Welcome to Debt Advice Trust Blog

Does debt have to be an accepted facet of contemporary living? For the majority, the sad answer appears to be yes. While this is a reality, there is no doubting the fact that a lot of debt is avoidable.

1: As consumers we each have unlimited wants and desire things that we don't really need. It is a good idea to ask yourself if you really need what you are buying before parting with any cash. You may look at your car each day and feel that it would be nice to have a new one, but do you really need one? If it isn't breaking down or covered in rust the chances are is that it is on your 'wish list' rather than a necessity. Most people haven't got ten grand sitting in their bank account which means that they will need a loan. If you have bad credit you could easily end up paying 27% APR. If you are paying out £350 per month for a car you are buying today you have to remember that you will forego that money tomorrow.

2: Do you have credit cards? Many of these will be accruing interest at very high rates. If you are only paying the minimum amount each month you will find that your balance will not be paid off for 30 years. Why not take advantage of an interest-free credit card and transfer the balance across? If you keep doing this you will save yourself hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds. If you don't have good credit, why not pay the debt off with your savings? If you are struggling to keep control of your finances the simple answer is to write to the credit card provider to close down the account or reduce the credit limit.

The key when in need of cash up front is to take advantage of 0% APR on credit cards and overdrafts. Payday loans tend to be high interest, so often you'll be paying much more than you've actually borrowed, which is not the way to go.

What I'd recommend is checking out Credit Card deals, where companies have 0% APR on new purchases and transfers which allows you to have cash up front without having to repay lots and lots. This is good so you pay back no more than what you have borrowed as long as you keep within the time schedule and purchasing limits. The same goes for interest free overdrafts. It means that you can take money out from the bank and repay the same value to the bank without paying heaps of interest.

Avoid a payday loan unless you really need the money, as there are many other more sensible ways to go such as overdrafts and credit cards. Otherwise, you'd be in bigger financial trouble than if you hadn't have paid your bills on time.

Once you have made the first step in managing your debt, you are on the right track. The aim of Debt Management, one of the debt solutions, is to help you clear your debts with reduced monthly payments over a fixed period of time.

You can engage in Debt Management on a personal level as well. Firstly, check your outgoings and make cutbacks: you may find that you can reduce your monthly spending by a significant amount simply by cutting out your morning take-away coffee or reading news online instead of buying a daily newspaper.

Another area to look out for is service payments: make sure that you are not paying excessive amounts for things like insurance, mobile phone, cable, electricity, etc. If you feel you are, take the time to do some research and switch to a cheaper provider, as this could save you a small fortune. Once again, if you feel like you can get by without a hundred channels on your TV, sign up for a basic package. Maybe you can get rid of your landline and use your mobile phone only?

Many debts grow because of overspending on things that are not essential. Re-evaluate your spending habits and cut back on a few things, and you will see your debts shrink!

I'm in control of money in our house. Although perhaps that term 'in control' is a little misleading, because you might say the whole thing has got rather out of hand. There's a few thousand here, a few thousand there, and that's not including the £3000 still hanging over from a student loan. When my partner talks about future plans for spending, I try to be vague and redirect the conversation to less volatile topics, while thinking: 'Not a hope, pal'.

I think he has started to get wise to this tactic because recently, during one of my diversions, he stopped and said: 'How much do we owe? What's on the credit cards? No, no, no, I don't want to know...'

And that, I'm afraid, is the crux of the matter. He genuinely doesn't want any part in organising our finances. He calls me to transfer money from our joint account to his sole account when he has an urgent need, but beyond those moments he doesn't give money a single thought.

It's my job to make sure there's money there for the mortgage, council tax, utilities and insurance policies. As long as there's food in the cupboards and beer in the fridge, he's oblivious. So yes, I do hide the debt from him. But only because he doesn't want to look.

I have just had first hand experience of the above and my gut reaction was: think very carefully before considering a debt consolidation loan.

It may seem easier to pay off all your debts each month in "one low monthly repayment" but you are really borrowing more money.

So what you should consider is making a list of all your incomings and outgoings (be honest!) each month. If you are able to cover your outgoings including credit card repayments, you should just be organised and try to do this yourself, by setting up Direct Debit etc.

After all, this is all a company does for you - takes your monthly sum and gives it to each credit card company.

If you cannot cover each payment and decide a loan is for you, you should think carefully about how much you can afford to pay out each month.

