At our initial meeting (either at your home, office or other preferred meeting place) we have an in-depth but informal discussion as to the causes of your situation and what options are open to you. The steps are as follows:
- We carry out a complete analysis of your income, expenditure and credit and debt commitments. This allows us to clarify with you how much is available to pay (if anything)
 towards your debts whilst maintaining a reasonable lifestyle. This is important as many debt management plans fail because they are prepared by biased or unthinking advisers who restrict your living costs to below what you actually need to survive.
- Having established the facts, we then advise on the options that are open to you. We explain not only the possible courses of action available for realistic repayments of the debts but also advise on the suitability and implications of other forms of debt relief such as consolidation loans, Sequestration (Bankruptcy), Trust Deeds and IVA’s (if you are in England).
- We advise you of your rights and protection under the various Acts and also the steps that creditors may take to recover their debts.
- Having taken details and agreed a course of action we will arrange a second appointment. At this next meeting we will revise the facts obtained initially and provide you with a written copy of your financial statement and review your situation with you. This allows you to ask any questions that have arisen since the initial meeting.
Once we are in agreement about your preferred course of action, we submit proposals as appropriate on your behalf, direct to your creditors. Your debt adviser will then deal with them on your behalf, taking the stress away from you and your family.
At this stage we take over negotiations and any further correspondence you receive from creditors must be copied directly to our offices for the attention of your debt adviser. As soon as your creditors accept your offer we advise you immediately. Any further negotiations are carried out by us. Once your offer is accepted you will make payments DIRECTLY to the creditor where appropriate, ideally by standing order. We do not pay your debts for you so there are no monthly fees.
If you dispute any debt we will raise the matter with the creditor, indicating the amount disputed and the reason why. Having established a suitable basis for negotiation we should be able to settle the matter and avoid legal action.
When debts or secured loans are of a substantial amount we may, depending on your circumstances, be able to explore the possibilities of refinancing with a view to consolidating all existing debts and reducing monthly expenditure.
This is not always the best option and care must be taken to ensure that any new loan is affordable and that no further credit is taken with the amount saved.
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