How to be Debt Free in 6 Easy Steps!

A debt free is life not unattainable. It may seem an impossible and frightening task but it is possible. It requires patience and discipline determination and time. Given below is a run down of 6 steps that will help you in the journey towards a life that is free of financial stress.

Step 1 – Admit that you are facing problems in
managing your finances.The first step towards debt
free life is to come to terms with the fact that your
debts have become unmanageable. Leaving bills unpaid
and ignoring the problem does nothing to wipe off your
existing debts. It only makes the situation worse.
However the fact that you’re reading this article means
you have accepted that you are in debt and you are ready
to take the next step.

Step 2 – Take an honest look at your present financial
situation. Make a list of your debts. Next to the listed
debts include the name of the creditor,the total amount
you owe, the rate of interest you are being charged and
the monthly payment you make towards this debt, if any.
It will not only give you a clear picture of your
financial standing but will also help you in choosing
an appropriate debt solution.

Step 3 – Prioritize!
Decide which bills to pay first and which ones can wait.
Concentrate on paying off the debts that have a higher
interest rate. You will save more money in the long run
by ridding yourself of these expensive loans first while
keeping up the required repayments on the others.When
making the repayment remember to pay a little more than
the minimum as minimum debt repayments only covers the
added interest. It makes no impact on the capital amount.

Step 4 – Create a realistic monthly budget for your
outgoings. List all the essential expenses and
non essential expenditures.
The non essential expenditures can be completely
cut or lowered substantially until you become
debt-free. Evaluate your monthly balance by
subtracting monthly expenses from your monthly income.
This will tell you how much money you have at the
end of the month so that you can start paying off
your debts. Do not forget to keep some money aside
for unexpected expenses. As your debt goes down,
you will see a fall in your interest charges.

Step 5 – Refuse to take on any kind of new debt.
As you already in are in debt, adding
on a new debt will increase your debt and
will hinder your progress towards being debt free.
You must decide once and for all that you will
not add any new debt and stick to it!

Step 6 – If you are not able to manage your debts on
your own then you can opt for professional credit
counseling. You will be guided by financial experts
who will help you in taking a step nearer to a
debt free life. There are options you can take such
as taking out and IVA or even opting for Bancrupcy.
Recently there are companies who offer to write off
your credit cards legally.

Banks write off £100,000 after irresponsible lending claims ‘Vulnerable’ borrower who overstated his income was allowed to sign up with five lenders with no proper checks.

The Guardian, Saturday 28 January 2006
Article history by Rupert Jones

A “vulnerable” man earning £150 a week managed to rack up debts of more than £100,000 across nine personal loans in what his brother claims is the latest example of irresponsible bank lending.

The 50-year-old warehouseman has a poor understanding of financial matters and had no hope of ever repaying the loans, according to his older brother, Colin Griffiths.

Following Colin’s intervention, and the involvement of Guardian Money, all five lenders have now decided to write off the loans. One of them, Sainsbury’s Bank, says the loan application should not have been approved and steps have been taken to ensure this does not happen again. But others, such as Barclays Bank, say they lent the money based on inaccurate information provided by Douglas Griffiths about his income and outgoings.

The case coincides with a new study highlighting serious failures in banks’ lending practices. uSwitch.com, the online and phone-based comparison service that helps customers find a better deal, claims almost nine out of 10 credit card borrowers were issued cards without the lender checking that they could afford to repay the debt.

Late last summer, Colin discovered that Douglas, who lives in north London, had taken out a string of unsecured loans that he could not afford to repay. In all, he had borrowed around £70,000 between July 2002 and May 2005, saying that he needed the money for home improvements. This total is made up of:

· At least two loans – £7,000 and £15,000 – from Barclaycard. It appears the £15,000 loan was taken out to repay the £7,000 one, plus provide extra cash. Monthly repayment: £407.56.

· Two loans – £25,000 and £500 – from Barclays Bank. Monthly repayment (on the £25,000 loan): £481.48.

