• Do you have debts that are ruining your life?
• Do you feel trapped because you can’t get out of debt?
• Get help with your finances and clear your personal debt problems

If your finances are the part of your life that causes you the most heartache and stress, then we can give you the help and advice that could make all the difference.

• Many people experience these feelings when they are in debt and don’t have debt advice resources.

Just because you can’t see a way through your debts, that doesn’t mean there is not a debt solution that will alleviate the pressure or perhaps even clear your debts totally over a period of time.

Over recent years we have helped a huge amount of people get out of debt through our professional debt management service rather than quick fixes you often find with other debt “wipe off” companies.

Will you help me find the best way to clear my debts?

We will first have a discussion with you to understand your present situation and work out the best way to clear your debt.  There are various solutions we can recommend to help you get out of debt, some of which are informal and self managed and others are more formal.

• We can help you restructure your debts and make them easier to manage with an informal debt management plan.
• Consolidating all of your existing debts into one debt consolidation loan can cut down on interest and charges associated with lots of different debts. Acceptance for a debt consolidation loan is subject to your current credit status.
• The formal option of an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement is a good way to clear your debts over a fixed term but should only be considered as a last option due to the fact that it will harm your credit rating for the future.

All of the above debt solutions will only be recommended once we have talked to you and discussed your thoughts and fears about the different aspects of your personal debts.

I’ve been in debt since I was 18 years old, are you sure you can help?

This is not uncommon! Many people get caught in the cycle of debt at a very young age and then conduct their finances in a way that is well understood by the banks and other lending institutions.

Often a teenager will take on an overdraft facility to pay for something ‘important’ which is the beginning of more and more credit throughout their lives until they get to a point where they cannot control it all any longer and then need help to clear debt and get their personal debts back under control.

This is all well known and the lenders all count on this cycle of circumstantial change to get people to take on more and more credit.

• We have trained debt consultants to help you, call free from a land line in confidence today using 0800 018 6868.

They tend to just see the headline figures – forgetting that a fair chunk of this salary disappears to the taxman.

Recent rounds of redundancies have hit higher earners just as much as lower earners – and there is the age old adage that one tends to spend all of what one earns!

So when redundancies kick in, there isn’t always the large pot of reserves that others might imagine.

It’s quite easy to do, that headline rate of £100k is reduced to somewhere closer to £60k after taxes and National Insurance is paid.  This still leaves a healthy £5k per month to spend, but by the time that the mortgage and bills are paid on the £ ½ million house there isn’t really a lot left… particularly after the wife has been out shopping as well!

When you initially broke the news about the job, whilst you had expected a rough ride from friends, there was the hope that your beloved might be a little more understanding, but sadly this was the latest in a long line of ‘mistakes’ that you had been responsible for (shouldn’t you have guessed?), so now the pressure is on to find a replacement job to keep the family in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.

Now unlike families who live on a more ‘modest’ budget, when your outgoings total £4,000 each month, the savings pot you had been building up disappears at an alarming rate.  Sure, you had intended to save more but what with the cost of private school and extra curricular activities it just did not happen.

Looking for a £100k job can take a little while as, unsurprisingly, they tend not to grow on trees.  In times of recession there also tends to be less movement in the senior management sector so you are looking into a difficult market.

Three months after your initial redundancy, you decide that the time has come to look for some slightly less senior roles, but soon realise that you are seen to be over-qualified and are looked over for interviews.  With six months passing you decide to get involved with a friends business on a self-employed basis, simply to help cash-flow as the debts are starting to rack up!

• Before you know it, there is little headroom left on the credit cards and you are starting to get some difficult phone calls from creditors regarding unpaid bills.  It really shouldn’t have come to this, but there now seems no way out…

• Help, however, is at hand.

At Lewis Alexander, our dedicated debt management specialists are uniquely placed to provide professional advice, guidance and ultimately provide solutions to your debt problems.  Our advisors deal with your situation in the strictest of confidence and work out what options may be available to you.

