Debt Management Plan with Mortgage

Hi before entering into a debt management plan seek advice beforehand. A debt management plan is pretty much a sure way to screw your credit history for 6 year's after final payment so say you enter one that's 5 year's that's 11 year's of a bad credit history.

This won't effect your current mortgage but may effect your ability to remortgage in the near future.

I suggest taking the eligibility test before hand.

Maybe contact your debt lender's individualy and propose a smaller payment for a set period.
Just say if not you'll have no other option but to enter a dmp you'll be surprised how helpful the lender's are if you use the right wording.

Best wishes

Thanks Deano, I'll give that a go first.

Can I just say, I knew you'd be the first to reply from reading other threads (which I do quite often!) . . the support you give on here is amazing, and I'm sure lots of others would agree! 🙂

Will try and post more often myself, now I'm back on track with the GF days, although I'm not much good when it comes to giving advice lol!

Take care x

Thank you one day at a time
I try to spend maybe half an hour to an hour posting a day. I guess it keeps me thinking. But I take as much out as I put in which is the main thing.

This post stuck out to me because I've been in the same situation albeit mine was 42k

I entered into an iva which finished roughly 2 years back now
Like yourself I didn't have much choice with payments and fee's I was getting crippled for some 1500 pounds a month I was way in over my head.

I remember sitting on holiday knowing what awaited me.
One night one the balcony I was into mind's to jump. Fortunately I came home and faced the music

I vowed to never borrow a single penny again and I've stuck to it ever since.
I don't even let them put overdrafts on my accounts.

Have you spoken to the debt advisors yet?

Hi Deano,

Sorry for my slow reply, just sat down after a long day at work & picking up my littlest from out of school club!

You've done so well to turn things around and be where you are now, and well done you for sticking to your vow! i can totally understand how someone could reach the point you were at, and also now understand why people resort to lying or stealing .. that's something I would never have said before gambling got a hold.

I'd already been on Stepchange and filled out the questionnaire, but after giving it some more thought, and from what you said about how long it stays on your credit file, I think II'm gonna stick it out a while & see how it goes. My loan is fairly recent, and as my credit rating is good, in a few months' time I'll look to add the credit cards to the loan, and extend the term. I know I'll pay more interest that way, but at least I'll have more free cash each month, and therefore be less tempted to try and win back some spending money!

The ironic thing is, before I started gambling, I could never understand why people used credit cards!! Why not just save up until you can afford what you want to buy?! How quickly life can change eh?! Hopefully in a few years I'll be back to living a credit free life! 🙂

Thanks again,

K.

Hi one day

I think you're making the right decision. In your case it's probably best to look at the long term not just the short. If you can hang in there and be debt free in three years I'd definitely stay as you are. A dmp the usually look at what you can afford anyway so probably wouldn't drop the payments all that much
Like I said it's really not worth destroying a good credit score if you can squeeze it.

Maybe look at other things you can save on like utilities and such I saved a fortune swapping all mine recently in effect of 230 pounds a month

Crazy as it sounds whilst I gambled I didn't pay much attention to bills I just payed them
Since stopping my outgoings are the same but I'm getting more for my money like gym membership life insurance and so on

hope all Is good with you
Deano

Deano,

Great posts, great advise. one day I hope to never borrow a pound again if you can't afford it you can't have it.

Malc

Cheers malc

Unfortunately I had to learn the lesson at a price.
Unfortunately it's the culture we live in where we're encouraged to borrow as much as we can.

I remember walking in the bank for a 2 grand loan a walking out with 15. Seemed like a good idea at the time but ultimately showed me how easy borrowing was and that's when it all went down hill fast. One point I was drawing out 500 a time on credit cards shoving it in a slot in a bid to get back to even.
One missed payment put a stop to my borrowing which I'm thankful for now
It scared the c**P out of me at the time.
I feel for anyone I read in the situation. But I know from experience you can get through it.

Bw deano

Hi OneDayatime

We've moved your thread into the Overcoming Gambling section as it seemed more approriate than the debates section, which is more for discussions generally about gambling addiction.

Thanks

Rebecca

Following on from this thread I'm currently 50k in debt and really struggling . I'm currently talking to payplan but looks like my situation is so bad I won't even get an IVA - there offering me the debt management plan and I may have little choice but I'm worried my creditors will come after my house . Think I might try ringing them and offering lesser payments - any advice appreciated

Hi pwm why is it they won't allow an iva?

