(Guest post by Peter Dean)
The most important thing to do when you begin experiencing financial troubles or can see them in the horizon is to assess your income and expenditure. Essentially, you must look at the money you have coming in and the money you have going out and begin to try and gain control of your debt.
This is the first step in beginning to gain some sort of control over your debts however it can be difficult to work out how much you can afford to pay per month towards your total debt if your debts are spread across a number of creditors.
Working out how much you can afford to re-pay each month is a big step in finding the right debt solution for you. To help you in considering which debt management programme would be best, you can use Your Debt Expert’s Debt Calculator at www.yourdebtexpert.com to see some examples of solutions and how much you may be expected to pay towards your debts each month.
Of course there are other ways in which you can assess how you can begin to regain control of your finances and one of the most important things to remember is you’re not alone! Free professional advice is out there for you, whether it is from a government source or an approved money advisor, don’t be afraid to ask for help from the professionals!
There are many options available exclusively to Scottish residents that you may not have considered or even known about, such as:
- A Trust Deed
- A Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS)
- Sequestration
What is a trust deed?
A trust deed is a voluntary agreement you, as a Scottish resident, can enter into with your creditors in order to be able to pay off as much of your debt as you can comfortably afford with your monthly disposable income. This is done through an insolvency practitioner, also known as a trustee, and is legally binding. A Trust Deed will normally last 3-5 years and at the end of the Trust Deed all remaining debt will be written off.
What is a DAS?
A Debt Arrangement Scheme is a programme in which an agreement is made that you will repay your debts in full over an extended period of time, minus any interest which will be frozen and written off upon your DAS being approved, while removing the need to deal directly with any of your creditors.
What is Sequestration?
Sequestration is the Scottish equivalent of bankruptcy and involves transferring your assets and property over to an Insolvency practitioner (also known as the Trustee) to be sold for the benefit of the creditors. This option is, simply put, legally declaring your inability to repay your creditors.
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