Has anyone used stepchange?

Hi Kickstart

I am using Stepchange at the moment and they are brilliant. I guess it depends on your circumstances. For me I am 56 and I've had a 44 year in gambling, unfortunately didn't get paid for it lol.

It probably depends a lot on your assets, age and when you think you could buy a house if you don't have one. Also what sort of earnings you have. For me, the opportunity to buy a house went with gambling. I had three options. Debt relief order or bankruptcy. Both sit on your credit file for 6 years. I am not worried about ever getting credit again as like I said a mortgage at my age is highly unlikely as I lost my job after 26 years through gambling. MD to no income. The problem I personally had with those two options is admitting responsibility. Although I feel the bookmakers could have protected me more I have to come to terms with that predatory industry but the banks/credit cards didn't do anything wrong so it's my responsibility and I need to pay them back. That said, like you the stress of owing 37.5k plus 20k in my partners name was unbearable and unaffordable. I took up the option you have mentioned which will sit on my credit file for six years but whenever I can afford it I will pay them more to get it cleared over time. The one thing I have learned since talking to them is that you need to tell them you are a compuslive gambler in recovery and also any mental health issues you have. The government have cracked down on financial institutions about adding stress to customers and they aren't allowed to do it. All of them have a specialist team as they are worried about the fines. 

Work out what you want to achieve financially in the future and try to pick the option that works best for you.

Stuart

@lp5vut869c Thank you for your reply Stuart. I am married with a mortgage. I earn 50k. 
I am guessing because I can afford to pay £1000 at a push, they won’t be willing to help me? 

They can help absolutely. Do you tell Stepchange about the gambling and any mental health issues you are experiencing like stress, anxiety and depression ? You have to be honest as they could ask for proof of GP report or counselling sessions but I only got asked by one for that and sent it to them.

The main thing is that you can't recover from gambling with the stress of debt and both Stepchange and the creditors know that so just be honest with them. Stepchange can sort out a plan and stop any correspondence or action. Don't give up but maybe talk to them again and ask for more detail

The fact you already have a mortgage is good but ask them what goes on your credit file to see if it would stop you moving house and changing the mortgage. Also it could affect phone contracts as they do a credit check each time you upgrade I believe but Stepchange will know. Although it's not law for the creditors to agree to Stepchange they rarely go against them. I'm an expert on amounting debt but not on paying it back lol so my advice would be to keep talking to Stepchange as soon as you can and get a plan in place whatever it is 

Stuart

@c17ort hello,

Both myself and my husband are going through StepChange. 

My gambling started back in 2018-19 and it was the worse 4-5 years of my life. I resorted to taking out debt in my husband’s name without him knowing. Tens and tens of thousands of pounds!! Plus I had my own debt of about £25k.

Anyway, in July 2023 I hit rock bottom and within days I was going to be faced with 5 loan payments and 3 credit card payments and I had money to pay them. My husband was going to find out. 

26th July 2023 was the last day I gambled and my husband was told the truth. It was the worse time of my life but also the best time and a huge relief.

The mortgage is in his name only and the only option we had to not affect that was to do a Debt Management Plan. StepChange were and are AMAZING!! The debt you have is not a priority to them, and they will tell you the only important things to pay out is your mortgage, council tax, energy etc. Any loans and credit cards should only be paid once priority bills are paid. 

My husband can earn £80k a year some years and we still went through StepChange. Yes, we could have struggled for the next 8 years to pay everything in full and not affect credit rating, but what qualify of life would we have had?! It has affecting him being able to remortgage or change providers, but we had no need to do that anyway. We can still get a fixed term as no credit search is needed for that.

The relief talking about my gambling and getting help from StepChange has got me where I am today and I finally can sleep at night. I’m now 2.5 years gamble free.

You’ve got to be completely transparent. Does your wife know? Put every block in place and triple lock the doors. Don’t leave anything to chance! 

Please reply if you have any other questions. 
Claire x

@c17ort adding on to above.