• You can call us free 24 hours a day using 0800 018 6868.

With asset-rich customers there are often more options than you may think, and a couple of well-placed sales of valuable items (that antique painting you never really liked) and potentially a secured loan or debt management plan can help set you on the road to financial recovery.  We can talk through your situation, listen to the concerns you have and start working on a solution with your creditors that takes the stress and pressure away from you, meaning you can focus on developing your income and spending time with your family.

As long as you have a regular source of income and the thought of putting in some hard work to turn your situation is something that you are prepared for then we can help!

• Call 0800 018 6868, our advisors usually help people find a route to a more stable financial life.
• Remember our advisors are trained and will deal with your situation in the strictest of confidence.

Call free today!

When times are tough and income is tight, using credit to pay for the holiday period really is an easier thing to do than you may expect.  You start October promising that this years’ Christmas is going to be on a budget, but then you see the decorations in the shopping malls, the children’s letters to Santa (that happen to resemble the entirety of the Argos catalogue!), that added bit of peer pressure and before you know it, you’re all set for another bumper Christmas spend.

• Now it’s January and time to pay for it all, but you realise that this is easier said than done.
• Identify with this kind of situation?
• Then read on!

Sat at the kitchen table with your present receipts and your credit card balance can be a bit of a seminal moment, but all is not lost!

Firstly take a look at your Christmas present loot!  Every year there are millions of unwanted presents that are gifted and there is a good chance that you may be the ‘lucky’ recipient of a pair of slippers, a Christmas jumper, or a perfume whose smell reminds you of filling up at the petrol station!  If that is the case, take a few minutes to look at whether you are able to return these for a cash refund (normally a purchase receipt is needed).

If not, and your item is still packaged, the wonders of ebay may also prove a great place to earn some much needed funds from your unwanted gifts.   By the time that you have added one or two other unwanted items from a post Christmas clearout you may have enough items to help you with some of those Christmas costs!

It is also worth sitting down to complete a review of the household expenses.  The end of one year and the start of the next is a great time to complete a financial review or financial health check as many people start to make plans for the coming year.  Identifying any luxuries that could be cut out from your household budget or other unnecessary personal expenses could free up some much needed cash to help pay these dreaded bills.  In any case, there is no point keeping that gym membership or satellite TV subscription if you simply aren’t using it!

Having completed a full review of your financial situation, if you still think that paying off Christmas is going to be an issue then don’t worry, help is at hand! One free call to the Debt Management specialists at Lewis Alexander could help sort your financial life.  Our lines are open 24 hours a day using 0800 018 6868, advisors can listen to your individual circumstances and complete a financial healthcheck prior to advising on appropriate financial solutions.

For some homeowners a secured loan may be the best option, for others entering into a debt management solution or even an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) can offer the best solution, however our specialists will ensure that the solution they offer to you best suits your circumstances.

Being in debt can add additional pressure to an already stressful lifestyle, but having a clear defined plan to move you out of this position can make a massive difference to the reducing the weight you feel on your shoulders.  Our specialists are experts in dealing with people from a variety of different backgrounds with a range of different debt problems and your call will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence.

• One free call can make a massive difference to your financial situation if you are prepared to action the help available, so call Lewis Alexander free on 0800 018 6868. Call now!

When you bought the Beatles hit ‘When I’m sixty-four’ on short play vinyl with one of your first pay packets, it all seemed so far away.  Now a mere forty-something years later, you’ve reached the age of the song’s infamous title!

But wait, you’re not ready for it yet!

The unexpected ‘surprise’ third child that you tagged on the end has only just finished university and you are still about ten years away from finishing paying for their studies, the new conservatory and that place by the sea that your wife insisted upon. (Note to self, why oh why didn’t we keep the wife’s flat when we moved in together in the swinging sixties?)

The pressures of ensuring that the children completed their studies, whilst keeping a stable home meant that real planning for retirement seemed pointless as it felt just so far away – except it wasn’t. So the daily expenses were still being piled onto the credit cards, whilst new mortgage deals had still been taken out in your early sixties.

