• Make The Most of The Oven’s Heat. Oven share – When you have the oven on to cook a meal or do some baking, consider what else could share the oven. You may decide to have baked potatoes and roasted vegetables instead of boiled. Or make some scones or bake a cake.
• Get Steamed Up. Steaming vegetables helps to keep its vitamins and saves energy if you place a steamer over boiling potatoes, or pasta, as you will save on using another hob
• Turn It Off. Make use of residual heat by turning off the hob or the oven a few minutes before the end of cooking time. The food will carry on cooking. You only need to actually boil an egg for just one minute, then turn off the heat. Find out more here.
• Don’t Overfill Your Kettle. Only boil the amount of water you need in your kettle. Measure it out if you can, so you don’t boil water, only for it to go cold again
• A Full Freezer Is An Efficient Freezer A full freezer uses less electricity than an empty one. Stock up on bread and freezable food, that has been discounted towards the end of the day. Make ice, or even fill a plastic bottle with water to freeze to fill gaps (leave some room in the bottle for expansion).
• Overnight Fridge Defrosting Frozen food that defrosts in the fridge, keeps your fridge cool and saves on using the microwave to defrost. So when you need something defrosting, put it the fridge the night before.
• Cook One Pot Meals. One pot meals are easy to prepare and only use one source of energy whether on the hob or in the oven – saves on washing up too! Try Lentil And Vegetable Casserole
• Use A Saucepan The Size of The Hob Ring. Otherwise heat is wasted. And put a lid on it to stop heat escaping.



• Don’t Put Warm Food In The Fridge Or Freezer. It will raise the temperature and the fridge or freezer will need extra energy to lower it again. Make sure food is completely cool before freezing or putting in the fridge. Speed up the process by putting the food in a plastic container, and stand it in a bowl of cold water
• Cook Double – Freeze Half. Cook twice the amount you need and divide the rest into portion sizes to freeze. It uses less energy to reheat than to cook from scratch, helps to keep your freezer full and you can defrost overnight in the fridge. And you always have ready meals in the freezer for when you have no time or are too tired to cook!

For lots of low cost and easy meal ideas see Penny’s Recipes. Sign up for the newsletter and get a free Meal Plan – 7 family meals for less than £30

Happy Cooking!

Tweet

Copy the following code to embed on your own website:

<a href="http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2012/01/25/payday-loan-borrowing-the-facts/"><img src="http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/wp-content/uploads/Payday-loan-Infographic-FINAL1.jpg" alt="Payplan Debt Perceptions Infographic 2011"/></a><p style="margin:6px 0 12px; width:800px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:12px;">Source: <a href="http://www.payplan.com/iva-individual-voluntary-arrangements.php">Payplan</a> – Free Debt Advice</p>

Chasing from unsecured lenders is often different from secured lenders. Unsecured lenders have a faster process and when a debtor misses a payment, or makes a reduced payment, they will begin chasing procedures straight away.

Secured lenders, on the other hand, commonly take longer to process missed payments and are usually less active with their chasing for the missing payments. It is usually because of this that debtors find it less hassle if they pay their unsecured creditors over their mortgage.

If you are experiencing financial difficulty, here at Payplan we would always advise that you pay all of your priority payments first and with then share any left-over funds between your creditors. If you need assistance then please speak to a trained debt specialist for free and impartial advice.

I have previously discussed an ePetition that was set up to get Financial Education into schools to help the next generation try and avoid the situations that the current generation find themselves in. in actually fact financial education wouldn’t solve everything as many find themselves in unaffordable debt due to something happening that is out of their control.

Before the recession hit in 2009, many were able to borrow more freely as they had regular incomes, whether they were employed or self-employed. They were able to meet the monthly outgoings as well as paying their credit commitments.

As the recession hit lots of self-employed people found themselves struggling to make ends meet as business became harder and harder. Many bigger businesses also struggled during this time with thousands of people, in different professions, finding themselves without a job after being made redundant.

As people’s incomes disappeared and credit sources dried up, those who had previously been living comfortably suddenly found themselves with nowhere to turn. This happened to people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

Does this sound familiar to you? We want to hear how you coped.

Whatever your reason for debt, it is always important for you to have an understanding about the charges that are applied to your credit cards and loans.

If you have taken out a loan you will know that you signed an agreement prior to it outlining the amount you are borrowing, the interest percentage that will be charged and the total amount that you will pay back as well as detailing your repayment amount and period. This agreement is known as a Consumer Credit Agreement and is required under the Consumer Credit Act. Once you have signed this agreement, you are acknowledging and accepting the terms including interest and charges that may be applied if you fail to comply with the agreement.

If you have taken out a credit card you will once again know that you must sign and agree to a Consumer Credit Agreement, the same as with a loan. With a credit card, the card provider can increase or reduce the interest rate over the time that you have your account. The new interest rate will apply to all of the money you owe on your card, except for any amounts you may have at special promotional rates.

If your card provider decides to increase your interest rate, it must give you at least 30 days’ notice. When card providers tell you about an increase in your interest rate, they will explain in clear language how it is changing, what it will cost and the options available to you.

You can decide not to accept the new interest rate. If you do this within 60 days, your card provider will close the account and you will need to pay back the money you owe at the current interest rate. If your card provider also offers other lending products, such as personal loans, it may let you transfer the balance on your credit card or store card to one of these, at your current interest rate (or a lower rate).

A loan shark is someone who will give a person a loan, charging them a high level of interest and short repayment terms. Loan sharks are unlicensed and operate illegally, as well as being unregulated from any governing financial body.

Loan sharks commonly prey on the most vulnerable people who have nowhere else to turn. When people struggle to pay them back, loan sharks often turn to threatening tactics to get payments from the debtor.

With many finding it more and more difficult to borrow in these tough economic times, increasingly people are turning to loan sharks. Figures released in 2009 by research agency, Debt on our Doorsteps, showed an estimated seven million people have borrowed from loan sharks.

If you have borrowed from an illegal loan shark and do not know what to do next… firstly you need to report them to the police or the Illegal Money Lending Team, details can be found on Direct Gov website by clicking here. Once you have done this you many want to look at your finances and seek free and impartial advice from Payplan to help you arrange your finances.

Have you had experience with a loan shark? Would you like to share your story and help others? This is the place to do it.

If you are one of those people, then we are urging you not to panic and follow these simples steps to make sure it doesn’t get the better of you.

• If you have kept track of your spending you should already have a rough idea of how much you will owe, if not try to gather all of your receipts together so that you can eliminate the element of shock.
• Work out your income and expenditure to calculate how much surplus you have left once everything has been paid out.
• If you have a 0% interest on purchases credit card then you can calculate your surplus to pay this back in instalments until the offer expires.
• If you are being charged interest, try to work out your payments in order to repay it as quick as possible, but still affordable to you. Or you could look for a new card that offers you a deal on balance transfers.
• If you are struggling with other debts you can contact Payplan for free and impartial advice on how to deal with your debts and finances.

With the state of the economy getting worse and families seeing the biggest squeeze to their budgets for 60 years, many may be seeing the New Year as an opportunity to change the way they are spending their money.

If you are looking to change your spending habits, here are a few top tips.

• Write down all of your expenditure and see where you are spending your money. From this you can look at areas that are excessive or where you know you spend too much.
• For all of your utilities you can use comparison websites to see how much you can save. If it turns out that you have the best deals then you haven’t lost anything. However you could save yourself lots of money if you find a cheaper deal.
• On your grocery shop, why not switch to the supermarket own brands. Alternatively why not switch supermarkets? Try going to your local supermarket to buy cheaper fresh fruit and vegetables or visit one of the low budget supermarkets.
• Make use of loyalty card points and use them wisely. Tesco Clubcard and Sainsbury’s Nectar Card have double value vouchers if they are spent on certain items, so it is always worthwhile checking.
• Instead of cutting out luxuries, sign up to discount websites such as Groupon to get the things you love, for less.

How will you change the way you spend?

At this time of year we see many new clients contacting us as they resolve to start a fresh.

By contacting Payplan early on with your debt problems you can get everything in order before things spiral out of control. Many who come to us say ‘I wish I’d called you sooner’ in doing this they would have avoided further hassle from creditors, legal action or unnecessary distress.

This New Year, what are your resolutions?

You are busy ensuring you have enough for your guests – the invited ones and the unexpected ones Sometimes it is difficult to gauge just how much you will need when you have guests, when you are not used to catering for many people. And the last thing you want to do is run out of food.

However when you get to the other side of Christmas you may realise you still have a lot of food in the fridge. Letting food go to waste is heartbreaking, not to mention hard on the wallet. When faced with leftover meat and vegetables, that may be looking past its best, it can be hard to visualise what to do with it – so here are a few suggestions from Penny’s Recipes that you can have ready. That way you don’t have to face avoid endless turkey sandwiches and turkey curry – or worse throwing food away.

Meat Balls

These can be made with any leftover meat. You can add in any leftover mashed potatoes or green vegetables too. Add a few herbs for extra flavour – or even a little chilli powder.

300g (approx) leftover meat, shredded

½ onion finely chopped

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

Place meat, onions, cheese, egg and salt an pepper in a bowl

Stir together and form into small balls

Add a little milk if too dry

Roll in the breadcrumbs

Place on a tray in the fridge for 30 minutes

Fry in some oil until crispy and brown

Serve with vegetables or with pasta in a tomato sauce

Savoury Nut Mince

Leftover nut roast can be crumbles and mixed with vegetables for a delicious savoury, nut mince. It can even be the basis of a vegetarian shepherds pie.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 onion, peeled and sliced

1-2 slices nut roast

3-4 portions of cooked vegetables

200ml stock or tin of chopped tomatoes

Salt and pepper

Sauté some onions in the vegetable oil

Add some cooked leftover vegetables

Add a little stock or a tin of chopped tomatoes

Crumble the nut roast in and stir

Heat through thoroughly

Serve with mashed potatoes and extra gravy

Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

Alternatively place in a baking dish or casserole, cover with mash

Sprinkle with grated cheese

Bake on the oven at 18- degrees C for about 30 minutes

Chicken / Turkey and Vegetable Soup

Soup is a fabulous, simple and warming way to use up your leftovers. All you need is some left over meat and vegetables, and some stock. Add a flourish of herbs and spices and you have a warming winter lunch

300g (approx) Turkey or Chicken, shredded

Mixed cooked vegetables

1 litre stock

1 teaspoon dried herbs

Squirt of tomato purée

Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan

Stir and pour over the stock

Add the herbs and tomato purée

Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally

Adjust seasoning and serve.

You are busy ensuring you have enough for your guests – the invited ones and the unexpected ones Sometimes it is difficult to gauge just how much you will need when you have guests, when you are not used to catering for many people. And the last thing you want to do is run out of food.

However when you get to the other side of Christmas you may realise you still have a lot of food in the fridge. Letting food go to waste is heartbreaking, not to mention hard on the wallet. When faced with leftover meat and vegetables, that may be looking past its best, it can be hard to visualise what to do with it – so here are a few suggestions from Penny’s Recipes that you can have ready. That way you don’t have to face avoid endless turkey sandwiches and turkey curry –  or worse throwing food away.

Chicken / Turkey Risotto

This is a delicious way to use up some meat and you can chuck in some leftover vegetables as well . It is best made with risotto (arborio) rice so if you think this could be useful, add it to your shopping list before Christmas. Then use what you have to make up a lovely meal. Feel free to vary the ingredients to adapt to what you have left over.

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 pepper (green or red), de-seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
300g / 10oz arborio rice
About 300g /10 oz cooked chicken/turkey/beef/goose chopped into small pieces
100g / 3 oz frozen peas/ cooked vegetables/mushrooms
750ml / 1 1/4 pints stock (vegetable or chicken)
75g / 2 1/2 ozs hard Italian cheese (or similar), grated
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large, heavy frying pan or saucepan

Add the onion and cook for 3-4 minutes

Add the pepper, garlic and cook for a further 4 minutes, stirring frequently

Add the rice, stir and cook for a minute or two

Pour in about one quarter of the stock

Bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer gently until most of the stock is absorbed

Add the meat

Add about one third of the remaining stock, stir, bring to boil and simmer gently

Once most of the liquid is absorbed, add most of the remaining stock

Add the peas or other vegetables and stir

Bring back to simmering

Taste the rice – when done it will be soft with a little bite

Add more stock if further cooking is required,

When cooked, stir in the grated Parmesan cheese

Season with salt and pepper

Plan to Save Money

1. Decide on your budget

2. Make a menu plan for the festive season

3. Plan some tasty budget meals that people love as well as more festive fayre

4. Make a shopping list

5. Cost out your shopping using your local supermarket website – if it blows your budget, plan again

6. Check out the comparative cost of vegetables and eggs at your local market or greengrocer

7. Try baking your own cakes, mince pies and biscuits – have a fun baking day with friends

8. Ask each guest to bring some specific food or drink – a dessert, or a starter – they will probably want to bring something and glad to know it is something you need.

9. Don’t assume large packets are always relatively cheaper than two small packets, check

10. Don’t always buy the biggest – consider buying a Turkey breast rather than a whole turkey

11. Ensure you have containers and freezer bags to put leftovers in for the fridge or freezer

12. Have some standby dry ingredients, such as pasta and rice, to make a last minute meal for the unexpected

For those of you that are looking for free debt advice you can fill in our online form and someone will call you back or you can call during our opening hours of 9am to 3pm on the following dates:

Friday 23^rd December to Saturday 24^th December

Monday 26^th December to Saturday 31^st December

Monday 2^nd January 2012

Normal hours will resume on Tuesday 3^rd January.

For those of you that are already in a plan with us, you can access your account via PayplanPlus and email your case officer with any queries which will be answered when they are back on Tuesday 3^rd January.

With peoples incomes becoming more and more stretched, many are trying to cut back this Christmas to make it more affordable. However for some they may be struggling with what funds they have.

Here is a quick guide to make sure you avoid the pitfalls of Christmas spending.

• When shopping for gifts make a list so you know exactly what you are buying to avoid you over-spending.
• Avoid borrowing from Payday Loan companies as they often have high levels of interest with short repayment terms.

With any borrowing, remember do not take out if you know you cannot pay it back and especially if you are already in a plan.

• Switch to cheaper brands: a recent survey by Delicious magazine found that supermarket branded products such as mince pies, Christmas puddings and champagne all come off better in a blind taste test in comparison to premium products such as Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Moët.
• Use comparison websites: websites like mysupermarket.co.uk will compare the buy online supermarkets to not only tell you which supermarket is cheaper but also which products are cheaper. They do all of the hard work so you, so you don’t have to.
• Visit your local market: fruit and vegetables are generally fresher and cheaper from the market. Although it isn’t as convenient as a supermarket, it could help you save money on the all-important Brussels sprouts.
• Don’t overdo it: we have all seen it, and probably done it, trollies filled with as much as possible. It isn’t necessary and you should only buy what you know you are going to eat over Christmas. The shops are usually open again on Boxing Day so you can always pick up on a few extra bits after.

What are your top tips for Christmas dinner on a budget?

If you are worried about making ends meet then try following these simple steps to arrange your finances to try and avoid borrowing money.

• Work out how much money you have left and then work out everything that you need to pay out for with that money.
• Look at your expenditure list and remove anything that you don’t need to spend money on, such as trips to the cinema, unnecessary car journeys and see just how much you can save.
• Look through your cupboards and see what food you actually have. The chances are you will have enough meals to get by. In case of severe hardship and food poverty you may qualify for a voucher to redeem at your local food bank.
• For any bills that need paying, if you know you won’t have the funds you need to contact the relevant creditor as soon as possible to request a payment break. You will then need to come to an arrangement to make up the arrears.

What are your tips for avoiding Payday Loans?

If you have a craft is there anything wrong with making your own gifts?

Here are a few ideas:

• Homemade cakes, biscuits, fudge, jam and other tasty treats.
• Gift hampers or baskets filled with your homemade tasty treats.
• Photo calendar, frames or albums.
• Homemade candles.
• Homemade soap.
• Homemade jewellery.
• Knitted scarf, hat or jumper.

Research by American Express recently found that many people are set to change their spending this Christmas to keep the costs down, with one in four planning ‘Secret Santa’ within their family or group of friends.

68% of people are expected to set a spending limit with 25% of parents set to spend in excess of £100 on their children and 20% of adults planning to spend over £100 on their partners.

Despite the changes to people’s spending habits we look set to spend an average of £364 on gifts for our loved ones. This has increased from £307 in 2009 and £260 in 2007.

“My problem with debt began when I became a student aged 18. I opened a student bank account and was “sold” an interest free credit card and got a huge student overdraft by a cashier in the bank. It seemed like a good idea to buy in books and help when I was short on cash but then I started living beyond my means and mis-spending. I then got into a relationship with someone who earned a lot more than me and he encouraged credit cards in order to live a lifestyle of social events, eating out and luxury holidays. I felt under lots of pressure to match and keep up with his lifestyle so the credit cards got out of control. When one was maxed out, I got a new one and another and another. I also supported my family financially when they were in times of financial difficulties and would use my credit card to withdraw money. When I split from my partner I was left with a lot of debt to repay on my own and I became much stressed and under pressure regarding money, I was struggling to pay debts. I was only making minimal payments but the debt wasn’t reducing that’s when I decided I had to take action and after a lot of research and recommendations I chose PayPlan to help me. Now my debts are being dealt with and I am much more assured about my finances and can live my life without the financial worry hanging over me.”

You could try writing down how you got into debt and what lead you to getting in the situation where you could no longer afford to pay it back. We often ask a lot of our clients to do the same and many say that this helps them reflect and learn from their past experiences.

“I have never been good with money. I have always bought what I want and had expensive tastes. Over the last couple of years the debts have slowly begun to mount and there has been less money to spend on my family.

“I had to have my wages paid into my wife’s account so that the bills were being paid. This got worse and when I was offered a credit card I very soon amassed another debt. Towards the end of last year things were pretty desperate for me and I often thought about taking the easy way out. Harsh I know! Then at the beginning of this year I changed my job and went to monthly pay (still with the same company). This was even worse and there was pressure at the end of the month when I couldn’t make ends meet.

“I spoke to a debt company and, after a brief telephone call, they asked for a £5 deposit – before I had even received an agreement to sign they had taken a substantial sum out of my account. This led to bounced direct debits and bank charges. I eventually got the money back, but it was too late to cancel the charges. In desperation I called the Samaritans and the National Debt Line, who referred me to Payplan. Since I switched to Payplan I have not heard from my creditors and they have agreed to my repayment plan. I feel happy and positive, but it’s early days.

“Living with debt nearly drove me over the edge. Up until this point I had always taken pride in being able to support my family and provide a good standard of living. My wife has stood by me and has had to go without many things and we will have to endure this for another six years (length of Debt Management Plan), although things will get better.

Talking about living with debt Karl added: “The feeling of shame is overwhelming sometimes and I still have some very dark days. There is no way to live with debt, you can deny it, you can hide it for a while, but you cannot live with it. It stays in the mind and is there constantly.”

.

The season of giving doesn’t have to cause stress and anxiety. Here is our list of ways to save a little this Christmas.

.

• Make a list: the best way to make sure you spend your money wisely is by making a list, boring we know but it does make a difference. Not just who you are buying for but what you are buying and how much you want to spend, then mark off each gift as and when you buy it to keep track of your spending.

• Shop around: with the internet there should be no excuse for not shopping around for the best deal this year. Sites such as mySupermarket allow you to compare your Christmas food shop, which can only be a good thing with families spending an estimated £170 on Christmas dinner alone. Then sites such as Money Supermarket ,can help you get the best deal for all other items.

• Cash in reward card points: what better time to cash in your hard earned reward points than at Christmas? If you collect Tesco Clubcard points or Sainsbury’s Nectar card points, for example, you can get money off your food shop; if you have a Boots advantage card then you can use this towards some of your gifts. They all go towards keeping the cost of Christmas down.

• Voucher code websites: websites that offer money off vouchers or discounts of any kind can really help your Christmas budget. Sites such as Money Saving Expert, Money and Voucher Codes can offer some brilliant savings. However, beware of the trap and only search for vouchers for gifts that you know you want and don’t be tempted to get things just because of the saving. You could find yourself buying more gifts or spending unnecessary money.

What are your top tips for saving this festive season?

Some people think that bankruptcy wipes off 100% of debt, and you can be completely debt free within 12 months. Unfortunately this isn’t always the case and, therefore, bankruptcy should never be viewed as the easy way out.

Bankruptcy is a form of insolvency and is one of the many options available to people who are in financial difficulty. Contrary to the belief of some bankruptcy is a complex, and sometimes difficult, solution to your financial problems.

A bankruptcy petition currently costs £525 with a further £175 in costs towards the court fee. Once a bankruptcy petition is filed an Official Receiver is assigned who will go through a person’s finances, assets and debts. If there are valuable assets such as a house, motorhome, jewellery or a car then they will look at selling them in order to pass the funds to the creditors.

As well as assessing assets, the Official Receiver will look at income and expenditure; if a person has a surplus left once they have accounted for all of their monthly outgoings then they could be requested to pay what is called an Income Payments Order (IPO).

An IPO is where a person pays any surplus income towards their bankruptcy for a set period of time, usually three years.

In addition, Bankruptcy will normally remain on a person’s credit file for six years from the date they were made bankrupt.

If you are looking into bankruptcy you may be able to get help with the fees, click here to for more information.

