- Why Lewis Alexander selected RBS (in 2003)
- Why Lewis Alexander stayed with Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (in 2009)
- Our reason to continue banking with Future Williams & Glyn (in 2016)
When Lewis Alexander was incorporated in 2003, an important decision had to be made as to which bank was to be selected to hold our client funds. Most banks would have been a safe option at that time but RBS was selected based on good quality human recommendations and the software / offerings it was geared up to provide for financial organisations dealing with client funds.
Our company encountered rapid growth and along the way, RBS and our relationship manager always had the next solution ready for us to step into when required.
The landscape changed for Lewis Alexander in 2009 and the credit crunch created a different environment than most had been used to. We obviously considered, as did most people and corporations at that time, which bank could actually be trusted to hold our client funds.
Whatever decisions were made by different sectors of society, the old adage of “better the devil you know” resonated within our operation and we decided on that basis to remain a loyal customer of RBS.
- An important and beneficial decision we made was to remain with RBS!
Since 2010, the personal debt industry has changed, of course there is a lot of debt out there but how many people actually have enough disposable income to service their debt? Not many!
Our business suffered its very own “change in circumstance” and we had to cut our own cloth accordingly. This meant reducing staff levels and consolidating our financial positions whilst remaining a safe offering to new and prospective clients.
Without the continued fairness and support of RBS throughout the last 5 years or so, we would not have been around to write this blog post. We have not been given “loads of money” by RBS or even given increased borrowings. Our turnover was reducing so it would not have been responsible lending on behalf of RBS, even if we had requested it.
- What we did receive and what we have benefited from is the support and fairness shown by RBS
It can take time to alter a company’s direction, both operationally and financially, the larger PLC is like a cruise liner and takes considerable time to turn around. Smaller operations are somewhat more flexible and quick turning, these changes we have implemented would not have been possible without the continued fairness and support shown by our relationship manager and a Mr Mark Andrews (MD Regional Corporate Banking Future Williams & Glyn).
Our relationship manager could not agree to what we were asking for, it was not a normal request and therefore would have required more senior approval. Because we had been treated so well by our relationship manager we did not wish in any way to go over his particular political position but he was also minded when we broached the matter with him that it could not harm to make our position clear, higher up the banks political structure.
All we can say is that Mark Andrews should be running RBS and this is without offence to the current CEO. Mr Andrews dealt with a call from our director personally. Our director obtained his mobile number quite by chance and made certain requests from the bank whilst conversing with Mr Andrews.
We obviously had to state our case to Mr Andrews and supported this with a good history of account management over the last 13 years. Once we had, he went away and came back as promised (within 1 week) with what we perceived as excellent news. Mr Andrews valued our loyalty, took an interest in our business and proved that the “old relationship” at all levels in a bank, can be attained by a company of any size, not just the large ones!
For a company the size of RBS (Future Williams & Glyn) to make a small financial company such as Lewis Alexander feel valued is currently (to the best of our knowledge) quite unique and unrivalled within the banking sector.
This blog post is a testament to the care, attention, fairness and most importantly support that RBS, our relationship manager and Mr Andrews have provided Lewis Alexander with.
Thank you to RBS for helping another UK small business, as they state in their marketing, they are actually ”helping one business at a time”. (Please note, our bank accounts have always been well managed and we have always been honest with the bank at all times of growth and decline – we feel this is what allows your chosen bank to offer you the same in return!)
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Struggling with your Mortgage?
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Need to consolidate debt but been refused loans?
Debtors are often unable to obtain unsecured loans without agreeing to an exorbitant interest rate. Instead, they are typically forced into a secured loan, offering property (such as a house, or car) as security / collateral for the debt. Unfortunately, if the debt is not paid, the debtor can lose this property and wind up homeless.
Clearly, if you are already in personal debt, you should think carefully before offering security to consolidate. Since you are already in debt, you should not assume that you will be able to balance additional burdens, and you should not risk your property. However, there are situations in which a debtor should consider incurring additional personal debt.
If you currently have outstanding debts which are accruing interest and you also have property and a stable income, then you may wish to consolidate your debt in order to reduce interest payments. Indeed, if you are unable to pay off the entirety of an existing personal debt, you might calculate that the interest payments will greatly exceed the original debt.
