Beat Debt Guide

Archive for the ‘Getting Out of Debt’ Category

Last week an economist from CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), Benjamin Tal, suggested that Canadians need to go back to old fashioned savings to increase their savings.

This is something that everybody should be doing in the UK too. To quote,

How much sacrifice does it take to reach the 6% savings rate threshold? Based on Statistics Canada’s Household Expenditures Survey, the average annual expenditures of a Canadian household is just over $71,000. Out of this amount close to $11,000 is spent on clothing, personal care, recreation, games of chance, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. All other things being equal, cutting spending on those categories by only 10% will raise the savings rate from the current 4.2% to 6%.

This is what I’ve been saying all along.

If you ignore the currency, as the principle is the same, the amount of money people can save to reduce debt or provide for a rainy day, retirement etc. can significantly increase if you watch how much money you’re actually spending – remember DEBTIPLES™ – every single penny counts!

The Office of Fair Trading has imposed requirements on MADL in that it must:-

* make it very clear to consumers that the company does not provide or administer debt solutions
* provide consumers with adequate information about the service being offered
* not imply that the service is impartial or independent
* make its commercial status clear and not give the impression through any of its advertising that it is a charity or a publicly funded body, and
* ensure advertising of its debt management services is consistent with the standards set out in the OFT’s Debt Management Guidance.

It is timely advice as there are many companies who are making lots of money out of people who are in debt, and it really isn’t necessary.

As the OFT’s Director of Consumer Credit, Ray Watson, said, ‘It is important that consumers seeking help for debt problems know who they are dealing with and whether the company is providing an actual service or is simply a lead generator. We would advise anyone in financial difficulty to seek free debt advice….”

So, look at your own finances see what help is out there and take action. Just make sure that you are not being misled.

Don’t let that put you off and the best thing to do is to take action today. The sooner you start the sooner you will be out of debt!

The Government has granted a reprieve to hundreds of specialist debt advisers facing redundancy as they have agreed to continue the service for a year.

A lot of these people work in Citizens Advice Bureau and it is important to remember that these services are free for people to use. As it states in the article, “The next few years are likely to be very difficult for many people due to stagnating household budgets and rising costs but given CCCS’s capacity on its helpline and online debt counselling, there is no need for anyone to pay for debt advice.”

As I’ve mentioned many times before the key is to realise you have a debt problem and need help. Once you realise that you are on your way to beating debt.

Bankruptcies and insolvencies are in decline according to the latest figures from the Insolvency Service.

However, that does not mean the worse is over! As Louise Brittain from Deloitte states in this article, “The full impact of government cuts has yet to hit home, and when they do it will filter through to the private sector as outsourced supply chains are slimmed down. The consequent job losses will mean we are likely to see a sharp rise in the level of people petitioning for bankruptcy in the next nine months.”

So remember – if you are in debt and have credit problems. The key is to realise you have a problem, and then take action. The DEBTIPLES™ approach may be the way forward for you. Whatever you decide, don’t delay and make progress today!

Why is it every year some people wonder why they’ve got no money at the end of the summer?

With summer holidays (and for some the extra expenses of entertaining the children when not at school) it can be an expensive time. If funds are not saved through out the year to cover these expenses – that are inevitable – along with the extra daily items such as ice-creams then it could be an unhappy time leading up to Christmas.

The principle of Debtiples™ comes into it’s own when it is very easy to buy small one off items that when put together add up to a significant amount. Leading upto Christmas you do not want to still be paying your bills off only to get to Christmas and realise you have even more bills!

Beat the Debt, start today for an easier stress free life.

Interesting article on BBC News website about the countries within the Eurozone and how many of them have breached their own rules. One of which is that the annual government deficit must not exceed 3% of GDP. If the UK were a member of the Eurozone it too would be outside this range.

It shows what a serious situation we are in and also the importance of not breaching rules. They are there for a reason. It is just like managing your own personal finances. If you need to borrow you need to make sure you can afford it. If you can’t it will ultimately come back and haunt you.

