Unmanageable credit card debt, defaults, mortgages and DMP

gizmo111

Frankly talking to any debt advice organisation can affect your credit record

This is not true - talking cannot affect your credit record, only your history of payments can affect that.

Morgyface

RAS said:

As Sly72 says, you can remortgage with your current provider without a credit check. So maybe not the best deals, but manageable. 

Good to know and it does feel like my current mortgage provider are still not completely cyborg. Thanks both. 

RAS said:

Have you got any HMRC debt, or might you accrue this this tax year?

I do have a nominal amount but can't seem to find it via the hmrc website. Will need to call. 

RAS said:

Next is that you need to get away from Money Wellness, who were Gregory Pennington. They have a massive Government contract for DROs, for which you are not qualified. Otherwise you pay them fees.

Payment of less than the minimum will result in AP markets or defaults.

An AP marker damages your credit record for 6 years after the debt is paid off. The creditor may continue to charge fees and interest.
A default damages your credit record for 6 years and interest stops. 

So the quickest way to repair your credit record is to stop paying and encourage defaults ASAP, knowing that at a defined time, you'll be able to look at whole market mortgages.

It looks like Money Wellness are doing free DMPs, but then I'm starting to think it's probably better to manage it myself. 

RAS said:

As far as I can see your debt is all consumer credit, so Stepchange obviously got confused by the fact that you took the debt to fund business activity. But their way of managing DMPs make AP markers more likely at this stage. 

Yes, just consumer credit. From what I can tell, StepChange just won't deal with the self-employed (possibly due to variable income). You get to a point on their website when you select employed or self-employed, selecting the latter prompts a message which says "we can't help you at this time". 

RAS said:
So stop paying unsecured debt, stash the money into an emergency fund. You need to ensure you can cover any HMRC liability, and in future things like boiler failure, MOT costs etc.

Understood, good advice. 

Morgyface

The UI isn't great on this forum, so I'm not sure how to reply to people, but just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has replied and advised. It's been really helpful and reassuring. 

RAS

Your response is fine and appreciated. You've obviously got the hang of multiple quotes. If you want to alert an individual to a message try @Morgyface

With respect to using a company or non-profit. It could take you 18 months to get all the defaults. You'll be advised to set up payments as the earlier ones default.

Many of the debts will be sold on by year 3 and by that stage you may start getting offers for full and finals. If you use a company or non-profit, they will insist on allocating any lump sum you've got pro rata. Which has limited affect.

If you manage yourself, you can pick off the ones making good offers (50+%) one by one and leave folk like PRA til later.