Avoid any company who contacts you!!

Try contacting a few of the firms mentioned on here for advice.

Paul

Hi irishboy and welcome to the forum.

It isn't clear from your post whether you were cold-called, but if you were please keep clear. Many of the problems we read about here start from cold-calling.

The debts seems to add up to around £27000. If you're using credit cards to live it's a pretty big "red flag" that you need to take professional advice and then take action so that things don't get worse for you.

If you go into a trust deed you'll be expected to pay over the value of your share of any equity in your home. Can you confirm for us that the home is jointly owned?
Given the numbers provided equity in your home may not be a problem for you, but you'll want to get this looked into closely before you sign a trust deed and get your position confirmed in writing as well. Please be very careful in this area.

If you need your £700 value car for getting to work there will be no problem. Only where cars are worth more than £3000 do they need to be looked at for trust deeds.

Your trust deed will drop off your credit file six years after you start. Once you finish a trust deed you can start taking steps to rebuild your credit rating (that is, after three years typically rather than six years you can start to rebuild).

We cannot tell you whether a trust deed six years prior will stop you from getting a mortgage in the future. It will also depend on many other things like mortgage lending conditions at the time, your circumstances, whether you have taken steps to rebuild your credit rating, the housing market etc. The trust deed will not be apparent on your credit file though after around six years from the start of the process.

You signing a trust deed should not affect your partner in terms of her being a police officer. Police officers can and do go ahead with trust deeds themselves; though they have to be very careful to handle things in the right way internally with their employer before going ahead.

Hi irishboy

Taking account of the level of debt, the trust deed may be an option.

I'd be surprised if there was any equity in the circumstances described. But get this confirmed before doing anything.It would not have an affect on your partner if the trust deed is in your name.

The mortgage is a tricky one. It will certainly improve after 6 years and I suspect the deposit from the sale of the current home will have a large bearing.

Hope this helps

Mark

Hi TDA

I received a text message and replied "info" and someone called me.
I had an appointment arranged for someone to call at the house tomorrow but I've just cancelled it. They wanted £430 for fees.

*******"If you go into a trust deed you'll be expected to pay over the value of your share of any equity in your home." ********

Can you tell me what this means in laymans terms (I am irish after all)

The house is jointly owned between my partner and I .

Thanks

Well done on cancelling that appointment irishboy. This thread from this week is just one example of why cold calling firms should be avoided:

http://www.trust-deed.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1875

That £430 upfront fee would have been a complete, total and utter waste of your cash at a time when it's needed for other more important things.

In terms of equity:

When you sign a trust deed you agree a monthly payment which will usually run over 36 months.
On top of this you must pay over the value of any significant assets that you own.
This could include equity in your home, or for a car worth more than £3000 for example.
Basically, when signing a trust deed you agree to use your surplus income and assets to help repay your creditors.

Lets say you had £50000 of equity in your home and it was jointly owned. Because it's jointly owned, £25000 of that equity would be considered to be yours.
In this example, if you signed a trust deed you would have to pay over £25000 as well as the monthly contributions before being discharged from the trust deed.
As it's virtually impossible to get a remortgage once you are in a trust deed, this scenario might well end up in you selling your home if its the only way to get the cash to pay into the trust deed.

In your example you appear to be telling us that there was £12500 of equity in your home (10% deposit on a £125000 property).
Half of that would be yours if it is jointly owned; £6250.

We suspect however that this sum of £6250 may actually be lower. House prices have in many areas being trending downwards, and the valuations used for trust deeds are based on a fairly quick sale so are often a little lower than people expect.

It therefore may well be the case that you have little or no equity in the property, in which case the property may be irrelevant to the trust deed.

However, there might be a little equity that does need to be dealt with. If the amount is low (as it looks like it would be, assuming that there is any at all) then it would normally be possible to make a few extra contributions at the end of the usual three years to cover this.

What we are advising though, if you get in touch with someone about doing a trust deed, is that you cover off the situation with your home before you sign the trust deed. Go into the numbers, and get confirmation in writing.
If there is more equity that you thought you might change your mind and not do a trust deed at all (there are alternatives). If there is little or no equity you may feel comfortable about signing the trust deed and going ahead.

What we are advising against is signing a trust deed and then worrying about this side of things afterwards. I can tell that you're mindful to understand everything in advance by the fact that you have asked this question; a curiosity that will help you to make an informed decision.

I hope this is clear? Not the easiest subject to explain sometimes.

Thanks for that. That helps me understand things a bit more clearly.
Do you have any recommendations as to who i should contact to get the ball rolling?

I used RSM Tenon for our trust deed. No problems with them at all,but I strongly believe if you approach any of the firms represented here you will be well looked after.

You dodged a pretty big bullet with regards the cold calling firm.

Paul

irishboy - your issues and high level of debt mirror many on this forum - bite the bullet, satisfy yourself that a PTD is the best option for you and start the 3 year period asap. I'd forget about the impact on future credit ratings as a result - what other option do you have with 8 creditors all wanting a big slice of you!

Given the number of "cold calls" being made to members of this forum, is someone from a bank/credit card/credit agency disclosing details of those facing a debt problem?

You are amongst friends here!

Irishboy

Best advice I can give is to demand a face to face meeting and discuss all options.

Your decision should be based on what is best for you.

Mark

Hi Irishboy

Welcome to the forum - I told you they were good!![:D] You will get so much good knowledgeable advice on this forum from experts, people like me just starting out, and others who have done the deed and come out the other side in one piece (and much better shape than they went in!)

Hi All

Thanks so much for all the replies so far.
Im a bit worried in case the credit companies dont agree to the trust deed. I havent missed any payments yet and am still using my credit cards.
I think they might think Im taking the mickey.

What happens if they say no?

Hi irishboy and welcome

As the others have said, you did well to cancel the meetimg... you should never have to pay fees up front for good advise.

Many people in Trust Deeds were in the same position as you, up-to-date with payments, but robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is because you are usimg your income to service the debts, that you are having to use your credit cards to live on. It really is a vicious circle.
When we wotk out your financial statement, we us know the figures that creditors will accept as they give us guidleines. If we stick to their guidlines, there shouldn't be a problem. If on the off chance creditors didn't accept the offer, we can try and negotiate with them to see what they are not happy with. You can also then pick another option.
I would agree with Mark that a face to face meeting is essential to get everything sorted out properly. Make sure you get everything in writng, particularly about equity. It sounds like you have nothimg to worry about.

Hi irishboy, I was in the same position as you three months ago, but I had about 39k of debt and had never missed a payment. I thought well in three years time I will likely have added another 10k to the debt or more.I realized it was never going to get better and decided to take action.
In reality your credit file with Experian etc will show large amounts of debt anyway and this affects your ability to operate financially even now.

I'm now 2 payments in of 36 and there is a sense of everything now being under control. Yes, I've taken a hit but there is a plan in place. Living only on money coming in on wages takes some getting used to as well but I think its worth it!

Hi Irishboy

It's strange, but your question is one that is asked frequently now, which wasn't the case a year ago.

The continuation of payments has no bearing on whether creditors accept or reject a Trust Deed. If down to a formula which is why we know normally beforehand if it fits to be accepted. It's not quite as difficult as you may think ( giving the game away here!!)

Mark