Debt Help

Jasoncmor

Jasoncmor

Jasoncmor

Associate
Joined
13 Feb 2010
Posts
610
Location
Bournemouth
Hi all

So been in a lot of debt for quite a long time, made a lot of mistakes growing up, and now stuck with huge debt over credit cards, overdraft and a loan, never missed any payments, but just never able to pay extra to pay off sooner, so just going along with things for now.
I'm just wondering if anyone has ever used an IVA or any company that offer to help with this kind of debt.

Many thanks
Jason
 
A mate of mine has just got a Iva think he is paying around £100 a month to pay his debts off (spread between credit cards) I believe he went through stepchange.

I had a look myself a few years back at getting a IVA but my debt wasn’t substantial enough to be considered for a IVA I just cut back on a few things and managed to pay my debts off. Banks agreed to freeze my interest on my credit cards for a period of time which helped massively.
 
I have used Stepchange(Previously CCCS) in the past and they have been fantastic throughout the whole process. Took me a few years to get it all sorted but it was painless and took a lot of stress away. You will do an initial budget, they will draw up a Debt Management Plan and they will send letters out to your creditors with a payment proposal plan. They will pretty much always accept it and then everything is dealt with by Stepchange. Just pay your payment to them monthly and they will distribute it amongst your creditors. If your creditors hassle you(which is VERY rare after the DMP is put into place, then tell them that your finances are dealt with by Stepchange and give them your client number. No more nasty letters or constant calls from people chasing for payments etc.
 
Definitely speak to a charity to understand all the options. If you do go the IVA route you need to understand the implications.
 
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How big is the debt and how much do you earn? No time like the present to make a change. An IVA could be overkill/ hard to distance yourself from if the debt isn't big enough.
 
ZXSpectrum said:
I have used Stepchange(Previously CCCS) in the past and they have been fantastic throughout the whole process. Took me a few years to get it all sorted but it was painless and took a lot of stress away. You will do an initial budget, they will draw up a Debt Management Plan and they will send letters out to your creditors with a payment proposal plan. They will pretty much always accept it and then everything is dealt with by Stepchange. Just pay your payment to them monthly and they will distribute it amongst your creditors. If your creditors hassle you(which is VERY rare after the DMP is put into place, then tell them that your finances are dealt with by Stepchange and give them your client number. No more nasty letters or constant calls from people chasing for payments etc.
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This. years ago when i got into £30k of debt stepchange were a life saver. paid off all my creditors within 5 years at affordable levels, interest frozen etc.
 
Thanks all.
I will check out step change.
I have around 18k debt across the accounts I have, my earnings are around 6k more than that.

Things have changed a lot for me over the last 2 and a bit years, and I did get further into debt because of the pandemic / lock downs, but now things hopefully are going the right way, I need to tackle this hard now, fed up of living pay check to pay check, and always playing catch-up with my finances, so I think now is time I deal with it!

Many thanks everyone for your replies, I will check out step change and see what options / advice they can offer.
 
Jasoncmor said:
Thanks all.
I will check out step change.
I have around 18k debt across the accounts I have, my earnings are around 6k more than that.

Things have changed a lot for me over the last 2 and a bit years, and I did get further into debt because of the pandemic / lock downs, but now things hopefully are going the right way, I need to tackle this hard now, fed up of living pay check to pay check, and always playing catch-up with my finances, so I think now is time I deal with it!

Many thanks everyone for your replies, I will check out step change and see what options / advice they can offer.
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Just over 18 months ago I added up all my credit cards and realised I was over £21k in debt (had just returned from 30 days in Dubai as well :D).

First thing is minimise any interest you are paying, if any, by doing balance transfer.

What really helped me was making an Excel spreadsheet and budgeting my income to all my outgoings and making sure I had x amount every month going towards the debt. Nearly all cleared now bar £3k that I purposely left as it's interest free still as had new holidays to pay for. Can't wait for the day to be completely debt free!
 
A2Z said:
Just over 18 months ago I added up all my credit cards and realised I was over £21k in debt (had just returned from 30 days in Dubai as well :D).

First thing is minimise any interest you are paying, if any, by doing balance transfer.

What really helped me was making an Excel spreadsheet and budgeting my income to all my outgoings and making sure I had x amount every month going towards the debt. Nearly all cleared now bar £3k that I purposely left as it's interest free still as had new holidays to pay for. Can't wait for the day to be completely debt free!
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Well done! Clearing £18k in 18 months is good going.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Well done! Clearing £18k in 18 months is good going.
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It is good but not to put a damper on it but A2Z could clearly afford to pay off £1k a month so debt was really never the issue it was more credit card management that was the problem. Regardless to say though well done A2Z at getting rid of it

@Jasoncmor You say 18k over all accounts, is this all credit cards or is this broken down into different debt obligations? Are you able to provide a rough breakdown of what the debts made up of?
 