Faced with such a dilemma, it makes sense to consider offering security instead of continuing to pay interest. By taking a new secured loan you can easily pay off outstanding unsecured loans, but you must be certain that you can pay off the new secured loan, or else your collateral could be repossessed.
The most common type of secured debt is a mortgage loan. Within the UK, these are typically offered by members of the Building Societies Association, which has total assets exceeding £350 billion. The first of these societies was founded in Manchester during 1775, and members would pool their assets in order to both offer and obtain loans. Currently, more than fifteen million individuals are members of a building society. However, since the 1970s, building societies have been increasingly replaced by banks and the percentage of mortgage loans offered by building societies has dropped from 96% to 66%.
If you are attempting to obtain a secured loan, you should attempt to negotiate the lowest interest rate possible. As a debtor, it is your obligation to convince the lender that you are a safe investment and you should never accept an initial offer without trying to negotiate. Of course, lenders will naturally attempt to obtain as much money from you as possible.
However, since you are offering collateral as security, you should insist that the lender offer a rate which is substantially lower than an unsecured loan, otherwise you should be willing to walk away. If you are obtaining your loan from a bank where you maintain an account, you can often obtain a lower rate.
Although unsecured loan interest is typically fixed, secured loan rates are often variable, and can change in regard to UK base rates and the lender’s own reasons. Make sure you understand whether a rate is variable and anticipate that the rate might increase. If you cannot afford a higher rate you should take advice before accepting the loan! You must also understand what might happen if you pay your debt early. In some cases, you could actually be penalized! Most importantly, be absolutely certain that you can pay the loan. It can be easy to avoid payment on unsecured debt, but defaulting on a secured loan will have severe consequences.
If you are worrying about mortgage arrears or secured loan debts, please contact our personal debt helpline today in confidence using;
- 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days and your call is FREE from a UK land line.
Personal debt can accumulate much faster than we realize.
- Unfortunately, if you fail to budget carefully, you can find yourself scrambling for money when confronted with a bill that you should have anticipated.
It is easy to forget that we need to budget for major ‘rainy day’ expenses: medical care, car repairs, legal fees and unemployment. Nobody likes to plan ahead for disaster. It is also difficult to remember routine costs: car insurance, dental visits, etc. These fees are usually paid only once or twice a year and they are frequently forgotten when creating a budget.
It is often said that wealth tends to generate wealth, but we should also remember the converse: financial losses tend to multiply. We recently spoke with an individual who had a strict budget which worked quite well, until her office chair broke. At first, it wasn’t a problem and she simply sat in another chair. However, her original chair had been padded with leather cushions and the next morning she woke up with severe back pain. This meant that she needed to visit a doctor and subsequently she missed work and realized she couldn’t afford a replacement chair until the next payday. Suddenly, a relatively minor incident began to spiral into a genuine crisis because she was unable to work until the chair was replaced. Ultimately, she had to borrow money by means of a payday loan and was limping for several weeks, simply because she had not factored the cost of replacing this chair into her budget.
- You should consider how many household items you haven’t included in your budget.
Will you be able to repair the oven or decorate? Normally, you would be fine, even if you couldn’t immediately replace particular items. However, what if you needed that oven tomorrow because family was arriving? What if you needed to change the locks today because someone had stolen your keys? Otherwise, you might be facing additional costs, on top of the item itself. Without an oven, you might find yourself at a restaurant. Without new locks, you might find yourself victimized by crime.
Unfortunately, if you have been following a budget, you will almost inevitably discover that you have allocated insufficient funds. Belatedly, you will realize that you spent too much money on something else, and you will wish that you had been more prudent. However, this is not the time to give up and resign yourself to increasing debt. If your oven has broken, and the family has arrived, you should simply apologize and offer sandwiches. Will the occasion be ruined? You can have an enjoyable time without a cooked meal. Of course, if your locks need to be replaced, you should be concerned but you shouldn’t panic. Hide your valuables, or take them with you when you leave. While you are sleeping, a wooden board can effectively barricade the door.
- If we seem unsympathetic, it is because lenders will be as well.
- If your budget does not allow you to spend money, then you must not spend it!
