Hi tallpaul and welcome to the forum,

Well done on taking positive steps to deal with your financial difficulties.

I assume you have sat down with an advisor and discussed your full financial situation and explored all of your available options i.e. Trust Deed, Debt Arrangement Scheme and Sequestration?

Unfortunately there is no easy or quick way to stop the creditors from phoning you. You will receive phone calls for the first couple of weeks before the Trust Deed starts working for you. If you speak with them you can inform them that you are financial struggling and are taking advice on dealing with your details. You could also ask for a payment break or some time to do this. Eventually the calls will start to reduce but like I say it can take a couple of weeks.

Your creditors can call you at your place of work if you have provided them with the details. This does happen from time to time but in my experience they tend to use this as a last resort.

In terms of the pay day loans, you want to make sure that you have changed bank accounts and that you cancel any continuous payment authority. With a lot of pay day lenders they take your card details and if you fail to pay on the agreed date they go in and take their full balance which can leave a client extremely short of money. To cancel a continuous payment authority you need to contact your bank direct and request them to do this. A good advisor should have already discussed all this with you if you are at the point of signing your Trust Deed.

How are you feeling about entering into a Trust Deed? You will find a lot of support and advice on the forum from people who have successfully completed theirs and have moved on with life in a positive way.

I agree with David, after a few weeks you will be so glad you have made this decision... onwards and upwards from here

Thanks guys I feel a lot better than I did before I took action! I had a meeting with simple fs and have been referred to Carrington Dean. New bank account set up. My main fear is dealing with the calls and the
embarrassment if I'm called at work. Can I prevent this happening?

Hi tallpaul,

There is no way for you to prevent the calls unfortunately. It's almost part and parcel of entering into a Trust Deed.

Some people are lucky and don't really receive many calls and others can receive a lot.

If your Trust Deed is set up quickly and your relationship manager is quick to contact all of the creditors then this should reduce the amount of calls that you receive. Most of the big creditors are represented by two companies and this is where paperwork regarding your Trust Deed is sent.

It's been a while since any of my clients have told me that they have received a call at work. In my experience creditors will only call you at your place of work if they cannot speak with you after calling your mobile, home telephone etc. If you speak with them about your situation it would be unlikely that they would call you at work.

Do you have any assets involved in your Trust Deed i.e. own your own home, car etc?

Ok thats great David. One more question. Do I tell them about the trust deed before I sign? Are Carrington Dean a reputable company to go with?

I own my own home but I negative equity and my car is worth about £2000. Do I tell creditors about pending trust deed before I sign. Are Carrington Dean a reputable company?

Hi tallpaul.

Our experts (David, Mark and Kevin) each work for one of three trust deed providers that this site chooses to recommend. It wouldn't really be appropriate for them to pass comment on whether a competitor firm is "reputable" or not.

From the site's perspective we also choose not to comment directly regarding firms that we don't currently choose to recommend. Like every industry, there is a mixture of quality out there. We think the three firms we recommend are really good, but we're not saying they're the only really good firms.

Other site visitors and members may be prepared to share their personal experience of this named firm or others with you.

You can inform your creditors that you are entering into a Trust Deed and that your Trustee will be in touch with them. They may put your account on hold for a period of time until they receive the paperwork which could stop the calls.

The fear of the phone calls can be very worrying for everyone who enters a Trust Deed but a good advisor should be proactive in stopping these as quickly as possible for you.

Has a valuation of your property been obtained and have you provided a redemption figure to confirm that your property has negative equity? Also, has there been any mention of a £500 payment to protect your property?

When it comes to assets in a Trust Deed and especially a property the most important thing it to have everything confirmed in writing before you sign anything. That way there shouldn't be any complications or problems.

Is they payment you have been asked to pay affordable for you?

My property has been valued at 70k with 72k left to pay and yes £500 has been mentioned. Is this normal and legitimate?

Yes the payment is 200 per month which is affordable.

Hi tallpaul.

Where a home is in negative equity, or has no equity, some firms charge £500 to prevent it being re-valued again in the future (when the value might have gone up and/or the mortgage balance gone down).

Many other firms (including those represented here by David, Kevin and Mark) will do the exact same thing without charging £500.

Hi tallpaul,

As TDA has pointed out, some firms charge the £500 payment and some firms don't but will give you the same reassurance that your property is not ask risk of being re-valued again.

Have they confirmed how and when you will need to pay the £500 payment?

It's why we always suggest to people to speak with a couple of firms about debt advice as some firms can handle things differently as is the case with the £500 payment.

Yip it has to be paid by the end of the first year by a third party.

Hi tallpaul,

I thought that might be the case.

Do you have a third party that could facilitate this payment for you and would you feel comfortable telling the third party about your situation?