StepChange will even encourage you to add a saving amount to your budget, a budget for going out, they recommend you put down a higher amount for food shopping and petrol even if you don’t spend that. They want you to over budget rather than under budget. You’ll probably be surprised to see that you will have no where near the £1000 as deposable income to pay your debts. 
My husband’s debts were £65k, we needed to pay out £1500 a month to keep debts paid in full. After doing the StepChange budget, we in fact only had £400 to pay towards the debts! 

@cpparch Wow what an informative reply. This helps massively. So you think even though I am paying £1000 a month, they will still help me? 
Even if I had to pay half it would massively help me financially.

@c17ort absolutely!!! You set your own budget, they don’t ask for proof. StepChange are on your side and your side only. 
When we first did our budget it came back that a lot of the things were too low and they recommended increasing the amount. Food shopping was one of them, we put something like £300 a month, but they were saying for a family of 4 that was way too low and we were advised to put £450!!!! They even wanted us to put something like £100-£150 for going out etc. There are so many sections in the budget form they set, it’s brilliant.  

StepChange have such a good relationship with the creditors. Ultimately, the creditors know that they either except this way or they risk not getting any of the money back. 

One loan we had was for £25k!! They’re only getting something like £100 a month back, but I’m happy to share that our DMP have been going on for 2.5 years now and we’ve had no problems at all. 

Also, you have control over your budget. If you get an unexpected bill, you can adjust your budget to lower your monthly payments to creditors.

If you’re happy with your mortgage provider and have no intentions to remortgage or move etc, then going through StepChange will be a breath of fresh air. 

The debt is not important, you have a gambling addition, it’s an illness, and nothing is worth the stress that is caused by that. Spending every month struggling to pay your debts in full will only make things worse not better.

Claire x

@cpparch Claire your help and advice has been outstanding and helped me feel so much better already. 
Thank you so much.

You’re so welcome. If you have any other questions, please do ask. 

There is always light at the end of the tunnel. Nothing is forever. 

@cpparch Thank you. I was always concerned about how they may value my assets at home to use as payments etc? 
I have a loan and credit card debt with my mortgage lender Halifax. Does that have any impact on my mortgage? 
I don’t intend to move house but my fixed rate will end in 3 years. 
Would I literally carry on making lower payments until it is eventually paid? 

Does my workplace get informed? 

@c17ort I’m no expert but if the loans and credit cards are unsecured, then it won’t affect your mortgage. Is it a completely separate personal loan you took out at a different time to your mortgage? If so, it doesn’t matter who it’s with, it can still be added to a debt management plan.

I think the only way your work would be involved is if you went bankrupt or did an IVA AND you worked in a money industry or you had a high level of financial responsibility. Other than that, they wouldn’t know as it’s a private matter. 

So, we currently pay £400 a month but if circumstances don’t change, we will have to do a budget review every year. This is in your control and you set it. If you think you can pay more each month then you can change the budget to reflect that. Other than that, yes, it just carries on until it’s paid off. The creditors stop adding interest and charges too. 

One thing we’ve noticed as well is that some creditors offer a reduced amount to pay to clear the debt. StepChange will tell you to ignore it because if you were to pay it off, it would be favouring one creditor over the other, and they treat them all fairly with the way they divide the payments out to them. 

If you have spare money and want to pay more, you can contact StepChange to pay a lump sum, who will then divide it equally between your creditors, which will then bring your balances down. My husband’s debts was £65k and mine was £25k, we don’t even hear from the creditors now, except for the default notices they have to send out by law.

Is your wife aware of your situation? 

Claire x

@c17ort lenders cannot do anything about assets or property unless the loans are secured against something. It sounds like you just have unsecured loans you’ve taken out?

@c17ort 

Hiya, 

I think it depends on your personal circumstance and what youre willing to do. If youd rather it not effect your credit score, could you not speak to the cc companies and look at reducing your payments, even 500 a month youd be better off and the debts would be paid off quicker than paying £1 a month. 

That would be the route id take because I think messing up your credit score, you do t know whats around the corner and you might need it. That would be lily thought process but like I said its what will work best for you. It sounds like you have options which is a good place to be 🙂 

Good luck 

Couldn't agree more with the comments above..the chatrooms on here are good as most people have used Stepchange