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Advice is appreciated

Broughton91
Posts: 7 Forumite

Hi everyone,
Im new to this and have read some posts over the last few days. I currently have about 20K debt over my head which I’m really wanting to clear but unsure wether an IVA is best to take out or I’m unsure what defaults are which I’ve read a lot about on here?
i currently
pay a loan, credit cards and I’m also self employed so now have a payment plan in place with HMRC till October which is £413 per month 😩 so making it harder to pay towards my debts.
I’ve just started a second job so will be earning good money but with £600+ going out a month on debt I’m struggling to get out of the cycle to to afford to make ends meat.
Im new to this and have read some posts over the last few days. I currently have about 20K debt over my head which I’m really wanting to clear but unsure wether an IVA is best to take out or I’m unsure what defaults are which I’ve read a lot about on here?
i currently
pay a loan, credit cards and I’m also self employed so now have a payment plan in place with HMRC till October which is £413 per month 😩 so making it harder to pay towards my debts.
I’ve just started a second job so will be earning good money but with £600+ going out a month on debt I’m struggling to get out of the cycle to to afford to make ends meat.
Do you recommend that you just cancel your direct debits to your credit cards to create a default or do I need to write to my creditors to set a low manageable payment. My credit score currently is very good so that’s all that’s putting me off getting a IVA.
I look forward to hearing all your comments and advice and for taking the time to read my worries so thank you 😊
I look forward to hearing all your comments and advice and for taking the time to read my worries so thank you 😊
1
Comments
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IVAs get recommended to people a lot - but they are often not appropriate. Have you spoken with one of the free debt charities - someone like Stepchange (but make sure it's the genuine Stepchange - not an imposter!) perhaps?
I'd say your first step is to put together your SOA (Statement of Affairs) which will show you all your income and outgoings in one place, and will also help you to work out how much you should have available to pay to debt - that will then help inform whether you would be suited to a Debt Management Plan or whether there is a more appropriate solution for you. You can use the "Format for MSE" option on the SOA (the calculator we suggest using is linked in my signature below) then copy and paste it into this thread and we can have a look and see if we can help you to identify any savings that might help you along the way, too.
In terms of your self-employment, are you now making sure that you set aside the tax and national insurance of everything you get paid as soon as it arrives in order to avoid getting into debt with HMRC again? That's a really important one.
It might be a good idea to ask for this thread to be swapped over to the main DFW board - it's in the diaries section at the moment.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her0 -
Thanks so much for your reply.I’m such a newbie so doesn’t surprise me I posted this in the wrong place.
thanks for all your advice I will do the calculator 😊0 -
I have asked for this thread to be moved to the main DFW section rather than Diaries.
As EH says though doing an soa will help us give appropriate advice as to whether an IVA is a good idea for you or not. The link is below.
SOA Calculator (lemonfool.co.uk)
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