Help, Tips and Advice
This page gives some help, tips and advice on dealing with debt, loan and mortgage problems, also finding a charity to help out.
CHARITY
There is often somewhere that we can go for help, the difficulty is usually knowing where to look. If there is something that you desperately need, see if there is a charity that can be of assistance to you. There are so many more charities in existance than we realise; charities are there to help with all sorts of things. Do a google search to track down a charity that might be able to help you, you may well find exactly what you are looking for. Good luck with this. Try www.funderfinder.co.uk this is a small charity and from this site you can find links to other places that may be of help to you.
HELP
Other places to go for help are www.citizensadvice.org.uk They have an online advice guide at www.adviceguide.org.uk They can often point you in the right direction; make use of these free services that are available to you.
Google is a great place to search for help. But be careful that you contact a charity or organisation offering genuinely free help and not someone trying to sell you something like loans etc.. If you are in a hurry for an answer it is often better to ring people than to email, if they cannot help you themselves they may well be able to give you the name and number of an organisation that can help you. If you don't ask you don't get so start asking now! And keep asking until you get the answers you need!
Don't bury your head in the sand Ignoring certain problems could make them worse. Talk to those concerned, explain your problems and ask for help.
DEBT AND FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
Don’t ignore calls or letters from the people you owe money to. For instance if you cannot pay your mortgage or any other bill for that matter, contact them as soon as possible to explain why you’re having problems. The sooner you do this, the more options you'll have for solving your financial problems.
Cut back on all the things that you do not actually need.
For instance get a cheap digibox rather than paying for hundreds of tv channels that you really do not need to have.
Do not make journeys unless they are essential.
Stop buying takeaway and ready meals that are costly, start cooking simple, cheap meals. See our food and recipes page for ideas.
MORTGAGE PROBLEMS
When dealing with debt there are usually options open to you, mortgage companies will sometimes negotiate a repayment holiday or extend the mortgage over a longer term, depending on your circumstances. Look carefully at the amount of interest you are paying and the interest rates, where possible always shop around for the best rates.
Consolidate Loans
It is often better to consolidate all loans into one loan at the lowest possible interest rates. Shop around and take advice, you can often lower your total monthly payments considerably by consolidating all of your loans into one all be it larger loan but at a reasonable interest rate.
DEBT SNOWBALL
One other tactic I heard about recently is to pay off all your debt using the Debt Snowball - List all your debts (except the house) in order of smallest payoff balance to largest. Then pay the minimum payment to stay current on all the debts except the smallest. Every extra pound you can find from anywhere in your budget goes toward payingt off the smallest debt until it is paid off completely. Once the smallest is paid off completely, the payment from that debt is added to the next smallest debt. When debt number two is paid off, you attack three, and so on.
Usually the smallest debt carries the highest interest rate, but if this is not the case you can list all your debts starting with the highest interest rate and working down to the lowest interest rate, then work on the same process but paying off the highest interest rate first.
Curb your Spending - Only buy what you really need.
Look at the Save Money and Earn Money pages for more advice.
I will add more and more information to these pages over the next couple of weeks.