If you look online, try to deal with one company at a time. If you surf loads of websites like me, you will get emails and phone calls for weeks.

Once a company contacts you, they will go through your finances with you, so have a copy handy of the incoming and outgoings list you made. And good luck with paying off the debts and getting into the black!

There is a lot of talk about the contribution of parents and schools with regard to teaching children about money - rightly so with the current debt problem the country now faces. What about the responsibility of the banking community as they are the ones that will have to deal with all the defaults?

An excellent idea that was introduced when I was at school was a weekly visit from the Yorkshire bank. We all sat there and listened to information about what having an account there would mean for us as kids and took a letter home to show our parents. Each week a representative of the bank would come round to collect our contributions and it became like a routine.

This was my very first experience of the concept of saving money. It gave me discipline as I paid money in each week and saving as much as possible became like a small competition for us all. It was actually a lot of fun.

This is definitely something that should be re-introduced as part of children's monetary education.

Every extra penny that you earn could go towards clearing debt and making a fresh start. There are many people out there that just do not have the time or have family commitment s so I have created a list of easy options to help you earn that extra bit of cash and helping with your Debt Management

1. Mystery Shopping. You can earn anything from 5 pounds to 40 pounds for basically doing what you would do normally. Assignments are usually set for banks, high street shops, restaurants and bars. Ironically these places are probably what got you in debt in the first place and now you can get paid for going to them. Grass Roots is a great Mystery Shopping company and is always emailing me with new assignments.
2. You can even get a saucy second job, if you have the stomach and the imagination you can be a sex line employee, so with the children out of earshot, you can be doing the ironing and earning money at the same time, there is a thread on this at Money Saving Expert
3. There are plenty of other opportunities of making money at home, if you look in your local paper in the jobs section, there usually are advertisements for working at home, this usually entails stuffing envelopes, making up boxes or entering data on the computer.

I read today that a 22 year old who has just finished University with a £12,000 student loan and a £4,000 credit card debt, is considering declaring themselves Bankrupt as it seems like the easiest even only option to take.

I find it disturbing that they would risk in the future obtaining a mortgage. Mobile phone companies, estate agencies for letting homes, Banks and building societies all require credit checks. Lenders will be very wary of lending money to anybody who has had a history of bankruptcy. Currently any defaults, CCJs and bankruptcies, stay on your credit history for six years.

The best alternative to bankruptcy and to clear your debtis to contact the citizen’s advice burro for independent advice. Or contact a debt advice charity, who can help you setup a suitable repayment plan, in the form of an IVA.

1. The first step is to recognise that you are in trouble; you have completed that as you are reading this blog. You are on your way to clear debt
2. Cut up your credit cards and store cards. This can be the hardest step for the majority of people as these cards are viewed as their safety net, but always remember this is probably what has got you in debt in the first place, be brave.
3. Cut down on spending, work out what you need per day as a necessity, set yourself a daily budget and stick to it. Cut down on eating out, buying clothes etc. Avoid places that may encourage you to slip up.
4. Inform your nearest and dearest of your situation, a problem shared is a problem halved, they should encourage you to keep on track, you are less likely to go back to your old ways if you are feeling watched.
5. If you are in serious debt problems, you should get Debt Help; there are debt charities with professional advisers who can point you in the right direction to becoming debt free. There are different options available for you such as a debt consolidation loan, an IVA or maybe just support.

Have debt problems Doing everything you can? Can’t see a way out of your current situation?

Well there are a few more costs you could cut to help you clear debt and look forward to a debt free future that maybe you didn’t realise, here are a few of the main debt offenders.

1. Cigarettes – these days with a packet of smokes costing over £5 a packet, on the premise of a 20 a day habit that equates to over £150 a month – scary isn’t it? So quit, not just for your health but for your pocket.
2. Vending Machines – that odd Mars Bar or Fizzy Drink soon adds up, a friend of mine admitted that he was always broke but when he worked out that he was spending over £35 a month of vending machines he was shocked how quickly it adds up.
3. Credit Card interest – it sounds obvious but so many people don’t realise how much their interest on their cards is costing them. On average a credit card charge of £40 per month in interest amounts to over £450 pounds per year – make sure you prioritise your charges to avoid this costly incurrence.

Think about it, if you’re a smoker in debt to credit cards, who buys good from vending machines – you could be spending over £2700 per year on excessive unnecessary charges and purchases.

Think about your debt and think about how much that amount of money could help reduce it before you light that next cigarette.