Debt Management Plans

Our debt management service offers free confidential advice to help you find a solution to your financial difficulties. We specialise in clearing our customers’ unsecured debts through affordable monthly payments.

We will allocate you a fully trained personal advisor. Their job is to talk through your current situation and devise a Debt Management Plan to help get you back on your feet.

We can help customers -

• Who have overstretched themselves with credit cards, loans or overdrafts.
• Whose monthly expenditure now exceeds their monthly income
• Who are using credit cards to pay off other debts or to pay for items they previously bought with cash
• Who have had a consolidation loan refused
• Whose circumstances have changed due to a divorce, separation, bereavement, loss of job or overtime
• Who feel like no one is listening

Debt management may be the right solution for you. It is an informal arrangement between you and your creditors, where you make an affordable monthly payment to repay your unsecured debts.

The first thing your Debt Management Plan will do is take the pressure off you. That’s because we will:

• Distribute your single, affordable monthly repayment to your creditors on your behalf
• Speak to your creditors for you - once you are on a Debt Management Plan, any calls or letters demanding payments should cease
• Help with any queries about your plan and provide ongoing support through your dedicated personal Advisor
• Negotiate with your creditors to, where possible, freeze interest levels and stop any further charges being applied
• Carry out regular reviews to ensure that your plan is the best solution for you, right until your debts are completely paid off. This may include consolidating your debts or remortgaging your home

 

Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA)

An IVA is a legally binding arrangement with your creditors which allows you to repay your debts in affordable monthly payments over a fixed period of time, usually five years.

Your IVA proposals are put forward to creditors in a document called proposals. The proposals are lodged into Court and your creditors also receive a copy. If your assets are at risk because of action taken by creditors, we can apply to court for an Interim Order, which means that creditors cannot commence or continue with any action against you and your assets unless the Court permits them to do so.

A meeting of your creditors is held and creditors are able to vote on whether to accept, alter or reject your proposals. As long as you proposals demonstrate a genuine desire to repay as much of your debt as you can afford, it is likely that creditors will accept your IVA.

Once your IVA is approved all interest and charges on your unsecured debt is frozen. If creditors accept that you can only repay a proportion of your debt, the balance of your debt will be written off as long as you keep to the terms of your agreement.

The advice you receive is free, any charges for progression of an IVA are approved up front with yourself and your creditors. Missed payments can bring your IVA to an end and could result in bankruptcy. Your home is at risk if your IVA fails.

• Ideally suited for unsecured debts over £15000
• Potentially write off a percentage of the overall debts
• Debt free within 3 – 60 months
• Safeguards house & car and avoid the consequences of bankruptcy

Monthly Contribution IVA

This is where the individual offers monthly voluntary contribution payments for a period of up to five years. The amount that is offered is whatever the individual can reasonably afford, can be as little as £250 per month and will usually be substantially less than debt repayments that were previously being made. All interest and charges will be frozen during the course of the IVA, and at the end of the five year period the arrangement is concluded and the remainder of the creditors’ debts are written off.

Lump Sum Settlement IVA

An alternative to a voluntary contribution IVA, the lump sum IVA involves the payment of a one-off lump sum in full settlement of the debts. Such a proposal may be suitable where maximum offer for a remortgage or secured loan for consolidation is not enough, or a family member is prepared to make a one-off payment that generates a higher dividend than if monthly payments were made or where there is equity in a property that can be re-mortgaged. A lump sum IVA may be attractive to creditors, as it will enable them to be paid in a matter of months rather than waiting for up to five years.

Monthly Contribution + Lump Sum IVA

Where a client may have substantial debts and could only offer a low monthly contribution in their IVA, but own their own property, FFO Debt Solutions may be able to negotiate a lower monthly contribution with a lump sum paid towards the end of the IVA. This can be arranged by way of a re-mortgage.