· Two loans – £7,000 and £12,000 – from Halifax. It appears the £12,000 loan was taken out to repay the £7,000 one, plus provide extra cash. Monthly repayment: £221.66.

· £7,500 from Sainsbury’s Bank. Monthly repayment: £191.81.

· £5,000 from Liverpool Victoria. Monthly repayment: £117.97.

· £5,000 from Tesco Personal Finance. Monthly repayment: £74.92.

With many of the lenders selling him payment protection insurance too, the total debt soared well over £100,000.

However, as many of the lenders pointed out, Douglas did not help his case by telling them he earned £400 a week. In fact, his take-home pay was £125 a week at the time and is now £150-£160.

Colin acknowledges his brother is at fault but says he is the victim of irresponsible lending because he was a vulnerable man who did not understand the implications. Furthermore, he says the lenders failed to verify his brother’s affairs to properly assess whether he was able to meet the repayments.

Colin is particularly critical of Barclays because Douglas has his current account with the bank, and therefore it would have been easy to see he could not afford more than £800 a month in loan repayments to the Barclays group.

“My older brother and I have done our best to look after him. It should be the institutions’ responsibility to protect people like Douglas as well, and they haven’t,” says Colin, 62, who lives near Milton Keynes. On being told that the lenders had agreed to wipe the debts, his reaction was: “What a relief!”

Douglas Griffiths says he accepts he lacks knowledge when it comes to financial matters and has found the whole experience distressing.

After Colin took up cudgels on behalf of his brother, and then Guardian Money got involved, things started to move fairly quickly. Sainsbury’s Bank – in a letter signed by Justin King, the boss of the supermarket group – moved swiftly to rectify the matter. It said the loan application was “processed incorrectly and therefore should not have been approved”, and added that the loan had been cancelled and wiped from Douglas’s credit file.

Tesco Personal Finance says it has written off the outstanding balance, adding that, as a responsible lender, “we take the circumstances of Mr Griffiths’ case very seriously”.

Liverpool Victoria says it has also decided to write off the debt on a goodwill basis, though adds: “Our staff followed absolutely the correct procedures.” It says it had no reason to ask for written proof of income because credit searches did not turn up anything untoward, and that it acted responsibly because it declined a request by Douglas to top up his £5,000 loan.

Meanwhile, the Halifax says it suspended the loan some weeks ago, which means no interest is accruing, and adds: “We will write this amount off.”

Barclays says it is committed to responsible lending, but this is dependent on the customer providing accurate information. “Having reviewed the sales of the loans to Mr Griffiths, Barclays found that Mr Griffiths overstated his income, underestimated his expenditure and understated the level of his existing debts. Had we been in full possession of the true facts, this would no doubt have affected our decision to lend,” says a spokesman.

He adds that Mr Griffiths appeared “confident and self-assured” during the application process, but says: “We are taking steps to write off the debts.”

Bankruptcy- A last resort

Don’t consider making yourself bankrupt unless you have explored every other option. The repercussions will stay with you for a long time.

Before you consider it think about the following options:-

• Negotiate with your creditors and offer to pay a small sum off each amount you owe
• If you can’t cope alone ask for help from a debt charity such as CCCS. They will negotiate on your behalf and its free. They will come up with a debt management plan for you.
• The next step is to consider and IVA or individual voluntary arrangement. This is by no means ideal. You will pay a fee for this to a debt management company and it will cost you money you can probably ill afford. It may give you peace of mind however to know that someone else is negotiating he debt for you.
• It you can’t afford to pay anything towards the debt and you have had the agreemenets audited to see if they are unenforceable and they are not only then consider going bankcrupt.

What cause us to get into Debt? The Possible Solutions?

The British people’s personal debt exceeds 1.1 trillion pounds. They have surpassed the United States in personal debt. Mortgage payments are the cause for 82% of this debt. The uncontrolled house price inflation is the main cause for this. Next an unusually high tax rate and over the top University fees are the main culprits. Some other sources of debt could be divorce, medical expenses, not planning well enough or being put on the dole from your job. One good thing to help the British people is new consumer protection laws capping credit card fees at twelve pounds down from thirty-eight pounds.

