Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk

Back to thread
MNHQ

Live advice clinic with StepChange debt charity this week - post your questions here 

4 replies

AnnaCMumsnet · 25/10/2019 15:20

Hello,

Mumsnet and StepChange Debt Charity are teaming up once again to provide a free online debt help clinic. They’ll be offering information and advice on this thread about all aspects of personal debt.

StepChange is the largest debt charity in the UK, and over the last 26 years they’ve helped well over 5 million people with debt. They recently reported that 2018 was their busiest year ever, with over 650,000 new clients contacting them for help, and they’re even busier so far this year.

Do you find it difficult to talk about your debt problems?
StepChange want you to know that they have a free, online debt advice service that you can access 24 hours a day. You can put a budget together at your pace, and you can also talk it over with an adviser through online chat.

StepChange want to help Mumsnetters with anything they’re experiencing because of money or debt worries. So if you’re getting letters from the bank, struggling to afford to pay a debt, or you’ve been threatened with court action, or anything else around debt, post up a question.

The clinic will take place on this thread from Monday 4th November, all week. If you’re dealing with debt, post an outline of your experience here. Please don’t include identifying details: a specialist debt advisor will follow up with you via PM if they need to know more.

Answers from the specialist debt advisor will be posted up on this thread. The clinic will run for a week; we’ll do our best to provide all answers during the week but, at the latest, by the end of the following week. You can find information on where to go for more help once the clinic has ended here.

Unsure whether or not you need debt advice? Try the 60-second debt test on the StepChange website. By answering a few simple questions, you’ll quickly find out if you’d benefit from free and confidential debt advice.

Important: The advice provided to an individual poster is based only on the information provided by that poster. Advice on this thread is also particular to the individual who has asked for it and is likely to be specific to that person’s situation. A poster may have provided further relevant information by private message which will not appear on this thread.

Important: FCA regulations mean that StepChange is unable to give full debt advice or recommend any debt solutions through the Mumsnet forum. If they feel you’d help from getting a full debt advice session, they’ll mention that in the reply.

Additionally, StepChange can’t give advice on self-employed or business debts. For more help with these, you can talk to fellow charity Business Debtline.

Please feel free to post your questions for the advisor.

Thanks,

MNHQ

Go to post
MNHQ

AnnaCMumsnet · 01/11/2019 17:13

Hello

We're closing this thread to new queries now.

Thank you so much to everyone who's posted questions this week. And a very big thank you to Rachel, Kirsty and all the StepChange team. We will do our best to get answers for the outstanding questions to post on the thread. Anyone with debt worries can always contact StepChange directly.

Thanks
MNHQ

MNHQ

AnnaCMumsnet · 06/11/2019 16:09

Hi MNHQ here

Stepchange have kindly answered the last few questions so we've reopened the thread and will paste their answers below.

@BarrenFieldofFucks

Hello, I recently started a DMP with yourselves and have been getting a few letters from lenders about defaults etc, should I be worried?

And will my DMP affect my husband's credit rating? We have a joint account and mortgage but no joint credit

Stepchange says:

Hi there,

Thanks for your message.

Please don’t worry if you’re starting to receive letters from your creditors including any default notices, these are a very normal part of the process.

When you start reducing payments to your creditors through a debt solution such as a debt management plan (DMP) it means that you’re no longer meeting your contractual obligations. At this point your creditors are required to send you reminder letters. After all, if you’d missed a payment in error, you’d want them to let you know to allow you to catch up.

After around three to six months your creditors are obliged to formally terminate the contract which is why you will receive a default notice. This default will stay on your credit file for a period of six years. Once your DMP becomes more established and all creditors have issued their default notice you will find that contact directly from your creditors will start to settle down. You can find more information about default notices on our website here.

Your DMP will not affect your husbands credit rating. As you have a joint mortgage and a joint bank account however you will be financially linked. This means if your partner applies for credit then your file could also be accessed before the lender decides and vice versa.

I hope this helps.

Thanks

Kirsty

MNHQ

AnnaCMumsnet · 06/11/2019 16:12

And this one:

@Maverick66

Kirsty, Thank you for your response I really appreciate your advice. The market value of property is £100,000. We have a mortgage of £170,000 (it was valued at £180,000 at time of purchase) Realistically it will never reach this value in our lifetime. We just don't know what to do. I can't face having unsecured debt. We are mid fifties and have 10years left to pay on our 'home' mortgage. It's just a big mess Blush

Hi again, thanks for your response.

Until the property is sold there is there is very little that can be done about the negative equity as it is simply a reflection of the current property market versus the amount outstanding on the mortgage which we cannot control. You could try home improvements to increase the value of the property, however, given the amount of negative equity there is no guarantee you will see any return for any further investments made.

The negative equity only really becomes an issue when the property is sold. Unless you intend to sell the property now, if you’re not already, I would suggest looking into renting the property so that you can break even or better on paying the mortgage.

Once the property is sold, whether that’s soon or in a few years, we can certainly give you advice on dealing with any shortfall. Just as a reminder you can find our contact details here.

All the best,

Kirsty

MNHQ

AnnaCMumsnet · 06/11/2019 16:14

That's all the questions answered so we'll be closing the thread again. Thank you again to Stepchange and everyone who posted questions.

As before, anyone with debt worries can always contact StepChange directly.

Thanks
MNHQ

Watch this thread for updates

Tap "Watch" to get all the latest updates

End of posts

There are no more MNHQ posts on this thread

Back to thread