Instead of increasing your debt, which is known as “over-commitment”, you should revise your budget. Do you really need paid for television, or internet, or a mobile phone? Are you sure? Maybe it is time to stop smoking, or quit drinking coffee, or give up chocolate. Can you sell something? Almost everyone has items that they don’t need.
The basic principle is to avoid over-commitment. This means that when you are already in debt, you should not incur more debt. Just say no. Stop paying for items that are not absolutely necessary and start saving as much as possible. Even electricity can be a luxury, when it means the difference between bankruptcy and solvency. However, if you continue to accrue debt, creditors will refuse to trust you. Fortunately, if you voluntarily accept the consequences of your financial decisions, there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
You are already over-committed if you are behind on rent, facing mortgage arrears, taking out loans to pay other loans, failing to pay off the entirety of your credit card, using a credit card on a daily basis, or ignoring letters and phone calls from creditors. In such a situation, you should try not to take on any additional commitments, no matter what the circumstances may be.
You must realize that your budget is a binding contract with yourself. This advice may seem obvious, but it can be extremely hard to create a truly effective budget and even more difficult to implement it. Even the best analysts will make mistakes. Nevertheless, if you have decided to reduce your debt, you must persevere especially when the situation is difficult. Therefore, if your budget does not reflect hard reality, then you must resolve the problem, instead of pretending that a credit card will rescue you. Try to think of debt as a specific problem, rather than a mere number. If you are facing ten days without electricity, and you accept a loan at ten percent, then you are essentially agreeing to endure eleven days without electricity (or more, if you don’t pay the bill on time). Quite simply, increasing your personal debt will not avoid a problem, but it will make it more problematic.
We would like to leave you with a simple parable to consider. Presumably, you have heard of the camel loaded with straw / feathers, which suddenly collapsed when just one more straw / feather was placed on its back. Well, you are the camel, and the feathers /straw are your debt. This debt can increase for years without any significant repercussions and you might even think that you can safely carry it. However, someday your chair will break, or your car will require repair, or your employer will downsize, or your landlord will evict you. When this happens, you will need good credit in order to get help from others. If you are already in debt, then you must ask for help from a trusted and reputable source and start saving money and paying your bills. If you do this, then help will be available when you truly need it.
If you have identified that you are struggling financially and would benefit from the debt help and advice of experienced, personal debt consultants, then call LewisAlexander today in confidence.
- Call 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls are usually FREE from a UK land line, mobile call costs may vary.
- These are payment cards for people who don’t want more debt!
- Do you like the option of using a credit card to pay for goods or services?
That’s not surprising as there are many benefits from using a credit card. Credit cards generally offer a secure way to pay for things all over the world, on the Internet or over the telephone with a built in level of financial protection that rivals most other ways of paying.
- Most credit cards offer some sort of guarantee for purchases made online for example.
The BIG drawback for a lot of people when using a credit card, is then having to pay that money back at a later date, often resulting in interest charges that make the purchase more and more expensive. This can lead to people needing debt help as a result, they also often get refused loans due to late payments on credit cards.
Now there is a solution for people who do not want to have a credit card bill to pay each month but want to enjoy the benefits a credit card offers.
Instead of the ‘Buy now, pay later‘ option there is now the ‘Pay now, buy later‘ option.
- Pay now, buy later’ rather than ‘Buy now, pay later’ with the Cashplus Mastercard
The cashplus card can be used anywhere a normal Mastercard can be used and can be used to pay for anything a normal Mastercard can be used for, holidays, clothes, gadgets or anything else.
- How does this work?
The way it works is very simple. You pay money into your account or ‘load up’ your card which gives you an available balance on your card which you can then spend in exactly the same way you would spend on a normal credit card except that when you use this card, you do not get a bill at the end of the month because you have already paid up front. These prepaid cards are excellent if you have been refused a bank account.
- “This would be great for me but I need debt help at the moment”!
If you think you would like to apply for a cashplus prepaid card but feel your current personal debts need sorting because you are worried about your financial future, then we can help you get your personal debts in order, we can assist with our debt management solutions and advice.
- Debt management
- Debt consolidation advice
- IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement
- Trust Deed in Scotland
We offer personal debt help to people who accept they should clear debt problems that are, or have been mounting.
- If you are struggling to pay credit cards and loans, call us free in confidence from a land line today using 0800 018 6868.