• The bit that said you would be repaying until you were 75 was lost in the reams of small print that so many of these agreements commonly contain.
• So surely it wasn’t just the unexpected extra child that led you into this mess?

Well, despite being one of those baby boomers born just after the end of World War Two, whilst many have been very lucky, there are some that seem to have fallen foul of every possible financial mishap.

• For all too many a family the story reads like this:

Taking an endowment out in the 80’s, just prior to the Wall Street crash, was not the best of starts. A failure to capitalise on Maggie’s privatisations followed, prior to the blackest of black Wednesdays meant that you then lost a job in the early 1990’s, right in the middle of the era of ageism. That is before Brussels interfered!

The remnants of the ‘Power 80’s’ meant you were finished at 40-something, with none of that modern thinking that the middle and end-career applicants have oodles of experience to offer.  Sadly, there was more to come. Being loyal to the bank had meant that you enjoyed a good relationship with a bank manager (who still wore a mac in the pouring rain), but also meant that you missed out on the Abbey National, Alliance and Leicester, Halifax & more demutualisations that handed out £thousands in a short space of time. Then finally, when interest rates started to come down at the end of the 1990’s and the turn of the century, you took a 5-year fix as 6.5% seemed like a great rate (you recalled only just hanging onto your house when rates topped double figures in the 1980s). So you missed out on several good years when you could have been paying a sizeable chunk down on your mortgage.

• Sob story over, put quite simply, what are you going to do now?
• The first step in any financial planning is to understand the here and now.

Start by calculating how much you really owe and who you owe it to. Continue by detailing the everyday regular expenses that you incur and your anticipated earnings for retirement. By contacting your pension provider to understand your exact pension income and lump sum options, you will now know exactly what retirement means for you and so it is now possible to look at the options available.

Many people approaching retirement opt to work beyond the standard retirement age. Although the ability to do this varies by industry and employer, start by having a chat with your boss to see if this is something that might be possible – if you want to stay on that is!

If you are worried, unsure or simply don’t know what to do next, then contact Lewis Alexander on 0800 018 6868. Lewis Alexander are personal debt management consultants who can help you understand what options may be available to you.

By calling FREE for a confidential financial healthcheck, we can talk you through the debt solutions available and find one that is best for you at the moment. As we are independent, we look at all cases individually and without bias, prior to agreeing with you the best next steps to take.

We offer a range of financial solutions, from debt management help to insolvency advice. Call one of our debt management consultants now on free phone 0800 018 6868 and start to work out a way to clear your personal debts.

• The number of single parents in the UK is increasing all the time.
• Divorce rates are on the up, marriage in the first instance is becoming less popular and children who move between two homes is becoming part and parcel of modern day society.

As part of this change in social trend, is the increasing existence of the single father who takes on the full-time responsibility of raising the children.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2009 there were 200,000 lone fathers in Britain, compared with 1.8 million single mothers, but it is single fathers in the UK who now have the higher rate of increase of the sexes.

No matter whether the single parent is male or female, it is clear that the reliance on one salary can take a significant strain on any one individual.  Balancing the needs of full or part-time employment alongside paying the mortgage, insurances, utilities, communications and childcare costs can be a real budget killer, and that’s before any consideration has been made for having that well-earned break from the kids for a bit of personal relaxation and indulgence – even if that’s fitted in whilst the kids are at swimming lessons!

With the role of budget-keeper traditionally falling to the parent who stayed at home to raise the family, it is perhaps the single father that is least well equipped to balance all the various asks of his skills and experiences.  Sure, bringing home the money for food may be a role he is familiar and comfortable with, but what about household budgeting and making sure that all the supplies are there for when the children are sick or invite their entire classmates around for a sleepover!

• Modern day life can be expensive and when you take on all of these responsibilities, it is easy to forget that you do still need to make your books balance.

