Once you default on repayments of a loan, credit card or other form of debt, the chances are that your credit rating will be damaged. Even missing a single payment may cause an adverse record to be made that can make it more difficult for you to obtain credit in the future. Continue reading
Debt Management Information
What is a Debt Management Plan?
A Debt Management Plan or DMP is what it says on the tin – a plan agreed with your creditors to repay your debts over a period of time by making regular, usually monthly, payments until all of your debts are cleared. Continue reading
Get debt help
Some years ago a famous advertisement proclaimed that ‘It’s good to talk’. When it comes to resolving debt problems the first option should always be to talk about it. Even when the problems seem intractable, you should at least try to talk to your lenders. It is particularly important that you seek debt help when you begin to miss payments or when you have made late payments or when you have begun to pay your creditors selectively over other creditors, say if certain creditors are putting you under pressure. This behaviour is unfair on the creditors who are treating you better i.e. not putting you under pressure nor sending debt collectors to your door, nor taking legal action against you. Continue reading
How does an IVA work?
Like many experiences in life, you can’t really know how an IVA works unless you experience it for yourself. And because no two IVAs are exactly alike, each experience is also unique in many ways. Various analogies are quoted such as fingerprints, snowflakes and DNA. From a distance they all look the same, yet they all differ. However there are some certainties if a you are to successfully complete an IVA and come out at the other end with a fresh start, debt-free and solvent again. Continue reading
Help with Debt Problems
When things go wrong in life, one of the hardest things to do is to accept and acknowledge that it’s our own fault and that we are to blame. OK, sometimes it is somebody else’s fault. i.e. If a relationship breaks down, the other person may have been the biggest factor in the event. If you lose your job, it may be that your employer really was losing money or it may be that your function no longer existed in the organisation or that a restructuring was really necessary. If you fail your exams, it may be that the paper was unfair and that the questions weren’t really within the boundaries of the syllabus. And when personal debt problems emerge, it’s only natural that our first inclination is to assign blame to circumstances outside of our control and to blame any convenient third party for our predicament. Continue reading
Why creditors might reject your IVA
Incorrect financial information
Creditors take it for granted that you are truthful in your IVA Proposal about your current financial circumstances and how they arose. They expect you to be open, frank and honest and to disclose all relevant facts about your income, expenses, assets and liabilities. If a creditor is aware that you are hiding some important fact about your insolvency they then they will be dubious about the IVA proposal as a whole and be likely to reject it. Continue reading
Couple With Debts
When a couple decides to live together, they usually do it for reasons of love and the last thing on their minds is the financial status of their partner. Because love is often blind each partner may bury their heads in the sand in regard to the other’s financial stability at least for the time being. This can be a big mistake. There is much evidence to suggest that debts are a major problem for couples who decide to co-habit or get married and can be a significant cause of subsequent separation and divorce. Continue reading
Keeping my car in an IVA
‘What will happen to my car in my IVA?’ is a question often posed by persons who are insolvent and considering doing an IVA. In most cases, the answer is nothing and you will be allowed to retain the car. However it depends on a number of factors whether the IVA will affect the situation. Continue reading
Using credit before an IVA
If you suspect that you may be insolvent* (unable to pay your debts), you might be thinking about doing an IVA or going bankrupt. Certainly if you have been defaulting on repayments of unsecured loans and if you have only been able to make minimum payments on your credit cards or store cards, there is a good chance that you are indeed insolvent.
*One definition of insolvency is the ‘inability to repay your debts as and when they fall due’. Continue reading
Debt Management to IVA
There are a huge number of people in Debt Management Plans in the UK. Many of them have varied circumstances as to why they are in Debt Management over other solutions. Some may be solvent but to pay off their debts in full in accordance with the terms on which they borrowed the money in the first place they would have to dispose of some of their assets such as a house, and many of them are not prepared to do this. Continue reading