Hey all,

Both myself and my wife are about to embark on a Trust Deed to resolve our runaway debt issue.

Background: About two years ago were managing very well with our debt and in control of our fancies enjoying a good lifestyle. With the arrival of our first child and then a surprise of our second child in less than two years along with a redundancy for myself and reduced ours for my wife our finances started to become dependent on debt and managing credit cards against other cards etc. It has reached braking point for us and we have finally taken the responsible step of looking for the best avenue to resolve our debt issues and get debt free as quickly as possible. The frightening bit is our debts with total in excess of £70k combined.

Where we are: First off a big thank you to YOU all on this site. We have gone through 100's of posts looking for information, advice, things to be aware of etc so that we go into this with our eyes wide open. Using this information we have come to the conclusion that either the DAS or a Protected Trust Deed was going to be the way forward (we live in Scotland so have the option of the DAS). From the research the DAS option we know our home will be safe but it will take much longer to repay. We know the Trust Deed will take a shorter time but the house equity will be accounted for in the debt. We have already had confirmed that the house in the best possible scenario would be break even if we sold it now but in reality it is about 5K short of the current mortgage held on it (negative equity).

Last night we met with the firm we believe will be best for us and had a detailed chat with the advisor on the paths looking at the pros and cons. He agreed with our assessments of the options and agreed that the Trust Deed given the debt and the fact the house has no equity in it will be the best option for us.

We covered off loads with him and this is where I am looking to sanity check what we asked and check if we have anything missing.

House ÔÇô He confirmed the house will not be included and they will issue a letter to us confirming this. So even if the property market was to radically bounce back and the value of the home jumps back dramatically giving us equity they and the creditors will not look to get this value from us.

Wages and Bonus ÔÇô We both get monthly bonuses which fluctuate wildly. They have worked out an average wage for us both based on our last 12 months salaries to give them a monthly figure. If we receive any bonus above this they will look to seek an amount of this typically 50% or less but never more than this percentage. Any windfall bonus payment or other windfall monies will be used either in full or at a much higher % as per the guidelines of a Trust Deed. Salary increases will be reviewed the same as the monthly bonus.

Inheritance- As above any windfall payments will be used towards the Trust Deed. Unless any payments are made to our kids to be held in trust effectively taking them out of consideration. So will changes for pension, death in work or inheritance from our parents are being changed to allow for this during the Trust Deed.

Cars ÔÇô Both are worth less than £3k (we downgraded last year and have repaid monies with the free sale of the cars) and are used to get to and from work in different locations so neither will be included in the process.

Income and expenditure ÔÇô we have provided full values of our debts along with our monthly outgoings for everything which have been taken into account in the repayment calculations.

New bank accounts ÔÇô We have opened new accounts with no lending facilities with Nationwide as neither of us have any links to them at present. Salaries and core DD's etc are being moved across at present.

Debts as the stand ÔÇô We have never missed a payment to any debt (always paid the min payment or more when possible). The advice was to stop paying these now as they are no longer affordable and we are entering into the Trust Deed. With this in mind I have cancelled all DD's and Standing Orders but have not informed the companies of this action. When they start to chase the debt we will advise them the company managing the Trust Deed.

Credit rating ÔÇô We know that for the period of the Trust Deed we will be allowed no lending (over draft etc) and are happy with this (lending is what got us into the mess in the first place). During this time our credit ratings will take a hammering which we are ready for. We can start to build our credit ratings once the Trust Deed has been discharged which can take up to a year once the finally payment is made (although as we have no PPI this should be allot quicker. Around 2/3 months).

Term of the Trust Deed ÔÇô I initially thought it was going to be 3 years which was going to be tight for us. The advisor explained you can change this if we want and do 3.5 years, 4 years etc up to 5 years. Looking at the sums we are planning on doing 40 payments (just over 3 years) which will make it manageable to pay but not extend the term too far. We also understand that if our parents for example (third party) wants to pay into the Trust Deed in the remaining few months only then they can do to help discharge us early.

Savings ÔÇô we appreciate that we should not have savings during the Trust Deed as these will be taken into account at the review.

Reviews ÔÇô we will have yearly reviews but should notify our case manager in advance if any significant changes / difficulties happen during the Trust Deed as (say the car needs a repair) the period can be extended if required. Obviously we want to make sure this doesn't happen but it's good to know.

So this is where we are up to given the information we researched and confirmed by the Trustee last night with regards to our individual Trust Deeds.

So now I turn to you all as I know this is a very important period to confirm everything before entering into the Trust Deed So have I missed anything or is there anything above which is inaccurate..?

Thanks for your input and help all

Colski