.

If this is a route you think would be suitable for you read our top tips for what to do:.

• Get together all of your creditor balances and confirm how much you owe to each of them.
• Contact your mortgage lender and get up-to-date balances on your outstanding amount. Then you are in a position to instruct a surveyor to determine the value of your home. From this you can see how much equity you have.
• Do not forget to calculate the fees that are involved in selling a house.
• If, once your house has sold, you have enough funds to clear your debts in full you can arrange payments with them.
• If your funds do not cover all of the debt then you can contact Payplan and we can look into offering your creditors a reduced settlement or a Full and Final IVA.
• Remember to calculate the costs of moving into your new accommodation. If you are moving to a rented property you will need to have funds available to offer as a deposit.

Selling your home in order to repay your debts will prevent creditors from forcing the sale of the property or them going down the bankruptcy route , however you should always consider all options before making any major decisions like this  and seek appropriate advice.

This got me thinking: it is always an option for a debtor to arrange their own plan with their creditors but people still choose to enlist the help from people like us at Payplan. My question is, why? Some debt management companies, like Payplan, are free however there are some out there that charge a fee for the service that they provide.

In order to answer my question, I decided to ask our followers on Facebook and Twitter…

Nick said, “It would have been a big job to write to all my creditors. Payplan certainly helped. But what a relief it was to get some help! You can only battle on so much before the stress gets to you.”

Adam said “It certainly lifted the weight from my shoulders about worrying when my next red bill was coming through the door, and the stress of paying different companies. Now I have only one outgoing payment and I’m so much happier.”

Nicki said “It kept the wolves from the door. My stress levels were losing me sleep and stopping me enjoying life. Now I am happy because Payplan is in control.”

Craig said “[I] was drowning in debt with no end in sight. So nice to have someone fight your corner.”

People understand that they can if they choose to arrange a plan directly with their creditors, however it seems people like to have the support that is given to them through people like us at Payplan.

What are your views? We would love to hear from you.

Unless you have been living on the moon for the past couple of months you will be well versed on the impending doom that is a “double dip” recession. But do any of us really understand what this means for each of us?

If reports are anything to go by, we are indeed heading into our second recession in five years and we should expect to see a domino effect with consumer spending going down, less money going into the economy, jobs getting cut and unemployment rising and finances getting stretched to their limits.

Memories are still fresh in people’s minds from the last time, with many still picking up the pieces; we can only hope that we have learnt lessons from the last time to help us through what is certain to be a difficult time for us all.

Tweet

To use this on your website use the following embed code:

<iframe src="http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/wp-content/uploads/2011/euro-debt/index.html" scrolling="no" style="height: 4162px; width: 714px; border: 0; overflow: hidden;" title="The Eurozone Debt Crisis Explained: Who owes what to whom? And what happens now?"></iframe> <p>Source: <a href="http://www.payplan.com/iva-individual-voluntary-arrangements.php">Payplan – IVA and free debt advice provider</a></p>

Payplan – for IVA and free debt advice

If you are in a DMP it is not impossible to obtain further credit for unexpected expenses, but you must be honest in any application. IF you are asked about your financial circumstances and you are not honest, then you are potentially committing Fraud. There are creditors that will not ask about your financial circumstances but these will usually charge a very high rate of interest. .

If you are in an Individual Voluntary Arrangement and you have taken further credit without the approval of your Insolvency Practitioner then you arrangement is at risk of failing. It is written into your IVA proposals that you cannot take out any credit whilst in the IVA without prior approval of your IP in exceptional circumstances.

If you find yourself in a situation where you feel you need to take out credit it is always best to speak to the person who is handling your case as they may be able to help your situation and offer some guidance. If you are on a DMP they can look into reducing your monthly payments to allow for the additional expenditure. Or if you are in an IVA it may be possible to take a payment break.

Have you ever been caught out? What did you do?

After your house, your job will be the most important thing to you; after all without your job you cannot pay your mortgage or your debts. Unfortunately not all jobs are safe with all debt solutions.

We would always recommend that if you are unsure, then check your contract of employment.

Debt Management Plans

As a DMP is an informal agreement between you and your creditors you shouldn’t be at risk by entering into this type of arrangement. However some jobs are at risk if legal action is successfully brought against you, such as: a County Court Judgement, Attachment of Earnings or a Charging Order.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement

An IVA is a legally binding agreement between you and your creditors and therefore some employers may not allow their employees to enter into such as agreement. Jobs or promotions may be affected if you work in the financial services industry for example.

Bankruptcy

Many jobs are affected by bankruptcy such as those that work in financial services, legal and accountancy or if you work for a FSA regulated company. Other jobs that could be at risk include working for the Police, Armed Forces, as well as being a Local Authority Official or a Member of Parliament.

To be on the safe side, you should always check your contract of employment.

One worry for many is, does anyone need to know about my situation? The simple answer is no. If you don’t want your friends or family to know then you don’t need to tell them.

You don’t need to inform your employer either, unless you are entering into a plan where your job could be at risk then you would need to discuss it with them. In that situation everything you tell your employer will be confidential, so you would not need to worry about office gossip.

At the end of the day, it is completely your decision whether you tell anyone or not. If you have someone to talk to then you know what they say “a problem shared is a problem halved.”

Who would you turn to if you had money worries? Would it be your partner, a parent, a friend or would you keep it secret?

A trend that we are seeing at the moment is groups of 18-25 years olds who took out credit when it was offered to them only to now find they are struggling to pay it back. Some are facing up to their problems and seeking help to pay back their debts, while others are paying visits to the bank of ‘Mum and Dad for help.

While this can seem like the easy option, does it really teach young people a valuable financial lesson and help them to appreciate money? Or does it just free up their money and credit for more reckless spending?

I would like to hear your views.

• Contact each of your creditors and find out exactly how much you owe.
• Put together a financial statement to see exactly what you have coming into the household each month and what is going out.
• Calculate what your contractual payments are for each creditor, if you have enough surplus income to pay the creditors then you know you can stop panicking.
• If your surplus income doesn’t cover your payments then contact us and we can help arrange a plan with your creditors with you.

Planning for an emergency can save a lot of stress and anxiety, not to mention money.

When we are putting together budgets for our clients we recommend they put some money aside each month as a contingency fund. By having a ‘rainy day’ pot if an unexpected item of expenditure does crop up it avoids the need to take out emergency credit, such as Payday Loans.

If you need help with your finances then please call one of our trained debt specialists who will assist you with getting things back on track.

Just remember the old saying “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is”.

With an IVA you will usually agree to pay a fixed amount for 60 months, any equity in your property needs to be considered as you will need to look into re-mortgaging to release some of it. Modifications can be put forward and you could be required to make up to 72 monthly payments. Once you have successfully completed your IVA any unsecured debts, which are included in your IVA, will be written off.

With bankruptcy you risk losing any assets and could be required to pay an Income Payment Order for up to three years before being discharged from your debts. Depending on your circumstances, this can change.

Both are forms of insolvency and they should not be considered lightly as they can have serious consequences on your ability to obtain a mortgage, keep any assets or even obtain a bank account.

How do you make such a decision? Here is our handy guide to see what is involved in each plan.

Debt Management Plans

• This is an informal arrangement between you and your creditors
• House could be at risk as creditors can force Bankruptcy or apply to the court to secure the debt against your property.
• Legal action is possible.
• Credits can still make contact with you regarding your debts.
• Creditors can change their minds about the repayment plan at any time.
• Flexible repayment plan.
• Repay all of your debts plus interest and charges.

Individual Voluntary Arrangement

• House is safe as long as you maintain repayments.
• You would usually need a minimum surplus of £100
• Legally binding agreement so creditors cannot pursue any further legal action.
• Creditors can only contact you when sending annual statements
• Once your proposals are approved creditors cannot change their minds.
• Your proposals set out your repayment plan for the duration of the IVA, any reduction must be approved by your creditors.
• Any debt remaining after your IVA is completed is written off.
• You can hold most official employment roles whilst in an IVA that you wouldn’t if you were to go bankrupt.

This week marks world Energy Saving Week, an initiative that aims to get everyone thinking about their energy usage and look at what they can do to cut down and reduce their bills.

Here are a few tips that we would like to share:

• Leaving your appliances on standby still uses electricity. If you switch them all off at the plug you can save money of your bill.
• Insulating your home can make a big difference to your bills. Lots of energy companies now provide grants to those that are the most vulnerable or struggle to pay their bills to enable them to insulate their homes.
• Switching all of your light bulbs in your house to energy saving bulbs can make a small difference, but a difference none the less.
• By turning your thermostat down by just 1degree you can save 10% on your energy bill.

Although only a few small steps, they can not only save you money but will also make the planet a little bit greener.

We would now like to hear your tips, what do you do to try and keep your bills down? No matter how big or small, we want to know!

Often when people are going through the process of setting up a plan they suffer from “information overload” and things can get confusing when trying to deal with such a stressful situation. Regardless of who you choose to assist you with a plan, you should always take your time and not feel pressured into agreeing to go down one particular route without fully assessing your options.

You need to fully understand the plan that you are entering into if you have any questions, no matter how silly they may seem, then ask! Whether it is your case officer at Payplan or elsewhere, then they should take the time to fully answer all your questions for you and make sure you are ready for the plan that you are about to enter.

If you are already in a plan, it should have been clearly and carefully explained to you from the beginning what plan you are in. However if you are unsure you should always speak to the person in charge of you case, whether that be your case officer at Payplan or your case officer from the provider you are with.

Below is a quick reference guide to the differences of a DMP and IVA:

Debt Management Plan (DMP)

• Informal agreement between you and your creditors
• Debts will be repaid in full
• Agreement will last as long as it takes to repay the debts in full
• Attempts will be made to freeze interest and charges, however this can never be guaranteed

Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)

• Legally binding agreement between you and your creditors
• All interest and charges are frozen
• A typical IVA consists of 60 monthly contributions, however depending on your IVA or possible  modifications this can be different
• Once your IVA has been successfully completed any remaining debt will be written off

I’m new to Payplan and really pleased to be part of the team. It’s not just that this is a great place to work – and it is – it’s just that after being made redundant last year I was worried I may be out of work for some time.

It led to a rollercoaster of emotions. Well-meaning friends and family told me not to worry and assured me I would soon find another job. I’m sure they believed what they were saying, but kind words don’t pay bills or put food on the table.

I soon found out that when you lose a regular income the spectre of debt soon follows. It’s amazing how quickly I felt vulnerable. I can understand why so many in a similar situation don’t bother to shop around for the best solutions when it comes to coping with debt.

Those adverts offering instant cash or debt solutions can seem like the answer to a prayer when you are desperate. There is evidence that only 1 in 6 people with debt problems seek help and when they do seek advice they tend not to shop around or pay much attention to the high fees.

At Payplan this is something my colleagues hear all too often from clients who come to us after having bad experiences with unscrupulous fee-charging companies. Many of them are unaware of free-to-client debt solutions, like those at Payplan.

So, in my new role as the Public Relations Manager, I am looking forward to raising awareness of Payplan and its role at the forefront of the campaign for regulation of the debt management sector.

In the meantime, I’ve been told that the average working person only has enough money in reserve to cope with being unemployed for three months before debt becomes a real problem. I’d love to hear your views. Post a comment or send me a message via Twitter @JanePR_Payplan.

So after eventually plucking up the courage to call and speak to someone about her debt problems she felt very disheartened and lost hope in trying to find a viable solution. This was when I asked her to call Payplan and speak to one of our debt specialists, to which she replied “what’s the point?”

The point is, each and every debt management provider works differently, so one person has said you have limited options, this doesn’t mean that you do actually have limited options. With all things debt related it is always best to speak to a few debt specialists and get a few opinions before making your decision.

The cost of a call to Payplan is just a few moments of your time and nothing more. The worst that could happen is that we tell you the same as you have heard before. But with Payplan at the very least we will provide you with a Self Help Pack and will assist you every step of the way with our dedicated team, the Special Advice Team.

Depending on their personal circumstances a Debt Management Plan or Individual Voluntary Arrangement may not be an option. For those people we send out a Self Help Pack.

As the name suggests, a Self Help Pack or SHP is where a person arranges a payment plan directly with their creditors. It is also known as an Informal Arrangement. It is basically a Debt Management Plan that is set up directly with a person’s creditors without the help of a third party.

A Payplan SHP contains template letters that can be sent to creditors to inform them of a person’s financial difficulty. It also contains information on how to deal with current bank accounts if there are debts in relation to them and offers of advice on how to set up an alternative account.

The pack also contains a blank income and expenditure allowing the recipient to calculate their surplus income for creditors. Once this is completed there is a calculation guide to show how much should go to each creditor.

Every pack contains a username and password allowing access to a specific member area on the Payplan website which contains answers to common questions and further advice.

Anyone needing further support can contact our team of dedicated debt specialists who are on hand throughout the day to offer specialist advice and support.

The Special Advice Team can be contacted on 0800 917 7819.

If you are in the credit card cycle you may be thinking that there is no way out. You don’t need to struggle month to month with your credit card repayments, you can seek free, independent advice from charities such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, National Debtline, Money Advice Service or from Payplan.

You could look into doing a structured plan with possible options including a Debt Management Plan or Individual Voluntary Arrangement, Bankruptcy, a Debt Relief Order, or even an informal agreement with your creditors that you set up yourself.

There are plenty of options that are available so you do not need to struggle and you can get help.

But do people really know how bad it really is? We share the shocking facts that show the current state of the UK’s debt problems.

Watch our new video about debt in the UK.

Embed this video on your own blog or website:

(Click once inside the box to select all text)

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/DM07bGOwbNo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p style="margin:6px 0 12px; width:800px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:8px;">Source: Payplan – <a href="http://www.payplan.com/iva-individual-voluntary-arrangements.php">IVA</a> and Free Debt Management Plan provider.</p>

In his speech proposing the amendment, Gareth Epps an activist and former counsellor from Reading, said: “there is no greater personal tragedy than unmanageable, all-consuming debt. The impact that this can have on an individual’s quality of life is significant.”

The amendment was successfully carried, after being seconded by Linda Jack, and now has the effect of handing the party’s mandate to Liberal Democrat Minister, Ed Davey MP, to introduce such a system.

I believe this is an important milestone in the campaign for regulation and I look forward to seeing the Minister take this forward with his Westminster and Whitehall colleagues.

In June this year the fee for bankruptcy rose to £700.00 consisting of £525.00 for the cost of petitioning for bankruptcy and a further £175.00 for the court fee. Due to these high costs it is no surprise that many are avoiding a suitable route because it is too expensive.

For those who are avoiding bankruptcy as they cannot afford the £700.00 fee, there is help available from a number of different sources.

• Citizens Advice Bureau – visit your local office http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm
• Unions –  such as TUC or Unison http://www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/about_contact.cfm, http://www.unison.org.uk/file/B3892.doc
• Utility Trust Fund, British Gas http://www.britishgasenergytrust.org.uk/grants_to_individuals/index.html
• EDF http://www.edfenergytrust.org.uk/index.php?page=grantsind
• EON http://www.eonenergy.com/At-Home/Going-Green/Energy-Saving-Advice/Guidance-And-Caring-Energy
• Scottish Electric http://www.energypeopletrust.com/content/
• Royal British Legion http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/can-we-help/financial-advice-and-assistance
• Licensed Trade Charity http://www.licensedtradecharity.org.uk/what_we_do
• Civil Service Benevolent Fund http://www.csbf.org.uk/help_and_advice/apply_for_help
• MS Society http://www.mssociety.org.uk/support_and_services/grants/index.html
• Matthew Trust http://www.matthewtrust.org/master.htm

Four years ago I had amassed debts amounting to £28,000 due to credit cards and loans. I was receiving phone calls and letters all the time demanding money that quite frankly I didn’t have. I came across Payplan through a forum board I went on – iVillage.co.uk – and decided to give you a call. I received a call from one of your workers and as soon as I started to talk to him I burst out crying, I felt so ashamed that I had let myself get in this position but he was brilliant and reassured me that I wasn’t alone – there were thousands out there in the same boat. He didn’t stand in judgement of me and did everything he could to keep reassuring me.After all the formalities had been gone through, it was decided I would take out a DMP, I then worked out a budget plan that I could afford and although some months I struggled I never missed a payment – and every time my personal situation changed my monthly payment increased meaning I was paying the debts off quicker. It was fantastic, the letters and phone calls stopped. And if I did receive any letters I just sent them to my account managers who dealt with them for me.I am now nearing the end of my DMP – I have 4 payments left (depending on interest/charges etc) and it feels so good. I am so proud of myself – I have paid it all off with no help from family or even my husband. They’re all so proud of me too.I am now not ashamed to admit I got into trouble and will recommend Payplan to anybody. It is the best thing I ever did and since Payplan took up my cause I can honestly say I started to sleep better at nights just knowing that the letters and phone calls had stopped.

Many who earn their income through self-employment worry that they cannot get help with their debts. Thankfully, that isn’t true! Regardless of your income source, you can seek advice on how to help your situation. You may be suitable for a structured plan such as a DMP or IVA, or you can set up a plan directly with your creditors if you don’t have a stable income at present.

Payplan, like many reputable companies, can offer a plan to suit you and can ensure your individual situation is dealt with. Whether that be a Debt Management Plan, Individual Voluntary Arrangement, Bankruptcy or a Debt Relief Order.

If you find yourself in arrears it can be extremely scary, as many fear they will be ‘cut off’ and be without gas, electric or water. If you act quickly there is a better chance of this not happening. If you pay monthly then you can increase your payments, meaning you will pay it back gradually. However if you don’t pay monthly you can come to an agreement with your utility provider whereby you pay them a reasonable amount until the arrears have been paid in full.

With the increase in gas and electric prices many people are experiencing difficulty with paying their bills, so you are not alone! There are many organisations, some government funded, some charities and some utility providers who are on hand to offer assistance to those that are struggling the most.

For a full list visit BBC – Battling bills, what help is there?

Currently 1 in 8 men over the age of 65 years are in employment, 40% of those are in full time work. This may be down to the lack of pension funds, increase cost of living or are in debt.

In comparison, 6.4% of women over the age of 65 years are still in employment.

Regardless of your age or employment status Payplan can offer free debt advice to do all we can to help you find a solution that is best for you. Whether that be a Debt Management Plan, Individual Voluntary Arrangement, Bankruptcy or a Debt Relief Order.

As time went on, more and more parents returned to work, putting their children into nursery as it became less practical financially for one to stay at home to bring up the children.

However the credit crunch, pay cuts and the rising cost of living has meant that, in some instances, both parents can no longer afford to work and pay for childcare. Prior to the budget of 2011 many families qualified for Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits with the element of help towards childcare fees. Post Budget 2011 the threshold changed and many families found themselves no longer qualifying for assistance.

This left many families struggling to make ends meet. Those that were already struggling found their finances stretched even further as they had to find extra funds to pay for childcare.

It was recently announced that the number of women out of work has risen with benefit cuts and the decrease in wages being blamed.

Now it seems that many women are once again staying at home with the children, as they can no longer afford to have both children and a career.

Sending the children back to school can be extremely costly; unfortunately many children don’t consider the costs and many want all of the latest trends, gadgets and anything else that they can use to show off to their friends. It’s probably because of this that the average teenager is thought to cost £9,000 a year according to figures released by the Office of National Statisitics.

Luckily you don’t have to spend a fortune on uniforms and can get everything your child needs for little cost, whilst still allowing them to look cool! Here are my top 5 tips for staying cool for school on a budget:

1. Shop around for school uniforms: you don’t have to be confined to the school shop; supermarkets have very good back to school ranges nowadays. Asda has George, Sainsbury’s has TU and Tesco has F&F.
2. If your children want the latest gadgets, make them work for it! If they are teenagers, encourage them to get a paper round of part time job to earn a little money, and then they can save up. If they are younger, encourage them to do jobs around the house for their pocket money.
3. Children grow, quickly! When buying school uniforms, buy them a size bigger so they will last longer.
4. Give your children a budget. Telling them what they have to spend can help them learn the tricky art of budgeting.
5. Reuse last year’s bits and bobs. If it is still in good working order or still looks wearable then why throw it out. With more than one children of school age things can get costly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with handing down uniforms or school equipment.

This led me into thinking about potential pressures that parents face. Do parents have a pressure to take their children out on day trips? I personally don’t have any children so I decided to get some help and find out from people who do have them.

Over the past week I have been running a survey asking a few simple questions to try and gage what people are planning, how much they plan to spend, how much they think they will actually spend and how they plan on paying for it.

The response that we got has been small, but interesting none the less, and it has allowed us to get a snapshot into the thoughts and reality of parents.

break

break

break

break

These are just a few examples of the results that we got from our survey.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

What is a Payday Loan?

A Payday Loan is a loan that will pay you a sum of money to essentially cover your outgoings until your next payday. These loans can range from £50 to over £1,000 depending on your needs. You will then be expected to pay this sum of money back on your next payday. The interest rates are famously very high on these types of loans so it is always important that if you do take out a Payday Loan that you repay it back as soon as possible.

What are the advantages to a Payday Loan?

If you come up against an unexpected item of expenditure and you have a poor credit rating then you may feel that a Payday Loan may be the only option for you. A Payday Loan can work on a short term basis, meaning that as long as you pay it back on your next payday then you won’t pay too much interest. For example if you borrow £100 and pay it back on your next payday then you will pay around £27 in interest, this is based on a typical interest rate of around 20%

What are the disadvantages to a Payday Loan?