STEP 1 … Recognise that there is a problem
STEP 2 … Get the best advice available and formulate a plan of action
STEP 3 … Implement your debt management plan and stick to it
It might not be quite so obvious where you ought to go if you are struggling with personal debts and associated debt problems. A situation has now arisen where there is so much conflicting information about debt help that the vulnerable consumers who are right in the middle of a debt crisis are more confused than ever about how to proceed.
Debt help for UK residents trying to clear personal debts
- Don’t wait till things have become too difficult to sort out before you ask for help with debt.
- Our trained advisors could help you long before it becomes a crisis.
- Obtaining debt help and advice early is the best way to ensure the debt does not control you in the long term.
UK debt help is available online, do not suffer alone!
- If you need a new bank book you know to go to your bank!
- If you need a prescription, you know to go to your doctor!
- If you need your car fixed, you see your mechanic!
Debt can be very complicated to sort out and as such requires experience to work through it in a way that ensures the best chance of ending up clear of debt afterwards. Personal debt tends to be an accumulative or compounding problem that has built up over a period of time, the emphasis or priority to repay can sometimes be placed on the wrong debts and therefore priorities can become obscured. In general terms, the most important debts are the ones that can get you into trouble with the law or those that can result in you losing your home for failure to make repayments. High interest bearing unsecured debts are also important to try and clear after dealing first with any secured debts.
THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE SECURING OTHER DEBTS AGAINST YOUR HOME. YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT!
We have all heard the above on countless debt advice adverts on television and on untold other media publications when it comes to taking on new personal loans etc. This statement of compliance is stipulated due to a real risk presenting itself if you do not meet your agreed repayment schedule.
No-one wants to lose their home so this has to be the priority when dealing with and trying to clear debt. At Lewis Alexander, we offer several debt solutions and ways to deal with all of your personal debts, some informal and some formal. We will assess your situation and recommend the ideal way forward for you, these solutions include but are not limited to;
- Debt Management
- Debt Consolidation
- IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement
- Scottish Trust Deed (an IVA in Scotland)
We are determined to help as many people as possible get through their personal debt problems. People from all walks of life get into trouble with their finances but some of societies specific groups as follow, have a more difficult time coping with low incomes which can result in debt problems.
- Single parents and debt
- Debt after retirement
- Debt because of divorce
- Debt and people living with a disability
For immediate help with your personal debts call 0800 018 6868 today in confidence!
Lines are open 24 hours, 7 days and your call is usually free from a UK land line, mobile call costs may vary.
- Do you need a debt consolidation helpline for advice to clear personal debts in the UK?
- Are you constantly being refused loans by banks and credit companies?
Take direct debt consolidation advice and help from a licensed debt consultancy service by calling our Lewis Alexander personal debt helpline in absolute confidence.
- Help is at hand if you are struggling with personal debts!
Whether you are struggling with store cards, credit cards, personal loans, overdrafts or anything else we have the means to help you get out of debt for good using proven debt solutions that work. The vast majority of people in the UK are in some kind of personal debt these days. The days when everyone only ever dealt with cash and their salaries were paid in brown envelopes are long gone. Debt in itself is not a bad thing, for example, how would most of us ever afford to buy a home without a mortgage? It is how we deal with debt or control and clear personal debts that makes the difference. A change in personal circumstance can have a huge effect on how we manage our debts and is a main reason why people get into trouble with their personal finances. We have a mission to financially empower consumers to regain control of the quality of their lives through financial education and debt management online!
Dealing with debt becomes a problem more often than not because something in the individuals’ life has changed.
Most reasonable people do not take on credit when they know they cannot afford to repay it. Relationships end, people get sick, work life changes, people have children and any one of these or many other life changes can have enough effect on finances to result in debts becoming too much to handle. The following groups of people we find are particularly vulnerable to getting into debt and then require help from a personal debt consolidation service or personal debt helpline.
- Single parent families
- People who have been made redundant
- Couples going through a divorce
- Retired workers
- The Armed Forces
- People in poor health
- People with a disability
- People who have suffered a recent bereavement in the family
- People alone in debt or people who cannot share the problem with a partner
- Do you see the signs that personal debt is starting to take over your life?
- Are you struggling to pay everything each month?
- Are you starting to miss payments on your credit cards?
- Do you have mortgage arrears?
