New Post has been published on Solutions Scotland
New Post has been published on http://www.solutionsscotland.co.uk/debt-advice/
If you are struggling to pay your day-to-day bills, or keep up with the loan payments and other financial commitments, there are numerous options for debt advice open to help you clear your debts.
Start by getting free impartial debt advice
You don’t need to pay for debt advice- there are lots of places to get debt advice free and easy. They will help you decide which option is most suitable for you in order to help you manage or clear your debts. The best time to seek debt advice help to get yourself back on track is as soon as you start to struggle, or when you begin to worry that you will have difficulty meeting your payments.
First option on debt advice is a trust deed.
Debt advice – A trust deed can give you debt advice. Trust deeds are a legally binding arrangement between you and your creditors, where you repay your debts over a 4 year period. During this time you make one monthly payment and at the end of the 4 years any remaining debt is written off. Find out more about trust deeds.
you can apply for a trust deed if:
You have unsecured debts such as credit cards, loans and overdrafts
You have excess income with which you can pay down your debt, or assets that can be sold to pay down your debt.
Another option to for debt advice is.
Debt advice – Bankruptcy (known legally as ‘sequestration’ in Scotland) is a way of dealing with debts that you cannot pay. While you are bankrupt any assets that you have might be used to pay off your debts. After a period of time (usually one year), most of your outstanding debts are written off and you can make a fresh start. You can apply for bankruptcy yourself or a creditor can apply to make you bankrupt. To get debt advice on bankruptcy .
You can apply for your own bankruptcy if:
You have debts of over £1,500
You live in Scotland, or have lived in Scotland sometime during the last year
You have not been bankrupt in the last five years
You must also be able to show that:
You are eligible for a ‘low income low asset bankruptcy’ – see below for a definition
You are in ‘apparent insolvency’, which means you cannot pay your debts when they are due (to prove apparent insolvency, a creditor must have gone to court and obtained a ruling that you owe the debt to the creditor), or
You have been given a formal ‘certificate for sequestration’ by an approved person, such as an insolvency practitioner or money adviser, to say that you cannot pay your debts as they become due
Your bankruptcy will usually last for a year, after which you will be discharged.
You can also get debt advice from.
Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS).
Visit debt advice in Scotland page for more information on all Scottish debt advice.
Any interest or charges that are being applied to your debts will normally be frozen.
Your creditors can’t contact you or take any further legal action against you.
If your situation changes you can apply to vary your payment or apply for a six month payment break.
10% of your monthly payment is taken as fees to cover the running costs.
Once you’re on a DPP your details will be put onto the DAS register. This is an online register that anyone can access.
A DPP will appear on your credit file for six years and is only available if you live in Scotland.
settlement offers offer good debt advice.
Debt advice – Settlement offers help with debt advice because if you received a lump some of money, you can use this to make a settlement offer to your creditors. You can get a lump sum of money from selling an asset, such as a property or vehicle, receiving an inheritance, or it could be a gift from family or friends. If you’ve got a lump sum of money you can use this to clear the outstanding debts that you have. Depending on how much money you have, you might be able to repay all of the money you owe and become debt free.