Although there are a few advantages to Payday Loans, there are also disadvantages, when borrowing money via a Payday Loan they are designed to be repaid fairly quickly. If for whatever reason you find yourself unable to repay the full amount then you could be left with higher interest charges. For example if you were to borrow £100 and pay this back within 34 days of taking out the loan, you would pay around £41.00 in interest on top of the £100 to pay the original loan amount. Some people find themselves in a vicious cycle with Payday Loans, meaning that as they pay off one Payday Loan they need another to get them through the month, which leads them to get another loan to pay off the first one and so on…

How do I avoid Payday Loans?

As easy as they are to obtain, if you can avoid them then that is always the best option! In my experience people tend to get a Payday Loan to cover unexpected items of expenditure so in order to avoid this it is always best to save a little each month to put aside. This way when these matters do arise you have some savings to help you out.

If you are in a plan already and you are struggling with repayments, then please speak to your case officer as they will be able to assist you in reviewing you’re I&E without you having to take drastic actions.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

We have put together a short survey to find out what you are doing this summer and we would be extremely grateful if you could spare a few minutes to take part…

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

When a parent calls Payplan, we can offer them basic debt advice that they can pass onto their son or daughter. However because you’re calling without their knowledge and therefore haven’t given their permission for you to act on their behalf, it can be difficult for us to give you any specific advice.

What can you do to help?

If your son or daughter is in financial difficulty it can be tricky for you to help them. I would say the first thing to do is sit down and speak to them, and find out how and why they got into debt in the first place. It always helps to understand their situation first as there could be underlying issues that they may need help with. It is important, I would say, to remain non-judgemental: if they have been keeping this to themselves, then they may be embarrassed and all they need is a bit of guidance.

If they are not up to looking for solutions to help their situation they can give permission for you to act on their behalf. At Payplan, they would need to provide verbal or written permission and then we can do all of the work with you.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about your debts then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

People that come to us after being with another debt management company often have a lot of questions so hopefully I can try and answer a lot of them.

Can I change my DMP?

The simple answer is yes. Just because you are already in a DMP it doesn’t mean you have to stick with that plan that you are in. Many DMP providers will require you to give them notice to your cancellation but that shouldn’t stop you.

How do I change my DMP?

If you decide that you are not happy with your debt management company and you want to change, you need to do your research and find a company that you are happy with and one that you feel has your best interests at heart. You should then call them and go through the initial process of setting up a plan with them.

When should I stop paying into my current plan?

For this next part, everyone has different opinions as to what you should do, at Payplan we would say that you should stop paying into your DMP as soon as you can and set up payments direct with your creditors whilst your DMP is being set up. The reason why we say this is if you are currently paying a fee to the company then this should be going to your creditors. You can therefore split the fee between your creditors while your new plan is being set up and then once it is they will start receiving more funds from you.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

We receive many calls each week from people who have found themselves in financial difficulty by gambling – a lot of these people ignored their problem for so long in the hope of finding the winning streak that would enable them to pay off their debts.  Many realise their problem, seek help for their addiction and then seek help for their finances.

Can Payplan help me?

Payplan can offer advice to anyone in debt. Your level of debt would be a major factor regarding what we can do to help. One of the first things that we would ask of you is: have you stopped gambling? The reason why this is so important is that with any kind of plan you are asked not to obtain any further credit and you are asked to pay all available income into your plan, meaning that you shouldn’t have funds to gamble. The other reason is that we would normally assume you got into your financial situation due to your gambling, and if you carry on gambling then you risk making it somewhat worse than it already is.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

What should I expect?

The Special Advice Team are there to offer long term support to clients that do not qualify for a plan but still require help. You can expect to have someone on hand to help you learn how to deal with your creditors, how to put your budget together and get help putting correspondence together to send to your creditors.

All clients who are referred to the Special Advice Team will be sent a Self Help Pack, and many clients use this to set up a plan successfully on their own. However others prefer to have support which is where the Special Advice Team come into action.

What happens next?

It is harder to say what comes after the Special Advice Team; if your circumstances change and you have more available surplus then we would be able to look at reviewing your circumstances and seeing whether an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or a Debt Management Plan are now suitable options for you. If things change for the worse, then we assist you in considering whether Bankruptcy or even Debt Relief Orders are suitable for you. Some people’s circumstances don’t change, however the Special Advice Team will continue to support you as long as you need our help.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

The aim of the survey was for us to gauge what people’s perceptions of debt are. It is usually the case that people’s perceptions are a lot different to the reality, this survey turned out to show exactly that.

The infographic below shows us what the public’s perceptions of debt are and how this sits in comparison to the reality, the reality being our clients based on those that called us between March 2010 and March 2011 who entered into either a Debt Management Plan or Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). It is very clear to see that reality of debt is far from the thoughts of many people.

Embed this image on your own blog or website:

(Click once inside the box to select all text)

<a href="http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/07/12/debtperception-versus-reality/"><img src="http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/wp-content/uploads/debtNEW2680px-7.jpg" alt="Payplan Debt Perceptions Infographic 2011"/></a> <p style="margin:6px 0 12px; width:800px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:8px;">Source: Payplan – <a href="http://www.payplan.com/iva-individual-voluntary-arrangements.php">IVA</a> and Free Debt Management Plan provider.</p> <p>

Regardless of your reality, Payplan are still at the end of the telephone if you would like to speak to an expert debt specialist.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

The Legal Document Handling team assist any Payplan client that receives court documents for proceedings for County Court Judgements, Attachment of Earnings or Charging Orders. They will do all of the hard work for you, like filling out the paperwork, sending it to the correct places and making sure it gets there on time. When receiving a letter through the post with court proceedings attached, many people will panic. However with the help of our highly experienced legal document handling team you do not need to panic as they are there to support you.

The Settlements Team are the team who assist Payplan clients who find themselves in a position to settle one or all of their debts. You will be assigned a case officer who will take care of your case. They will also need details of the lump sum you have available, such as the amount and the source of the money. They will then go to each of the creditors and they will negotiate the amount with them if you want to try to pay back a reduced amount (known as a ‘short settlement’), or confirm the full balance owed if you want to pay back in full.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Once you have made your first payment to us, we will pass your details onto your PFM who will, once again, double check everything with you and make sure you are happy with what is happening so far. After this initial contact has been made, as long as you plan runs smoothly, you will only speak to your PFM once a year for your annual review. If for whatever reason you need to speak to your case officer, they are always at the end of the telephone to give you any support that you need.

However, if for some reason or other, something doesn’t go to plan during your DMP then we would always recommend that you call us straight away. This could be a change in circumstances, creditor contact or change in payment plan. It is always best that you keep your PFM up to date at all times so that they can make sure your plan runs as smoothly as possible.

What should I expect?

The only thing you should really expect from this stage of your DMP is on-going support from Payplan, your PFM and case officer. We will regularly check everything is running smoothly and you are coping well in the plan. You will receive a call from your PFM to go through your case on an annual basis and they will regularly check-up via letter and email.  This is usually the final road to becoming debt free, as long as you included all of your unsecured debts in the plan and haven’t obtained further credit during the time. Once you leave this stage you should be debt free, or ready to make your final payment to your creditors, as long as you stick to the plan.

If you would like to speak to one of our debt specialists about a DMP then please call 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

For those that call us for help we ensure that we assist them as much as possible. Over the past couple of weeks I have been explaining the journey our clients go through. Today I am going to take you through the first stage of a Debt Management Plan.

When choosing a DMP you will go through to two different stages, the first one will put the plan in place for you, this is where we are going today.

What should I expect?

Once you have decided that you want to do a DMP all of your details will be passed to the DMP department. Your case will be assigned to a case officer who will be in charge of setting up the arrangement and making sure if all runs smoothly. Once your case officer has received your details they will go through everything and decide what information they need from you, if any. They will call you and arrange a time and day that is suitable to go through the process with you; this is called the Initial Call. During the Initial Call your case officer will go through the processes of the DMP, they will go through your budget and check the payment is affordable and will also go through setting up payments and payment dates.

What happens next?

After you have completed your initial call you need to set up your payments and will also need to provide your case officer with the information they require as soon as possible. If your case officer is missing information then this can delay them in sending your creditors your Financial Statement, which means that your creditors won’t be able to agree to the plan.

Once everything is ready you will then be ready to enter into our long term support and enter stage 2 of the DMP.

If you are struggling with debts don’t go to a fee paying company ring Payplan as it is free and all the money goes into your DMP.
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Today we can announce our results!

In total 84 people took part in the survey, a small number but it gives us the chance to give us a snapshot into peoples thoughts, with the results being just as interesting.

So here are the results…

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those that have taken part in the survey and those that have Tweeted it out for us especially, @Zerocredik_uk @Debtology @Andrew_F_Smith and @CashQuestions

Next week we will be publishing the reality to these questions based on the people that we have helped into debt solutions.

Once you have made the initial call to us we will arrange for someone to call you back, usually the same day, or whenever is convenient for you. This is what we call the Assessment stage. This is the call where we will take all of your details; your creditor information, a full income and expenditure plan and details about your situation. By taking all of this information we will have a very detailed idea of your situation allowing us to advise you of the best solution for you.

During my visit to Assessment I listened in a lot of calls, all from people with very difference situations, different debt levels and with different solutions available to them.

What should I expect from the call?

For this call you need to be prepared! And by being prepared you will need to have all of your information ready, once your complete your first call with helpline they will provide you with a list of information that we will need. By having this ready we can go through everything with you straight away and go through your options with you on the same day.

What happens next?

After you have decided on the route you want to take, we will then take the appropriate action. If you are looking to do a Debt Management Plan, Individual Voluntary Arrangement or Debt Relief Order then we will pass all of your details across to the relevant department. If you are looking at going bankrupt then we will advise you of what you need to do and where to go. If you have a low surplus or debt level and we send you a Self Help Pack then we will transfer your case to our Special Advice Team who will be on hand to assist you in your plan should you need it.
Don’t forget you can find us on Twitter and Facebook

Whatever the problem, the Helpline team are there to deal with it all from 8am in the morning until 9pm at night five days a week.

What should I expect?

From the first phone call you can expect your Payplan advisor to share with you all of their knowledge and experience to help you in your situation. They are on the other end of the telephone to listen to you and not to judge you.

Do I need to prepare anything for the call?

No. All you need to do is call us and ask for help. Your advisor will ask for a few basic details, like creditors and debt level as well as a brief bit of background information.

What happens next?

After your call, depending on your circumstances, we will either arrange a phone call to fully assess your case or if you cannot be placed into a plan we will refer you to our Special Advice Team who will assist you with an Informal Arrangement.

Don’t forget you can find us on Twitter and Facebook

Why Are We Doing This Survey?

We want to test people’s perceptions of those who are in financial difficulty against the real picture. Once we have received all the results from this survey we shall be publishing our own real life stats which have been collected over the last 3 years and contrasting them with the results of this survey. The results of this survey will give us a good insight into how people perceive those who are in financial difficulty and how this differs from the real picture. Hopefully, we’ll be able to dispel some popular myths about debt in the process.

Please click here to go to the survey it will only take you a few minutes to fill out and is only 7 questions long!

Don’t forget you can find us on Twitter and Facebook

Today Kevin shares his story…

It started a few years ago. Our bank accounts were being maxed out and to pay our bills we had to use our credit cards. We looked into how our accounts were being used and we noticed that there were transactions that we did not recognise. We contacted our bank who was not willing to help and said that unless we could prove that we had not spent the money we would have to bear the cost. My wife and I spent weeks trying to find out where the money was going and getting enough evidence to prove that we were right and we even contacted the relevant stores asking for them to check their CCTV for photos to prove our case. Unfortunately this was no to avail and this carried on for over 18 months. One day my wife and I were shopping in a supermarket when at the same time in another store someone was charging something else to our accounts. We managed to get a refund of this charge however the bank would still not reconsider our case.

In this time just to pay our bills we had maxed out our credit cards to pay our bills to the tune of about £25,000. We couldn’t afford the payments and we didn’t know where to turn. We were getting phone calls and letters demanding money which we didn’t have.  We visited our local CAB who were very helpful and suggested we contact Payplan. We did this and someone went through the details we would need for them to help. After going through all of these details we entered into a DMP and we were able to agree a monthly payment which we are able to afford. We were assigned a Case Officer and a Personal Finance Manager. The interest has been frozen and we no longer get phone calls or letters demanding money. I visit justabank weekly and look at the offers that are on there and they have helped us with our everyday expenses as well. In the recession my salary has decreased and we advised them and our payments were reduced and as and when my salary increases I will pay more into the DMP.

If you are struggling with debts don’t go to a fee paying company ring Payplan as it is free and all the money goes into your DMP.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Today I want to briefly go through what a mortgage is and what it means to remortgage.

What is a mortgage?

A mortgage is when you take out a loan from a bank, building society or specialist mortgage lender in order to purchase a property. Your mortgage lender will agree to lend you the money based on the condition that you maintain monthly payments for the term of your mortgage; if you fail to do so then you risk your home being repossessed. The lender will take first charge on your property which means in the event of sale they get first priority.

What are the different types of repayments for a mortgage?

In order to repay your mortgage, it isn’t as simple as splitting the amount borrowed over a set length of time. There are several different repayment types. The most common repayment types are;

• Interest only – this is where your monthly payments will go towards paying off the interest on your mortgage only. You will then be required, at the end of the mortgage term, to pay the remaining capital (amount originally borrowed). This is usually done an endowment paid as part of a separate agreement or savings. This type of mortgage is traditionally known as an endowment mortgage.
• Repayment – this is where you repay the capital amount and the interest off your mortgage together in one monthly payment. At the end of the mortgage term there will be nothing to repay.

What are the different interest types?

All mortgages will be subject to an interest rate, and the amount of interest you repay will largely depend on the type of rate you are on. Here are a couple of options;

• Fixed Rate – this is where the interest is fixed for a certain period of time.
• Variable Rate – this is a rate dependant on each individual lender and can fluctuate. It is usually reflective of the rate that lenders buy and sell money between themselves.

Remortgage

Remortgaging is where you replace an existing mortgage with a new one, without moving home. This could be with the same lender and you just change the product or it could be with a different lender all together.

If you have equity in your property then it may be possible to release some of this and help relieve any financial strain that you may have from other debts or allow you to carry out some home improvements.  However failure to keep to your repayments of a mortgage or other debts secured on it will, of course, put your house at risk of repossession.

What do I do next?

If you want any help or advice then we have a dedicated team of specialists who can help you from Who’s Lending, who are part of Payplan Financial Services.

Payplan Limited introduce customers to Payplan Financial Services Limited, who also trade as Who’s Lending and are authorised and regulated by Financial Services Authority. FSA Register Number 302801.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any debts secured on it.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help 0800 5870652.
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

• be fully transparent about the service on offer and fees charged
• explain to consumers both the risks and benefits of each proposed solution
• not use misleading names or advertising, including misleading web-based adverts, and
• ensure that the advice provided is in customers’ best interests. Payplan is proud to say that we meet the standards set by the OFT.

Since their first review on September 2010 along with the 129 companies that were warned, 43 chose to give up their licence and the OFT took action to have the licence removed from 11 other companies. To read more about Payplans role in the OFT report read our earlier blog post by clicking here.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

What is a Credit Card?

A credit card, as it says, is a card that allows you to spend on it up “to a set amount. Credit cards are usually issued by banks and large companies and some retailers also offer something similar called a store card. All credit cards, as mentioned, will have a credit limit and will also have a minimum monthly repayment that you are required to pay back, with the ultimate aim of paying the credit that you have borrowed. Your credit card will charge you monthly interest on all purchases and cash withdrawals, unless you have a new card with a 0% interest deal.

Credit cards, when used correctly can be very beneficial, but if you fail to pay the full outstanding balance at the end of each month due to the high interest you can find yourself struggling to get the balance back to £0.00

There are currently more than 60 million credit cards in circulation in the UK. In August 2010 outstanding credit card balances stood at £58.5billion, with that figure no doubt even higher now. 69% of credit cards had an outstanding balance on them according to the BBC and whatsthecost.com.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help 0800 2802816.
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

We, on the other hand, at Payplan have many years of experiences and understand that there are many reasons why you may get into debt or struggle with your debt.

I want to go through a few of the most common reasons that we see on a day to day basis.

Reduced income/ Redundancy

A very common story, from my experience, is a person who has taken out credit and has originally been able to afford the repayments comfortably and then as the recession hit they were either made redundant or they lost their overtime and their income dropped. When this happened, payments that were originally affordable suddenly become impossible to meet. In this situation we go through our client’s income and expenditure and make sure they are claiming any benefits that they may be entitled to. If you have been made redundant then you may not have enough money to spare to arrange a debt solution at the moment, but we will still be able to assist you in making token payments until your situation improves.

Divorce or Relationship Breakdown

Separating from your partner is a bad enough experience, but when you have debts this can add further pressure. If you have debts and you both contribute to the household, when one income disappears and your outgoings remain the same you are likely to start struggling to maintain payments for everything. In this situation we would go through your income and expenditure and where possible we would assist you in setting up a plan so that you can pay your debts back. If the debts are joint then your ex-partner, who is still also liable for the debts, will have to agree to pay their part of the debt.

Illness

If you have been working full time and receiving regular income, if you suddenly become too ill to maintain the same level of work and have to either leave work or reduce your hours, it is at this stage that we often see people struggling. In this situation we would ask you to check that you are receiving all of the benefits and help that you are entitled to and go through your income and expenditure with you and assist with setting up a repayment plan to deal with your debts.

These are just a couple of situations that our clients find themselves in before contacting us. We do see lots of different situations and our specialists are fully trained to help you regardless of how you found yourself in your current situation.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

The most common reason for people contacting us, with 33%, was due to them losing control of their finances and realising that they need to once again regain control and deal with their debt problem.

13% of the people we asked decided to contact us after their debts caused them too much stress or they became too desperate and needed some assistance in dealing with their creditors.

The third most common reason that prompted contact was from people who wanted to switch provider from a fee charging company to one that is fee free with 11% of people giving this as their reason.

A surprising and slightly alarming figure showed that 6% of the people asked said that they were being chased and/or threatened by their creditors, which is what prompted them to contact us.

Other reasons included: recommendation from a friend (10%), recommendation from a Citizens Advice Bureau (9%), recommendation from a creditor (7%), research (5%), recommendation from work (1%), payday loans (1%).

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help 0800 2802816

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Whilst Payplan welcomes today’s response from the OFT, the focus of the report’s policy prescription is on the ban of up-front fees in respect to credit brokers and unsecured loans, as opposed to the debt management sector.  Payplan considers that an equivalent ban in the debt management market should actively be considered.

On the subject of the loans market, John Fingleton, Chief Executive of the OFT, noted that its evidence “suggests some businesses are deliberately taking people’s money upfront with no realistic expectation of finding the type of loan they need.” Payplan would argue that this statement could just as easily apply to the debt management market, where providers often charge considerable upfront fees for arrangements that may have little chance of long-term success.

Fee-charging debt management providers have argued that without charging up-front fees, they would be left exposed to financial difficulties should a consumer default on a repayment plan. They have made the case that by withdrawing this financial ‘buffer’, the number of active debt management providers would decline and thereby reduce the choice available to the consumer.

Payplan believes that consumers are more likely to get good advice if providers have a shared interest in debt management plans working in the long term. As long as it remains possible to profit from arrangements which fail within a matter of months, consumers will be exposed to the risk that the advice they receive is skewed by commercial interest, rather than their particular needs.

Payplan rejects the idea that it is unviable to run a debt management business without up-front fees, given that there a number of providers running successful operations without relying on such a model. This has the significant benefit of aligning the interests of consumers and providers, which encourages good advice and proactive long term support to consumers in repayment arrangements.

John Fairhurst, Managing Director of Payplan said:

“Payplan considers that the only real long-term solution to the widespread abuses taking place in the debt management market, beyond just cold calling and the charging of exorbitant up-front fees, is the introduction of a statutory regime. We would like to see a cap on fees of any kind, a rigorous, independent audit of all providers and a system that ties in the creditor. The Debt Management Guidance Compliance Review identified a litany of malpractice in the industry. It is now time for the Government to recognise these abuses, and back the appropriate and proportionate regulatory changes that are necessary to protect some of the most financially vulnerable in society.”

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

What is debt consolidation?

Debt consolidation is a way to combine all of your credit card balances and unsecured loans into one loan and one monthly payment. The general idea for debt consolidation is to take out one loan that will pay off all of your credit cards and unsecured loans leaving you with one bigger loan meaning that your debt will become more manageable. However what can happen is that once the credit cards have been cleared, if you keep hold of them the temptation is still there to continue using them.

Pro’s to Debt Consolidation

• One loan, one monthly payment
• Only one creditor to deal with
• Can help you manage your finances
• Can help paying your debt back become less stressful as you will no long need to deal with lots of different creditors with varying demands

Con’s to Debt Consolidation

• A consolidation loan could have a high interest rate meaning that it will take a long time to pay back.
• If you have a bad credit rating then you will find it hard to get a loan.
• If you do not cut up the credit cards then you can be tempted to use them again.

