Hello Hoopsah and welcome.

You may qualify for DAS, but to know whether it's suitable you'd really need a trained person to work through your income and expenditure first. The amount you can afford to pay towards your debts is vital information to work out which debt solution is best and how it would work for you.

Borrowing more at a time when you've concluded you cannot afford to repay your debts is probably best avoided as it could cause a number of issues for you.

Hi Hoopsah,

Based on what you have told us a Debt Arrangement Scheme could be one of the suitable options to help you deal with your debts.

A DAS works on the basis that you make a monthly payment until you have repaid all of your debts back. The timescale of the DAS is determined by your monthly payment and this is calculated by working through a very thorough income and expenditure.

I wouldn't look to take on any further debt at the moment. If having a reliable car is essential then this is something that you want to discuss with a qualified and experienced advisor before buying one. AS TDA has advised, there could be a number of issues for you if you do this.

We always advise someone to sit down with an advisor in person and discuss your full financial situation and then decide which option best suits your circumstances. You could also consider a Trust Deed or Sequestration.

Do you have an idea of what you could afford to pay to a plan per month? The payment needs to be affordable and sustainable for you.

Thanks for the replies.

At the moment I am paying £390 per month toward debts.

I looked into the possibility of getting a 7 year loan to pay the debts and consolidate but want to make sure I am doing the best thing and not just delaying the DAS.

The reason I asked about the car idea, is that my current car is quite old and if I enter into a DAS I assume I will no longer be able to get any credit to help buy a new car. Therefore, wondering if I bought one on credit just now then tried to re-pay via a DAS. I understand it is stupid to take out more debt when you are in debt.

Just a thought.

Can you give me an idea of how much I would pay toward a DAS if accepted?

Hi Hoopsah.

Borrowing money you know you cannot repay leaves you open to some accusations you'd probably prefer to avoid. I'd just be really thoughtful about this side of things.

On top of that, a brand new creditor might have reservations about approving a debt solution for you. Most need a level of creditor support.

In DAS, or any similar debt solution, you'd be paying your "disposable income". That's a calculation of your income minus your bills and other reasonable expenses. That's really where you need to speak with an adviser to see how you'd be assessed on this basis.

Hi Hoopsah,

You need to be careful with that idea regarding the vehicle. As TDA has said creditors under a DAS have the opportunity to accept or reject the plan. I can understand your thinking behind this though.

There is nothing stopping you purchasing a new car on finance and paying this directly to the finance company. An expense like this is allowed. This might however have an impact on what you can afford to pay to your DAS.

If your debts are £20,000 and you can afford for example £200 per month, then not taking into account fees that a commercial company would charge, you would be looking at a timescale of 100 months or 8.3 years.

As long as your income and expenditure isn't excessive and you're paying the debts back within a 10 year period then in my experience your DAS proposal has a high chance of being accepted.

Welcome to the forum, Hoopsah.

As David says, you could potentially buy a car on finance (eg HP agreement) and continue to pay it outside of the DAS arrangement for your other debts.

I imagine creditors might object to your DAS if you are paying a lot for the car however, so it would need to be reasonably-priced.

You need to speak to an approved money adviser in order to set up a DAS payment programme. They will also be able to advise on other potential options too. Free advisers are available in CABx and local authority money advice outlets, or you could speak to an approved adviser in the private sector (many insolvency practitioners are approved DAS advisers too, including all of the firms represented on this forum as far as I am aware), however you will pay a fee for a private sector adviser.