defaults, divided up what is properly spare to your creditors, but only a token payment in thin months, those you actually take a holiday.

fatbelly

There are many advantages to self-managing a dmp and lots of resources here

https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/splash-0.asp