- Is your bank account always relying on the overdraft facility?
- Are you using credit to pay credit card bills?
- Are your household bills being paid for with a credit card?
- Are you receiving more and more letters and phone calls from your creditors?
If you are answering ‘YES‘ to most of these questions, it is time to call our personal debt helpline and obtain financial consolidation help or advice. There are a number of options and personal debt solutions available to help people get out of debt. Due to this, we like to have an initial discussion with people who call our personal debt helpline to find out what type of debt consolidation solution or help would be best suited. Every situation is different and therefore requires the best personal and tailored debt consolidation advice.
- Take 5 minutes out and call our debt helpline using 0800 018 6868
Find out if Lewis Alexander Financial Management can help you to start to clear personal debt!
- Call our personal debt helpline today in confidence using 0800 018 6868.
- Lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
- Calls are free from a UK land line but mobile call costs may vary.
- Are you trying to find a personal debt consolidation loan?
- Have you been refused personal debt consolidation loans in the UK?
We may be able to help you get out of the personal debt consolidation or financial problem you may be facing!
It is not always necessary to take out a further loan to consolidate personal debts. There are other financial solutions available to help people clear debts if they have previously been refused a debt consolidation loan.
Until an individual is turned down for a debt consolidation loan, it can be hard for that person to understand that other personal debt solutions are available, sometimes people prefer the sound of the other debt consolidation solutions once informed correctly about them as they can be informal or formal arrangements, some do not require the individual to go further into debt just to try and get out of their debt, like a debt consolidation loan requires you to do.
The list of links below offer a brief description of the most commonly used personal debt consolidation solutions by people who are unable to obtain a personal debt consolidation loan.
- Debt Management Plans –
- Individual Voluntary Arrangement or IVA (England / Wales and N. Ireland) or aProtected Trust Deed in Scotland, Debt Solutions in Scotland differ!
- Debt Relief Order
- Bankruptcy
- Payday Loans – THESE SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A FORM OF DEBT CONSOLIDATION, THEY ARE SHORT TERM LOANS AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS A LONG TERM FINANCIAL SOLUTION.
If you have been refused debt consolidation loans and keep on making multiple applications for credit to a number of different lenders within a short period of time, you will eventually reduce the score of your personal credit rating quite drastically. We refer to multiple loan applications in a credit file within a short period of time as “footprints in the butter” and if lenders see many declined applications after multiple searches of your credit file by other lenders, they will simply be alarmed and usually not offer to fund your loan either.
Simply put, if you have been refused a loan, stop and consider if continuing to make further applications for credit is where your time is best spent.
- You may be wiser by taking confidential personal debt consolidation help and advice from a trained debt consultant when dealing with personal debt.
At Lewis Alexander Financial Management, your call is dealt with in the strictest of confidence and should not take longer than about 5-10 minutes to go through an initialFinancial Health Check.
Once you have the personal debt consolidation services advice, you may not like what you hear but if you take action and start to keep to a plan, you may just find that your financial situation improves or becomes more manageable via a debt solution that works.
Professional UK Debt Management Services From Lewis Alexander Financial Management
- Many people find it difficult to properly manage their own personal finances or debts.
- This is even more true once they find they are struggling with personal debts.
- Being able to stand back and analyse the situation is not something everyone is capable of doing. However, the sooner one does, the better the situation becomes!
We are a professional debt management company who can give confidential advice and help.
It was recently announced that the UK now has the highest levels of personal debt in the European Community. Because of this we are making a determined effort to help as many UK residents get out of debt as we possibly can. Sometimes it doesn’t take much more than some simple debt help but sometimes things are more serious and we have to take a closer look to see how we can help.
It is now estimated that almost 4 in 10 adults are having financial difficulty and the same amount say that their debt repayments eat up over half or more of their monthly income. In the UK we owe nearly £58 Billion on credit cards which unbelievably is nearly 60% of thecredit card debt for the whole of the European Union.
- The UK’s personal debt was increasing by £1,000,000 every four minutes!
Is this debt as bad as it sounds?
Obviously these statistics could scare anyone but we don’t think it need be scary at all. Debt management is nothing to be worried about. For example, most people need a mortgage to buy a house, it would be unreasonable to think that we should buy our homes with savings. In the same vain, most personal debt, handled correctly can be an asset and in fact can actually save you money sometimes by being aware of what is what with interest rates and reward schemes.
