Debt Arrangement Scheme - Scotland

Hi there, I have never heard of the DAS. My husband has five credit cards (and this is the second time he has done this, the first time he ran up £60 and we added onto our Mortgage which is terrible cos we can only pay the interest on it) anyway he now owes £18.500 and we have been refused loans, think cos he keeps moving the c cards about and I dont want/cant afford to add it on to the mortgage so we dont know what to do. We have been trying to get one of the c cards quashed but that has already taken 8 months and we are paying into that one along £133.00 per month (£90 interest) could DAS help us, we seem to have enough money to pay everything off when I look at the monthly figures it looks tight but ok but even with budgeting we still cant pay off our two £3,300 o/drafts and my husbands c cards even enough to let us pay more than just the interest on our mortgage. I would hate to move, is this the answer, we have 3 children and the stress is terrible. My husband doesnt seem able to cope and cant even go and get another job to pay off his debts, help what can I do.

Newmummy78 wrote: »

Hey All

Am new on here - decided to share my story....

I have always been pretty poor with managing my money. Since university have taken every credit card/overdraft/storecard/loan i could get my hands on and over the years things have taken their toll. I did get a handle on it a few years back but it seemed never ending.

I earn a decent wage but never had anything left at the end of the month and was often incurring bank charges.

Had a baby in February last year and things really went to pot. To cut a long story short I told my sister of my troubles and she told me to look into the DAS. I contacted my local money advice centre - in Edinburgh on the bridges.

To be fair, that experience was a bit grim and I felt really stupid talking about my problems but the woman I spoke to did recommend me to the Debt Arrangement Scheme - bizarrely though she couldn't answer all my questions. And Edinburgh doesn't have an Approved Money Advisor employed so I had to be referred to a private Money Advisor. I was told by the council office that the charge might be around £500 - err well its turned out it £2k!!
But there are alot of benefits...

So i had my meeting in November and took in all my paperwork - finally opened a lot of mail which i had been ignoring for quite some time. We went through all the figures and came up with a timescale and an amount i can afford. It went through in December and its such a relief to know its done. But - its also a relief thats there is no way i can take out any more debt! Finally learning my lesson.
No more calls from citifinancial, rbs or any others!!
And i don't have to tell any more lies to my husband! Am hoping 2010 will be a new fresh start for me and my finances!!

The DAS scheme worked for me as i only wanted to focus on my debts - and not include my husband - these debts aren't his. And it isn't tied to my house in anyway. And its reasonably flexible - so long as i maintain contact with my debt advisor.

Was a bit annoyed about the fee thing - but under the DAS all charges, fees and interest are frozen so long as i maintain my payments. And 2k is less than what i would have been paying on a consolidation loan or something similar!

So - hopefully in 5 years and 11 months i'll be debt free - fingers crossed for me!

If anyone is thinking of this route and wants to ask me any questions - please msg me - will be happy to help if i can!

Sorry I should have explained better, we have one o-draft of £2,500 and another of £1,300. My husband has ccard debts of £16,200 and we havent paid our mortgage(other than the interest) for the last three years. I have tried everything, i.e. second jobs, budgeting but nothing seems to help, i feel so sorry for my children, who keep hearing us fighting, but my husband just wont try to get a w-end job or try to help the situation he seems to have lost it pretty much and maybe I would be better off without him. I have stuck my him for the last ten years since he last ran up £60,000, which we also could pay and had to add onto the mortgage. Nothing ever changes, I now have all his c cards and his bank card but he still buys Itunes here and there, will he ever grow up? does anyone have any suggestions?

Awh Poor People - you sound like you're at the end of your tether

First and foremost, don't make any rash decisions with regards to your marriage - you've lasted this long and if anything can put a strain on a marriage it's certainly MONEY MATTERS .. and usually is

I can understand that you want your husband to be a bit more PROactive in tackling HIS debts (rather than just you) but some people really do bury their heads in the sand. Taking on a p/t job for some people is just regarded as something they HAVE TO DO if they do not have sufficient income to cover outgoings but I'm not sure what your situation is like - is he already working 37-40 hrs per week and feels he couldn't do any more on top of this.

Is there any equity in the home?
You've added £60k to the mortgage so how much is the property worth? And how much is your total mortgage now including the £60k?
It might be worth considering the likes of a Trust Deed (3 year plan to address debts) but with limited information it would be hard to determine if this would be suitable or not...

DAS is similar to the Debt Management Plan in UK (Scotland too) except that the DAS is government scheme (monitored by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) who also regulates Trust Deeds & Bankruptcies) - the main difference between DMP & DAS is that the DAS provides protection over your assets i.e. if you have a property with £50k equity - and your debts are only £22k then technically you're not insolvent BUT you may not want to touch the equity in your property ..

If you stop paying creditors then they may put an inhibition on your property whereby you wouldn't be able to sell or remortgage without paying their debt in full first - the DAS means that you will make a monthly payment to yours creditors until ALL your debts are cleared but your property / car etc are all secured. You do not have to release equity or sell your home.

Once you sign up to DAS you must repay all of your debts - you cannot opt to do a Trust Deed 3 years down the line.]

All interest and charges are stopped and ALL monies go straight to creditors to deduct from your balance (that is with CAB or Money Advice) there are SOME companies who will charge a % each month for maintaining DAS but you can find someone to do it for you FREE of charge.

Remember that Insolvency in Scotland - be it DAS, Trust Deed or Sequestration (bankruptcy) is all treated on a individual basis therefore if debts are in your husband's name only then he will have to sign this - you can't do it for him. But it looks like he needs a solution and he needs to commit to taking no further credit - if he's only paying one monthly payment (and having someone else distribute it among his many creditors) then life should go back to how it once was ... and hopefully it will be more pleasant for you too ...

You might even get to go out for dinner once in a while and get things back on track ...

One last thing - with regards to the equity in your home - if debts are ONLY in husbands name then only 50% of equity would be attributed to him (that is presuming that the property is in both your names ...)

Cheer Up PP - there are solutions and hopefully you'll get one and get sorted once and for all x