Hello stressed09 and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry to hear that this situation is causing you so much concern.

Does your husband have debts in his sole name as well or just the joint debts that you have mentioned?

Having little or no equity in your home may work to your advantage at this time in terms of opening up a wider range of options to you.

The key thing to think about at this stage is how much you are jointly able to offer towards your debts each month.
That's worked out by subtracting your necessary expenditure (which includes everything you need to spend money on like your mortgage, council tax, utility bills, travel, food, insurances etc - but not your unsecured debt repayments) from your total income.

You may feel comfortable doing this calculation yourself and providing us with an estimate. We'd then be able to share a little more information.
Alternatively you may wish to speak with a qualified debt adviser, trust deed firm or Money Adviser. They can work through this calculation with you and use the information to suggest some options and alternatives to you.

Please be assured and reassured that there will be a solution for your situation (there always is) and that you've now taken a big step towards that by reaching out for help and advice.

Hi

Thanks for getting back so quickly. My husband does not have any other debt only the joint debt. Do this pose a problem.

Hi stressed09

Unfortunately, your husband will be jointly and severally liable for the joint debt so the creditors could (and will) pursue him for the full debt if you were to look at a Trust Deed, DAS etc.

I think when you are looking at credit cards to pay ongoing bills, debts etc, then you need to look at the options avail;able and see what best suits either yourself or both. From the information the house and the car does not appear to be an issue.

Hope this helps

Mark

Oh! and welcome to the forum.

Mark

Hi again stressed09.

Your husband having no other debts isn't an issue, I just wanted to confirm that we understood the full picture with the debts in general as it's relevant to any suggestions and advice we might give.

Are you looking to deal with the situation together at the moment, or are you looking to resolve your personal situation first?

Thanks for the kind welcome. We thought we could deal with it all together as the joint loan is the biggest outgoing. What options do we have.

Hi stressed09

I think you are looking at either Trust Deed or DAS. It depends I suppose on the level of surplus income (debt payments not included) and the time period.

DAS will freeze interest and charges and will give you a longer time to pay (up to 10 years) whereas Trust Deed will allow a % of the debt to be written off.

Mark

Dealing with it together makes sense stressed09.

The options are really going to depend whether you're in a position to contribute towards the debts, and if so, how much you can afford to contribute each month.

Are you able to provide an estimate of how much you might have left over each month after you've covered all of your reasonable bills and other costs? Leave your unsecured debt repayments out of the calculation; we're trying to work out how much is really available to repay your debts after you've set aside the money that you need to live.

Depending on whether you can afford to contribute towards the debts (and how much) the options to consider might include those that spread paying the debt over a longer term to make them affordable (such as the Debt Arrangement Scheme and debt management plans) and time-limited options where some debt is likely to be written off and repayments are for a fixed period only (such as trust deeds and bankruptcy/sequestration).

This may seem like a silly questions but can you pay either of these plans 4 weekly as this is how we are paid. This would mean 13 payments over the year instead of 12.

Hi stressed09

Yes, of course. Payment options are entirely your choice.

Its a good point though and would bring things to an earlier conclusion.

Mark

Hi Mark,

I was interested to read recently in the AIB's 2011 Debt Arrangement Scheme review that the average DAS is set up for an expected eight years and five months.

Despite this, 18% of Debt Arrangement Schemes are set up with an anticipated term in excess of ten years. 3% of these were set up with an anticipated term in excess of fifteen years.

We would roughly be able to pay about 400 every 4 weeks. Would that be enough for creditors.

Hi stressed09.

Could you just tell us how much of that £2100 joint income you receive every four weeks is earned by each of you?

Please let us know if any of it represents tax credits, child benefit or anything like that as well.

Sorry to answer your question with a question... it will help us to provide better information to you though.

I earn 1000 and husband earns 1000. 81 child benefit and 41 tax credits