Aqua Debt Blog

Summary
Do your debts worry you? There is guideance for people trying to balance their loans, credit cards, and mortgage repayments. It’s confidential and don’t worry – they’ve heard it all before.

Where do you go for advice with your online debt? A great many people are gettting into problems with debt in the current financial downturn. Citizen’s Advice has seen a noticable increase in people enquiring after their help in correlation with managing their loan repayments and mortgage arrears.

An additional source of free advice when it comes to debt, the  Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) is reporting about 1,520 phone calls every day, with National Debtline saying their calls are up at least 66.66%.

If you have debt concerns, you’re not alone. Continue reading to to discover just how much help you can get.

For head to head contact, The Citizen’s Advice (CAB) has a wide number, well over 4,000, of Citizens Advice Offices located all over the UK. Their staff work on unpaid basis, with many of the bureau’s having people who focus on debt so you need to raid your piggy bank.

If you ask them for assistance, what they will do, first of all, is to ask you to make out a list of who you have oustanding payments with, what monies you have coming in and and what it costs to cover your household bills. Primed with this information, you will then have an appointment with an adviser. They will go through everything with you, to find out whether there may be a way that your income can be increased.

Whereas you may imagine you’ve covered everything, it may be that there are benefits you are not receiving or you could have been given the an incorrect tax code and are subsequently paying too much tax.

They will then discuss your household expenditure to dind out if there can be any savings made. The Advisors will show you how to prioritize your debts. The vital ones will be those connected with maintaining a roof over your families head,such as rent or mortgage repayments, along with your council tax and payments for heat, light and power. Items like loans and credit cards which may not be secured on your home come last on the list.

Your debt adviser will send you  information brochuer containing letters for you to mail to the companies you owe money to.
Together with your adviser, you will assess your disposable income and formulate a repayment policy to be agreed with the firms on your priority list – Landlord, local authority, utility companies and mortgage company.

Residual money after these necessary expenses and the costs will then be spread amongst the non-priority group. The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) will always work with you to ask for the will help you with applying for the associated interest and charges to be temporarily suspended , but there are varying degrees of success with this.If the courts get involved, they will normally acknowledge a fair offer and rule in favour .
If there is any risk of repossession or court proceedings to recover debt, the Citizens Advice Departments will help with that too.

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Summary:
A discharge from bankruptcy means you are free from the limitations of bankruptcy and it frees you from most of the debts you owed at the start of your bankruptcy. Any fees outstanding under student loan agreements or child support will remain repayable.

In specific, unusual circumstances, the Official Receiver can appealrequest the Court for a Bankruptcy Restrictions Order. The end result being that you continue to be subject to restrictions after your discharge from bankruptcy for the time period stated in the Court Order. A Bankruptcy Restrictions Order will not effect the discharge of your debts. (Incidentally, if you’d loke to read more go to another blog we like “debt advice blog site“.

How long till I am discharged?
Discharges commonly take place after twelve months. But the Official Receiver can file a Court notice before a year are up to say that he has completed his enquiries of your finances. If agreed, youll be discharged when that notice is filed. When such a notice is issued, a copy will be sent to the bankrupt to confirm that they have been discharged.

If the party does not work with the Official Receiver or Insolvency Practitioner, then the Official Receiver or Insolvency Practitioner can petition the Court to suspend discharge. For example, if the bankrupt provided inaccurate or false details to the Official Receiver or the Trustee. In any case they will eliminate your debt.

How do I obtain my discharge?
Normally, the bankrupt will be accordingly discharged after 12 months, even if no instalments have been given to the creditors. If the party is discharged automatically, the bankrupt does not receive any notification to confirm their discharge unless specifically requested. Dont write to the Court earlier than 2 weeks before your discharge date, you will get conformation of this around 4 weeks later.

The cost for the discharge notice is sixty pounds payable to the court and further copies will cost £1 each. The bankrupt can also ask the Official Receiver to advertise your discharge all the advertising charges in advance.

