What's the best debt solution?

Dealing With Debt - What Debt Solutions Are Avaliable For Me?

HELP ME WITH DEBT

There are a number of debt solutions on the market which are all designed to help you deal with debts and reduce your monthly payments to your creditors. These include:

Debt Management Programme – The debt management programme is offered by many financial solutions companies across the country. They are designed to offer you a reduced payment to your creditors. Making your unsecured debts more affordable means that you can keep to a good standard of living without having to worry about missing payments to your unsecured debt, but it is likely that the length of time you will be paying back this debt will increase.

Debt management programmes are only really suitable for those with debt which is less than £12,000, if your debt is higher than this level and you are struggling then you may be more suitable for an IVA.

IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangements) – IVA's were introduced as a more realistic alternative to bankruptcy for those who are struggling with high levels of debt. Once accepted onto an IVA, the average term is 60 months. During this IVA term you must commit to making a set reduced payment to your IVA. This will be distributed amongst your creditors who will write off any unpaid debt upon completion of an IVA.

An IVA is a legally binding contract between you and your unsecured creditors so it is essential that you continue to make the payments to your creditors so you do not have to risk bankruptcy.

Trust Deeds

Voluntary -A trust deed is a voluntary agreement between a debtor and their creditors (the people they owe money to) to repay part of what they owe. A trust deed transfers the debtors rights to the things that they own to a trustee who will sell them to pay creditors part of what is owed to them. A trust deed will normally include a contribution from income for a specified period, this is usually 36 months but can vary.

The trustee must be a qualified insolvency practitioner. Insolvency practitioners are regulated by law and must be members of an approved governing body. Independent Insolvency Practitioners fees are at their own and their licensing authority's discretion.

An ordinary trust deed is not binding on creditors unless they agree to its terms.

Protected -A protected trust deed is a special kind of trust deed that is binding on all creditors. Provided the debtor complies with the terms of their protected trust deed, the creditors can take no further action to pursue the debt or to make the debtor bankrupt.

A protected trust deed prevents the debtor from applying for their own bankruptcy or for a debt payment programme under the Debt Arrangement Scheme.

If a debtor aquires any new debts after they sign the trust deed, they will not be protected from action by ther new creditors.

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy law provides for the development of a plan that allows a debtor, who is unable to pay his creditors, to resolve his debts through the division of his assets among his creditors. This supervised division also allows the interests of all creditors to be treated with some measure of equality. Certain bankruptcy proceedings allow a debtor to stay in business and use revenue generated to resolve his or her debts. An additional purpose of bankruptcy law is to allow certain debtors to free themselves (to be discharged) of the financial obligations they have accumulated, after their assets are distributed, even if their debts have not been paid in full.

There is no right or wrong option to choose from, it all depends on your circumstances and what you owe - for example if you own a house, a car and other things that could be taken from you through bankruptcy, then that's not the right option for you and a debt reduction prrogramme would be more ideal. What is clear though, is that you must carefully weigh up your options and speak to a qualified trained advisor who can give you impartial advice. You must be careful about debt management companies
who are only in it for the money and won't care about you as an individual.

Go to: www.debtlinedirect.com for more information where an online forum/ chat room is avaliable to speak to the staff or other people just like you.