Okay, so 2 years after being made redundant, the redundancy money has long since run out and although my wife and I have been trying to keep within a budget and keep outgoings down, I have now decided to get it all under control. My wife is disabled too with Sceriosis of the Spine and by the time the bills are paid, the shopping is done and the car is filled with diesel twice per month, all the income is gone and then a bit more too. So the credit cards have taken a hammering for 6 months and need to be paid off. I therefore decided on New Years Eve that my resolution had to be to sort it out once-and-for-all.
My dilemma was where to go to for help and looked on the internet and selected a company who charged no fees for helping with this and who seemed to have good references. They asked me to complete a form with full income and outgoings and a list of my debts. Within a few hours they told me that they had written to all of my creditors and explained they had taken control of my debts and would be offering new payments to each of them within the next few days. They even sent me both a text and e-mail on Saturday morning to make sure I was okay and if I needed to send them final demands that had come in the post or forward e-mails, to send them on without delay and they would deal with them on Monday.
I must admit that for the first hour or so when talking to the debt company, my heart was really thumping and I was feeling rotten, but afterwards I felt a sense of relief that it was now being sorted out and our outgoings will go down as a result. Looking at what we owe, it is going to take a long time to pay it off, but at least it is now under control.
If any others of you are in a similar situation and are overstretching yourself, please consider a debt management company or the CAB. It will quickly be a great relief to you and one less thing to worry about. MS brings enough problems without having anything else to worry about.
Hi, sorry to hear you are going through this and I can 100/% understand, though im a little concerned about the company you have chosen to take over the debts. Most of these companies will take a percentage from the agreed amount of repayments you make. I did this a few years ago and after some time discovered I was only paying about 30% of the total I had agreed i could afford to pay the remainder went to the Debt company who " were looking after " the debt And I also continued to be harrased from the companies I actually owed the money to. I eventually stopped the direct payment and contacted The Consumer Credit Counselling Service, who were fantastic. They dont take over but offer legal advice. They sent me template Letters (Token Of Payment) templates that you just need to add the amounts you owe and what you can afford. They also sent printed budget sheets that you just fill in. Its a government run scheme And its all Free.
I wouldnt like to think you were being scammed like I was, its difficult enough trying to juggle finances, and losing sleep over it. But please just check how much percentage they are taking out of your agreed repayments because Im a little cautious of the fact they tell you its free.
I have some copies of my Template letters And would be more than happy to send you some if you wish. Please feel free to inbox me
I agree with your advice about contacting the CAB, but I certainly share Kim’s concerns about handing over responsibility to a debt management company. They MUST be taking a cut, otherwise how do they stay in business? So you have to end up paying more, in the end. Maybe you will see smaller monthly outgoings, but if these are over an increased time period, you’ll pay more overall, not less. It’s too late to tell you this, if you’ve already signed up, but I wish you’d posted before, not afterwards.
I would have thought the contract must allow you a cooling off period, so it may not be too late to cancel, and take it to the CAB instead.
I Just cancelled my direct debit payment when I relaised what was going on and dont remember there being a problem. These companies are very clever and know that when people contact them that they are normally desperate and vulnerable (I was) and they latch on to that. Its so wrong. Like Tina says they have to charge something.