With the recent proposed changes to the Welfare State, it may also mean that your income is about to take a dip.  Traditionally, whilst the man of the house might be involved in the key financial decisions, it was the female influence that developed ‘pots of savings’ – small amounts invested with different financial institutions, saving for holidays, school uniforms, a new handbag and the Christmas bills.  In neglecting to pay attention to these key subsidiary savings, it can mean that there is less of a cushion available for times of struggle, such as a pay-freeze at work, rising heating bills or worse still redundancy.

• Do you identify with these trends and these issues?
• Is this something that keeps you from getting a good night’s sleep?

Then a conversation with one of Lewis Alexander’s debt management specialists could be the springboard for you to a more balanced home life and an improved ability to ensure you obtain a strong financial footing that allows you to provide the best for your children.

• Call Lewis Alexander FREE and in confidence today using 0800 018 6868.

They will offer you a financial healthcheck with a trained debt specialist.  Lewis Alexander can review your incomings and outgoings to help you understand where you might need some expert help.

Whether it’s a debt management plan to help repay some of the unsecured debts that have mounted up or to help with the everyday expenses, or simply some help to better understand when your financial pressure points occur each month.

Our professional debt management advisors are ready to take your call now, so contact Lewis Alexander on 0800 018 6868.

• Lewis Alexander are offering a Financial Healthcheck to people who find themselves struggling with personal loans, credit cards and overdrafts etc.

A Financial Healthcheck is conducted by looking at an individuals income and expenditure and other personal details such as home ownership or possible savings and age so that it can be worked out by a professional adviser what the best option for them is financially.

The need for such a service has never been greater and Lewis Alexander is proud to launch this service nationwide throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Lewis Alexander Financial Healthcheck as seen on TV.

Most people that call our personal debt helpline for a financial healthcheck find that it is a starting point of understanding and getting to grips with what solutions are available to them to sort or clear personal financial problems.

• Financial problems occur at all different times of life.
• The most important thing is that an individual recognises the problem they have and takes action to solve the problem as soon as possible.

The main solutions available to people in the UK to clear personal debts are as follows,

• Debt Management Plan
• Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA (a Trust Deed in Scotland)
• Debt Consolidation Loan
• Bankruptcy
• Debt Relief Order
• Equity Release
• Administration Orders

It is difficult for people to self diagnose themselves financially as they usually have experienced a change in circumstance and are preoccupied with the problems they face due to that change.

Once you have suffered a change in circumstance such as a loss of job or illness, it is very hard to catch up with finances that may have fallen behind.  These could include rent or mortgage payments or even Council tax or electricity / gas arrears.  Not all companies are sympathetic to your circumstances but you should make sure they are aware and put it in writing and send it recorded delivery, that way you can prove you made your creditor or lender or utility supplier aware of your change in circumstance and lack of ability to pay as normally expected.

If you do not contact your respective lender or utility supplier they cannot be expected to guess what is going on, if contacted they usually will make some sort of arrangement for you to catch up and pay off any arrears you may have been or are currently creating.

To best help yourself you can take advice from a trained adviser who knows what is best for you from experience of helping others in similar if not the same situations.

A financial healthcheck is one way of starting to find out exactly how good or bad your situation is.  Whether you take the advice and act on it is totally up to you, those who do tend to act on advice sooner rather than later really do benefit from being pro-active as a financial problem usually does not go away without attention.There is no obligation to use our fee charging services after a financial healthcheck with Lewis Alexander.

You should be wary of paying upfront fees for any services that are not fully transparent, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is!

If you think you would benefit from a financial healthcheck you can call Lewis Alexander free and in confidence 24 hours a day using 0800 018 6868.

In our business of managing hundreds of clients finances and helping them with their debt consolidation, we have found that the biggest cause of stress in families is always regarding their personal debt and how best to manage the debt problem that can spiral out of control very easily.

We find that many people are not aware of the debt help that is available for people who genuinely want to reduce their debt and be able to cope with managing their income and expenditure.

