Expert Debt Advice

How our expert debt advice could help you

Our debt advisers have helped thousands of people in a similar situation to you. If you dream of becoming debt free, call us now and we'll talk you through the solutions available.

We can help with most debt problems, depending on your circumstances. You could simplify your finances with debt consolidation, or you could lower your monthly payments with debt management. The part of your debt you can't afford could be written off on successful completion with an IVA. Why not try our debt solution finder to see which is suitable for you?

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How our debt advice works

We will give you help tailored to your situation. We need to know how much debt you have, who you owe it to and how much you're currently spending on it, as well as your income and how much you spend on essentials. Then we can work out whether debt management, debt consolidation, an IVA, or bankruptcy would be suitable.

Learn about our range of debt solutions

Our help begins with a personal budget

We want to find affordable debt help for you, so our debt help begins with a budget and repayment plan that is designed to be acceptable to your lenders and affordable for you. Debt management, debt consolidation, or an IVA could only lower your repayments if they're really suitable for you.

First of all we'll go through your income and spending with you. This is important because one of the best things about entering into a debt solution with us is that we make sure you keep enough of your income for your priority bills. Your repayment plan would be based on your 'disposable income' - what you can afford once you've paid for all the essentials.

We will offer guidance if it looks like you're spending too much on non-essentials, because lenders expect you to pay as much as you can afford towards your debts. We'll tell you everything you need to include in your essential spending. Ultimately, we could tell you in the very first phone call whether one of our debt solutions would be suitable.

You are under no obligation to take our advice or any other services offered.

Debt problems

We need to know if any of your debts are more of an issue than others. For example, if any of your lenders are taking legal action against you, we will tell you about your options, including bankruptcy advice.

When you enter a debt solution with us, we negotiate with your lenders on your behalf. We explain that you have taken debt advice, show them that the repayment plan we propose is what you can truly afford, and that our repayment plan should allow you to repay your debt in the shortest possible time.

If you decide to enter into debt management, an IVA or bankruptcy, you won't have to deal with your lenders any more. We will deal with all the paperwork and phone calls on your behalf. And we'll keep you updated on how things are progressing.

Read more about the debt help we offer below, including our range of debt solutions.

Learn more about debt solutions

Debt management

If, after you have received our debt advice, you choose to enter a debt management plan, we do all of this:

• We deal with your lenders on your behalf, whether you have two or twenty.
• We negotiate a repayment plan that lowers your monthly repayments to an affordable level.
• We negotiate to freeze interest charges.

We create a personal budget for you, based on what you have told us and we use this to negotiate affordable repayments with your lenders. We can't guarantee that they would agree to a new repayment plan, but we'll do all we can to demonstrate why a debt management plan is the right option for everyone involved.

Once the repayment plan is agreed, we send your agreed plan to you, detailing:

• Your new, affordable monthly payment.
• How long you can expect to be on a debt management plan.
• The fees payable for the service.

You can arrange your debt management plan from the comfort of your own home. You simply need to sign the appropriate documents that we send by post and we will organise everything else. You only need to send us one monthly payment and we'll distribute it to your lenders, as well as handling all the paperwork and phone calls to them.

Be aware that lowering your repayments will affect your credit record for six years, and as you'll be repaying your debts for longer, you could pay more interest in the long run. Also keep in mind that it's only suitable if you cannot afford your current repayments.

Learn more about Debt Management

Debt consolidation

If you have come to us for debt help and we think debt consolidation is the right debt solution for you, you'll be able to:

• Lower your monthly repayments (if you want to)
• Repay all your unsecured debts with one monthly payment.
• Simplify your finances.

Debt consolidation is suitable for many people with multiple debts. If you consolidate all of them into one, you'll only have to worry about one monthly payment.

If you're a homeowner, you might be able to consolidate debts by releasing equity in your home and adding the debt to your mortgage. This can work out more affordable for some homeowners, although you must be certain you can afford the new mortgage payments or your home might be at risk of repossession.

A great thing about debt consolidation is that it can free up money in your monthly budget by lowering your monthly repayments. This is usually done by spreading the repayments over a longer period. However, this could actually increase the amount of interest you repay overall.

Another benefit with debt consolidation is that it gives you a clear idea of when you will clear your debt.

17.9% APR (typical variable).

Learn more about Debt Consolidation

IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)

If our debt advisers suggest an IVA, or Individual Voluntary Arrangement, it could help you in the following ways:

• Write off the part of your unsecured debt that you can't afford.
• Freeze interest charges.
• Lower your monthly repayments.

Based on what you tell us about your income and spending, an Insolvency Practitioner could create a repayment plan, known as an IVA proposal. We would send it to each of your lenders and if enough of them agreed to it, it could go ahead. We need the lenders who own 75% of your unsecured debt to agree to the IVA for it to go ahead.

