Very glad you have found the forum useful, Black Night - after seeing your username I hadn't expected such a positive-sounding post!

I think the strength of the forum is that it is a way for people who have been/are going through a similar experience to support each other. Whilst we "experts" can answer many queries, the personal experience and testimony is always the most powerful and the most insightful I feel.

Hi Black Night and welcome to the forum.

I think for anything in life reading about other people's experiences and stories can really help you deal with any worries or concerns that you may be having regarding your own situation.

Often when I speak with people they believe that they are the only person that is financially struggling with unsecured debt which just isn't the case. I try to reassure the clients that there are many more people who have debts and are struggling but that they may not know this as it's quite a private and personal thing to most. The forum allows people to anonymously post without fear that someone will find out that they are in financial trouble. As debt advisors we are normally the first people that someone will open up to about their financial difficulties.

I noticed you're on a 45 month Trust Deed and wondered the reason it ran longer than 36 months? Do you have assets which are involved?

I think you make a valid point in a way regarding a ÔÇ£better dealÔÇØ. Trust Deed's should in theory run the same across all firms as the legislation is the same however from following the forum and reading peoples comments it's obvious that this isn't the case. There can be a variety of reasons for the differences in how firms will deal with a Trust Deed in terms of assets, length of a Trust Deed, fees involved etc and I think that's why it's always best to sit down with 2 or 3 advisors from different firms to see how things will work with each firm. By doing this you can ensure that you find the firm and advisor that your happy and comfortable with. I'm assisting a couple at the moment and they were being charged in excess of £8,000 to enter a Debt Arrangement Scheme by one firm and they weren't advised that this could be set up free of charge by a CAB/local money advisor.

Welcome to the forum Black Night.

Like Kevin, when I saw your username I feared the worst for the content of your post! Luckily I was very wrong.

I'm really glad that you've found the forum to be useful. Thank you for taking time out of your day to share that.

What a great post.

I've said before that we learn as much as anyone else from the posts as to exactly what goes on out there. Some quite uplifting, some not quite!

It's always a good place to share experiences, good and bad and hopefully the remaining eh! whatever that percentage is goes by smoothly and quickly.

Mark

PS Would that be 37/45ths to go? Doesn't look right somehow.

David of the top of my head the fees are in excess of £5000. The TD was originally going to be over 48 months and when I said I was a wee bit disappointed at the length of time it was magically reduced to 45 months. Ironically one debt would have actually have been paid before the end of the deed.
I only have myself to blame as I didn't fully resaerch the whole process and to be honest the weight that was lifted when I was told they would be able to help was such a relief I couldn't wait to sign. All a bit rushed in the end to be honest. The power of radio if you know what I mean. I feel other debt management processes were not particularly covered other than a few leaflets in a pack that was sent and a cover letter more or less saying they had to include them. I would probably have gone down the TD in any case but if I am being brutally honest I was sold it by the " middle man". Like I said it was just a relief after literally years of trying to get on top of it. A redundancy and new job with a 30%less salary meant it was impossible to maintain all the payments and finally brought it to a head.
There was no equity involved David.

Hi Black Night,

I suspect your Trust Deed is over a 45 month term then probably because of the companies fees as you have no equity.

Often the first company/advisor you speak with tends to be who you will sign up with as they are providing a solution to your problems which you thought didn't exist. Even when I speak with my own clients and tell them to take some time to think things over, discuss it with a friend, partner or family member all they normally want to do is sign and get things moving as quickly as we can.

The positive thing to focus on is that you have a set timescale and will be debt free at that point.