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Have recently helped a friend of mine through this and took some pretty simple steps which seem to be helping him massively.
Step change is of course a great suggestion and for sure should be done but there are things you can do today to start changing things for the better.

1: Create a Incomings / Outgoings spreadsheet. You dont need any fancy tools just use Google sheets, commit to memory your total outgoings
2: Itemise and scrutinise your outgoings from your bank statements, highlight anything with a marker that did not have to be spent (eg subscriptions, insruances etc) and cancel them.
3: Seperate your monthly bills money from your free money by using seperate bank accounts. 1 for bills, 1 for spending.
4: Before going food shopping make a list of what you need and stick to it, dont buy things ad-hoc or on a whim.
5: If any hobbies you have are particularly expensive to participate in either reduce or change. eg my friend enjoys dirt bikes and every weekend was off somewhere new to ride them. When we added up his fuel bill alone it was nearly £600 p/m. He only commutes 18 miles a day so the rest was mileage for his hobby.
 
Jasoncmor said:
Hi all

So been in a lot of debt for quite a long time, made a lot of mistakes growing up, and now stuck with huge debt over credit cards, overdraft and a loan, never missed any payments, but just never able to pay extra to pay off sooner, so just going along with things for now.
I'm just wondering if anyone has ever used an IVA or any company that offer to help with this kind of debt.

Many thanks
Jason
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Are you already in defaults on your debts and reported as such on credit files - if so, no harm in going for a DRO (Debt Relief Order) - assuming you have no house, a car worth less than £2k and less than £75 after non credit bills leftover a month. Debts are frozen for 12 months and assuming your circumstances don't improve, all debt written off after 12 months.

Also get onto the debt section of MoneySavingExpert forums, has a lot of posters that work for the debt charities on there, they were a gold mine of help during my bankruptcy in 2007.
 
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I was in a similar boat just short of a decade ago (I think!) I eventually contacted CCCS who during my time with them changed to StepChange. As has been said earlier they went through my income and outgoing and together we created a Debt Management Plan (DMP) which was then sent to my bank who I owed credit card, loan and overdraft debt with. The interest was frozen and I paid off an amount agreed in the DMP. From time to time I would contact Step Change when I had to repair my car or other unexpected expenses and would agree a payment 'holiday' if you like. Working with StepChange took away all the harassing calls and letters and gave me a plan to work to to slowly clear the debt. It made everything more manageable and took away the fear and stress.

I was fortunate that maybe five years or so ago my mother in law paid off all my debt which allowed me to rebuild me financial life which eventually allowed me to imprive my rating and own a house. I still pay her back the amount loaned, just very slowly and infrequently, although she offered to right it off.

With help you can get through this.
 
I would try and get a 0% Interest credit card first. There are loads of 34 month ones that should give you time to actually make a dent in the debt as you won't be paying just the Interest. Once it comes to the end of the 34 months just get another 0% and transfer any of the unpaid debt over and do another 34 months until it's paid off.
 
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sanaxe1 said:
I would try and get a 0% Interest credit card first. There are loads of 34 month ones that should give you time to actually make a dent in the debt as you won't be paying just the Interest. Once it comes to the end of the 34 months just get another 0% and transfer any of the unpaid debt over and do another 34 months until it's paid off.
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This is what I was going to suggest. Transfer credit card debt to an interest free card and use the grace period to pay down or pay off the debt. Do it piece by piece and to make it manageable, set targets and goals and work to them.
 
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You can also transfer money from a CC to another for no fees
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Balance transfer credit cards

If you're paying interest, see if you can transfer your debt to a 0% deal. See Martin Lewis' top pick balance transfer credit cards.
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Problem is with these 0% credit cards is that when you get into the situation where you need help with your debts/finances it’s unlikely that you can get a 0% CC particularly the ones that are 0% on balance transfers for a decent period of time.
 
Jasoncmor said:
Hi all

So been in a lot of debt for quite a long time, made a lot of mistakes growing up, and now stuck with huge debt over credit cards, overdraft and a loan, never missed any payments, but just never able to pay extra to pay off sooner, so just going along with things for now.
I'm just wondering if anyone has ever used an IVA or any company that offer to help with this kind of debt.

Many thanks
Jason
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Are you struggling to meet the payments, or just want to try and clear it down quicker? Unless you're struggling, it's probably better in the long term to pay it off rather than enter into an IVA or debt management plan, as this can stay on your credit file for up to 6 years
 
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