Hello girl10 and welcome to the forum.

Blackhorse is part of the Lloyds TSB banking group. It's advised to open a new bank account with a bank to whom you do not owe money so that your funds cannot be "seized" to help repay unpaid debt. Blackhorse may operate under a different banking licence to Lloyds TSB in which case all may be OK... it's just that I'm not sure whether or not they do operate on a different licence so you may wish to double check this point for your own protection.

The amount that you should both be contributing to Trust Deeds is an amount that you can afford after reasonable provision is made for your expenditure so that you can live reasonably. It's therefore hard to comment on whether the amounts you mention are reasonable without in-depth knowledge of your expenses.

I also cannot really comment on the other people you mention who were able to easily fund holidays etc while in Trust Deeds. Most good Trust Deed companies will allow you to keep a percentage of additional earnings (such as overtime or bonus payments) to give you an incentive to earn the extra money. This is something to get written confirmation about before you sign the Trust Deeds so you know where you stand. How you choose to spend any additional earnings that you are allowed to keep, indeed how you choose to spend any of your budget, is up to you.

It is normal for many firms to charge ?ú500 to protect the equity in the home if the home's value were to increase during the Trust Deed. There are however a couple of firms, including Mark McFadyen's firm (who posts on this forum) that would not require ?ú500 to be paid for this process. You will therefore need to consider whether paying this ?ú1000 makes sense for you given that another option exists whereby you would not have to pay it.

I hope this information helps to answer your questions but please let us know if you have any more.

Hello girl10

The subject of the ?ú500 comes up regularly and there are several posts on the subject. Was a valuation carried out to allow them to quantify the equity?

I am aware that this is something other firms require, but cannot see how 2 x ?ú500 is in any way justifiable, as at best it relates to a single asset. (or not as the case may be)

The contribution is based on your income less expenditure and it is difficult to comment on this without the figures.

Mark

Hi, thank you for your help when i spoke to the trust deed company they took our income details and told us that is how much we had to pay that was even before i had given them my expenditure and told me they would add the ?ú1000 on to the end of the trust deed (extened the 3 years by a couple of payments) i thought this was high and was worried because when i added up my expenditure it didnt help.
we get about ?ú2240 including child tax credit Family of 4
Mortagae is ?ú623 (would go down to ?ú500 if you take away the loan part)
Council Tax ?ú118
Scottish Power ?ú100
Car insurance ?ú53
Car on HP ( 4 years to go) ?ú170 (would go down to ?ú140 as part of the hp is a loan for ?ú1500)
Home insurance ?ú15
Tv ?ú12
Life insurance ?ú24
petrol ?ú140
Sky (phone tv & internet) ?ú70
Mobile ?ú45 for both phones
Lock up ?ú30
Zone card ?ú54
food ?ú450
child care ?ú200 give my mother in law ?ú50 a week to watch my 2 children to let me work.
Trust deed would be ?ú420
How would i buy clothes for my kids and mot my car or buy something for my house if it broke?
Not sure what to do for the best.

Hello girl10,

There really should be an allowance made for clothing.

There really should also be some allowance made for car maintenance and servicing if the car is required.

It's also not uncommon to set an amount aside each month for contingencies/emergencies to cover the occasional things that don't fit into neat expenditure boxes.

I'd urge you not to sign a Trust Deed until you are comfortable that you will be able to keep up with the payments.

Hi girl10 (again!),

Am I right in reading that you were informed how much the payment would be before going through income and expenditure details?

Hi girl10

Your fingers must have been like a centipede's leg typing that fast!!

At 1st glance it appears a wee bit high for the level of income, but any calculation needs to be calculated against the debts as well.

I assume your husband has the higher income, hence the higher contribution. Also I don't like the ?ú500 x 2 payments, although as stated, this is something some firms deal with equity this way.

Not sure if this helps any.

Mark

yes i thought it was just worked out on really how much debt you had and that was the figure and there was no moving it.

Hi girl10

No, it is mainly what is affordable, otherwise you would be no better off. The level of debt is used as creditors sometimes look for a minimum dividend. The normal way may be to look at a reduced amount, but over a slightly longer period.

Mark

lol my husband gets ?ú1150 a month and overtime some months (anything between ?ú100 to ?ú150 a month)
I get ?ú840
?ú120 family allowance
?ú30 tax credits
We have the ?ú20000 northern rock loan joint
Black horse loan Joint ?ú2500
Over draft ?ú1050 Joint
He has an old debt of about ?ú450
2 Catalouges total ?ú800
and the part of the car loan for ?ú1500
I have a tesco loan of ?ú16000
2 Catalouges total ?ú1700
Total about ?ú44,000

Hi girl10

your fingers are no match for my calculating skills!!

Based on the info, you owe ?ú41,050 and hubby owes ?ú26,300. My firsy worry on the info you have been given is that your contribution is higher than hubby's although he is the higher earner. This would not be accepted by creditors. You can't allocate money effectively from his income to supplement payments to your creditors.

If for instance, I was one of hubby's catalogue companies, I would argue I was being disadvantaged as the split in income was unfair.

Probably not what you wanted to hear.

As a first view, I think the payment should be readjusted to reflect the income difference and reduced and the period extended to make the figure work. While the majority of debts are joint, the Trust Deed needs to look at these separately.

Mark

The company i spoke with did say we could do it over 4 years at ?ú330 a month?

Hi girl10

this would make more sense. Re the ?ú500, I assume a valuation was carried out to allow them to assess equity.

Mark

Hi, just to find out the names of the companies that do no charge the ?ú500 fee
Thank you

Hi,

I dont have any equity in the house Total is ?ú99,000 - ?ú20,000 loan part which is ?ú79,000, they are selling between ?ú69,000 and ?ú75,000
They havent carried a valuation yet said they would do that though.