You will not get an automatic discharge if your discharge period has been suspended or the bankrupt are subject to a criminal bankruptcy order. If you would like more information about this you would be advised to get in touch the Official Receiver.

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The UK Government have put pressure on mortgage lenders to minimise the levels of repossessions due to payment defaults. This article looks at how the lenders are replying.

As they steady themselves for a rise in defaults and mortgage related debts, mortgage lenders have published plans to minimise the number of familys who have their homes repossessed. The Council of Mortgage Lenders said that while mortgage arrears and repossessions were expected to remain low, the UK’s deteriorating economic outlook would cause more homeowners finding themselves in difficulties.

The The Council of Mortgage Lender’s initiative aims to make sure that households who cant’ maintain their mortgage repayments will only lose their home after all other options have been unsuccessful. Mortgage lenders are already obliged by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to have policies for arrears management which aim to reduce repossessions, except where there is no other option. But there is no standard policy, and repossession schemes differ between suppliers.

In a letter to Alistair Darling the Chancellor, the CML’s said its members had signed up to four measures to help keep repossessions to a minimum.

Lenders have agreed to audit their existing arrears management policies and amend them to bring them in parallel with modern industry policy that have been issued by the CML’s. Borrowers who fall behind with repayments will also be provided with information explaining their lenders’ arrears management process, so that they can clarify what to expect and how they will be treated.

Lenders will also adopt what is called the “IVA  protocol” which sets out the various stages the lender must follow through prior to taking an arrears case to court inorder to ensure court action is a last resort.

Finally, building societies and banks also have to be assertive in assisting people to plan for possible higher mortgage repayments when their present deal terminates. The Council wants lenders to talk with borrowers towards the end of their discounted deal or fixed rate early and encourage them to get in touch with the lender if they think they may have difficulty making the higher repayments.

The Director General at the The Council of Mortgage Lenders said: ‘We continue to work closely with Government Ministers we look forward to a clear statement of the Government’s own position on a safety net for borrowers.’ He also added that the The Council of Mortgage Lenders also felt that the Government should urgently improve the support for homeowners who suffer a short-term loss of income.

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If your getting divorced you’ll see that the process can leave both parties deeply in debt. The emotional side of divorce can be unpleasant, but it’s the financial side that can be one of the most taxing part of separation. And dividing up the debts from the marriage can leave a huge deficit in your bank account.

Since in fiscal and emotional terms the whole divorce process can be expensive, there have been requests for a more understanding avenue to organising the separation terms. The “Debts and divorce campaign”, has been released by the UK Insolvency Helpline to provide a guided method in dealing with household debts. This is good news as 45% of people surveyed said that seperation caused them more financial problems than redundancy or losing their partner.
In the questionnaire, 30% of divorcees stated that they required professional debt counselling, while twenty eight per cent found it difficult to adapt to having just one household income. In fact 9% had sizable problems sorting out their debts and had to contemplate bankruptcy.

The study which was funded by the UK Insolvency Helpline, has decidedly demonstrated that the price of divorce can leave couples burdened with debt. 17% said they had used credit cards to purchase luxuries or holidays they wouldn’t have purchased if still married. This kind of spending can cause problems during the divorce negotiations.
Only 8% of divorcees said they were able to control their finances during the seperation proceedings and had arranged an friendly decision. Of the 76% of those questioned who ended their marriages favourably, almost all said that their finances now needed complete review and makeover.

On as a rule those divorcees who contacted the UK Insolvency Helpline had between £14,500 and £25,000 of unsecured creditors, while half of them had debts of between £2,300 and £6,000, mainly as a result of the expense of moving.

Many people interviewed had entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) which is a gentler alternative to bankruptcy whilst still resulting in greatly reducing debt levels.

When it came to practical information, many relied on the Citizen Advice Bureau, whilst some relied on friends and others went to counsellors or used support organisations.

A spokesperson for the UK Insolvency Helpline said, “We have developed the Debts And Divorce Campaign to try and comprehend our callers’ spending patterns. We can then help them plan for the future so that they are better equipped to keep their legal costs down as they are instructed through the whole divorce proceedings.”

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