A solution for the Scottish people is what is known as a Scottish Trust Deed. This is an alternative to filing for bankruptcy. This is an agreement between you and your creditors for three years. At the end of the time period any remaining balance is written off. This trust deed is legally binding on all of your creditors. The terms of the deed are tailored to fit your situation. Another solution for the removal of debt is to consult a debt management agency. There are many offices out there who can give advice tailored for your situation. They can be found online or locally.

One solution they can give the British people is like the Scottish Deed. It is called an Individual Voluntary Arrangement. This is a formal agreement between you and your creditors for over sixty months. In that time, you pay them what you can afford. After that period is over, the remaining debt is written off. These arrangements can help reduce your debt by seventy percent. Creditors cannot call you once this arrangement has been put in place.

Another solution they can offer is Debt Management. This is like consolidation in the United States. This involves making one payment to the agency and they take care of the bills. In some cases, you can also freeze interest rates. You will not have any more contact with the creditors as the agency will do that for you.

The last solution they can offer you is a loan or to remortgage your home. The last resort to debt elimination is filing for bankruptcy. There are two types: voluntary and involuntary. You go to court yourself to file and the district judge decides whether to grant it or not. It costs four hundred and eighty five pounds to do this. The fee may be waived if you are poor or unemployed. Involuntary is when a creditor petitions the court for your bankruptcy if you owe more than seven hundred and fifty pounds. The advantages are: you are protected from creditors, your stress levels go down; after a year, the debt left over is written off and you’ll be able to make a fresh start. The disadvantages are: your assets will be sold to pay the debts. This can include your home.

The bankruptcy is put in the local paper for everyone to see. This will affect your credit rating for six years and it will prevent you from working in certain areas of employment. The best advice any debt manager will give you is try to keep your debt at or below twenty percent of your income level.

There is another solution.

If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, and those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For NO FEES a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free.

10 Ways to Get and Keep Debt Out of Your Life! What is the Eleventh way?

It’s common knowledge that economies all around the world are suffering. It’s no different in the UK and it’s time to turn things around before they get out of hand. People as individuals may not be able to turn the economy around in a day or change the way the global finances are dealt with but it is well within one’s reach to look at home first and find a solution to your own personal financial situation. And that starts with tackling personal debt. Here are eleven tips on how to get your personal debt under control and conquer the beast that’s been attacking your pocket.

1. Pay off your highest interest debt first. If you have a car loan that has a higher total of money owed to it that your credit cards, throw more of your monthly income at that first. Chances are it is a multi-year loan with a higher interest rate than your credit cards. And if you can pay that off sooner than is scheduled by paying more money towards the principal, you have a good chance of saving a lot of money that would have otherwise gone to paying interest on that loan.
2. Keep your credit card debt at a consistent level. This will require you to use your credit card less than you may be accustomed to, but it is a sound way to handle not building up more debt while eliminating debt in another area of your finances.
3. Use cash instead of credit cards. Budget in a certain amount of cash to be spent per week, and try not take withdraw more cash than that per week. By breaking it down into a weekly budget and only allowing yourself a minimal amount, you’re more likely to stick to your cash budget and not overspend.
4. Cut back on the vices. Whether its cigarettes or coffee, cut down and see how much you’ll save.
5. Put aside your spare change. You’d be surprised at the end of the year at how much that spare change will add up to.
6. Eliminate some of the expenses you already have. It might be a luxury that you enjoy but if you can do without it that money can be reallocated towards something more beneficial.
7. Don’t buy something unless you need it. It’s amazing how much money we spend on frivolous materials that are either hardly used or that we don’t even use at all.
8. Watch your energy bills. Using less electricity and gas can add up to a large amount of money saved over the course of the year.
9. Set up a weekly budget, a monthly budget and an annual budget. Be certain to check it often and see if you are staying on course. This is a way to hold yourself accountable and is likely to help you stick to your financial plan.
10. Be smart, control your impulses and make wise financial choices. They will pay off.