What to do next…

If you feel that debt consolidation is the right route for you then you need to make a list of all of your debts and find out how much you owe and how much you would need to get a loan for. Once you do that you will be able to shop around for the best loan. Once you have cleared all of your debts you need to make sure that you cut up all of your credit cards and store cards so that you don’t carry on spending. If you do then you will be defeating the object and will not be helping your situation, in fact you’ll be making your debt even worse!

For more information about Debt Consolidation then click here.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Payplan are extremely proud to be featured by the BBC as a recommended company.

We fully support the findings of the BBC, as well as the Office of Fair Trading who are constantly trying to reinforce regulations into the Debt Management sector.

If you have any concerns over the Debt Management Plan with another company then, please do not hesitate to contact Payplan.

We offer free and impartial debt advice as well as free to client Debt Management Plans, where we can guarantee that all of the money that you pay into the plan will go directly to your creditors.
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

As you may or may not be aware, for the whole of last week we were conducting a poll to see who you thought were the best money related tweeters on Twitter. The poll created an unprecedented amount of interest and we would just like to send our sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed to the buzz on Twitter surrounding the poll, to those included in the poll for being great sports and most of all to all of you who took the time to vote.

Without further ado, it gives us great pleasure to announce the results of the poll which were very interesting and contained one or two surprises…

.

The Top 5

1 – 15.43% @martynsaville – Bio: Personal finance journalist at Which? writing on credit and debt, but with a penchant for Grace Jones, Dexter and Jasper Fforde on the side. Views are my own.

2 – 12.39% @WhichAction – Bio: Nikki and Charlotte are tweeting for WhichAction. We campaign to make people’s lives fairer, simpler and safer

3 – 9.78% @Zerocredit_UK – Bio: Sharing nfp & #creditfree since June 2009. Throw us on the scrap heap & we’ll all go bust…

4 – 7.61% @Jasmine – Bio: Financial expert, TV presenter, writer, humourist. A Money Magpie helping others become one.

5 – 7.39% @IFALife – Bio: Founder of the IFA Life Social Network, author and speaker on Social Media. Pioneering the use of Social Media by CFP Financial Planners, IFAs RIAs worldwide.

The Rest

6 – @thisismoney 5.22%

7 – @MoneySavingExp 4.78%

8 – @paullewismoney 4.35%

9 – @Real_Business 4.13%

10 – @CashQuestions 3.26%

11 – @MartinSLewis 3.04%

12 – @TheEconomist 3.04%

13 – @creditaction 2.83%

14 – @MoneywiseOnline 2.61%

15 – @Savvy_Woman 2.39%

16 – @FT 2.17%

17 – @TimHarford 1.96%

18 – @msnmoney 1.52%

19 – @MoneyObserver 1.52%

20 – @Paulmasonnews 1.3%

21 – @EnergySvgTrust 1.09%

22 – @quidco 0.65%

23 – @tepilo 0.65%

24 – @DavidWorsfold 0.43%

25 – @Hmtreasury 0.43%

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

I would like to thank all of those involved in the campaign and a special thank you to Chief Executive, Dr Andrew McCulloch’s for putting the blog together.

“The recession brings with it an increased risk of mental health problems for many individuals. The fear, or reality, of unemployment, insecure housing and high levels of debt are all associated with higher levels of mental health problems, such as stress, anxiety and depression.

As a nation, we already have huge amounts of personal debt; whether this is through mortgages, rent arrears, student loans, falling behind on phone, gas or electricity bills, or the use of credit cards and bank loans. The reduction in incomes and the increase in unemployment that have resulted from the recession will inevitably add to both the number of people in debt and the total amount of debt.

People can experience mental health problems whether they are high earners or low earners, or whether they are in debt or not, however there is a strong relationship between debt and mental illness; mental-ill health can lead to debt and debt can lead to mental-ill health, creating a vicious cycle. A quarter of people with a mental disorder are in debt, and a half of people in debt have a mental disorder.

We know that the outcomes of recessions – rising debt, unemployment and insecure housing – are associated with poorer mental health in individuals as well as in communities, and with poorer mental health comes poorer physical health. Prolonged experiences of stress, anxiety and depression can lead to an increased risk of diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease. So what can be done in this ‘time of austerity’ to reduce the impact of debt on the nation’s mental health?

The Foresight report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing (Government Office for Science, 2008) made a number of suggestions for breaking the cycle between debt and mental illness, particularly ensuring that routine mental health assessments should look at finance and debt, debt counselling should be made more accessible, and awareness needs to be raised amongst professionals as to where to refer patients with debt problems.

On an individual level, there are a number of ways that you can begin to manage the impact of debt on your mental health and the impact of your mental health on debt. Try seeking debt advice from trusted authorities they will try to help you to take action and prevent your debt from getting any worse. It could also be beneficial to make an appointment with your GP to discuss potential treatments for any mental health problems that you are experiencing, such as stress, anxiety or depression.

Every year, the Mental Health Foundation hosts Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW), where we publicise important factors that impact on the mental wellbeing of the nation. This years’ MHAW runs from 23rd – 30th May and you find out more at: www.mentalhealth.org.uk”

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Every year we help thousands of people as they struggle to cope with their debts with many people coming to us suffering from stress, depression or even feeling suicidal. A lot of people who are in debt often feel alone, which is why they often get these feelings.

It is very important to remember that if you are in debt, you do not have to cope alone! We help over 100,000 people each year who are in some sort of financial trouble.

If you are in debt and you are struggling to maintain payments, it is perfectly normal to feel down about it from time to time as you try to find ways to cope with your situation. Depression, however, is more that the occasional ‘blue’ day, as people who suffer can find it hard to function on a day to day basis and often feel overwhelmed by the circumstances they have found themselves in.

If you are feeling like your debts are getting on top of you, then you CAN speak to someone who will do all they can to help you.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

To produce the list we have been monitoring hundreds of Twitter accounts over the last month or so and it was an extremely difficult task to narrow it down to just 25. To whittle the list down we took into account factors such as measures of Twitter influence, tweeting frequency, number of followers and just plain usefulness of tweets. Anyone who tweets about money related matters has been considered for the poll and this list includes those that tweet about such diverse matters as credit card debt statistics and the merits of entering an IVA to the latest money saving tips and tricks.

Below is our list of 25 with links to their Twitter page and the Twitter bio for each tweeter. We recommend that you follow all of them and pick up to five of your favourites in the poll at the bottom.  Happy voting!

@TheEconomist - Official site for The Economist. Follow for article postings, updates and events.

@FT – World business, finance and political news from the Financial Times

@Hmtreasury – The official Twitter channel of HM Treasury, updated by the Treasury communications team. Watch our latest videos on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/hmtreasuryuk

@creditaction – Credit Action is a national money education charity and we exist to promote better thinking about money to prevent people experiencing the pain of debt.

@EnergySvgTrust – The Energy Saving Trust is a non-profit government funded organisation, which offers free and impartial advice on how to stop wasting energy and money at home.

@TimHarford – Author of The Undercover Economist; Financial Times columnist; presenter of More or Less, Radio 4. (Email via website is best for important messages.)

@MartinSLewis – Broadcaster journalist MoneySavingExpert. 140 characters on life, money, being in the media more. For tips see official @MoneySavingExp. 1st tweet 25feb11

@Paulmasonnews – Newsnight’s economics editor. Author of Meltdown; Live Working or Die Fighting.

@MoneySavingExp – MoneySavingExpert.com, Martin Lewis’s site is dedicated to saving you money on anything and everything by finding the best deals and beating the system.

@MoneywiseOnline – Moneywise is the UK’s leading personal finance magazine.

@MoneyObserver – Tweets from Money Observer’s Ruth Emery and Cathy Adams.

@msnmoney – Headlines and blog posts from the MSN UK Money site.

@paullewismoney – Financial journalist, broadcaster and public speaker. Expert on Wilkie Collins. These tweets are personal – not BBC Money Box or Breakfast nor Saga, just me.

@Real_Business – Keeping SMEs and enterprising people informed, engaged and inspired through digital, print and events.

@tepilo – Launched in July 09 – Tepilo.com is Channel 4 presenter Sarah Beeny’s alternative way to buy,sell or let your home for free.

@Jasmine – Financial expert, TV presenter, writer, humourist. A Money Magpie helping others become one.

@thisismoney – This is Money: news, tips advice and opinion on all things financial brought to you by @taraevans and @rich_browning.

@Zerocredit_UK - Sharing nfp & #creditfree since June 2009. Throw us on the scrap heap & we’ll all go bust…

@WhichAction – Nikki and Charlotte are tweeting for WhichAction. We campaign to make people’s lives fairer, simpler and safer.

@quidco – Tips, site updates, cashback news from the fringes of Quidco’s brain.

@IFALife – Founder of the IFA Life Social Network, author and speaker on Social Media. Pioneering the use of Social Media by CFP Financial Planners, IFAs RIAs worldwide.

@DavidWorsfold – Financial journalist now in editorial management at Incisive Media. I have a blog about politics and financial services.

@Savvy_Woman – Editor of SavvyWoman.co.uk – money website for smart women.

@CashQuestions – Financial agony aunt extraordinaire; Daily Express columnist, Radio London money expert, Feisty Friday Money Minx and general financial commentator.

@martynsaville - Personal finance journalist at Which? writing on credit and debt, but with a penchant for Grace Jones, Dexter and Jasper Fforde on the side. Views are my own.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

What is Joint & Several Liability?

When a credit agreement is signed by more than one person, then all of those that signed the agreement are liable for the full amount of credit borrowed. This is usually common with husbands and wives taking out a loan together. Most people do not think both parties are liable, they assume that they can only be chased for half.

If you have a credit card and you both have a card for that account, this is not a joint debt. Whoever took out the original agreement is liable for the debt, while the other is simply a cardholder.

With utilities and council tax, regardless of whose name appears on the bill, both of you will be liable to for any debts on the accounts.

What happens if…

I split up with my partner? You will both still be required to make payments towards the debt. If you both stop payments then you both will be chased.

My partner goes bankrupt? Your partner will be discharged from the debt by the creditor. The creditor will then chase you for the remaining amount of credit on the account.

My partner enters into an IVA? Your partner will pay a percentage of the debt back and then your creditor will chase you for whatever is outstanding on the account.

My partner enters in a DMP? Your partner will pay a certain amount each month towards the debt, but the creditors will chase you for the full contractual payment.

If you are worried about a debt that you have jointly with someone then you can speak to one of our specialists on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Today I am going to discuss the ins and outs of your credit report so you know all that you need to.

What is a Credit Report?

Your credit report compiles information from two different sources; public records and information from the credit industry.

Public Records- the type of information these hold are electoral roll details, details of any court judgments that have been issued against you, as well as details of whether you are in or have entered into an IVA or bankruptcy in the last six years.

Creditor Information- this is made up of credit accounts that you hold, credit applications that you make and financial associations.

What is the importance of my Credit Report?

Your credit report could be the decision maker for a creditor as to whether or not they will give you the credit. As well as deciding whether you get credit or not, it can also determine the interest rate or level/amount of credit offered. You have the right to view your report and have anything that is incorrect removed.

What is my Credit Rating?

This is the score based on your credit history and also helps a creditor with their decision making process. Not only can it affect your ability to gain credit but it can also have an effect on your ability to open a new bank account, gaining new employment in certain sectors and even has an effect on rental or mortgage applications. The information on your credit report, and the information you provide on an application form to a creditor, may be used by that creditor to give you a credit score. The creditor will use this credit score to identify the risk of offering you credit. The previous occupants of your address cannot affect your credit score. Also, credit scores do not take account of your sex, religion, race, political beliefs, sexuality or criminal record.

Where do I get my Credit Report from?

There are three big agencies who can provide your full credit report;

• Experian
• Equifax
• Call Credit

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Weddings are a day for two people to celebrate their love for each other with their family and friends. But for many, weddings also mean debt.

It is estimated that the average wedding in the UK costs £21,000 and the average couple will underestimate the cost of their wedding by £11,000.

And it is not only the happy couple who rack up thousands of pounds in costs for the big day, over recent years I have seen many parents come to us for help after they got credit to help fund their son’s or daughter’s wedding.

And then there are the wedding guests; the average guest will spend around £294 for the day and the preparation, ranging from the gift to the outfit to the hen or stag party.

Weddings are a very costly day and there are no ways to hide from the costs, but it doesn’t have to get you into debt. Here are my top tips to try and avoid getting in to debt:

• Make a budget plan for what you can afford and what you want for your wedding and stick to it!
• Only invite family and friends that you want at your big day. Remember it is your day after all and you should spend it with the people who care about you. You don’t need to invite the best friend you had when you were 10 or the second cousin that you have never met.
• Just because William and Kate are having a big lavish wedding, it doesn’t mean you need to. Your day can be just as special in a smaller, more intimate venue.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

I want to talk today about how to avoid the risk of repossession and what to do if you are already at risk.

How do I avoid the worry of repossession?

It may seem simple, but the easiest way to avoid the worry is to keep up with your mortgage payments. Above all else you need a roof over your head. Credit card and loan companies can sometimes get demanding so it may seem ‘easier’ to pay the credit card than the mortgage because you feel you’re getting less hassle in the long run.

If you know you are going to miss a mortgage payment or have already missed a mortgage payment then it is generally accepted that the relationship between yourselves and your lender is best served by you making early contact with your mortgage company, to explain your situation

I have already fallen behind with my mortgage and they are now seeking repossession, what do I do?

If you have already fallen behind with your mortgage payments and it is too late to do anything, then your mortgage company may then seek to repossess your home. The first step towards repossession is that you will receive notification through the post. You will be sent a claim form, which you have 14 days to respond to and this gives you the chance to explain your circumstances and try and resolve the situation.

If this is unsuccessful, the Lender will apply, through the County Court, for a Repossession Order. You will receive a summons to attend a County Court hearing, and whilst this may appear daunting to you, it will always be in your best interest to attend, and it gives you the opportunity to put your case forward yet again, this time to a judge directly. The County Court Judge will try to be helpful to you, and do everything possible to ensure that you have every opportunity to plead your case. The Judge will make an immediate decision.

If the Lender’s application for the Possession Order is successful, you will have at least 28 days to either to vacate the property, or to appeal the outcome. If the latter is unsuccessful, the lender may then exercise its legal powers to evict you from your home, and to take steps to sell your property, the proceeds of sale being used to repay the mortgage debt and the Lender’s costs.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Jobseekers Allowance

To be eligible for Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) you must be aged over 18 years but below pension age and you must either be out of work or work less than 16 hours per week on average. There are two types of Jobseekers Allowance; contribution-based and income-based. Contribution-based allowance allows you to claim if you have paid enough National Insurance over the course of the year, please note that if you are self-employed you may not be eligible. And income-based allowance allows you to claim if you have not paid enough but are on a low income.

When claiming Jobseekers Allowance you need to attend regular meetings to show that you are actively seeking full time employment.

Child Tax Credits

To be eligible for Child Tax Credits you must be responsible for at least one child. You can be either unemployed or employed and you will receive money for each child that you have in your care. You must be aged 16 years or over to receive Child Tax Credits and, if you are working, your income must be within a certain limit. If you are responsible for at least one child you must have a total income of no more than £40,000 a year from 06/04/2011 which is a reduction from the previous income threshold of £50,000. This means if your income will be over the new limit your basic child tax credit payment of £545 will be reduced.

The benefit is paid in two parts, the family element (this is paid to any family that is responsible for at least one child) and the child element (this is paid for each child in the family and may be higher if the child has a disability).  The maximum you can get for the family element is £545 per year and the maximum you can get for the child element is £2,555 per year.

Working Tax Credits

Working Tax credits are designed for people who are working but in low income jobs. The benefit is calculated on the amount of hours that you work or the amount that you are expected to work and you can receive the benefit whether you are employed of self-employed.

In order to be eligible for Working Tax Credits you have to fit the following criteria:

• If you have children you must be aged over 16 years and work over 16 hours per week.
• If you do not have children then you must be aged over 16 years and work at least 30 hours per week. However if you have a disability then you must only work 16 hours a week to qualify. If you or your partner are aged 50 years and older and are returning to work after being on Income Support or JSA, you must be working at least 16 hours per week to qualify.

Please seek advice if your income has increased significantly during the last tax year as this may affect your tax credit eligibility.

Income Support

Income Support is designed to give extra money to people on low income. You are eligible for the benefit if you are aged 16 years or over and within the age where you can get pension credits. You must have a low income and work less than 16 hours a week. You cannot have more than £16,000 of savings or receive JSA.  You may also be eligible if you are a lone parent, on paternal or paternity leave, a carer or a refugee learning English.

Young people in relevant education may also be eligible if they are; a lone parent, don’t live with their parents, a refugee or at risk of serious abuse or violence.

Child Benefit

If you are responsible for a child then you may be eligible for Child Benefit. The child will either live with you or if they don’t you must pay towards their upkeep, pay at least the amount that you receive and the person your child lives with must not also be claiming.

You can claim for child benefit regardless of your income or savings and everyone gets the same amount. You can claim child benefit until the child turns 16 years old or is aged between 16 and under 20 years old and is in education or training that counts for child benefit.

Housing Benefit

You can qualify for housing benefit if you pay rent and your income and capital is below a certain threshold. Your savings must be below £16,000, you must not live in the home of a close relative, you must not be a full time student or you must not be an asylum seeker. If you live with your partner then only one of you can claim housing benefit. It is also important to note that if you are single and under 25 years old you can only claim for bed-sit accommodation.

Council Tax Benefit

Council tax benefit is available to anyone who would normally pay council tax and has an income and savings within a certain criteria; your savings must be below £16,000. You can claim whether you own your home, rent or live rent free and you would also qualify if you are either employed or out of work.

Another way in which you could possibly qualify for council tax benefit is if you are the only adult in the property or if the other person you live with falls under one of the following categories; the person is not your partner and is aged over 18 years old, not currently paying rent or council tax or on a low income.

Disability Living Allowance

This is a tax free benefit for disabled adults and children in Great Britain to help with extra costs that you may have due to your disability. The amount that you receive for the benefit depends on the needs that you have rather than just your specific disability/ies.

To be eligible for Disability Living Allowance (DLA) you must fit within certain disability criteria; physical (including sensory such as blindness), mental (including learning disability) or both. Your disability may be severe enough for you to need help caring for yourself, and to receive DLA you must be aged under 65 years old when making your first claim. Unlike most other benefits your income and savings are not affected by your ability to claim DLA.

DLA is paid in two separate components; care & mobility. You will receive a certain amount if you require help looking after yourself and then you will receive a separate amount to help you get around. Receipt of DLA may increase the levels of entitlement to other benefits you receive as well.

These are just a few examples of the benefits that may be available to you. If you are unsure of the benefits that you could be claiming then visit your local Citizens Advice Centre or visit Direct Gov.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.
Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/07/2011-benefit-changes/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/07/mortgages-debt/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/07/mortgages-debt/#comments Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:33:36 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=7723 Being in debt is scary enough, but when you have a property there can be added pressure on you. Today I want to talk about mortgages, and debt and how they come together.

Your Mortgage

Your mortgage will most probably be the biggest debt you will ever have. You will have your repayments set out for you at the beginning and you will know what interest you will pay towards this. Depending on the type of mortgage, your interest will either be fixed at a set rate for a certain length of time or will be variable but linked more or less to Bank base rates.

As well as being the biggest debt, it will often also involve the largest single, regular outgoing in your household budget and should always be paid as there are serious consequences.

Getting Your Priorities Right

In order to manage your debt you need to start by prioritising what needs to be paid. If you have a mortgage then your monthly payment will always the first thing that you need to pay. After that you need to pay any secured loans or hire purchase agreements. Any other debts will then come after.

I know that this might seem like I am stating the obvious but from my past experience when it comes to paying your debts it is usually “whoever shouts the loudest” gets your money. For example, if you have a credit card or a loan and you miss a payment they will always contact you straight away and demand money from you. They will also add interest and charges on straight away for missing a payment of sending a late payment. Whereas, if you miss a mortgage payment it can take them a couple of months to process the missed payment and to take the necessary action.

By doing this you may avoid the initial hassle of not missing a credit card payment but by missing a mortgage payment you face more serious consequences.  You may think that you can make up the missed mortgage payment, but in reality it is often harder to catch up once you are in arrears with payments than you might at first think, this is because you will not only have your usual monthly expenditure to pay, including your usual mortgage payments, you will also have your creditor payments that you need to keep making as well as extra to your mortgage to cover the arrears

What Do I Do If I Am In Arrears?

If you are in arrears with your mortgage then the best thing for you to do is contact your mortgage company straight away and reach an early, workable agreement with your lender. If you have fallen into arrears because you are struggling with your debts then seek free impartial advice to help with setting up a plan with your creditors.
If you are still unsure about anything call one of our specialists who will always be happy to help

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/07/mortgages-debt/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/05/full-final-iva/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/05/full-final-iva/#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 08:22:52 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=7663 If for whatever reason you have received a sum of money, no matter how small or large, you may be able to use that to pay your creditors in a Full & Final IVA.

Today I am going to explain what a Full & Final IVA is and discuss the criteria of it.

What is a Full & Final IVA?

In brief, with an IVA you make an offer to repay your creditors a percentage of the debt that you owe. For example if you owe £50,000 you would need approximately £10,500 to offer a dividend that creditors may accept.

With a Full & Final IVA, everything is done exactly the same; instead of making an offer for 60 monthly payments you will offer one payment, however your creditors may put forward modifications depending on your surplus.

