debt advice

In which case, get expert advice, instead of random suggestions from an open newsgroup!

Your first port of call should probably be your local Citizens' Advice Bureau, who provide an excellent, free, debt advice service, and can refer you to specialists, if needed.

You could probably also do worse than find, by recommendation if possible, a local solicitor who'll give you a free initial interview with a view to intervening.

Meanwhile, remember that what they've sent you is a letter threatening legal action, not a summons. In other words, they've not yet matched the deed to the word. You still have time and options. Act now, and act positively, to pre-empt them.

Jon

In message , Sammy writes

If you can pay the arrears off within 2 months, I would think it unlikely that they will have arranged a court hearing within that time - they might, but it's unlikely.

I also believe that judges definitely dont want to grant possession if there is an alternative.

Take some specialist advice, but I would expect that if you have paid this off within 2 months, you should not be in danger of losing your home.

If you definitely believe that you can pay it within 2 months, and maintain the monthly payments thereafter, I would write to them advising them of this, and include a schedule of when you expect to be making the arrears payments.

As to moving your mortgage - this may be difficult if you have been in substantial arrears, so I would start making enquiries now.

First deal with the immediate situation -

Call the Shelter helpline on 0808 800 4444 and see the info. on their website

Also try the arrears page

Fill in a SOA and post it along with this post here - it's the best place for debt advice in the UK. See the previous posts about repossession

Get copies of your credit record to see what prospective lenders will see when calculating your credit score for any future mortgage application. Any previous addresses you give will be linked to your current address on the reports -

Experian , Equifax Call Credit

(all £2 each - the more expensive reports are a waste of money)

The worst thing you could do is agree to a payment plan which you can't keep to.

Since you're in arrears, this is now on your credit record for all to see. It's unlikely that any companies will want to take you on, and if they do the interest rates may be high to reflect the potential risk.

Longer term -

Just to pay the interest on the mortgage, you'd need household income of around £45,000 gross per year and you'd have precious little left over. How realistic is that ? Do you want a life, or a house ?

Hopefully this will help you understand the situation and get started. I hope it works out OK.

Daytona

In message , Richard Faulkner writes

When you write, send it recorded delivery.

Thank you all for the advice. Daytona especially, the links have been fantastic. I have to prioritise my debts and bills that require paying. I will contact Platform tomrw and will keep you posted of how it all goes.

Sammy

Thanks Sammy, best of luck.

Daytona

Sammy,

If you want help with budgeting and with reducing household bills through seriously astute shopping around, I recommend

unreservedly.

The site is a non-profit one run by a financial journalist called Martin Lewis. It is a one-stop-shop for every legit way there is to reduce your outgoings. There is a lot there about dealing with debt

. The budget planner spreadsheet is a particularly useful tool. In telling you where your cash is going, it is also a checklist of things you can probably buy cheaper. The site has a best buy article on practically all of them. To give an example that's worked for me, my phone bill used to be about 80 a quarter with Tesco Talk, including 35 BT line rental. I thought that wasn't bad, but at the above site I found and The former charges 1p to connect a call and 0p per minute (you read that right - a penny for the entire call). The exceptions are 0845 and 0870 numbers, but the second site above has a searchable database of the geographical numbers behind 0845 ones. Every time I need to phone an 0845 number I look it up there first then call via 18866. Last quarter my phone bill was 38, i.e. three quid *total* for all the calls.

OK, it's only 150 a year saved, but it's *your* 150 dammit :-)

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

I like what he does, but a abhor the supreme arrogance he demonstrates by describing himself as the "UK's only money saving expert". That denigrates the excellent advice given by many people, particularly on mass exposure mediums such as the media and the internet over the years.

Would it be worth moving to the BT low user tariff to reduce the line rental, now that the call charges have been reduced that far ?

There's a good how to guide here for anyone else that's interested.

Daytona

"Daytona" wrote

I guess he's allowed a bit of hype. He works to a very limited brief - eg he doesn't offer editorial advice on investment stategy, as the Motley Fool does - so I guess this is his way of differentiating. He is probably the UK's 'most focused' or 'leading' or 'premier' expert, perhaps.

Thanks for the link. My reservation about doing this is that if it goes t*ts up with call18866 you are a prisoner of BT until you can sort out another call carrier, and their default rates for line-only customers are fairly steep. This happened to me with talktalk last year, who persistently ballsed up my bill and eventually blocked the account after they failed to exercise their DD.

You may not move onto the low user tariff if you obtain telephone services from another source. Using an indirect access operator is another source.

The low user tariff makes a loss which is subsidised by you and me, it is designed for genuine low users, not for people to play the system.

tim