That is ten but what about number eleven? Read on.

If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, and those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For NO FEES a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free.

Control Your Debt and Regain Control of Your Life!

If you’ve amassed a lot of debt, you’re probably feeling a little lost in the world right now. You may be wondering how and when your life started to spin out of control.

The fact is the loss of control you feel right now is a direct result of the accumulated debt and poor financial decision making you’ve been perpetuating by avoiding responsibility when it comes to your money. In order to regain a sense of balance and control of your life you need to take charge of your finances and debt right now. The first step in doing this is to set up a chart or graph that shows you directly where your money has been going. Get all of your bills, loans, credit card receipts together and add it all up and list exactly what you spend your money on and how much of it you spend towards those particular purchases.

Once you’ve done that you will have a picture of your spending habits right in front of you telling you what you might be doing wrong. From this chart or statistical graph, calculate how much money you could and should save by eliminating wasteful spending and spur of the moment purchases. Ask yourself ‘Did I really need to buy that?’ and that will tell you what to cut out of the budget you’re about to create. Creating that budget is the next step. Devote more money to high interest loans and credit card debts. Allocate more of your income to these bills and less of your money to needless and wasteful purchases. Give yourself a cash allowance for everyday needs and stick to it. And that cash allowance should be relatively low.

Next, see what material items you might be able to sell. Take that money and immediately put it towards paying off your debt. Try to “downgrade” the larger purchase items, such as your car, buy trading or selling it and getting a different vehicle that is far less expensive. Money saved is money earned. Finally, be patient. This is a process that isn’t going to solve your money problems in one night. It will take many months of disciplined spending and budgeting, along with wise financial decision making when it comes to your spending.

Give yourself monthly, semi-annual, and yearly targets or goals. Chart how well you are doing when it comes to achieving these goals. By holding yourself accountable, you’ll soon feel a lot better about yourself and your financial standing and that’s when you will start to take back control of your life! Owing money to someone leads to a feeling of helplessness. A person can easily feel powerless and extremely vulnerable when they know that someone is holding an IOU marker over their heads. Regain a sense of empowerment. Make it important to yourself to not owe anyone anything, or at least as little as possible.

If you want to be in control of yourself, take back control of your finances now! If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, and those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For no fee a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free.

The Debt Crisis and How We Got Here. How you can solve your personal debt crisis.

We are in a state of crisis when it comes to debt we’ve accumulated. Many people are asking the question ‘how did this all happen?’ While you might think the answer is complex and difficult to understand it’s really not. Almost like a maths formula, the debt crisis that we now face played itself out in the form of an equation in which the final answer added up to less than zero and tons of debt. Here’s how it works. World wide companies and large corporations sit atop the global financial pyramid.

As most of the global economy is run on a capitalist idea of financial gains and large profits, those companies want to show just how well they are doing and how much money they are making so that investors will put even more money into those companies. So, they have a huge incentive to show the highest margins of capital profit every few months.

Unfortunately, there’s only so much actual physical money that they can make. In order to increase profits beyond a realistic number, they begin to loan money out and start counting the money that is owed to them as money that they have already made. Then, when they go to large money lending banks that lend money to big businesses, they produce the balance sheet that says they have the money, so borrowing more and more is okay because they have money coming in to pay the bank back.

The banks know how much they can profit from the interest on those large corporate loans, so they willingly lend out the money. But who are the businesses and corporations relying on to owe them these incredible amounts of money? Answer: the bottom of the financial pyramid – the overwhelming majority of citizens, like you and me who borrow money that they cannot possibly afford to pay back. It used to be that if you couldn’t show how you would pay back a loan, there was no way you could get a credit card or bank to lend you the money.

