Topic: Angry and upset.

[Heather]

Hello all, my name is Heather, I have £7,000 in debt run up over three credit cards, I used to work and had a very good job so making payments on the cards were no problem and I did it for years. My daughter is 21, she is severely disabled and when she left school at 18 I have had to give up my own life to care for her, we have no family living nearby and I get very little in the way of help with care provided by our local council, I get a little over £98 in benefits, [carers and income support] and my daughters financial guardian allows me £50 a week for her expenses, I live in a rented house and have no assets and I struggle to make ends meet.
 
I am sick of being harassed by people chasing me for this £7,000 and today was just the end. I got a phone call from Equidebt and this guy starts lecturing me about my moral responsibility's and questioning me about why I am spending so much money on food. If I hadn't had been up for the last four nights with my daughter who was ill I probably wouldn't be so upset. I don't know what to do next and any advise would be very much appreciated

[Steven Jackson]

Hi Heather
 
Sorry to hear about your situation. You really have two options to deal with the debt. You could consider a debt management plan or bankruptcy / Debt Relief Order.
 
For a debt management plan to work, you would have to make payments towards the debt each month. Given your income, I suspect this will not be possible. As such, bankruptcy or a debt relief order would probably be the better option.
 
I would look at a debt relief order (DRO) first. This will cost just £90. Your debts will be taken away from you and the hassle from your credtors will stop. Because your income is made up from benefits you will not be asked to pay anything. You would be eligable for a DRO if your total debt is less than £15,000 your assets are less than £300 and your disposable income is less than £50 a month.

[Heather]

Hello Steven.
Thank you for your reply, a debt relief order sounds like the very thing but I wonder if you can confirm that this would be applicable to me as I am in Scotland and I know that there are variations between Scottish and English systems.

[Steven Jackson]

Hi Heather
 
Unfortunately the laws governing debts are very different in Scotland so you will not be able to do a debt relief order.
 
The solution you need to investigate is a Debt Arrangement Scheme (or DAS). A DAS is a bit like a debt management plan but it is better because it is regulated so that once in place, creditors are unable to take legal action against the you or continue to add interest to accounts.

The alternative to this and the equivalent to bankruptcy in England is Sequestration but to do this at least one of your creditors must have already taken legal action against you. My advice is that you contact an approved money advisor local to where you live and they can advise you about this in more detail.

[esterdsl]

You are ought to become angry and upset in your situation, and we can understand the reasons behind your financial crisis. You can declare bankruptcy if you feel you can, or you can opt of debt settlement by the help of debt settlement company or attorney, who can negotiate on your behalf with your creditors. Most of the creditors agree for the debt settlement if they are ensured that they are never going to get back their amount to it's fullest, as the debtor is going for bankruptcy. This is all  I can suggest at the moment, but I will definitely like to seek opinion from my seniors regarding this. Wish you good luck,and hope you come out of the present situation as soon as possible.

[Steven Jackson]

Hi
 
As I mentioned before, bankruptcy is not an option for Heather as she lives in Scotland and the English law of bankruptcy does not apply there. Sequestration is the Scottish form of bankruptcy but you can not simply decide to go down this route as you can with bankruptcy in England and Wales. First a county court judgement must have been taken out against one of your debts.