Personal Debt Management Plan
We all know that, given the choice, most people would prefer not to be in debt in
the first place. The problem is, do we want to save up to buy that car we
want, build that extension or even arrange that holiday? The answer is no,
we don’t want to wait, and why should we? Everyone else is doing it,
lenders are prepared to lend us the money and no one expects things to go wrong.
Because of this, when something unexpected does happen, what do we do?
Do you have?
- Bank loans?
- Bank Overdraft?
- Credit Cards?
- Store Cards?
- Catalogues?
- Or Cable & satelite TV and mobile phone bills?
What are you going to do?
The question is a simple one, the answer is also simple, but it is not as simple
to carry out. Dealing with your creditors is not always easy. What customers
in difficulty are not always aware of is the creditor’s point of view.
creditors have offered a service or credit facility to customers on the understanding
the credit will be repaid.
Should those payments not be forthcoming (unless for example, the customer is deliberately
withholding payment because of a complaint) it is likely that the customer is experiencing
difficulties of some kind - it could be you simply forgot to move your money into
the correct account this month, or simply do not have sufficient funds to pay. It
is up to the lender to decide what, in their opinion, the problem is and therefore
what their response will be.
If your problem is due to financial difficulty the creditor may think;
- My customer owes me money
- My customer probably owe money to other companies
- If I don’t get my money from my customer before everyone else, then
there may be no money left for me
- I had better get my money from my customer
Should a number of creditors take this view, very quickly you could be faced with
several companies chasing you for their payment at once. Mainly because they do
not know what the situation is, and do not want to run the risk of not being paid.
The difficult part is deciding how much each creditor should be paid and making
sure that this figure is reasonable.
Each creditor may explain (and quite rightly from a contractual point of view)
- You owe us the money
- You signed the agreement so we want our money
- I am not interested in what your other creditors want, this is what I want
- We will continue to contact you until you have caught up
If you don’t pay we can;
- Issue you with a Default Notice
- Come around to visit you
- Take you to court
- Repossess your home (if you are a homeowner)
- Declare you Bankrupt
Promise Debt Solutions has years of experience dealing with customers in similar
situations to yourself and liasing with creditors on your behalf. Whereas the above
comments are accurate, in that, creditors can take this type of action against you,
any activity has to be justified and reasonable.
We assess your income and outgoings and prepare a Financial Statement for you, based
on nationally accepted guidelines. Promise Debt Solutions is able to deal with any
‘tactics’ employed by your creditors, to recover your debt directly,
and offer a fair and reasonable settlement for all your creditors rather than prioritise
some over others.
Once you have set up your Plan, any letters or calls recieved from your creditors
can be referred to us. We can deal with all of your creditors
on your behalf. What you shouldn’t do is:
Pay the first creditor who asks you whatever they require, leaving you without
money to pay everyone else – The creditors who are not paid this
month will be that much more eager to get ahead of your other creditors next month,
their debt collection tactics will escalate
Say to creditors ‘the cheque is in the post’ and not send it
– Once creditors realise that they have been lied to, they will intensify their
attempts to recover their debt
Put the phone down on creditors when they call – creditors will
only continue to call, write letters or arrange for a personal visit to see you
Not deal with letters received – Again, matters will only escalate
to personal visits or further action
Slam the telephone down on your creditors after being drawn into a discussion
– Some creditors will begin speaking to you in general terms, to begin a dialogue
in an attempt to illicit payments from you
One solution is to not begin a dialogue with your creditors unless you are comfortable
that you can deal with any question that your creditors may have.
The other, is to talk to us. We will be able to deal with all of your unsecured
creditors, liaising with them and distributing funds on your behalf.
If any of the above sounds familiar, simply telephone 0800 093 2285 and we will
see how we can help you.
NB – The above reflects tactics adopted by certain creditors or members of
staff within Collections Departments. This in no way reflects the approach
of the finance Industry as a whole. However arrears collection is always uppermost
in a lenders list of priorities because ideally they would like all of their customers
paying them the full amount they are due. The nearer a creditor can get to
this position, the better.