That changed when lenders not only lowered standards and but knowingly loaned out money to people even they knew could never pay it back. But it looked good on paper and on the balance sheet to have so much money supposedly coming in. So they did it. Now many of those citizens who borrowed more money in a year than they earn in 10 years are left drowning in debt. Everybody at the bottom of the financial pyramid owed money to the part of the pyramid that was immediately above them. When bottom couldn’t support the top, the pyramid crumbled. The enormous amount of money that was lent out should not have been, and most of the money that was eagerly borrowed should not have been either. What is the solution for you?

If you have credit agreements taken out before April 2007 there is a new unenforceable credit agreement claim which is becoming more and more known about here in the UK. It is possible to have your credit finance agreements –agreements such as credit cards, store cards, secured and unsecured loans, car finance agreements, including those with payment protection insurance ( PPI) ‘audited’. They may not comply with the terms of the 1974 Consumer Credit Act and if they do not they are unenforceable credit agreements. This means you can claim to have them written off. That is the balance completely cleared. For NO FEES a solicitor with handle your claim. This is on a no-win-no-fee basis so it is risk free. Many people like me, have found this to be the perfect solution to there debt problems.

How to Keep Debt Out of Your life

It’s common knowledge that economies around the world are suffering. It’s no different in the UK and it’s time to turn things around before they get out of hand. People may not be able to turn the economy around in a day or change the way the global finances are dealt with but it is well within one’s reach to look at home first and find a solution to your own personal financial situation. And that starts with tackling personal debt. Here are ten tips on how to get your personal debt under control and conquer the beast that’s been attacking your pocket.

1. Pay off your highest interest debt first. If you have a car loan that has a higher total of money owed to it that your credit cards, throw more of your monthly income at that first. Chances are it is a multi-year loan with a higher interest rate than your credit cards. And if you can pay that off sooner than is scheduled by paying more money towards the principal, you have a good chance of saving a lot of money that would have otherwise gone to paying interest on that loan.
2. Keep your credit card debt at a consistent level. This will require you to use your credit card less than you may be accustomed to, but it is a sound way to handle not building up more debt while eliminating debt in another area of your finances.
3. Use cash instead of credit cards. Budget in a certain amount of cash to be spent per week, and try not to withdraw more cash than that per week. By breaking it down into a weekly budget and only allowing yourself a minimal amount, you’re more likely to stick to your cash budget and not overspend.
4. Cut back on the vices. Whether its cigarettes or coffee, cut down and see how much you’ll save.
5. Put aside your spare change. You’d be surprised at the end of the year at how much that spare change will add up to.
6. Eliminate some of the expenses you already have. It might be a luxury that you enjoy but if you can do without it that money can be reallocated towards something more beneficial.
7. Don’t buy something unless you need it. It’s amazing how much money we spend on frivolous materials that are either hardly used or that we don’t even use at all.
8. Watch your energy bills. Using less electricity and gas can add up to a large amount of money saved over the course of the year.
9. Set up a weekly budget, a monthly budget and an annual budget. Be certain to check it often and see if you are staying on course. This is a way to hold yourself accountable and is likely to help you stick to your financial plan.
10. Be smart, control your impulses and make wise financial choices.

They will pay off.

Financial Agreement Claims – Help for Families During the Credit Crunch

Are you feeling the pinch during the credit crunch? Help may be at hand in the form of a new finance claim. This new and fast growing financial claims allows customers to audit any finance agreement taken out since April 2007 to assess whether it has issues which could make it unenforceable. All agreement must follow the rules laid down in the 1974 Consumer Credit Act. Many agreements fail to do this. This means you may be able to wipe out your credit card and loan balances. It doesn’t matter if you are in arrears or following a debt management plan or IVA. You can still claim.

The types of agreements which are potentially unenforceable are;-

• credit card agreements
• store card agreements
• car finance agreements
• higher purchase agreements
• unsecured loans
• consolidation loans

You need to find a reputable financial claims management company to act on your behalf. How do you find one from the ever increasing number? And what do you look for?