You would have to submit proof of the funds that you are using for your IVA and you would need to do this on top of the other documentation that is also needed for your IVA proposals.

I have been made redundant & received a pay out.

If you have received a windfall such as a redundancy pay out then you may be able to keep a certain amount of the funds before putting the rest of them in an offer to your creditors. If you have been made redundant and have received a pay out and are still seeking new employment then it may be a possibility for you to keep some of the money that you receive in order to pay your bills and other expenses. In these circumstances, you need to make sure that you are offering a realistic amount to your creditors otherwise they could ask for the full amount.

And finally…

The equity clause that is in standard IVAs does not apply to a Full & Final IVA. You will make one payment only and then your IVA will be complete. However if you have substantial equity in your property then your creditors may decide to ask for this to be included.

Although you only make one payment, IVA will stay on your credit file for six years and as with all IVA’s you will still need to be regarded as insolvent.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/05/full-final-iva/feed/ 2 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/01/fee-vs-free/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/01/fee-vs-free/#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:57:36 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=7515
.

For a long time now there has been a debate about free debt advice and fee charging debt advice. I think that it is safe to say that this debate will go on for a very long time. I wanted to just go through what the differences are between the two different types of debt advice providers.

.
.

Free Debt Advice & Free Debt Solutions.

There is an old saying “nothing in life comes for free.” Because of this many people believe there is a ‘catch’ to free debt advice. But, in the case of Payplan, this is a complete myth. It is also common misconceptions that because advice is free it will not be as good or accurate as the advice that a fee charging company would give. These are just a couple of examples of misconceptions we come across on a weekly basis. To clarify on both of these queries Payplan are a free and impartial place for people to come to for debt advice and we would always offer the very best advice for each individual client to help with their specific needs.

The reason why we do not charge our clients for the help that we give them is because we receive donations from the credit industry instead. 100% of the money that each client pays in to their debt management plan is distributed to their creditors. The donations that we receive are completely separate to the payments that we receive from our clients. The reason why creditors send in their voluntary donations to us is because they recognise and understand the work that we do and therefore support us.

Fee Charging Debt Advice & Debt Solutions.

Fee charging debt advice companies are an option when looking for help dealing with your debts. They work in much the same ways as Payplan and other free agents do. They should also provide accurate and impartial advice to clients except they charge a fee for the advice they give and also for the plans they set up. Some fee charging debt management companies offer initial advice for free, but will then charge a fee for maintaining the plan.

Who Do I Go With?

This is a very easy question to answer; you go with the company who you feel comfortable with. Whether that is a company that offers free debt advice or one that charges a fee, it is important that you feel comfortable with the people that are dealing with your finances. You also need to be with a company that you can trust. If you are unsure about the company that you have chosen or want to see other companies that provide debt advice then visit the OFT website for details.
If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/04/01/fee-vs-free/feed/ 2 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/30/breaking-news-daily-mirror-stop-the-debt-rogues/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/30/breaking-news-daily-mirror-stop-the-debt-rogues/#comments Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:33:52 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=7463

We at Payplan have welcomed the “Stop the Debt Rogues” campaign launched today in the Daily Mirror. The Mirror’s campaign calls for a clamp down on the widespread bad practice by fee-charging debt management companies – with an estimated 400 firms operating in the UK, many are ripping off consumers and not paying their creditors.

The debt management sector needs to be regulated as a matter of urgency to protect vulnerable consumers suffering at the hands of these unscrupulous providers. We have long called for the proper regulation of operators of debt management plans. As part of their call to action, the Daily Mirror has launched an online petition which is available by clicking here.

The debt management industry is currently regulated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) – but when the OFT published its Debt Management Guidance Compliance Review, assessing a large number of firms in the debt management market, it identified a litany of malpractice. It said that 129 firms were non-compliant with Debt Management Guidance

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/30/breaking-news-daily-mirror-stop-the-debt-rogues/feed/ 9 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/29/surviving-on-a-budget/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/29/surviving-on-a-budget/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 09:37:48 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=6835

.
.

Whether you are in a DMP, an IVA, filing for Bankruptcy or maintaining your own repayment arrangement then you will know what it is like living on a budget. I f you are struggling with debt and don’t know what to do to stick to a budget then hopefully this brief guide will help you.

.
.
.

1. Before you start budgeting you need to know where you need to budget. Make a list of all of your outgoings; food, clothes, gas, water, toiletries, cleaning, electric, home/car insurance, fuel etc…By making this list you can see exactly what you are spending each month and this will give you a better chance of seeing where you do need to cut back
2. Once you know where you need to cut back, you can now start looking at where you can start making changes. Making the changes is usually the hard part and the key to success is to start off small and gradually build yourself up, as you do not want to do too much too soon. Things that you can do to try and save money include; switching gas/electric supplier, shop around at different supermarkets to reduce your food bill, change or reduce your mobile phone contract, change or reduce your phone/broadband/cable TV package, take packed lunches to work or why not use comparison websites for home and car insurance to get the best deal.
3. Once you have altered your budget and changed your spending habits, to be successful you need to make sure that you stick to it. Sticking to a budget can sometimes be very difficult, particularly if you are used to spending whatever you like on cards and such like. In order to be successful you need to be determined to stick to the budget and to get yourself out of debt.
4. Once you have adapted to your revised budget and you are comfortably getting by, you can give the money you are not spending to your creditors. That is not to say that you will be able to afford full contractual payments, but you may now have enough surplus income to set up a repayment plan with your creditors.

If you have done everything that you can to try and reduce your outgoings and you are still struggling, you can still contact us as we can help you by advising you how to deal with your creditors while you make reduced token payments.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/29/surviving-on-a-budget/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/28/budget-2011/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/28/budget-2011/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:13:01 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=6785 The 2011 Budget has been officially announced and, after allowing time for it to sink in, here are some key points.

Income Tax

Starting from April 2012 your personal tax allowance will raise a further £630 to £8,105. April this year personal tax allowance will rise from £6,475 to £7,475.

What does this mean? You will now get to keep more of the money that you earn before paying tax and from April 2012 it is thought a further 260,000 people will be lifted out of the income tax bracket altogether.

Cuts to fuel duty

From 6pm 23^rd March fuel duty was cut by 1p per litre. In addition to this the inflation-based increase that was due soon has now been postponed until the start of 2012.

What does this mean? Fuel prices have been a big issue over the last few months with many people calling out for help bringing the situation under control. This is a step in the right direction, but there is still a rocky road ahead.

Unemployment help

With unemployment soaring, up 50,000 apprenticeships will be created for young people out of work. On top of this funding will be given for 100,000 new work experience placements.

What does this mean? Younger people out of work have the opportunity to learn a particular skill or trade to help them secure full time employment and get them into work.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/28/budget-2011/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/21/hiding-debts-from-your-partner/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/21/hiding-debts-from-your-partner/#comments Mon, 21 Mar 2011 13:37:15 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=6763 One very common situation that many of our clients find themselves in is having debts that their partners do not know about. Whether the debts built up before you met your partner, or whether the debts occurred when together, hiding something from your partner can put immense strain on your relationship. The reasons why people tend to hide their debt from their partner varies, but the outcome will always be the same – that it is always best to be open and honest with them.

I built up the debt before I met my partner, and they don’t know.

A recent study revealed that 1 in 5 single people are living on credit; this is due to their lifestyles but also the high costs of living and low income. If you have built up debt prior to meeting your partner, then you should probably be open with them from the beginning. You could sit down with your partner and explain to them that you have debts and the reason why you feel you got into debt to begin with. By doing this you will enable them to understand the situation you were in before you met them.

I am married/in a long term relationship and have built up debts since meeting them.

There are many reasons why someone, either married or in a long term relationship would obtain credit and get into debt without the knowledge of their partner. A common occurrence that I have often seen in the past is where one partner earns a lower salary than the other and struggles to keep up with them. If this is the case then perhaps you should sit down with your partner and explain to them that you don’t earn as much as they do and that you are struggling to keep up with their idea of a lifestyle. Without telling them this, they will not be aware and will carry on as they are.

Another common occurrence that I have often seen is where one partner is in charge of all of the finances and they take on the burden and take out credit to fund the family lifestyle when their income doesn’t cover it.

How do I tell my partner?

Whatever the reason for keeping your debts from your partner, if you are struggling to maintain the payments then you need to tell your partner, it doesn’t need to be because you want them to support you financially, it needs to be for them to support you as you deal with your debts. It may be embarrassing or you may fear how they react but you need to remember that your partner loves and cares for you and will support you. They may be angry initially, but you have to remember that you have kept a big secret from them so this should be understandable; you just need to give them time.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/21/hiding-debts-from-your-partner/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/18/weekly-debt-question-3/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/18/weekly-debt-question-3/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:41:15 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=6583 Can a bailiff force entry into my property?

A bailiff cannot use force to gain entry into a domestic property on their first visit: they can only use “peaceable means”. Entering through an open or unlocked door, or via a window without causing any damage or disturbance, is acceptable. Forcing their way past someone at the door is not.

REMEMBER YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LET A BAILIFF INTO YOUR HOME.

For more information about bailiffs then please read my Bailiff Blog

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/18/weekly-debt-question-3/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/17/redundancy/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/03/17/redundancy/#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:29:44 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=6485 During the recession, redundancy has played a major part in people’s struggles with repaying their debts. Many people have been made redundant as businesses struggled with the economic downturn, which has led to rather a sharp increase in unemployment.

Although redundancy cannot be prevented, the way that you deal with it can be addressed.

What do I do?

If you have been made redundant one of your first thoughts will relate to how you are going to cope. If you have a family and a mortgage, being made redundant can be a very stressful time. If you have been made redundant then one of the first things that you should find out is if you are entitled to any type of redundancy pay.

As you look for another job whilst out of work you need to make sure that you are receiving all of the benefits that you are entitled to such as;

• Income support
• Working tax credits (if your partner is working)
• Job seekers allowance

You may also be eligible to receive help with your council tax and rent.

Once you know what your income will be once you are out of work you will then be in a better position to rearrange your finances.

What do I do if I get a redundancy pay out?

If you are entitled to, and do get, a pay out then you may be able to use this to pay off all of your unsecured creditors. Depending on the amount that you get, you may either be able to do one of the following;

• Pay all of your unsecured creditors in full
• Come to a settlement agreement and pay a slightly reduced amount to clear the debt
• Make a lump sum offer to your creditors as a full and final settlement of your debts through an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA).

Where do I go for help?

It doesn’t matter what your situation is, if you have been made redundant and are struggling with debt then you should contact Payplan who will be able to assess your situation with you and one of our advisors will be able to assist you with a plan that is right for you. It may be a Debt Management Plan (DMP), IVA or we will help assist you in setting up your own informal arrangement with your creditors by pointing you in the right direction.

If you know someone who is struggling with debts then please get them to call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

What do I do?

At Payplan we receive many calls from worried family members expressing their concerns and wanting to know either what they can do to help or what help is available to people in debt. Unfortunately without knowing any details it can be hard for us to give precise advice. However what we can say is that it is always best to sit down together with the person and talk to them. The chances are they will be feeling embarrassed and may not want to share their problems or they may not want to burden you with their problems. Once you have spoken with them it may be easier for them to deal with their debt problems as they will no longer feel alone.

If you know someone who is struggling with debts then please get them to call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

If you are already struggling with your debts and obtain further credit knowing that you cannot afford to pay it back, this can be seen as fraud. If you are struggling with debts then it is always best for you to seek advice.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

1.       Stop spending on credit cards

Credit cards can be a life saver in emergency situations and for one off purchases. But they are not good for everyday usage and if you can’t pay your balance off at the end of the month then it is hard to get out of the trap once you fall into it.

2.       Sort out your finances

Before you can become debt free you need to arrange your finances. You should make a list of all your creditors and how much you owe to each of them. You also need to make note of the minimum repayments and the APR% for each of them.

3.       Sort out your budget

Before you can do anything about paying off your debts you need to arrange what you have coming into the household each month; wages, tax credits, benefits, pensions. You then need to work out what you spend each month; mortgage, rent, council tax, gas, electric, water, shopping, clothes, childcare, fuel and insurance – basically everything apart from your unsecured debt repayments. By doing this you can see what you actually have left over at the end of each month to pay your creditors. This will also give you a good idea of what you are spending your money on each month and may highlight areas where you could cut back.

4.       Save money where you can

Start looking on comparison sites to see if you can get better deals on things like your gas and electrics bills or your home and car insurance. You could also shop around at different supermarkets to reduce your food bills.

5.       Ring Payplan

If you are struggling with debts then call Payplan. We offer free and impartial debt advice and we can assist you in setting up a repayment plan that is right for your situation and one that will help you become debt free.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Ignoring your debts and your creditors is possibly one of the worst things that you can do.

By ignoring them, they can continue to add interest and charges. They will also look at issuing you with default notices which could then lead to County Court Judgments etc…
If you are struggling to keep up with your repayments it is always better to keep sending something, even if it is £1.00 per month.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

I am a student, how can I avoid getting into debt?

There is no easy way to say this but there is no way of avoiding debt as a student. Unless you are very fortunate to have someone to support you, then you will almost certainly leave university with some sort of debt.

Debts such as credit card debt and loans are a little risky when you’re a student because you need to ensure that you can afford the repayments. : If at all possible it is best  to try and avoid credit cards or additional loans, as they invariably contribute significantly when high levels of debt have accrued after completing your University course, to assist your finances whilst still a student, why not get a weekend job to earn a little extra money?

The most common debt for a student is the student loan. The majority of students will have one of these. Your student loan is collected differently to unsecured loans, you will only starting repaying once you earn over £15,000 and you will only have to pay a small percentage of your salary which is taken straight from your wages. A student loan is also different from unsecured loans as you cannot be chased for the debt, if you do not earn above the threshold they cannot demand money from you and if you are paying towards it, they cannot demand more from you.

Other top tips:

• Cook your own food, cut down on the takeaways and make yourself some proper home cooked meals.
• Have a night in; instead of going out every night why not put on a DVD with your friends.

I am a graduate and struggling with my student debts

If you have already graduated from university and are one of the thousands with stacks of debt then you need to get free and impartial debt advice. You need to make a list of who you owe money to and how much your repayments are. You then need to work out your incomings and outgoings to see what you can actually afford.

Student loans or grants are listed as priority creditors and therefore cannot be included in a Debt Management Plan, Individual Voluntary Arrangement, Bankruptcy or a Debt Relief Order. However any other loans (providing they are unsecured) or credit cards that where taken out whilst a student can be included in all of the above plans.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

MADL are a lead generation company, which means that they introduce consumers to DMP’s and IVA’s to providers through their website.

There were concerns raised about false and misleading content on their website with regards to the funding they receive. MADL pass client details on to other companies who deal with IVA’s and DMP’s in exchange for a fee. Their website gave the impression previously that they were a non-profit organisation.

The OFT’s Director of Consumer Credit, Ray Watson released this statement:
‘It is important that consumers seeking help for debt problems know who they are dealing with and whether the company is providing an actual service or is simply a lead generator.’

Payplan are constantly backing the OFT’s work to improve the standards of the Debt Management sector to ensure that it is a safe and trusting environment for those vulnerable people in need of help.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/22/latest-news-from-the-oft-payplans-reaction/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/22/what-is-a-trust-deed/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/22/what-is-a-trust-deed/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:38:20 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5963 If you live in Scotland you have a few different options available to you to help with your debt problems. You cannot do an IVA, so alternatively there is the Trust Deed.

What is a Trust Deed?

A Trust Deed is a voluntary, legally binding agreement between you and your creditors and deals with only unsecured debts. You will be appointed a Trustee, this is the role held by the Insolvency Practitioner. The Trustee will negotiate repayment terms with your creditors on your behalf.

The Trust Deed usually last for three years. Similar to other plans your surplus will be calculated, plus any assets that you have will need to be taken into consideration.

With an ordinary Trust Deed, your creditors can still seek further action against you to recover the money owed and not all creditors have to agree to the terms.

What is a Protected Trust Deed?

The Trust Deed may be registered as protected, which means that it is legally binding, providing that certain criteria is met. Once the Trust Deed is protected, all of your unsecured creditors are bound by the agreement and must not contact you. They will also freeze interest and charges.

Unlike other legally binding agreements, the Trust Deed doesn’t need to go through the courts.

Do I qualify for a Trust Deed?

In order to do a Trust Deed you do need to fit a certain criteria. The main thing is that you must live in Scotland. You must have unsecured debts, however if doesn’t necessarily matter how much as a Trust Deed depends on your individual circumstances.

What happens to my creditors?

All of your creditors that agree to the Trust Deed will be bound by the agreement. All creditors are asked to agree to the agreement; if they do not respond then it will automatically be accepted. For any creditors that aren’t included in the Trust Deed they can still look at other methods in order to recover the money owed, but this only applies to those creditors not bound by a protected trust deed.

For more details then please click here

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/22/what-is-a-trust-deed/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/17/debt-collectors/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/17/debt-collectors/#comments Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:35:03 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5923 From my past experience, working very closely with clients, a lot of people get very confused by debt collectors and often confuse them with bailiffs.

What is a Debt Collector?

A debt collector is NOT A BAILIFF. A debt collector will either buy a debt from a creditor or they will be assigned by the creditor to simply collect the debt on their behalf. A lot of bigger creditors will have their own ‘in-house’ collecting agents.

The difference between buying a debt and collecting the debt is that those collecting on behalf of a creditor have no legal rights over the debt and therefore cannot pursue you with legal action without the authority of the original creditor.

What rights to Debt Collectors have?

A Debt Collector is in no way a bailiff and therefore they have no rights whatsoever to enter your home. Some debt collectors will send notices through your door to say that they will be visiting, and people often panic when they receive these. What you need to remember is that they have no powers to force entry into your home or seize goods or demand money from you.

What to do if a Debt Collector calls?

If a debt collector either calls you or visits you at home then you treat them as you would any other creditor. As long as you are maintaining some sort of payment to them, then you needn’t worry. Sometimes debt collectors can be demanding, but you just need to remember to stand your ground and only pay them what you can afford.

For more details then please click here

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/17/debt-collectors/feed/ 3 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/15/debt-relief-orders-2/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/15/debt-relief-orders-2/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:31:05 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5863 When people think of ways to resolve their debt problems there are a few options that always come to mind: Debt Management Plan, Individual Voluntary Arrangement or Bankruptcy. However there is another possible solution available, a Debt Relief Order.

What is a Debt Relief Order?

A Debt Relief Order (or DRO) is sometimes referred to as BankruptcyLite. It is very similar to bankruptcy except it doesn’t hold as much stigma and it costs a lot less to do. A Debt Relief Order can only be authorized by a qualified intermediary, Payplan are one of few that can do this.

Can anyone do a Debt Relief Order?

To answer that simply, no.  In order to qualify for a Debt Relief Order you must owe less than £15,000, you must have assets worth less than £300 and you must have a monthly surplus less than £50.

You cannot apply for a Debt Relief Order if you are an un-discharged Bankrupt, have an Interim Order, or have a Bankruptcy or Debt Relief restriction order.

What is the process?

The first thing that you would do is obtain a copy of your credit report, check that they are all listed and add any that aren’t on to a list of your creditors and confirm how much you owe, you would then send that into us here you would then complete an income and expenditure form. Once this has been completed then you would need to go to the Post Office and pay the £90 for the initial application for the Debt Relief Order. Once this has all been done then your DRO application will go through and you will enter into what is called a moratorium period will last 12 months. During the 12 months you will be assigned an official receiver who will be asked to investigate your situation, your debts and your assets to make sure everything is correct and as it should be.

At the end of 12 months as long as everything is ok, then you will be released from your debts.

What happens to my creditors and debts?

During the 12 month moratorium period your creditors can still add interest and charges onto your accounts. At Payplan we advise that you do not notify your creditors about the Debt Relief Order. All payments towards the debts listed should cease during the 12 month the moratorium is in place.  This means that your creditors cannot take legal action against you (unless under exceptional circumstances) and will no longer chase you for payments as long as the order is completed successfully.

What happens if my situation changes?

If your situation changes during the moratorium period then the official receiver would need to be notified and it would be your responsibility to do this. They would review your situation to see if the Debt Relief Order is still possible.

How long will the Debt Relief Order be on my Credit Report?

The Debt Relief Order will stay on your credit report for six years from the beginning of the process, the same as Bankruptcy, IVA and Default Notices.

For more information click here.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/15/debt-relief-orders-2/feed/ 4 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/11/debt-consolidation-launch/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/11/debt-consolidation-launch/#comments Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:48:27 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5803 We are pleased to announce the arrival of our brand new website www.debtconsolidation.org.uk. The site provides all of the help and information that you should need.

Follow the link and have a look around the site, and please send me your feedback and tell me what you think.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/11/debt-consolidation-launch/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/10/bailiffs-who-are-they/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/10/bailiffs-who-are-they/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:57:55 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5765 Following on from my previous blogs about Court Action with CCJ’s if you do not comply with the terms and keep up the payments then your creditor could seek to get a bailiff to recover goods from your home in order to sell and use to pay back what you owe them. From my past experience, working closely with clients, there is a lot of misunderstandings about them and what they can and can’t do.

What is a bailiff?

A bailiff is someone who is employed by the courts to take your possessions in order to sell them and give the money to your creditor to pay back the debt that you owe them. The court would only send the bailiff if you fail to maintain payments towards your CCJ.

