Congratulations Claire on reaching this point in your Trust Deed journey. I’m sure with your son starting school this year the extra money will come in handy once you have finished all of your payments.

Many people say that at the beginning of their Trust Deed it’s daunting experience and 4 years can seem like a long way off but actually it can pass quite quickly as you’ve experienced.

I’d suggest getting in touch with your Trustee around 2-3 months from the end of your payments to let them know you are coming to the end and what happens next. Normally upon your final payment being paid to the Trust Deed within a couple of months you will receive your official “Form 5 Certificate of Discharge”. This is your legal confirmation that you have successfully completed your Trust Deed and are now debt free.

It will still take a little longer for your credit rating to rebuild and repair itself. A good starting point is to take out a credit card and use this wisely and paid it off before you are charged interest. This will start to build up positive information on your credit file. The negative information i.e. the debts you have will fall off your credit file 6 years from the date of the default so you want to check this to make sure they are dated as close to the start of your Trust Deed as possible. A lot of useful information on the forum to help with this.

Is a Trust Deed something that you would recommend to people who may be financially struggling with debts?