Happy new year all!!
Let us start the year the way we plan to end it making ourselves financially stable below are a few useful tips, which hopefully will help you on your journey.
Register with /clearscore
https://www.clearscore.com/
The first thing to do is to check your credit score, this is an especially key step as this is likely to be the first time you will be aware of what creditors are seeing if you apply for credit. I recommend clearscore as it is free and extremely easy to understand. It also gives tips on how you can improve your credit rating also. Remember a poor credit rating can affect your ability to rent or buy a property.
Complete income expenditure
There are several templates available for you to use online including the one featured on the Debt2day3tomorrow.com website
Create a Budget
A budget will hopefully help you make better decisions about how you manage your money and give you an idea of how much you can afford to repay toward your debt each month. Don't try to manage your expenses in your head; it is important that you see the numbers on paper this allows you to see the bigger picture without relying on your memory. Your budget can also help you decide where you might be able to free up money for paying down your debt.
Manage your debts
If you owe any creditors now is the time to make contact and plan to repay any arrears.
Make a list of your debts, this should include the creditor, amount of the debt, monthly payment, interest rate, and the payment date. Once you create the list DON’T forget about it. Review the list on a regular basis and update your list every few months as your debt reduces.
There are several tools that you can use to help you https://www.moneydashboard.com/
Contact your creditors
Remember they do not have insight into your personal circumstances and if you don’t make contact, they have the right to begin taking action against you including obtaining a County Court Judgment, or enforcement action including a Bailiffs warrant. Let them know that you are reviewing your finances and will be making a repayment proposal (give them a time frame i.e., within the next 14 days). There template letters on the website that may be used to send to your creditors https://debt2day3tomorrow.com/
You need to understand the Pre-legal Protocol rules; these are the rules set by the courts and describes the way that both you and the creditor are expected to behave. It also sets out what actions that should be taken before a court claim for a debt is started. The courts preference is that court action is avoided whenever possible, and the protocol is designed to help with this. In other words, the court expects people to do all they can to avoid court action, it also expects you to try to reach an agreement if you can.
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/protocol
Plan and decide which debts you are going to pay off first
Paying off your debt, start with a plan, even if you can't start paying off your debts right away, start by listing your debts including the balance and interest rate. Prioritise your debts, and then decide about the order you want to pay them off, e.g., the debt with the highest interest rate first, lowest balance first, or another order you decide. Your plan is to pay as much as you can towards one account while paying the minimum on all the other accounts until you pay off one of the debts and move on to another.
Debt payoff planner
‘The Debt Payoff Planer and Calculator application exists as a tool for helping you to become debt-free. It makes creating a debt payoff plan simple to encourage you to get started and stay on track.’
Pay your bills on time each month
Overdue payments make it harder to pay off your debt and remember you’ll have to pay a late fee for every payment you miss increasing the debt.
Stop creating debt
Stop making more debt you’ll never get out of debt if you continue to add to your debt by not managing your outgoings. First Put your credit cards in a drawer, but don’t close the credit card accounts because that will hurt your credit score.
Don’t apply for any more loans
Remember if you’re serious about getting out of debt, it's crucial that you find a way to live on your income.
There is free help there! Good luck
For those of you who are participating in the 2022 Savings Challenge more information will follow shortly.