There are four types on bailiffs:

-Private Bailiff self employed or employed by a private firm. Not all private bailiffs have to be certified.

-County Court Bailiff they work for the county court and they are responsible to the district judge of the local court and they are used if you have a CCJ.

-High Court Enforcement Officers they work for the High Court and deal with High Court orders. They also deal with some CCJ’s as long as they are over £600 and they must deal with ALL CCJ’s when they are over £5,000.

-Magistrates Court Bailiff work for the Magistrates Court and are responsible to the clerk of the court and they mainly deal with money owed in criminal offences.

What powers do they have?

In general you do not have to let the bailiffs in.  They are also not usually allowed to force their way into your home. However there are certain situations where they can force entry. These situations are:

-Bailiffs collecting unpaid fines they can force entry whether they have been in your home before or not. As a last resort they can break into your property.

-They have gained peaceful entry before if they have been in your property before by means of peaceful entry then they can then force entry upon their next visit if you do not allow them in.

-County Court bailiffs entering a commercial property they can only do this if there is no living accommodation attached. They need permission from the court to force entry into any commercial property.

-Bailiffs collecting income tax or VAT they must also have permission from the court and they can only do it if they failed in a previous attempt at peaceful entry.

Keeping the bailiffs out

In order to keep the bailiffs out, especially on their first visit:

-Don’t open your door to them, use the door chain if you have one

-Don’t leave your windows or doors open when you know they are coming.

-Alert family members that live with you so they don’t let them in, which would count as peaceful entry.

What happens when they gain peaceful entry?

If or when the bailiffs gain entry into your home they will then firstly search your home. They will then decide which goods they are going to take and sell (this is called seizing). And then finally they will impound the goods, this is the point in which they take the goods.

The bailiffs can only seize and impound goods to cover the debt and their fees and nothing more.

What can they take?

A bailiff can take any items that belong to the person who owes the money, even if they are jointly owned. They cannot take any items that belong to family members or your children. They cannot take any items such as clothing, bedding, household equipment or anything that you would need to satisfy a basic domestic need.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/10/bailiffs-who-are-they/feed/ 3 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/10/payplan-on-the-rip-off-britain/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/10/payplan-on-the-rip-off-britain/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:04:33 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5715 Did you all see Rip Off Britain on BBC1 last night?

Payplan received a mention from Money Advisor Refat Nazdhar, who described us as one of the reputable free debt advice companies.

You can view the programme if you missed it by clicking here. Our mention is about 12 minutes in.

If you have any questions and would like free debt advice then please call us on 0800 2802816

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/10/payplan-on-the-rip-off-britain/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/08/court-action-charging-orders/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/08/court-action-charging-orders/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:11:20 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5565 Following on from my other blogs, another option for your creditors after a CCJ is to apply a Charging Order against your property.

What is a Charging Order?

A Charging Order is where an unsecured creditor secures the amount owing to them on your property. This is done through the courts, just like with a CCJ.

Who is at risk?

Anyone who owns a property with unsecured debts who has previously defaulted on payments and had at least a CCJ issued against them. The property doesn’t have to be in your sole name, creditors can make a sole debt secured against a jointly owned property.

What happens with a Charging Order application?

After you break the terms of the CCJ your creditor will apply to the courts to turn the unsecured debt into a secured debt against the debtor’s property. Once the application has been made you will receive notification of this as well as a hearing date.

It is always in your best interest to attend the hearing so that you can plead your case to the judge. When you attend the hearing you will need to take with you the following: income and expenditure breakdown, list of all creditors and anything else that you feel will help your case. If the Charging Order is granted then you will be required to maintain monthly payments to the creditor or risk losing your house.

What if I am in negative equity?

It is very unlikely that a creditor would want to apply a charge to your property if there is not equity as there would be no gain for them. However if your property is in negative equity then they could still proceed to try and apply a charge. If you have proof that there is no equity in your property then you would provide this at your Charging Order hearing.

What happens if I don’t maintain payments?

If you do not maintain your payments towards your secured loan then your property is at risk of being repossessed.

How does this affect my partner?

If you jointly own the property with your partner or someone else, as mentioned earlier the creditor can still apply a charge to the property. If you fail to maintain the payments then your creditor can repossess the property. Once the property has been sold and the outstanding mortgage has been paid then the equity is split 50/50. Your 50% would go towards paying the secured loan and your partner would keep their 50%

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/08/court-action-charging-orders/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/03/court-action-attachment-of-earnings/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/03/court-action-attachment-of-earnings/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:50:54 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5525

Following on from my other blogs about Default Notices and CCJ’s I am now going to talk about one of the next steps if you do not keep up with the repayments under the CCJ – Attachment of Earnings.

What is an Attachment of Earnings?

An Attachment of Earnings (or AOE) is where your creditor applies through the court to be paid directly from your wages in order to guarantee their money. If the AOE is granted then your employer will be notified and each time you are paid, a percentage is given straight to the creditor and you will get the remaining amount.

Sometimes your employer may charge you £1 in admin fees for the extra administration they put into paying you, and they are within their rights to do so.

What happens with an Attachment of Earnings?

As already mentioned, if an AOE is granted then your employer pays a certain amount to them each month or week depending on how often you are paid. They will then continue to do this until the debt has been paid in full. At this point you will resume receiving your full wage again.

What happens if I change jobs?

If you change employer then the AOE will need to be transferred over to your new employer straight away. It is your responsibility to ensure that this happens and it is an offence not to do this.

How is it granted?

Once your creditor applies to the court for an AOE you will be sent an N56 form. You must fill out this form and disclose your financial circumstances. This form must be returned within eight days.

If you do not return the form then the County Court bailiffs will serve the form to you. If you still do not return the form then the court will issue a warrant for your arrest and you will be taken to court to explain why you haven’t returned the form.

Sometimes, if you do not return the form to start with, your creditor could go directly to your employer.

What if it affects my job?

An Attachment of Earnings affects some jobs so you always need to check your contract of employment if you receive an N56 form. You can ask for the AOE not to be granted by filling out the N56 form and you would explain the reason for not wanting the AOE is because you would lose your job, and it will then be up to the court to decide what to do. If they decided not to enforce the AOE then you would receive a Suspended Attachment of Earnings and will come to a new agreement with your creditor. If you then fail to make the payments as per the new agreement, the AOE can be set up immediately without any further notification to you.

If you are struggling with debts then please call Payplan on 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/03/court-action-attachment-of-earnings/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/01/payplan-is-free-and-proud-to-be/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/01/payplan-is-free-and-proud-to-be/#comments Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:17:43 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5485 Today the BBC has announced that due to Government funding cuts hundreds of Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) debt advisors have stopped taking on new cases meaning that there will soon be a shortage of free debt advice.

This announcement comes after the Government cut its funding to 500 CAB’s at a time of economic uncertainty, escalating debt and an increase in unemployment and redundancies.

Although there will still be free debt advice for people in need, it is certain that there will be a great loss when the help of Citizens Advice Bureaux is gone.

Payplan offer completely free debt advice and completely free debt management plans. We are one of the very few companies that do this and we are also one of the biggest.

We have been helping people since 1993 and we help over 100,000 people each year with their debt related problems.

Not only do we offer free debt advice and free debt management plans, but we offer free to client IVA’s, Debt Relief Orders and help with debt related issues such as court action, bailiffs, and bankruptcy.

We have many highly trained debt advisors on hand seven days a week to talk about any debt related issues that you may have so that they are there when you need them.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/02/01/payplan-is-free-and-proud-to-be/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/31/breaking-news-from-the-office-of-fair-trading/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/31/breaking-news-from-the-office-of-fair-trading/#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:15:19 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5313 The Office of Fair Trading have released a statement announcing that 35 debt management companies have surrendered their consumer credit license and have ceased trading.

The announcement follows on from the warning they issued in September, see our earlier blog, where they ordered 129 debt management companies to start complying with them or risk losing their license.

As well as the 35 who have lost their license, a further 15 could face losing their license after further investigation.

All 129 companies were asked to submit evidence to show that they are complying with the OFT. Out of those, 79 companies submitted their evidence of which the OFT are now reviewing. Seven debt management companies did not respond to the warning and are now being investigated.

The report broken down shows:

*35 debt management companies have surrendered their consumer credit license

*15 face losing their license

*8 companies have had their licenses revoked by the OFT

*7 didn’t respond and are being investigated

*Further 79 and still being reviewed.

Payplan can proudly announce that the OFT had no concerns about us.

If you have any concerns about your debt management company then contact the Office of Fair Trading. You can read their full statement here.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/31/breaking-news-from-the-office-of-fair-trading/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/27/court-action-county-court-judgement/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/27/court-action-county-court-judgement/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:51:25 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5233 On Tuesday I blogged about Default Notices, todays blog will follow on from that to go through the different types of court action your creditors could then take if you do not acknowledge the notice.

What comes first?

Under the Consumer Credit Act 2006, before a creditor can pursue any kind of legal action they must issue you a default notice. Once the default notice has been issued the creditor can then seek further legal action against you.

The first thing they would look to do is issue you with a County Court Judgement or CCJ. A CCJ is where the creditor or claimant attempts to reclaim the money that is owed to them by going through the County Courts. The first stage of the process is a County Court Claim form or a N1, once you receive this you must act very quickly as you only have 14 days to respond to the form.

There are three options to deal with a Claim Form:

You can deny the debt. You can counterclaim against the creditor. Or you can admit the debt.

If you admit the debt, you must fill out your income and expenditure on the N1 as well as detailing who else you owe money to and you offer of payment, and send this to the creditor or their agent, as detailed on the claim form

If you are already in a plan with Payplan and the debt is on the plan, you can sign and send the N1 to us and we will do everything for you.  (If you are denying or counterclaiming the debt, then Payplan is not able to help and you should seek advice from your local CAB or a solicitor.)

If you ignore the N1 or miss the deadline the creditor can then ask the courts for a Judgment by Default which means they can ask you for the full amount outstanding plus court costs.

What happens next?

Once you have sent the N1 form back to the creditor or their agent, they will then decide on what action to take. If the offer is accepted then you will be sent a CCJ detailing how, when and where to make your payments. This form will be called Judgement Acceptance N30 (1).

If you returned the N1 form in time, but the creditor objected to your offer of payment, you will receive a Judgment after Determination.  If this is more than you can afford then you can apply for a Redetermination, this is free to do and you must apply for this within 16 days of judgement. To apply for redetermination you can either write a letter direct to the court or you can submit an Application Notice N244. If this is accepted then you will receive a General Judgment detailing how and when to make your payments.

If you failed to send back the N1 form or missed the deadline then the court will make a judgement on the offer of repayment and will issue the CCJ without you. The offer of payment may be more than you can afford which is why it is so important to send your form back as soon as possible. This form will be called Judgement in Default N30.

What happens if I can’t maintain the payments?

If your circumstances change and you find you can no longer afford the payments you should then apply for a Variation Order N245. This costs £35.00 to do and you will offer your creditor reduced instalments.  If you are in receipt of certain income-based benefits, you may be able to get this form processed for free.

What happens if I stop making payments towards my CCJ?

If you stop making payments or do not keep up with the agreed payment then your creditors could seek further action in the form of

Bailiffs

Bankruptcy

Attachment of Earnings

Charging Order

If you have any questions at all about CCJ’s or need help with your debts then please call us. 0800 2802816

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/27/court-action-county-court-judgement/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/25/default-notices/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/25/default-notices/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:07:21 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=5115 People often get very worried if they receive a default notice through the door. Today I want to go through what they are and what you need to do so hopefully you needn’t worry in the future.

What is a Default Notice?

A default notice is an official notification from a creditor or lender to inform you that you are in arrears with payments. The default notice will have your full name and address as well as the full name and address of the creditor. It will also have the original credit agreement outline with details of how you have broken it, a settlement figure, what you need to do to solve the problem and what will happen if you don’t.

What to do next.

Once you receive the notice you need to act as quickly as possible. A default notice is usually a warning so it is always best to take it very seriously before the creditor takes any further action. You will usually be given seven days to comply with the appropriate action. After seven days the creditor will not necessarily proceed with court action but it is a risk. If you comply with the notice the problem will be resolved and the creditor won’t take any further action.

If you cannot afford the payment that they are proposing you make it is best to contact them and come to a different arrangement.

Will I have to go to court?

You won’t need to go to court for the default notice, but as I mentioned above it is often a warning so if you do not make any payments then the creditor could then pursue further action which would involve going to court. For example a CCJ.

Will it go on my Credit Report?

Yes a Default Notice will show on your credit report if you don’t pay the creditor within seven days and it will stay on there for six years regardless of whether you subsequently maintain monthly payments so it makes sense to settle the debt as soon as the notice is issued.

Who can issue a Default Notice?

Any of your unsecured creditors can issue you a Default Notice.

If you have received a Default Notice and you are not sure what to do or you need help with your debts then please call us on 0800 2802816 our advisors are fully trained and ready to help you.

Don’t forget you can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/25/default-notices/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/21/story-of-the-week/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/21/story-of-the-week/#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:46:32 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=4933 All week you get to read my blogs about debt, what to do or not to do or what your options are. Today, and hopefully everything Friday, I want to share some of our client’s stories to give you all a chance to read about the people we have helped in the past and still continue to do now.

So here is this week’s story.

I find myself in this current financial position due to different reasons. They are my husband being made redundant twice this year. Firstly in January when he had to start claiming Income Support then after looking hard for work he started to work full time for a company on a lot less money than he previously earned.

He was made redundant again but this company continued to help us with giving my husband casual work. We thought this was better than returning to Income Support. But this income was still very low. At this stage I tried hard to work as much extra work (night shifts) as possible to make ends meet which made me feel very unwell and depressed. This has resulted in my marriage being very close to collapsing.

We also tried hard to contact companies to ask if we could have reductions in our outgoings like Council tax etc… But because my wage was of a certain level they said we were not entitled to any help. My husband has now secured a full time job again but it is still nowhere near the salary he previously earned.

Their IVA was approved a couple of months ago and they are now on their way to becoming debt free.

If your story is similar to this one then please call us 0800 2802816 and we could help you too.

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/21/story-of-the-week/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/20/right-to-offset/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/20/right-to-offset/#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:03:37 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=4843 One of the most important things to do when you are in debt is change your bank account. If you owe money to the same bank where your income is paid into then they can apply what is called the Right to Offset. It is therefore important, whether doing a DMP, IVA, Bankruptcy or arranging your own plan to change banks as soon as possible.

What is the Right to Offset?

If you have a current account, but also have a loan or a credit card with the same bank, that creditor at anytime apply what is called the Right to Offset which means that they can take any income paid in the current account to pay off the other debts. They can do this without permission and can legally do this whenever they want.

When am I at risk?

As long as you are maintaining your full contractual payments for your debts then there would be no reason why your bank would need to take funds to repay the debts. If you are looking into a DMP, IVA or Bankruptcy then you need to open a new bank account as soon as you can and get your funds transferred into your new account. If you are making you own arrangement with your creditors and offering reduced payments, again opening a new bank account would be beneficial, just to be on the safe side.

How do I know if I am at risk?

To see if your bank account is linked to any of your creditors use the list below to find out.

If you are still unsure about anything call one of our advisers who will always be happy to help 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/20/right-to-offset/feed/ 2 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/18/bankruptcy/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/18/bankruptcy/#comments Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:35:19 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=4743 Hello and welcome to my latest blog. For today’s instalment I am going to be talking about bankruptcy. I want to continue on with the journey of making everyone savvy with all issues relating to debt and getting out of it.

Bankruptcy is usually thought of as the last resort in solving financial problems. From my past experience, whenever the word is mentioned people get instantly scared and go into a bit of a panic.

Stigma

In the past Bankruptcy has always carried a stigma with it, it has always been thought of as a big no no, or not something that should be done easily. However over recent years, with more and more people experiencing problems with debt, it has become more acceptable for someone to become bankrupt.

What does it mean?

In a nutshell you would either register for bankruptcy yourself or one of your creditors would petition for bankruptcy in order for them to attempt to get the money that is owed to them. You would usually have greater debts than you do assets meaning that you are insolvent. When you are made bankrupt you will be relieved of all of your unsecured debts.

How does it work?

The bankruptcy will usually last for one year, however you could be required to pay an Income Payment Order or IPO which could last for three years and this is where you pay your surplus income into the bankruptcy to pay something to your creditors. At the end of the term your debts become ‘discharged’ meaning that the balance will be cleared and you will no longer be liable for paying anything to the creditors. For the duration of the bankruptcy you will be assigned an Official Receiver or (OR) who will be in charge of your case and will oversee everything. One of the important roles of the OR will be to protect any assets that you may have such as a car, house or motorhome. They will also be asked to investigate your debts, how and why the money was spent and what else has been done with the funds.

Assets

All assets are at risk when going bankrupt such as your house, car, motorhome or any household possession. Your creditors would seek anything that they deem to be of excessive value. However your creditors cannot ask you to sell any equipment that is needed for work purposes or household items such as clothing, bedding, furniture that is needed by the family.

What happens next?

The bankruptcy order will remain on your credit reference file for six years, after that you will have a ‘fresh start’. However the bankruptcy could have certain restrictions relating to the job you can do, or what credit you can take out in future.

Bankruptcy doesn’t have to be all bad, look at this list of people who were made bankrupt and have gone on to do bigger and better things and learned from their mistakes is the past.

Donald Trump

Walt Disney

Elton John

Simon Cowell

Peter Jones

For further information on Bankruptcy click here and follow the links.

Hopefully this has helped clear up bankruptcy for you a little. If you do have any queries about anything you can always ask and remember our helpline number is 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/18/bankruptcy/feed/ 2 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/17/top-10-ways-to-beat-blue-monday/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/17/top-10-ways-to-beat-blue-monday/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:01:32 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=4493 The third Monday in January is supposedly the most depressing day of the year. It factors in the miserable weather, the distant cheer of Christmas as well as post Christmas debt, failure to stick to New Year’s resolutions and low motivation to add on top of it all.

The top ten ways to beat today’s blues are:

1. Help someone in need – helping someone who needs your help instantly makes your feel better.

2. Eat your favourite food – ditch the post Christmas diet for the day and indulge in your favourite foods.

3. Dance and sing – release endorphins (the happy hormone) to take your mind off everything depressing.

4. Go for a walk – the fresh air, sounds of the birds or the sea has a calming effect and can instantly make you feel stress free.

5. Sit up straight – you may not feel like doing too much exercise but simply sitting up straight can lift your mood.

6. Walk around barefoot – it is said that tired feet can make you feel tired, give them a new sensation to wake them up and make them feel better, which will make you feel better too.

7. Flirt – the brain produces feel good hormones when getting flirtatious and will put a smile on your face.

8. Receive an unexpected compliment – receiving a compliment on any ‘normal’ day can lift your mood but even more so today.

9. Win money – with credit card bills arriving through the letter box all money is welcome, so every little helps as they say.

10. Write a journal – writing everything down puts things into perspective and allows you to reflect on it all. Use the quiet time it takes to write your journal to look back on your situation and see where you can put yourself back on the right path.

If you are struggling with debt, no matter how great or small we are always here to help. Our freephone number is 0800 2802816.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/17/top-10-ways-to-beat-blue-monday/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/14/ivas-explained-blog-5/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/14/ivas-explained-blog-5/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 15:45:22 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=4325 Good afternoon and welcome to the fifth and final instalment of this weeks IVA themed blogs. On Monday in the first blog I talked about what an IVA is, how it works, how it is set up and the creditors meeting. In blog two on Tuesday I talked about assets, your home, your mortgage and re-mortgaging. On Wednesday for the third blog I talked about your debts and what type of creditors each debt is classed as. And then yesterday for the fourth blog I talked about your income, how we calculate it, what income is used, additional income and benefits.

For this last blog of the week I wanted to talk a little about what happens once your IVA has finished. In your initial IVA proposals we would put forward that you make 60 payments over 5 years. As mentioned in a previous blog, you could possibly be asked to make a further 12 payments if you have a mortgaged property and are unable to release the equity. The IVA stays on your credit reference for six years. Therefore assuming you maintain your IVA payments it will only appear on your file for one further year or at the end of your arrangement depending on your plan length. After the six years your credit reference won’t show anything at all.

At this stage you will be debt free.

I am hoping that by now you should all have a clearer knowledge of IVAs, but if not and you do have any questions then please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can visit the Debt Questions forum which has a lot of other information and the opportunity to post your own questions or post questions on the Facebook discussion board or on one of the blogs or simply call our Helpline 0800 2802816 where someone will be on the end of the phone to hopefully help you.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/14/ivas-explained-blog-5/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/14/ivas-explained-blog-4/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/14/ivas-explained-blog-4/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:46:39 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=4205 Good afternoon and welcome to the fourth blog in this week series. So far I have spoken about a whole host of topics relating to IVAs and today I am going to concentrate on your income.

With an IVA it isn’t as simple as you telling us what you earn, what you spend and what you have left over. As an IVA is a legally binding agreement between you and your creditors everything has to be monitored and therefore proof is required as mentioned in the first blog. In the first blog I explained how we work out your surplus but today I want to go into a little bit more detail with your income and what happens if you earn anything additional as well as going through other types of income such as pensions, benefits and jobseekers allowance.