There are many financial companies who have an excellent track record in helping people in this situation and these companies are able to ease their clients’ worries very quickly.

Debt consolidation is one method that can be used very effectively to reduce your outgoings and balance it with your in comings, especially with expert help.

• Many people need educating in what one needs to do in this situation!

Contacting a debt consolidation company will help and educate them as to what decisions need to be made to effectively manage the current situation in the best possible way.  This in itself is a way that a client can receive immediate relief from the worries of not being able to cope financially and the ability to sit down or talk to a consultant over the phone will have long term benefits for the individuals financial future.

Over the many years of managing and clearing clients debts, our experience tells us that once a client contacts a debt management or debt consolidation company, they are put at ease, knowing that that they will not have to deal with a bailiff or collection agent knocking on their door demanding monies that they cannot afford.  The fact that the debt agency is there to help in this situation makes a huge difference.

• What Is Debt Consolidation?

In the simplest terms, debt consolidation means that you take all of your individual unsecured or secured repayments such as credit cards, overdrafts, loans and catalogues etc and put them all together as one full amount owed. This full amount is the amount that is then arranged into one consolidated loan, offering the benefit of making one lower, affordable and reduced monthly repayment over a longer period initially, if necessary with the effect of reducing ones monthly outgoings.

• The main purpose of this is to;

1)  Reduce the total amount of debt – this can be achieved effectively when you work closely with one lender who will pay off all your outstanding debt and consolidate it into one monthly repayment.

2)  Create one new payment to a new lender that is far smaller than all the individual payments to various lenders. Debt consolidation companies have much more experience dealing with lenders in this scenario and can also negotiate a much better rate of interest, effectively reducing your overall personal debt.

3)  Allowing you in time to reduce your overall debt if you can make slightly larger payments in due course will have the net effect that you would pay much less in interest over the whole period.

• One of the benefits that occurs as a result of the above is that you end up with a much better organized financial statement regarding your income and expenditure.

We all find that many bills to pay means you have to be so much better organised and able to meet all the various payments at the due dates or end up paying penalties for late payments, causing you to pay much more in the long run and also affecting your credit rating along the way.

One outgoing for a loan is much easier managed than 10 different payments to various lenders!

• What are my options when Consolidating my Debt?

1)  If you own your own home and have a reasonable amount of equity in your home you may consider the route of refinancing your existing mortgage to pay off other debts which will reduce your overall interest paid.

2)  If you have a fairly good credit rating you may be able to obtain a personal loan and many people would favor this as the equity in their homes has been drastically reduced in the last few years. You can find out more information about these specialist loans from good debt consolidation companies or debt counselors.

3)  If you have credit cards with large balances then you may opt to transfer all your other debts onto one single card, but you will end up paying higher interest or charges with this method.

4)  Many times you may be able to get help or assistance from family and friends, however, when one wants to keep a certain amount of privacy with financial affairs, most people are swayed against this course of action unless they have very good and open relations with family.  You are also likely to create tensions in family when the last thing you need is further tension, lack of privacy and stress.

5)  Seeking out a professional debt consolidation company – For many people this would be the best option, working closely with a time served and reputable company who have specialists in debt consolidation, debt management and debt reduction will really help you. The advantage is in the fact that they have an in depth knowledge of the areas concerned and also have very good working relationships with banks, credit card companies and general debt collectors and lenders. It is possible in many cases that they are able to negotiate better rates of interest and settlements.

It is important to note here that lately, there has been a surge in new companies operating in this debt arena, many of whom have very little track record and your interests are, shall we say, not their first priority!  It is very important that you do your homework and work with only the best companies that are prepared to look after your interests first, not their own.

Lewis Alexander Financial Management offer a first class personal Debt Management Service, nationwide throughout the UK. We are based in Manchester and we have helped thousands of client’s in our history.  We have in house specialists who concentrate on debt management and loan consolidation and we have been looking after a great number of our clients for many years now.

Call Lewis Alexander on their personal debt helpline using 0800 018 6868, our lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and your call is free.