If you have the incorrect tax code, you could be paying too much tax.
Your tax code is issued by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) based on information it has about your taxable income and allowances: it tells your employer or pension provider how much Income Tax to deduct from your wages or pension.
One company offering a advisory service (www.taxrebateservices.co.uk) claim an average rebate of £900 for every case they accept.
If you fail to maintain payment you can’t use a debt management company to help you out.
Remember that a secured loan is secured from the lenders point of view, not yours. They have the security of knowing they can force the sale of your home should you fail to maintain payments.
Turning unsecured dent in secured debt, so to can spread the payment over a longer period may seem to be a solution to unaffordable credit repayments, but the consequences of not being able to maintain payments are worse. A least with unaffordable unsecured debt, you can use the services of an debt management company to get payments reduced, but they can’t help with secured borrowing.
You are playing into the card issuer’s hands, effectively borrowing money at a high interest rate.
It is better to repay the minimum than nothing at all, but in reality you are treading water and playing into the card issuer’s hands.
Card companies have been forced to put warnings against paying just the minimum balance on their statements and with good reason.
It would take 15 years to pay off the £3,000 balance on a 14.9% APR card if only the minimum payment of £90 was made.
You would nearly halve that time if you paid an additional £60 a month.
For many people with various debt problems, usually their credit cards carry the highest APR for all their debts, therefore it make sense to target paying back credit cards rather than lower interest overdraftsa and bank loans.
Advice given by Charles Dickens in his 1850 Novel, David Copperfield.
A famous line from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield equates money with happiness:-
“If a man had twenty pounds a year for his income, and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy, but that if he spent twenty pounds one he would be miserable.”
This may sound like stating the obvious, but the cause of much misery stemming from debt problems is that too many people simply spend more than they earn for no good reason other than credit is available to them.
It is true that most debt related problems are a result of change in circumstances; this is certainly the case for most of our debt management clients. However consider this, is you’re treating yourself to a period of overspending now, then you must at some time do the reverse, spend less than you earn to repay your debts, plus the interest.
To this, many people say for example, “I need to spend now to kit out my new flat, I won’t need to spend so much later on”. There is some sense to this, but if your overspending is just a way of life without laying any foundations for the future, then think about this:-
I wonder if Oscar Wilde had debt problems, one of his famous quotes is:
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” –Oscar Wilde
All a debt collector can do is ask you to pay money. They act on behalf of your creditors. They have no powers.
A bailiff is some who has being appointed by the court for enforce a court order. If the non-payment of a debt has been to court, and you have failed to make payments that the judge considers reasonable, only then can bailiffs become involved.
If a creditor or debt collector calls you and gives the impression they have the power to visit your home and remove belongings, ask them where they are based. Tell them you are going to complain to their local trading standard office about how they are misrepresenting themselves. If they knock at your door, pay whatever you can, or politely explain why you are unable to pay. If they do not leave, or begin to threaten you in any way, tell them you’re going to phone the police, and close the door.
Get in touch with your most important creditors and try and re-negotiate your monthly repayments
By most important we mean those to whom non-payment is most serious, eg your mortgage or those charging you most interest.
The sooner you ask for help once you find you are having difficulties, the better for you.
A common problem we find is that creditors are only aware of a problem once accounts are in arrears. If you know you are not going to miss payments, or are not going to be able to catch up with arrears any time sooner, speak up.
Do not be tempted to add more than need onto the loan, and head for the travel agents.
Many people consolidating debts into one, longer term loan, borrow a bit more and treat this money as a surplus than can by used for non essential spending. Do not be tempted to do this.
Consolidating debts into one loan should be only be done to make your monthly loan repayment lower so can afford to pay back your current debts. It should bot be done so you can afford more debt.
This is a path many have taken and it will only lead to financial misery when you can’t afford your monthly repayments, are 10s of £1000s in debt and you find yourself completely disenfranchised from most financial services.
Budget for how much cash you’ll need for the course of the week and do your best to stick to it.
Don’t treat the cash machine like a bottomless pit of money.
This is especially true is your are already over drawn with your current account. Each trip to the cash machine is borrowing more money and leading your further into debt.
If you do your weekly food shopping while hungry, you are more likely to make impulse, non-essential food purchases
Shopping after lunch has a second benefit as you may loose a few pounds of weight if you’re better able to resist such temptations.
If you are you are the benefactor of a will and inherit some money or property while you are in an IVA or while an undischarged Bankrupt, your inheritance may have to be made available to your creditors to repay your debts.
It is an offense not to disclose such information to either your IVA supervisor or Trustee in Bankruptcy.
This is more relevant in the case of an IVA which normally lasts 5 years, which is longer than bankruptcy, normally lasting 12 month.
Consider getting the will changed to the name of someone not currently involved in insolvency procedures or get the money put in trust until such a time your IVA or Bankruptcy will have completed.
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