Additional Income

Although we only use your basic salary for the purpose of calculating your IVA payment any additional income such as overtime, commission or bonuses must be taken into account whilst in the IVA. Whilst we do not take that income into account for the purpose of your IVA proposals you will be required to notify us of any additional income and you would be required to pay a percentage of this into the IVA. You will be required, once in your IVA, to send in your Payslips regularly and your P60 annually so it would always be in your best interest to notify us straight away.

Pensions in an IVA

Some of you may no longer be working and will be receiving your pension, whether this is the state pension, pension credits or a personal pension all of these would be used as your income source for the IVA and all of it would need to be included.

If you are working and are paying into a pension scheme you would need to notify us of how much you contribute and we would need to show that you are making the minimum contributions whilst you are in the IVA.

Benefits and an IVA

Another popular source of income for many of our clients is from benefits. These benefits include:

*Disability Living Allowance

*Income Support

*Child Benefit

*Child Tax Credits

*Incapacity Benefit

*Working Tax Credits

The majority of benefits can be used to contribute to your IVA income. All of the ones above listed do. However some benefits will not usually be used mainly due to the basis that they are not guaranteed incomes. The main one of these is Jobseekers Allowance; this benefit isn’t guarantee and can only be claimed for a certain length of time. When IVA proposals are drawn up, we have to ensure the plan can be sustained for the whole 60 months and it therefore wouldn’t be in your best interest to use an income that could change or stop at any time.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/14/ivas-explained-blog-4/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/12/ivas-explained-blog-3/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/12/ivas-explained-blog-3/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:05:23 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=3805 Hello and welcome to day three of this week’s IVA themed blogs. Today I am going to be talking about creditors; the different types, how they deal with IVA’s and what they do to approve your IVA.

Creditors

An IVA will only include all of your unsecured creditors. Your other creditors will have to be dealt with separately; each creditor is different so hopefully I will explain all you need to know below.

Unsecured – these are debts where a credit agreement has been signed where you have an agreement to make repayments towards what was borrowed until it is paid in full. They will all be included and bound by the IVA agreement.

Secured – these are debts that have a charge over an asset in the event that the agreement of payment is not met. They will be listed in the IVA as creditors however you will maintain your contracted payments to them until the amount you owe is paid back in full. The agreed payment amount will be included in your expenditure to ensure you have enough funds to cover them.

Associated – these are debts where no credit agreement has been made, it is uncommon for these to be included in the IVA. Creditors will expect any associated creditors to stand aside for the duration of the IVA. Any associated creditors would show up on your IVA proposals and a clause would be added into the terms and conditions to state that they are standing aside.

Preferred – these are creditors that are to be repaid in full, mainly because non payment could have consequences. These are excluded as if they these where to be included they could either impact there lives in some way. Once again they are listed as a creditor, however a specific payment would be allowed in the budget in order to repay this debt outside of the IVA arrangement. A clause would also be added into the proposals to state why the creditor is preferred.

Contingent – these are possible future debts and are usually debts that you have guaranteed and could be asked to pay for in the future. These would again be included in your list of creditors, and if during the IVA a contingent debt becomes repayable it would be dealt with at the time.

Who votes & how do they vote?

All of your unsecured creditors are asked to vote for or against your IVA as mentioned in the earlier blog. When your creditors vote on your IVA they can sometimes put forward what are called modifications. Modifications can range from a lot of different things; the most common modification is a cap of the fees that are charged. Other common modifications are uplifts for item in your expenditure that they feel are excessive.

With the modifications that your creditors put forward, you must accept these and if you do not then your IVA would have to be rejected. However if you accept them then your IVA will be approved and all of the changes would be actioned where necessary.

Common Modifications

*Increase in IVA payments due to excessive expenditure. Creditors tend to stick to strict guidelines therefore if they think you are over the guidelines they will ask for the difference. Common areas are for fuel for your car, pensions and life insurance.
*Cap on fees charged. This is nothing that you would need to worry about, as this would not affect you. Your payments and payment term would still be the same; we would just get fewer fees.
*A 12 month extension if your property doesn’t have any equity in it in the fourth year.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow as I will be talking more about IVAs.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/12/ivas-explained-blog-3/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/11/what-is-an-individual-voluntary-arrangement-blog-2/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/11/what-is-an-individual-voluntary-arrangement-blog-2/#comments Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:53:06 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=3625 Welcome to day two of my week long series of IVA blogs. Yesterday’s first instalment hopefully explained all of the basics of an IVA and gave you a general overview of what it is. On today’s blog I am going to focus on your assets; what is an asset and how the IVA will impact them. I also want to go through what happens to your mortgage property in the IVA.

Assets

It is important to remember that with an IVA all of your assets must be disclosed, once your IVA is approved you are legally bond to notify us of them all, and if you fail to do so it is seen as a legal offense and can have serious consequences.

To break it down and make it easier to take in, I have broken down each asset that would need to be considered in the IVA.

House If you own the property that you live in you will not have to sell it or give it up and it isn’t at risk with an IVA as long as you keep up with the terms of the arrangement. If you have equity in your property you will be asked to release a percentage of this equity in the fourth, however I will discuss this in more details later. As your mortgage is a secured debt, it will be shown as a creditor but you will still maintain your mortgage payments in full. If you have more equity than you do debt then you are solvent so an IVA isn’t an option for you.

Car If you own the car outright, as long as the value doesn’t exceed £5,000 you should be fine keeping the car. However if your car is worth more than £5,000 your creditors may ask you to sell the car and downgrade it to something cheaper. They will then ask for that money to be paid into the IVA. If your car is on Hire Purchase, then you do not actually own the car and therefore they cannot ask you to sell it.

If you have more than one car, your creditors may ask if there is a valid reason for it, otherwise they could ask you to sell one of the cars.

Motorcycle the same rules apply for cars.

Caravan These are seen by the creditors as a luxury and it is therefore highly likely that your creditors will ask you to sell it. If the caravan is on Hire Purchase, you would have to hand the caravan back to the finance company and any money still owing to them would be included in the IVA as an unsecured creditor.

Holiday Home or Time Share your creditors would see this as a luxury and would again ask you to either sell the property or stop paying into the time share and hand it back. Any money still owing to them would either then be included in the IVA as an unsecured creditor.

Shares you would need to tell us who the shares are with, how many shares you hold and the value of them. These would be detailed in your proposals and your creditors may ask you to cash in your shares. This works on a case by case basis so no definite answer can be given.

Savings you would need to tell us how much you have and you would be required to pay a percentage of this into the IVA.

Endowments as long as your endowment policy is linked to your mortgage this will not be included in the IVA, as if the money was to be released it could only be used to pay the mortgage. However if the endowment policy isn’t linked to the mortgage then the money would have to be released and paid into the IVA.

Property and Mortgages

If you are a home owner and have a mortgage there is a clause in IVA proposals that states in the 54^th month you must carry out a valuation of the property to show the current value of it. Your creditors would ask that you make a payment in lieu of equity in your property, they only look at you re-mortgaging up to 85% of the value of your property and only for your share of any equity.

If your secured borrowings on your home are already over 85% of the value of your home you will not have to offer any payment in lieu of equity. If not you will be asked to release equity in your home up to 85% of its value, but if you are unable to obtain a re-mortgage and provide proof of this, your arrangement will be extended by an extra 12 months payments instead. By doing this your home is completely safe.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow as I will be talking about your creditors.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/11/what-is-an-individual-voluntary-arrangement-blog-2/feed/ 0 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/10/what-is-a-individual-voluntary-arrangement/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/10/what-is-a-individual-voluntary-arrangement/#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:45:22 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=3253 I sat down to write this weeks IVA blog and after a while it became clear that it is impossible to give you detailed information on them in one blog without it being far too long. I therefore decided to turn this week into an IVA themed week. Every day I will be posting a new blog about IVA’s so by Friday you will have all of the information that you should need. At the end of the week I am hoping to do a question and answer session, so any questions that you have please send them in.

Remember we are on Facebook, where there will be an on going discussion throughout the week so you can join in at anytime. You can also follow us on Twitter and send questions to me that way.

I thought a good place to start today would be with an introduction and a look at the process of an IVA.

Introduction

An IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement as it is otherwise known is a legally binding agreement between you and your creditors. An IVA usually lasts for five years; however it can be longer depending on any modifications your creditors may put forward at the time of the IVA being approved. To be able to consider an IVA you must be insolvent, meaning that you assets can not be of higher moneytary value than your debt. The main asset that would need to be consider would be your property, if the equity is more than you debt you are solvent, if it is less then your are insolvent and could therefore possibly do an IVA.

There are so many other things to talk about and consider with an IVA so I am going to break it down as best I can.

How does an IVA work?

Simply put an IVA works by you and your creditors legally agreeing to a payment amount and payment term. The payment amount is your surplus after your income and expenditure have been calculated and the payment term will be set at 60 months, but creditors can ask for an extension of 12 months in some circumstances but I will explain this more in a later section. For an IVA to be approved your creditors will be asked to vote of your IVA. In order for the approval more than 75% of the monetary value of your creditors must accept the IVA

Meaning that if you owed £10,000, you owed £3,000 to one creditor, £2,000 to another, £4,000 and £1,000 to another, all of your creditors approved your IVA apart from the last creditor who you owe £1,000 to your IVA would be approved based on 90% of your debt have agreed. Therefore ALL creditors will then be bound by the IVA including the creditor that voted against the IVA.

Once your IVA has been approved, you will be required to send you payments each month for the funds to be distributed to your creditors. You case will be reviews annually to make sure that payments are still affordable or make any changes that are needed.

Setting up your IVA

Similar to a DMP, for an IVA your income and expenditure will be calculated to give you a surplus. The difference for an IVA from a DMP is that you are required to send in proof, firstly of your income and then for items in your expenditure. Usually only your basic salary will be used for the IVA, and the main reason for this is because any additional income may not be guaranteed and therefore the IVA wouldn’t sustainable if it was included. Usually you will not need to send in proof for everything in your expenditure, the main things that you may be asked for are:

*mortgage/rent

*mortgage redemption statement

*council tax

*gas/electric/water

*petrol/diesel

*benefits such as child tax credits, working tax credits, housing benefit, council tax benefit

*creditor balances and agreements

*child care

*child maintenance

The reason why proof is asked for is because all IVA’s are regulated and therefore it has to be shown that everything is being monitored.

Once all of this has been collected the information will be used to draw up your IVA proposals. Your IVA proposals are the legal document that will detail all of your creditors, plus your budget, your circumstances plus all of the legal notices and terms and conditions for the IVA. Before anything can be done with these documents, you will be asked to read through them thoroughly before signing then and sending them back.

Once these have been received, your IVA meeting can be arranged.

Dividend

This term may be used a lot in the process of drawing up your IVA proposals. What is being referred to is the amount you are paying back to your creditors; if you owe £35,000 and your monthly payment is £200 then your dividend would be 20% because for every £1.00 you owe you will be paying 20p.

The creditors meeting

The creditors meeting sounds a lot scarier than it needs to. It isn’t all of your creditors sat around a table discussing your future in front of you. Your proposals will be sent to all of your unsecured creditors asking them to vote either in favour or against. A meeting date will be set so your creditors must submit there vote before the set time on the day. They usually submit their votes by fax or post. As your creditors do not attend the meeting, you do not have to. After all votes have been received we will call you to notify you of the outcome.

It is at this stage where your creditors can ask for things within the proposals to change and these are usually referred to as modifications.

Fees

All IVA’s charge fees. The fees charged within an IVA can depend on who is dealing with the IVA for you. All IVA’s will have fees for the Nominee and Supervisor costs, their then may be additional costs to the company. With Payplan, we only change what we have to, the Nominee and Supervisor costs. The nominee costs are for all of the work getting your IVA proposals together and everything up until the creditors meeting. This is a fixed sum and will be around 15% of the total fees. You will then have the Supervisors costs which are the charges to maintain the arrangement, these fees are usually around 40% of the total amount you pay into the IVA after 60 months.

Their will then be a few additional items to add on top of that which are VAT, the cost of arranging the meeting and any out of pocket expenses.

All of the details of the fees are detailed in your proposals so you can clearly see what they are.

You will never be asked by us to make any upfront fees; all of the fees detailed above will be taken out of your monthly payments. Therefore when your proposals state your monthly amount, you will pay only this for the fees and to your creditors.

Payplan would only ever ask for the fees on top of you payments, if you were in a position to repay your debts in full.

Nominee & Supervisor

You may have seen these names mentioned a couple of times throughout this blog already so let me explain who they are. They are the legal names for the Insolvency Practitioner who will be authorised to work on your behalf. The Nominee will oversee the first stages of the IVA, getting the information together and getting the proposals drawn up. They will also oversee the creditors meeting being arranged. Once your IVA is approved they will then become your Supervisor. As your Supervisor they will oversee the length of the plan to make sure everything runs smoothly and that they terms of the arrangement are kept.

Come back tomorrow where I will be discussing your assets in an IVA.

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

]]> http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/10/what-is-a-individual-voluntary-arrangement/feed/ 1 http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/04/what-is-a-debt-management-plan-2/ http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/2011/01/04/what-is-a-debt-management-plan-2/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:09:59 +0000 Lizzy http://www.payplan.com/debt-news/?p=2625 Good afternoon bloggers. Now you know who I am, I want to share with you what I do and all that I know. I want to start with the basics so today I will be sharing with you what a Debt Management Plan is.

A Debt Management Plan or DMP, as you may know it, is an informal agreement between you and all of your unsecured creditors, you can think of it as kind of a gentlemans agreement. The agreement will last until all of the money that you owe has been repaid to your creditors. A DMP isn’t legally binding therefore your creditors can still apply interest and charges and they can also pursue legal action against you. The way a DMP works is that you will tell them what you earn, what you spend and what is left over at the end of the month, you will then show them what you can afford to pay them, and this is called a financial statement.

At the start of the arrangement all or your creditors will receive your financial statement which will show the offer you are making to your creditors. They can either accept this offer or not. If a creditor rejects the offer, payments will still be made to them regardless.

Once in your DMP you will send your payments in each month and this is then distributed equally amongst your creditors. By doing this, the hassle is taken away from you so all you need is to make one payment.

A DMP will last for however long it takes for you to pay your debts in full. At the start of the plan all creditors will be asked to freeze interest and charges but this cannot be guaranteed and even if they do agree to it, they could change their minds at any time; because of this a time plan cannot be made.

A Payplan DMP

You will be assigned a Case Officer; this person will act as the middle man between you and your creditors. They will look after you during your plan, they will speak to all of your creditors for you and they will deal with all of the correspondence from them, so you don’t have to. You will send your payments into us each month and 100% of this will go directly to you creditors, this is because we are a free service and we do not take any fees or charges.

At the beginning of your plan we will ask each of your creditors to freeze interest and charges, whilst we cannot guaranteed that we would be successful, we have a very good relationship with creditors. The main for reason for this is because we do not take any fees ourselves so they know that they are getting all the money from you that you can afford.

Once your plan is up and running you will have constant support from your Case Officer until your debts are cleared.

We have several different departments dealing with specific area’s that can also assist you whilst in your plan. One of these being our Legal Document Handling, they help deal with any legal action that is brought against you. There are also people dedicated to helping with mortgage arrears also.

Remember Payplan offer free DMP’s. All of the money that you pay in goes to your creditors. We do not work for the creditors. We work to get you out of debt and pay your creditors back.

How Is My Surplus Calculated

A lot of questions that come to us are about the surplus, people say that if they have money left over they wouldn’t need help. To calculate your surplus we calculate your basic income, so your basics wages after tax, National Insurance and any other deductions, we then calculate what you spend each month, so your mortgage or rent, utility bills, food, travel and any other costs. This will then leave you with a surplus amount; this is what is offered to the creditors and what you would pay into you DMP.

What you need to remember is that you will no longer have your creditor payments to make; they will all be included in your plan, unless you have a car on Hire Purchase or a secured loan which will be accounted for in your expenditure.

The What Ifs

A creditor pursues legal action? We have a team of people who will deal with all of the paperwork for you. You would just need to send in the claim form and we will do all of the hard work and take the stress away from you.

My situation changes? Throughout your plan we will complete regular reviews to make sure your payments are affordable. If things do change, so will you payment.

What do I do now?

Call us on 0800 280 2816

Don’t forget you can find me on Twitter and Facebook

Christmas Opening Times for Payplan

If you would like to contact us between the following dates below, our Helpline (0800 280 2816) will be open at the following times:

Alternatively, you can continue to contact us online through Payplan during the Christmas period.

We’d like to take this opportunity to offer you our best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

Lizzy Snow

(On behalf of  The Payplan Team)

Tel: 0800 280 2816

This is my first video about Debt Consolidation Loans. It will be going on www.debtconsolidation.org.uk soon

The OFT has given the offending companies three months to comply to its Debt Management Guidance – if they don’t, they face losing their licence and the right to operate.

The news has received a welcome response from national provider Payplan and other compliant organisations in the sector.

“Consumers who run into financial problems and have debt issues to contend with come to companies like our own at a very vulnerable time. It is vital they receive the correct service,”

said John Fairhurst, managing director at Payplan.

“We operate standards of best practice in free debt management, we believe strongly that creditors should play a part in helping financial recovery. This is fundamental to our working model. What is frustrating is other companies purporting to do the same when it’s clearly evident they don’t.”

Key Findings

The OFT report highlighted the following significant areas of non-compliance:

• misleading advertising, in particular not disclosing a fee and misrepresenting the services as being free when they are not.
• frontline advisers lacking in competence and providing poor advice based on inadequate information.
• lack of mention of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) for resolving consumer complaints.

Today’s OFT report sets out a detailed action plan to improve standards across the industry, focusing on robust enforcement action against licensees that fail or refuse to change advertising and/or behaviour.

Commenting on the report, John Fairhurst added:

“We hope the OFT exercise will help create a level playing field which will mean complete transparency and, at the same time, safeguard consumers against poor advice and unfair practices.

“This is crucial. Our trained debt consultants deal with extremely harrowing cases of hardship on a daily basis. It is our duty as an industry to ensure we work with consumers and their creditors to provide the very best manageable solution possible. This isn’t a commodity or a peripheral service, it is people’s livelihoods at stake and they need to be receiving the best qualified advice and guidance at all times.”

About Payplan

Payplan has actively campaigned for the Government to regulate the debt management industry. Established in 1993, the company is one of the UK’s longest-serving providers, working with the Citizens Advice Bureau, National Debtline and the Institute of Money Advisers.

Payplan also partners with the credit industry, leading unions and employers – all with one combined desire – to provide totally free debt management services.

In its review of Payplan, the OFT did not raise any concerns or examples of non compliance with either the standards as set out in the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (the Act) or the OFT’s Debt Management Guidance.

The group is now calling on the industry to bring in more safeguards to protect vulnerable borrowers – an initiative welcomed by some of the UK’s leading debt solution companies, including Payplan.

“Payday loans are a better alternative than turning to a loan shark but the eyewatering interest charges can mean borrowers end up owing more and more as payments spiral out of control,”

said John Fairhurst, Managing Director at Payplan which provides free debt management advice and planning.

“We agree more should be done to make people aware of the long-term consequences of a payday loan. It might appear to provide a short-term solution but we often see people drawn into repeatedly taking out these expensive loans to try and keep up with unaffordable repayments to other creditors. Instead of improving their situation people often find that use of these loans exacerbates an already serious debt problem.”

Payday loans have increased in popularity during the recession. They are quick ways of getting hold of short-term credit of up to £750 secured online or through the high street and repaid monthly, usually on a borrowers’ payday, hence the name.

Interest rates differ from one loan company to the next but Payplan quotes an average example of £25 interest paid for every £700 borrowed. If the interest isn’t paid, the loan will be rolled over. In many instances, Payplan says borrowers take out further payday loans to cover the payment and so the debt spirals.

“This is not the way to pay off debt or the type of loan for debt we would advise people take out”

added Mr Fairhurst.

“If people find themselves with financial worries or facing debt then the best action is to take some impartial advice from an expert.”

About Payplan

Payplan is a free debt advice and solutions service that provides impartial advice to people in financial distress. Payplan helps over 100,000 people every year and works closely with organisations in the field of money advice and consumer and employee welfare.

If you are struggling to manage your monthly outgoings then contact Payplan for free debt advice online or simply call 0800 280 2816.

Four million British women and three million British men have become addicted to shopping, using credit cards, store cards and loans to supply their obsession.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) released a report showing that women tend to spend the most on high street clothes, whereas men spend circa £600 a year on designer clothing, nearly double what female shoppers spend on designer goods.

Skincare and cosmetic products, traditionally bought by women, are now attracting the average shopaholic male, who will spend £338 a year on these types of products; while females will spend nearly £200.

Ann Robinson, a director at uSwitch, said:

In today’s celebrity obsessed society, any lessons learnt from the recession have been airbrushed out of the picture. Despite the financial constraints, women have carried on copying the lifestyles and shopping habits of their idols and ignoring the debt they are racking up in the process.

This spend-emic has spread and it’s clear that men too have caught on to the joys and perils of shopping.

Payplan

If you are worried or struggling with your unsecured debt, or are behind with your priority costs due to spiralling monthly debt bills, then contact Payplan for free debt advice on 0800 280 2816.

1. Make sure you register for childcare vouchers

If your employer offers childcare vouchers, make sure you’re a member of the scheme they provide, so that you get the best value from your claim.

These vouchers can be used on numerous types of care, including nursery, after-school activities and boarding school.