Make sure you have your own rules in place and stick to them. If you break the rules you will have to manage the consequences.

The summer is nearly over. Interest rates have gone up…. depressing if you’ve got a mortgage.

Keep a tight rein over your debts otherwise they’ll spiral out of control before you’ve even realised.

The first signs of debt problems will be:-

• Going overdrawn before payday every month
• Not paying more than the minimum payment on a credit card.
• Switching between credit cards which just delays the inevitable time when the debts have to be paid!
• Banks not paying cheques / direct debits

If some of these start happening – it may be a temporary problem. However, it is important to be true to yourself and is an opportunity to stop the situation becoming uncontrollable. Take action today

Question: What has cold ice creams and cold drinks got to do with beating debt?

Answer: A lot!

With the heatwave we are experiencing at the moment the last thing many people will be thinking of is seeking debt counselling, debt management, debt consilidation and any other form of help.

However, people may be quite happy buying an ice-cream or cold drink…..

The regular purchase of buying cold drinks can be expensive. Let’s say you buy one a day that’s over £250 a year!!

All these amounts add up. So why don’t you make yourself more prepared – make your own cold drinks, put them in the fridge and take them with you whenever you go out.

Look to see where you can save and take action today! DEBT PROBLEMS CAN BE BEATEN!!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that it was 2 years ago that the £1 TRILLION debt barrier was broken for total household debt. Guess what – the £1 trillion barrier has been broken just on MORTAGE DEBT alone now…..

According to figures from the Bank of England, mortgage debt has gone through the £1 trillion level. An extra 9.3bn was borrowed to buy homes in May, increasing outstanding mortgage debt to £1.007 trillion!!

Look at your debts – take ACTION before they get hold of you. The last thing you want to happen is what happened to the people on the Panorama programme on the BBC last night.

The Banking Code Standards Board is to investigate The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) after Panorama investigated debt-related suicides.

A whistleblower says that high street bank lending practices put profits before customers at every given opportunity in order to push borrowing. She is a key decision maker with one of the main high street banks.

“In all my years of experience in the banking industry, I would say that consumers should be very, very wary of their banks” the whistleblower told Panorama.

“It is a very very sophisticated, tailored, tested marketing strategy and sales pitch to a public that has very little knowledge of what is going on.” The insider lifts the lid on the world of credit cards, showing the various ways the banks try to get customers to borrow more on their cards and carry debt over from month to month.

At a time when the governor of the Bank of England is warning of the serious social consequences of over-indebtedness, the whistleblower gives a real insight into a culture of lend, lend, lend in
Britain’s banks and helps to explain why Britain has racked up record levels of personal debts.Ultimately make sure you don’t get taken in by the

Make sure you don’t get taken in by the Banks, credit card companies and other Financial Institutions. It is up to you to take action and if you realise now that you’re in a bad situation take the necessary action.

Ever heard of the line – Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

It is a line that many people, even in this day and age, would be wise to look at and take notice.

How many people have small regular daily purchases that are not necessary.

Buying a newspaper everyday can soon add up, lets take an example of somebody buying a daily paper (not including weekend papers). Let’s say the newspaper costs around 45p a day.

Over a week that’s £2.25.

“That’s not going to make much difference to my debt problems”, I hear you say.

Ok, so over a month it’s costing approx £9. Still thinking that it’s not going to make any difference to your debts?

Well, over a year buying a daily newspaper will cost you £117.

Now if you’re still thinking that over £100 will not sort your debt problems you need to change your mind set to what I like to call DEBTIPLES™.

I will mention this again I’m sure because everyday I see people getting into more and more debt and yet if they followed the DEBTIPLES™ principles they would be a lot better off.

TAKE ACTION look at your small regular purchases, chocolate bars, coffees, newspapers, cigarettes…..

….and cut them out of your life!! Look at them as treats and you will soon have far more money to get out of debt.