We can't guarantee that they would agree to an IVA, but again, we will do all we can to demonstrate that it's the right option for both you and your lenders.

Once the Individual Voluntary Arrangement is agreed, it can begin. An IVA usually lasts between five and six years, and you would be given a clear idea of when you would clear those debts. At the end of a successful IVA, any unsecured debt that you couldn't afford would be written off.

While you're on an IVA, you are protected from legal action by your unsecured lenders, but not by your landlord / mortgage provider, so it's vital you pay your rent or mortgage. If you are a homeowner, you may be asked to release equity in the 54th month of the IVA, but an IVA should not force the sale of your home.

Note that entering an Individual Voluntary Arrangement will affect your credit record for six years. It's only suitable if you can afford to make regular payments for the full term of the IVA, as it could lead to bankruptcy if your IVA fails.

Learn more about IVAs

Bankruptcy

We can offer bankruptcy advice to you, whether your lenders are petitioning for your bankruptcy, or we think it's your best option. You could:

• Write off the unsecured debts that you can't afford.
• Be discharged from bankruptcy after 12 months.

Bankruptcy is a particularly serious debt solution, because it can have the biggest impact on your credit record and it can force the sale of your home and possessions, and strip you of any assets, like your pension and savings. You would also have to go to court and you would have a limited income during bankruptcy, because you would be expected to make monthly contributions that you can afford for up to three years.

Despite the 'scary stuff', it's fair to say that bankruptcy can offer people a 'light at the end of the tunnel', if their debt has become out of control. Bankruptcy could be successfully completed after 12 months, allowing a fresh start without the debts that caused the problems. During bankruptcy, you are given protection from your lenders, and afterwards, the debt that you cannot afford is written off. Bankruptcy does have a big impact on your credit rating for six years, is recorded on the Insolvency Register and will be advertised in the London Gazette (a newspaper for insolvency professionals). It could also affect your eligibility for some types of professional employment.

We can offer bankruptcy advice if we think it's suitable for you. Bankruptcy may be suitable if you really cannot afford to repay what you owe, you don't have many assets and if you think your financial situation isn't going to get any better in the foreseeable future.

Our debt advisers would only recommend bankruptcy after we have looked at other ways to help you out of debt. It costs £700 to apply for bankruptcy in England and Wales. If you need to go bankrupt, but you cannot afford the fees, a Debt Relief Order (DRO) might be suitable.

Learn more about Bankruptcy

Debt Relief Order (DRO)

A DRO costs £90 to apply for and could wipe out all of your unsecured debt after just 12 months. Our debt advisers would only recommend a Debt Relief Order (DRO) if you met the criteria set out by the Insolvency Service. It's sometimes suitable for people who want to go bankrupt, but cannot afford the fees.

A DRO could:

• Wipe out your debt after 12 months.
• Protect you from legal action from your lenders.

However, DROs aren't suitable for everybody. This debt help is only available for the people who really need it. To ensure this, the Insolvency Service has placed conditions on DRO applications.

To qualify for a Debt Relief Order you must have £15,000 or less of unsecured debt and assets that total £300 or less. That means homeowners can't apply, but you can own a car up to the value of £1,000.

Even if you're in this situation, another debt solution may still be an option if you have a reasonable amount of disposable income. If you have more than £50 available every month once you have paid for your essentials - like your mortgage / rent, your utilities, food and child care - you wouldn't qualify for a Debt Relief Order. The good news is you could still qualify for other help: debt management, for example.

DROs are available to residents of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. You cannot have had another DRO within the last six years and you cannot be going through any other form of insolvency when you apply. A DRO would affect your credit record for six years - borrowing can be more difficult during this time and it's an offence to borrow more than £500 without disclosing that you are subject to a DRO. You will remain liable to pay certain debts, such as student loans, fines and debts arising from family proceedings.

Learn more about DROs

Debt help and expert advice, from the Debt Advisory Centre

Expert advice from the Debt Advisory Centre begins with a simple phone call to one of our debt advisers.

Debt problems can have a really negative effect on your health and happiness. If you are struggling to deal with your unsecured debts as they are, you don't need to carry on alone. It could be that some small changes to your budget are all it takes to get back on track. Or, if things are more serious, we could provide debt advice and practical help with the right debt solution.

Now that you know a little more about debt management, Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs), debt consolidation loans, bankruptcy and Debt Relief Orders (DROs), call one of our advisers to discuss your options. We could give you an answer in one phone call.

We have good relationships with lenders and have a good success rate when it comes to finding the most appropriate debt help for borrowers.

Try the debt solution finder to the right of the page. It could tell you which debt solution might help, based on the details you provide, and a debt adviser will get back to you to discuss your options. Alternatively, call us at a time that's convenient for you.