2. Check the added extras to your childcare voucher scheme

Many providers for childcare vouchers also offer employees who use the vouchers the opportunity to save more money when it comes to High Street and supermarket shopping.

3. Don’t miss out in an emergency

Don’t forgo a day’s wages or your attendance record if your childcare plans fall through.

Find out if your employer offers an employee assistance programme, or a childcare advice line that can offer alternative solutions.

4. Find out about free childcare for those aged 3 and 4

Three and four-year-olds in England are entitled to free learning for a minimum of 12.5 hours per week for 38 weeks of the year. This can take place in nurseries, playgroups, preschools or at  child minders.

5. Check to see you’re eligible to receive tax credits

Verify if you’re eligible for the childcare element of the Working Tax Credit. If you are you could receive help towards the costs of a number of childcare services.

Payplan

If you are struggling to manage your monthly outgoings then contact Payplan for free debt advice online or simply call 0800 280 2816.

Daycare Trust has published a report on the typical childcare costs for 2010. The findings show that:

• The Average cost for 25 hours a week childcare in England is £88; this is more than 50% of the average part time earnings which are £153 per week
• Parents in London can pay up to £11,050 per year for 25 hours of childcare per week, the highest cost in England
• Average yearly expenditure on childcare for parents in England is over £200 more per year than for those parents in Scotland and Wales for 25 hours of nursery care per week for a child under the age of 2
• All types of childcare has risen as a result of inflation
• The cost of a nursery place for children aged 2 and above has risen by 5.1% in England, nearly double inflation
• Over half of Family Information Services across Britain has revealed a lack of childcare
• 50% of local authorities in Britain have reported a lack of sufficient childcare for older children and disabled children
• A local authority-run summer play scheme typically costs £82.60 for one child per week in England. Whereas in Wales, a similar scheme would cost £58.89 and £104.28 in Scotland
• Private, voluntary and independent-run schemes usually cost around £104.55 per week in England, £101.60 in Wales and £96.47 in Scotland

Payplan

If you’re struggling to pay your bills and are behind with debts due to increased living costs, then contact Payplan for free debt advice online or telephone 0800 280 2816.

Although food generally only accounts for 12% of household spending, the increase in the price of vegetables and mineral water is going to put a strain on living healthily on a budget. This is in stark contrast from the market a year ago when vegetables were dropping in price.

The Office for National Statistics said:

The month-on month rise of 1% in food and non-alcoholic drink prices was a record rise for June to July.

With both essential costs of living rising and the UK economy set to grow gradually in the next two years, consumers may have trouble paying for their essentials.

Payplan

If you are worried about your finances contact Payplan today on 0800 280 2816, for free and helpful debt advice.

With fuel prices set to increase, why not follow Payplan’s money saving tips to help reduce your petrol or diesel costs.

1. Find the cheapest petrol near you

You can find the cheapest petrol and diesel prices nearest to where you live by visiting www.petrolprices.com.

2. Use a customer loyalty card

Many supermarkets offer the lowest prices in petrol and diesel. In the last couple of days ASDA has vowed to keep it’s petrol price at 111.9p until the bank holiday.

Some supermarkets allow you to save even more if you own one of their customer loyalty cards, which are free to open. The more you spend, and the more points you collect, the more you can save. The points can be claimed back in a number of ways, with money-off vouchers to savings on a family day out – you would need to check each store’s terms!

3. Make your car more efficient

Any access weight adds to your fuel price, so remove any excess clutter you have been storing. For example, remove bike racks if they are not going to be used.

Additionally, if your tyres are not correctly inflated, up to 2% can be added to your fuel bill.

4.  Want to cool off?

Before you turn the air conditioning on, think about opening a window or two. Turning off the air conditioning can improve your car’s fuel efficiency by up to 8%.

5. At a stand still?

If you are going to be stopped for 2 to 3 minutes in either a traffic jam or at traffic lights, turn your engine off, this will help cut the costs of your fuel bill.

Payplan

If you are struggling to manage your monthly outgoings then contact Payplan for free debt advice online or simply call 0800 280 2816.

Presently, it costs £7 more to fill up the tank of an average car than it did a year ago. This is yet another petrol price increase which will hit consumers, after the recent announcement that bread and gas prices will also increase.

The Retail Motor Industry (RMI) has released figures that show a staggering increase in petrol prices. Prices are set to rise by 4p by the end of the month and it is estimated that by the New Year petrol prices could be as high as £125.9 per litre.

This petrol price enlargement is due to the steady increase of crude oil prices.

This price of petrol increase is adding fear to the other key living costs that are also set to rise. It is expected that the cost of a loaf of bread will increase by 10p after Russia put a ban on all grain exports. In addition, the energy market is also expected to put up gas prices which will affect households nationally.

Payplan

If you’re struggling to pay your bills and are behind with debts due to increased living costs, then contact Payplan for debt advice online or telephone 0800 280 2816.

The Association of Business Recovery Professionals (R3) has released new figures which state that holidaymakers will take seven months to pay back the average sum of over £1000 they borrowed to pay for their holiday.

The research looked at how the economic recession has affected holidaymakers’ habits. It found that:

• Those holidaying from Scotland are most likely to borrow to pay for their holiday
• 10% of people from London said that the cost of their holiday would be paid for by borrowing
• Those from the North West, Yorkshire and the West Midlands are least likely to borrow to pay for their holiday

The research also illustrated a generational split, with holidaymakers between the ages of 16 and 24 being the most likely to borrow and those over 65, the least likely to borrow.

R3 Vice President, Frances Coulson, remarked:

That people are prepared to take on a substantial amount of debt for such a long period of time in order to afford a holiday is worrying, especially as these are still economically uncertain times. Personal insolvency hit record levels in the first quarter of this year and looks set to rise – so we’re urging people not to spend more than they earn.

Payplan

Payplan offer debt advice on a range of issues. You can contact Payplan online or call 0800 280 2816 for free advice and support to help manage your debts.

Although living alone can have its advantages, it can also lead to financial difficulties. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s research showed that it would cost a single person £14,400 a year to reach a basic standard of living.

Follow Payplan’s 5 top money saving tips to reduce living expenses:

1. Mortgage

Couples are at an advantage as they can split the cost of their mortgage. The best mortgages are available to those with deposits of at least 25%, whether it is in joint names, or individually. If you are looking for single occupancy, you could ask your parents to act as guarantors so that they would be legally responsible for paying the mortgage if you were to default on payments.

2. Council tax

If you are the sole occupant of a property you can apply to receive a 25% discount off your Council Tax bill.

3. Water

People living alone or those who currently pay higher than average charges for their water are most likely to benefit from a water meter.

4. Gas and electricity

Make sure you shop around for the best deals. GoCompare and Money Supermarket are two well-known comparison websites which will help you find the cheapest deal. Some energy companies do not offer discounts to those living alone, but tariffs with no standing charges may an advantage for someone who lives alone.

5. Car insurance

Some car insurance companies may charge you more if there is only one person on the policy. It is often cheaper to add someone else onto the policy. If you do not have a partner, you can lower your premium by including another person, such as a flat-mate or parent; this will save even more if the person is older.

Payplan

If you’re struggling to afford your monthly utility bills contact Payplan today for free advice on 0800 280 2816.

The school holidays have arrived yet again, but with family day tickets to major attractions costing more than £100, it is prudent to check for alternatives. Here are some handy money saving tips from Payplan to cut the cost of your summer holiday, but still allowing your children to have a fun filled six week break and reducing their boredom at home.

1. Plan a treasure hunt

Make clues and put them in the garden or around the house, so that each clue leads to the next. The final clue would lead to the treasure which could be a home-made treat.

2. Make your own restaurant

First, choose what type of food you want to serve. Then, name the restaurant. Next, design the menu and prepare the decorations. Get cooking and then finally you can sit down to enjoy the meal!

3. Arrange a ‘dress up’ day

Be creative. A box of clothes can provide hours of fun. Use old clothes to make costumes, which can later be used in a home-made theatre production!

4. Have a sports day

Prepare outdoor games, such as the egg and spoon race and present homemade certificates at a prize giving at the end of the activities.

5. Create your own show

Get the children to write and then perform the play using the costumes made during the dress up day. Or make a shadow puppet theatre, where you can use old cereal boxes to make the characters and the stage.

Payplan
Providing free budgeting advice and free, confidential debt help for those struggling to manage their debts. Contact us for free on 0800 280 2816.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne is preparing an Office for Tax Simplification to reduce the 11,000 page tax code; due to Britain having one of the most complex tax codes in the world.

It is hoped that the tax code will become more readable and more people will understand the tax laws they are being asked to comply with.

Initially two reviews will be conducted:

1. The tax system for small business will be simplified
2. Restructuring of tax reliefs, allowances and exemptions

Tax credits will not be adjusted as they are considered to be part of the benefits system.

It is being simplified in order to make the system more competitive for the growth of small businesses, in hope of stimulating economic growth.

The Chancellor has said:

The previous Government took a complex tax system and made it even worse. A decade of meddling and intervening has made the tax affairs of millions of families and businesses across the UK extremely complicated. We need to sort out this mess.

Two years ago I promised to create the Office of Tax Simplification. Today, we’re delivering on that promise. With its independent, expert advice it will be a permanent force for a simpler tax system.

Simpler, more competitive taxes will help us show the world that Britain is open for business.

Payplan

If you are worried about your finances contact Payplan today on 0800 280 2816, for free and helpful debt advice

In my experience, mortgage arrears need to be dealt with in the context of the overall financial situation of borrowers.

In trials in which we are working with a small number of lenders to talk to clients in arrears, we have found that by engaging with borrowers about their whole debt situation we’re nearly always better able to effect a solution that stabilises and makes their repayments on unsecured debt more manageable.

This leaves a greater proportion of income available to put towards improving the arrears situation.

So without having to run the risk of giving advice, lenders adopting a more holistic approach to arrears can turn the FSA‘s rules to their advantage and put more borrowers back on the straight and narrow.

They can also fulfil their obligations with regard to Treating Customers Fairly.

So lenders should see the new rules, rather than being a burden, as a chance to tackle underlying unsecured debt liabilities at source and free up disposable income for the repayment of arrears.

John Fairhurst
Managing Director

Payplan Press Office

For further information please contact:

Jane Jenkins,
Payplan PR Manager
Email: jane.jenkins@payplan.com
Telephone: 01476 581 279

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has outlined new suggestions for mortgage borrowers to ensure that they can afford monthly mortgage payments.

The FSA wants to ensure that mortgage customers are protected and that lenders only lend to those who can afford mortgage payments.

Key proposals:

• Introducing affordability tests
• Verification of borrowers’ income
• Extra protection for susceptible customers

The proposals are a direct result of a review undertaken by the FSA, which looked into causes of mortgages in arrears and repossessions since 2005.

Conclusions from the review:

• Nearly half of all households either had no money left or had a shortfall, after mortgage payments and living costs were deducted from their income
• Almost 50% of new mortgage customers were not asked to verify their income between 2007 and 2010
• Interest-only mortgages have been increasing, at the topmost, 30% of all mortgages were interest-only
• Many borrowers depend on future house price rises and unsure life events to repay their mortgage
• Customers with credit-impaired history are the most vulnerable

The FSA director responsible for the mortgage market, Lesley Titcomb, said:

There is a clear link between financial overstretch and mortgage arrears and repossessions, and we are determined to protect vulnerable consumers by making sure that everyone who takes on a mortgage can afford to pay it back.

Payplan

If you are struggling to manage your monthly outgoings then contact Payplan for free debt advice online or simply call 0800 280 2816.

The North-South divide in England is still continuing.

Data from the Insolvency Service shows that in 2009, the North East of England had the highest number of bankruptcies and individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), whereas London had the lowest level. This was also the case in 2008.

Cases of insolvency are at their highest as a result of unemployment levels and an increase in unsecured personal debts.

Even though there is a clear north-south split, the South West of England was the region with the second highest number of personal insolvencies in 2009.

Although these figures show the outcome of personal insolvencies for 2009, it is clear that people will face the same problem in 2010 from the data that has already been published. This year has seen a rise of nearly 18% of the number of people being declared insolvent in England and Wales compared with the first three months of 2009.

Payplan

If you are struggling with debts contact Payplan today for free & confidential debt advice or simply call 0800 280 2816.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) publishes its annual update on ‘minimum income standard’.

They review what people think is an essential living cost.

Key Points

• A single person in the UK needs to earn at least £14,400 a year before tax to afford a basic standard of living
• A couple with two children needs £29,200
• The minimum household budget has risen by 4%
• Since 2000, living standards have fallen by over 10%
• People do not just need physical essentials now, but also things that allow them to participate in society
• A computer and internet connection are considered essential
• With tax allowances and credits not being increased under the new budget, it means people need to earn substantially more to afford the increased cost of living

Changes

• The cost of a minimum household budget for a single person has risen by 38% in the last decade
• Bus fares have risen by 60% since 2000
• People on low incomes are facing much higher inflation rates
• With a society change, the minimum standard of living also changes; for example, a basic budget for going out is expected, it is a necessity to buy birthday presents, and it is essential to have a week’s holiday each year, although not abroad
• Items such as fridge-freezers, DVD players and mobile phones should be affordable
• Owning a computer and having access to internet at home is essential for all working-age households
• Computers and internet are now included in the 2010 budgets for working-age people

The salary required to reach the minimum income standard remains well above the National Minimum Wage (presently £5.80 per hour). Minimum Income Standard budgets suggests that the recession may have resulted in reductions in standards of living, but not a change in the view of what is acceptable.

Payplan

If you’re struggling to pay your bills and are behind with debts due to increased living costs, then contact Payplan for debt advice online or telephone 0800 280 2816.

If you are on a tight budget and are struggling for things to do for free this summer, why not try one of the many free days out being offered throughout the UK?

1. Visit a museum

Free day out in London

Many of the museums throughout London offer free admission. Admission into the Victoria and Albert Museum is free and a new free exhibition of ‘Peter Rabbit: the tale of The Tale’ is about to launch. The exhibition opens on the 3rd July and ends next January.

2. Find a free music festival near you

Free day out in Birmingham

Birmingham’s annual International Jazz Festival is back in ‘full swing’ from the 16th to 25th July. Starting at lunchtime every day, there are plenty of free shows to choose from.

3. Find a free literature festival near you

Free day out in Hull

Another year and the city of Hull sees the return of its Humber Mouth Literature Festival. The festival is the culmination of year round literature activities and there a number of free shows available. The festival is taking place between the 26th June and 11th July.

4. Make a trip to an open air cinema

Free day out in Manchester

Spinningfields holds Manchester’s first outdoor cinema and the screenings are completely free. A wide variety means everyone can enjoy a show or two! Films are shown weekly on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings.

5. Visit an art gallery

Free day out in Sheffield

Sheffield has a number of galleries with free admission and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) offers indoor galleries as well as outdoor sculptures situated in the tranquil grounds. There are many free events taking place throughout the summer. Booking is necessary!

Payplan

If you are struggling with meeting your monthly credit card payments and need advice on debt, please contact Payplan for free on 0800 280 2816.

The new Government has proposed that a new pension age threshold will come into force from 2016.

The new pension age threshold is set to rise to 66 years for men by 2016 and by a further two years to 68 by 2048.

Work and Pensions Secretary Ian Duncan Smith said on the new pension age rise:

“People are living longer and healthier lives than ever, and the last thing we want is to lose their talent and enthusiasm from the workplace due to an arbitrary age limit.

We also need to recognise that to meet the challenge of providing an affordable, stable pensions system in a society with ever increasing life expectancy, people will need to work longer.”

The government is also in talks to phase out the current default retirement age to ensure those who want to work past 65 are able to do so.

Key points from June’s Budget, 2010

VAT
VAT rate will rise from 17.5% to 20% from January 4, 2011

Tax

Tax credits have been reduced for families earning over £40,000 next year

Low income families will see an increase in Child Tax Credit

There will be no new increase on alcohol, tobacco or fuel taxes

Council tax could be frozen for one year from April 2011 in England

Benefits

Child benefit will be frozen for the next three years

Unemployed people will see their Housing Benefit cut by 10% after 12 months of claiming Jobseekers Allowance from April 2013

Public Sector

Public sector workers face a two-year pay freeze if they earn over £21,000

Public sector workers earning less than £21,000 to be paid £250 extra each year for two years

Plans to cut the Deficit

Chancellor George Osborne plans to cut the structural deficit anticipate a fall of 1.1% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015/16 compared to a deficit 10.1% of GDP in 2011.

Payplan

If you are struggling with debts contact Payplan today for free, confidential debt advice or simply call 0800 280 2816.

Many Payplan clients already owned a pet before they got into financial difficulty – making the cost of caring for them part of their budgeting process. Here are some handy tips from Payplan for how to cut the cost of owning a pet, without cutting out on the care.

1. Pet inoculations – Don’t miss jabs!

Although the cost of inoculating your pet can be expensive, prevention is better (and cheaper!) than cure. By keeping up-to-date with your pet’s jabs you could avoid extra costs in the future.

2. Pet insurance

Again the same adage is true – prevention better than cure. Shop around for cheap insurance deals for your pet’s insurance, although paying each month adds up, the insurance will act as a great safety net should your pet need emergency or long-term medical treatment in the future.

3. Cheap toys

Instead of spending money on expensive toys for your pets, why not pick something up from charity shops or even try homemade toys.. sometimes a bit of string or a simple feather can provide just as much fun!

Alternatively, many ‘pound’ shops sell various ranges of pets’ toys and pet foods for only £1 – bargain!

4. Pet sitting

To avoid the cost of pet sitting or kennels, why not visit Pet Sitter Swap, a site which puts local pet owners in touch with each other so they can organise a free pet-sitting rota. You have to pay £9.99 to join, but all pet-sitting is free after that.

5. Buying a Pet

If you’re seriously thinking about buying a pet such as a dog or cat, and you’ve already considered the financial, emotional and care implications over the long-term, it may be a good idea to consider a non-pedigree rather than a pedigree breed.

Pedigrees, as well as the initial cost of the pet being expensive, are also known to cost considerably more in terms of ongoing insurance and general day to day care.

Additionally, apart from the obvious benefits to the animal, adopting a pet from a rescue home will most probably work out cheaper than buying from a breeder and some will even arrange subsidised vaccinations and neutering where necessary before you pick up your new pet.

For more information about adopting a rescue animal visit the RSPCA‘s website.

Payplan

Providing free budgeting advice and free, confidential debt help for those struggling to manage their debts.

Prime Minister David Cameron warned yesterday about the UK’s problems with debt and that plans to cut the deficit will have “enormous implications” for the country, stating in a speech;

“How we deal with these things will affect our economy, our society – indeed our whole way of life”

“The decisions we make will affect every single person in our country and the effects of those decisions will stay with us for years, perhaps decades to come”.

The consequences of the problems with debt that the country currently faces are also reflected in the debt problems that many consumers are facing and struggling to come to terms with in their personal life.

Personal problems with debt?

The number of people struggling with personal debt in the UK has risen greatly over the last few years. Those facing debt problems may be suffering from considerable anxiety, stress and depression or perhaps more alarmingly, in some cases, thoughts of suicide.

If you are worried about debt then it’s important to seek debt help. Advice lines such as the Samaritans or your local Citizens Advice Bureau are there to provide help and support in a crisis, both emotionally and practically. Additionally, why not read Payplan’s tips on how to beat the stress of debt for additional help.

Some people struggling to manage their finances may even be trying to hide a debt problem from their loved ones too, whilst others may be struggling with a relationship breakdown due to problem debts. Relate offer relationship advice and counselling services to those in need – click here for more information on how to find your nearest Relate counselling service.

Many people are today struggling to manage their home or business, are facing redundancy or even bankruptcy. If you’re struggling to manage your finances, then contact Payplan today for free confidential debt advice.

The following bill cutting tips could help you save money on your monthly outgoings. Click here for further budgeting advice

1. Cut your TV package

Ask yourself this question; do you really watch all the channels you subscribe to? If the answer is no, then maybe you should consider cutting your sky or digital packages back to basics – and watch your bill reduce.

Many programmes can now be watched online but if you would still prefer the extra channels why not consider a Freeview package? Some televisions have Freeview already integrated and so you may be receiving many of the channels for free already without even knowing.

2. Cut your phone bill

At the beginning of the year Payplan reported results of a study that showed the average adult wasted almost half (45%) of their mobile tariff’s minutes and text allowance each month, totalling almost £250 in waste each year.

If you think you could reduce your mobile monthly allowance, why not contact your network provider to see if you can lower your tariff and cut your monthly bill.

3. Cut your magazine subscriptions

A variety of magazines actually upload most of their content online now and so you can view most of what you would pay to read, for free! Magazine subscriptions add up over time, with a £1.50 weekly magazine costing almost £80 over a year!

4. Compare the market

Market comparison sites are great for finding the cheapest deal on your monthly bills. Compare the Market, GoCompare and Money Supermarket are a few of the well-known providers (there are many others) – all specialise in searching for the cheapest deals from car insurance to broadband.

My Supermarket also allows you to scan the supermarkets for the cheapest deals.

5. Haggle

If you feel you are paying too much for your television, mobile or broadband package, it may be worth contacting your provider and asking directly about cutting your bills or reducing your monthly contract – you may find they are willing to provide you with a similar package but at a reduced rate – after all, its always worth asking.

Payplan

If you are struggling to manage your monthly outgoings then contact Payplan for free debt advice online or simply call 0800 280 2816.