Debt management... recommended or not?

charlottevwa

Hi guys, never really posted much on this board before, but I just wanted your opinions on debt management. We have £15,000 of debt, spread out over various credit cards and a loan, and then we have another £15,000 which my husbands parents paid off for us, so we pay them back £250 a month... So that is a total of £30K. and we pay out about £600 a month to our debts (including what we pay to my husbands parents)

Now we are considering looking into debt management for the £15,000 so that we arent paying out so much, as we are struggling to pay off OH's parents, aswell and the CC companies.

Would any of you recommend debt management? or should we stay away? also will a debt management company take into consideration the fact that we have to pay £250 to OH's parents, or will they not allow that as an expense??

Thankyou for reading, hope you have some good responses!

GeorgeUK

Are you talking about a Debt Management Plan? Paying an amount less than the minimum payment to all your creditors (and possibly having the interest frozen)?

If this is the case, there are free debt charities that you can use that will help you set everything up but not charge you for it like the ones on TV. The problem however would be the debt you are paying to the inlaws. They would be treated like any other creditor and with a DMP, you need to treat all creditors the same.

Your credit rating would also take quite a hit for a while if you go on a DMP.

Post up a Statement of Affairs (SOA) and we'll see if there are any savings that can be made. How is your credit rating right now? Any late payments, defaults or CCJ's? If not, you may be able to get a 0% balance transfer card or life of balance (LOB - low interest) card.
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

HHH_2

Give CCCS a ring or go on thier website. A DMP was the best thing I ever did. Not sure if they will include the parents debt but they might. other people use CAB or payplan all of whom are charities or at least dont charge you for running your dmp.

charlottevwa

Thanks for the responses. I didnt know about the free ones, thats a great help thanks.
I will post up an SOA as soon as my husband gets home, so he can get out his statements to give me exact figures (cheers for the link btw)
Credit rating is currently good as we never miss payments and often pay a little more than minimum payment when OH gets commision/bonuses at work. But most of the time it's just a struggle. However, it is my OH that wants to go the DMP route, not my idea! So I will let you lot help us decide later.

Thanks again

lornz23

Does any one know if having a DMP will affect mortages? I already have one but it is only a 5 year one?

GeorgeUK

Hi Lornz - you should probably start your own thread on this, but the short answer is yes. There are a few threads on the board about trying to remortgage while in a DMP, but basically you will be able to but it will cost a bit more.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=987747&highlight=dmp+remortgage
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=993285&highlight=dmp+remortgage

lornz23

Great thanks for your help!