Hi Valley

I understand your concerns and suspect I know who the firm in question are. I've never understood why 'The Debt Expert' also sells insurance, mortgages and bank accounts!

There is no connection between level of debt and contribution. The contribution is based on income v reasonable expenditure. The CCCS or BBA guide provides a rough guide to minimums and maximums.

As for who to Trust, my advice, as always, would be to choose a firm who follow the guideline, have a 1st meeting to look at all options and DO NOT sign anything at that meeting. Afterwards the firm should confirm the whole thing in writing with exactly the contribution and how things will be done. Only then should you decide the next step. No up front fees, no sales talk, no discounts if you sign today!

Hope this helps

Mark

I suspect I can answer that Mark. Amongst the various financial products that are on offer life insurance provides the seller with a very significant upfront commission payment.

Now life insurance is extremely important, in particular for anyone with financial dependents, but it does seem a very strange intervention point to start selling the product.

Valley - the expenditure guidelines that Mark mentions are well known by debt advisors, Trust Deed companies, and the creditors themselves. However "we" are asked/required not to release them publicly as CCCS consider it likely that debtors will automatically adjust their expenditure to the upper end of the ranges that are considered acceptable. This isn't a position that we necessarily agree with; I'm sure the vast majority of people would responsibly use it as a guide rather than using it to their own advantage.

If you find a good debt or Trust Deed adviser they will work with you to ensure your expenditure is recorded both accurately and within the ranges that creditors are likely to accept as being reasonable.

The amount that you would pay into a Trust Deed (or other debt solution) is directly related to how much you can afford to pay. The statement you were provided with about differing monthly contributions depending upon your debt level is both wrong and ridiculous.

Trust Deed companies do charge varying levels of fees. However the creditors have to accept the fees or they will not accept the Trust Deed. Therefore the Trust Deed companies that handle a decent volume of cases will be well aware of reasonable fee levels to charge.

In terms of "who you should trust" I'd say that's a very hard question to answer. Speaking to one or two more firms might be a good idea so that you can draw a comparison in your mind. Three years (the usual Trust Deed period) is a very long time and finding a good firm to help you is essential.

Just been reading through the forum (which is an excellent resource, thanks) and have found that others have experience of Barclaycard objecting to my trust deed. Barclaycard will probably account for 40-50% of my debt.

If I have to go bankrupt instead, what are the disadvantages (or would it be advantagous for me to go bankrupt as I have no assets?)

Hello valley,

I don't think that there is any particular issue with Barclaycard and Trust Deeds. I think that they have the same clear criteria used by other major lenders... I'm sure one of the experts will add their thoughts on this soon.

If you have no assets there will be few practical differences between bankruptcy or a Trust Deed. In both cases you will be expected to contribute what you can afford for a period of three years (unless you decided to sign a Trust Deed with a term of longer than three years).

Bankruptcy would become an option for you if a Trust Deed failed to become protected.
It may also be an option today if you have a limited income at the moment.

Hi Valley

I'm not sure where the posts are relating to barclaycard's objections. I have been unable to find any objections in the last 12 months. If anything, they tend to react slower than most other creditors.

Mark

quote:

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Originally posted by Mark McFadyen

Hi Valley

I'm not sure where the posts are relating to barclaycard's objections. I have been unable to find any objections in the last 12 months. If anything, they tend to react slower than most other creditors.

Mark

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Hi Mark,

I was going on the post by Kevin Mapstone (2nd post in thread)here; http://www.trust-deed.co.uk/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=374&SearchTerms=barclaycard

I will contact you soon regarding a trust deed when I can get a confirmed list of debts from my husband's solicitor.

Kind Regards

Hi Valley

The only issue I have experienced with barclaycard is their failure to update their system and continue to call even after the Trust Deed has become protected. This is normally resolved by a sharp fax threatening to report them to the OFT!

Regards

Mark

Barclaycard use an agent to act on their behalf when assessing trust deed proposals, namely the accountancy firm Grant Thornton. Their criteria are well known to insolvency practitioners, so any decent IP should be able to tell you in advance if your proposals are likely to be acceptable to them or not.

I can concur on with Mark, I was still getting regular calls and texts from Barclays weeks after my TD was protected.... I think it must of took at least half a dozen faxes from my IP before they stopped, well hopefully stopped not heard from them in 4 weeks...

Also Valley as both Mark and Kevin say your IP should know what the acceptable criteria is for Barclays, so I think as long as that is met there should be nought to fret about.....

Anyway good luck, the five week wait is a killer.......

Please help anyone aaarrgggg...

I seem stuck between a rock and a hard place;
I have been petitioned for divorce by my husband on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour, I have 21 days to object or it will go through and due to my inability to meet my part of the matrimonial debt I will be forced to sign over my share of the house. My solicitor has recommended I do not object and let it go through.

I have few assets (I have a small car worth under ?ú1000 which I need to get to work and a canoe worth under ?ú500 which i need to maintain what sanity I have left!) and live in private rented accomodation.

In my marriage there was a great deal of debt accumulated mostly in my husbands name and some (apparently - I never had much to do with the finances) in joint names. For some time my solicitor has tried to identify this debt with little success.

If I were to apply for my own sequestration (I think I need to stop paying my creditors the current token gestures so they take me to court and get a payment order?) how can I ensure that, as well as my own debts, other matrimonial debts are identified and included?

I feel i'm stuck in a grey area between the realms of my solicitor and an insolvancy practitioner?

Any advice please as I do not want to be sequestrated or possible trust deed to find there is other unidentified debt?

PS would I be permitted to keep my canoe in insolvency proceedings :-)?

Hi valley,

I hope that you're OK during what must be a difficult personal time.

My understanding is that one of the reasons that Trust Deeds and sequestrations are "advertised" is to allow any creditors of which the Trustee is unaware to come forwards and make their claim.

As such, if you were to provide the fullest list of creditors that you can, I don't think that any that were accidently left out could come back to you demanding payment in the future. One of the experts will be able to confirm or deny that this is actually the case.

I think that the Trustee may also make enquiries with your husband as well to try to clarify the full list of debts.

I doubt that there would be any issues connected to the canoe. The costs of collecting, storing and selling it would probably outweigh any potential benefit to creditors.

quote:

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Originally posted by Trust Deed Assistant

My understanding is that one of the reasons that Trust Deeds and sequestrations are "advertised" is to allow any creditors of which the Trustee is unaware to come forwards and make their claim.

As such, if you were to provide the fullest list of creditors that you can, I don't think that any that were accidently left out could come back to you demanding payment in the future.

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Thank you Trust Deed Assistant, can any of the IPs out there back this statement up?

Hi valley,

The experts have been pretty busy for a couple of days doing various things.

I'm bumping your post back up the list and I hope an answer will follow shortly.

Hi all

TDA is correct, the Edinburgh Gazette's primary purpose is to allow for unknown or missed creditors the opportunity to check to see if they are a creditor. The onus is on the creditor to check.

In effect if you signed a Trust Deed and remembered a creditor a good while later, then they are still a creditor of the Trust Deed.

Mark