Hi Dean0 pay plan don't think I would get the Iva based on one of the creditors who own more than 25% of my debt potentially not agreeing to it . They think they will ask for the equity in my house which is a last last last resort for me . Really don't want to risk my house but maybe I have left my self no choice . Will look into what you said and thanks so much for replying

Pwm101 wrote:

Following on from this thread I'm currently 50k in debt and really struggling . I'm currently talking to payplan but looks like my situation is so bad I won't even get an IVA - there offering me the debt management plan and I may have little choice but I'm worried my creditors will come after my house . Think I might try ringing them and offering lesser payments - any advice appreciated

Hi Pwn101 and all,

I have just tonight joined the site. It is the first one I have ever joined. I dont know why I have taken till tonight to join.

After firstly reading over a lot of posts and other peoples stories, I chose to make my first contribution to the site via your post as I was in a very similar situation to yourself a few years back. I have been a heavy gambler since I was around 18 when I used to spend nearly every friday in the bookies blowing all my apprenticeship wage on horses, dogs, virtual races, roulette machines and then having to scrape by the rest of the week.

Over the past 12 years I have had some spells where I managed to tame my gambling for a while (saving a deposit for a house with my girlfriend was one of the ocassions) but I never ever stopped. My gambling reached its peak four years ago when in the space of around four months I lost all control and built up a massive debt of about 50k through credit cards, loans etc. I just found it so easy to borrow money as I am in a decent paying job so I was accepted for a lot of credit. I kept telling myself that I would use the next loan to pay off some of the debt I already had but it all ended up being gambled until it came to the point that I could not financially cope with the amounts I was having to pay back each monthto creditors. The whole time all this had been going on my partner (now my wife) was unaware of my huge gambling problem I had been dealing with my whole adult life.

I took the step to get in contact with a debt management company as I was missing payments and being harassed for the money by creditors. I also feared I was going to have someone try to take my house. Once I entered into a debt management plan, within 6months, the majority of the calls / letters had stopped. I also had around 25% of my debt due to one creditor but a reduced payment was accepted. within 6monts to 1 year most of the accounts had all the interest frozen.

I have nearly been in my plan 3years now and my debt has reduced from 51k to 18k. I still have a long way to go but I am in a much better place than what I was. The sad thing is, throughout this whole time, I have still been gambling. I gamble x amount away and then as usual say to myself thats it, then the next months wage comes in....I tell myself I'm not gambling it but it always happens. Starts off with one little bet to try and boost my cash for the month and a week later I've lost most of my wage.

My last bet was sunday night 05/03/17 and after now finally joining something like this, I'm hoping that constantly talking about it and reading / posting stories will help to finally curb this horrible desire!

Hope this helps anyone. It has helped me already as I have never sured the full extent of my gambling with anyone as I have always been in self denile that I can stop by myself

Hi NeverWin

Firstly welcome to the site and well done for posting it really means a lot that someone has gone through something I'm going through now and gambling or not to reduce your debt so much is a massive achievement. May I ask how you did it ? Did you phone the creditors yourself or did the debt management company do it for you ? Are you now on an IVA or a debt management plan ?

Secondly I would urge you to write a diary in either the new members intro section or the recovery diaries section - it's really cathartic and you will get lots of support and encouragement. I know what's it's like to not turely make that break but I also know where it leads if you don't stop you will be 50k in debt again cursing the day you ever placed another bet. You stopped on Sunday so good if your reading this now you've made it to Wednesday - just aim to make it to a week for now .

Finally there will people better placed than me to offer you advice - I'm only 50 days gamble free (gf) but I'd try and put as many blocks in place as you can and I'd try and visit this site every day . Have I think about why your gambling ? Unhappiness , the thrill etc.... anyway I wish you the best of luck . Start a diary I'd be really interested to hear your story and follow your progress - thanks for making me fill that I'm not on my own with my debt situation

All the best - pwm

Hi pwm,

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply. I'm sure it will help having a constant contact with others. Also thanks for the advice.

With regards to my situation. I entered into a debt management plan and the company contacted all creditors to set up reduced monthly payments and attempted to have interest frozen on as much as possible. After about 10months to a year, all 10 of my creditor accounts had the interest frozen. I set up my monthly payment amount in accordance with what i could afford to pay. Dont get me wrong, if you choose to go ahead with this option you're credit rating will take a big hit as mine did. But it was something i was happy to cope with as I already have a mortgage and i never plan to have another loan or credit card.

I will have a look into creating a diary as I'm sure this may also help me along.

Thanks again for listening.

NW