Up front fees

This is a sore point for some people who wonder why ‘upfront fees’ are charged at all. The vast majority of financial claims managers charge fees in order to carry out a full and detailed audit. These range from around £195 to £495. Basically this is to look at your agreement in detail and assess it for breaches. There is a great deal of work involved. The process takes up to a year at the moment. The rational behind this is that the companies need some form of liquidity as every business does. The fees are refunded if your agreement is found not to be unenforceable. Some companies take a small administration fee.

BUT NOW YOU CAN CLAIM FREE! YES NO FEES AT ALL! Call 0845 475 5435

Auditing – Don’t be mislead

Your agreement must be obtained from your lender before you have a definitive answer as to whether you have an unenforceable contract or not and this will cost you £10 usually. Some companies offer this free and some request £1.00 which is the minimum fee stipulated under the data protection act. It is only after a full audit that you will know if you have a claim or not. Some companies mislead clients by saying they offer a free audit when in reality they ask the same preliminary telephone questions that all companies ask to establish if it is worth considering a full audit or not. For example was the agreement taken out prior to April 2007? What is the balance? Different companies claim for different balance amounts. Who is the lender? Some have more of a reputation for writing unenforceable agreements than others. This is not a full audit. As far as I know there is no company out there yet which offers a solicitors audit – free.

Successful Claims

The majority of companies have been in business for over a year now. Some will be ‘introducers’ for other main companies. They should be able to tell you how many successful claims they have achieved and the length of time it took to achieve the results.

Back end fees

Some companies charge fees at the completion stage of your claim. Be sure to ask if this is the case for you. Some charge 30% while some charge a fix amount of £1000. Most companies don’t charge any fees.

Other fee structures

I have come across some peculiar fee structure whereby some companies offer to handle your claim for you paying them six months credit card repayments. Others offer to take over your debt for you and leave you debt free in six weeks. I would not take these seriously. There are plenty of straightforward ways to clear your cards for a reasonable fee, no misleading promises of a free audit and certainly no back end fees.

Time scales

The process is a long one relying on the co-operation of your lender which of course is not likely to be forthcoming. The legal to and fro-ing will take up to a year. There is no way to avoid this so claims of speedy conclusions, at the moment, are false. The lenders use all sorts of tactics to delay matter for example refusing to send the copy of the agreement to your claims manager but only dealing with you and completely ignoring the requests made by your solicitor.

Be patient, persist and it will pay off in the end.

Mortgages and secured loans can also audit.

Your claims management company and ‘audit’ any mortgage offer, current or redeemed going back 12 years.

Your solicitors will look extensively at all the different aspects of the agreement

• Mortgage Indemnity Guarantees
• Unfair early redemption penalties
• Sub Prime mortgage agreements
• Payment Protection Insurance Policies
• Secret commissions
• Miscalculated APR’s
• Unfair charges
• Unfair Terms and Conditions
• Any form of ‘unjust enrichment’ by the lender
• Overpayments

Where your agreement is deemed as ‘unfair’ in any way you may be entitled to compensation. Levels of compensation will be assessed by the level of unfair treatment you may have received. In all cases the solicitors will seek to recover monies that may have been over paid or charges that have been unfairly levied whilst also seeking damages from the mortgage provider for wrong doing.

Bankruptcy? No!

Because of the manner in which the banks and lenders solicitors drew up the finance agreements we signed, I.e ignoring the law as laid down by the Consumer Credit Act 1974, it is possible to take your lenders to court and apply to wipe out the entire balance. The fact is that the banks and lenders did not adhere to the very strict and complex terms which were required to be written into the contract by the 1974 Act.

This law was designed to protect us, the consumer from the whims of the lenders with regard to interest rates rises etc. It has been found that 80% of credit finance agreements are not valid contracts because they don’t comply with the very strict terms and conditions of the act and this actually makes them unenforceable contracts which is why you can apply for a wipe out of the debt.