What if I am already struggling with debt?
Whilst it would be nice if we all had enough income to cover all our personal debts, the simple truth, for whatever reason, is that we don’t and some people find themselves in a living nightmare trying to deal with their finances or manage debts, often becoming very ill with bad health due to all the stress involved.
- This situation is what we want to help people avoid. Having a financial problem that makes you ill is obviously not good!
Through proper analysis of your current financial situation, we can offer advice and practicaldebt advice aimed at sorting out your debts and eventually even getting you to a point where you can become totally clear of debt.
All of the following are ways in which we can help;
- Informal and practical debt management UK plans designed to re-organise your debts
- Loans to consolidate debts into one monthly repayment
- IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangements – formal agreements designed to clear your debts completely
- Trust deed – The Scottish IVA
- Credit repair information – trying to start again
If you feel a little more confident now about taking the first steps towards sorting out your finances then do something positive about it today. Get in touch and let us take the stress away for you to clear debt for good.
Debt Consolidation Help UK
- Clear your existing debts through personal debt consolidation.
- Have you lots of different debts that all have varying interest rates and varying repayments which make tracking your bills each month awkward?
- Are you considering paying them all off with a debt consolidation loan to benefit from lower repayments and interest rates?
We can organise other types of loans for a variety of purposes subject to status.
Clear your debt with or without consolidation loans – It is very easy to find debt consolidation services to help clear personal debts!
- Do you find paying off all your different debts each month a problem?
- Do you know how much you have to pay on these debts each month?
- Do you know how much interest you are paying collectively on these debts?
Why do things the hard way when you could add up everything you owe and possibly take out a debt consolidation loan, or pay everything off through debt management which also gives you one payment each month where you know exactly what you must pay.
If you think you might need a loan for something, give us a call and we will give you all the help and advice you may need to make the informed decision. In some cases it’s possible your repayment period could actually be reduced, although it is not always the case.
We offer a full range of personal debt services all designed to alleviate the stresses of having to live with debt on a daily basis. We can offer personal debt management plans, individual voluntary arrangements or IVA and of course debt consolidation help to suit a variety of situations.
Debt advice for those struggling to manage their debts effectively
- Getting into debt is very easy to do, everyone knows that!
- Getting out of debt isn’t as difficult as many people believe!
- Give our advisors a call to find out what debt help and advice they can give you and you may be surprised how you could clear your personal debts.
Personal Debt advice that is simple, effective and confidential!
We can help people get out of debt through effective personal debt management, debt consolidation or more formal debt management solutions like an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement.
If you have personal debts that concern you and you would like to discuss what we could do for you, then give us a call FREE (from a land line) and one of our trained advisors will call you to discuss what kind of debt management UK would benefit you.
Who do we help with their debts?
We will help anyone with debts that are causing them problems, however, we do specialise in dealing with particular groups of people because they tend to be more prone to having problems with their debts for whatever reasons. Why not consider the following bankruptcy alternatives?
Single parent debt advice
Single parents who are trying to bring up children on a low income often find the financial part of their life difficult to manage. In fact, their finances often control their lives. When they don’t earn enough money to pay their monthly bills they borrow more to get out of the problem but this only makes the problem worse.
Debt advice for Retired people on a fixed income
Because retired people generally live on a fixed income, their capacity to pay more for anything is very difficult. Once a pensioner finds them self in debt, it can be very difficult to escape from.
UK debt help
Studying in Britain can be tough enough with all the expectations made of you. Trying to manage it whilst struggling with overwhelming debt makes it very difficult indeed. Grants and other government help are not enough to stop students falling into debt.
Debt due to redundancy
When someone loses their job and their income through redundancy, it can be totally unexpected. This can have a completely devastating effect on an individuals or families finances. Bills that were previously easily managed suddenly become a problem and arrears can quickly mount up.
Debts after a divorce
A divorce is one of the most emotional times in a persons life, so to go through all that to then find yourself in crippling debt is an added blow. Losing an entire income in a household is devastating but coping with that and also trying to earn a living whilst bringing up young children is very difficult.
Are you unsure whether or not you need debt help?
If you have personal debts and you have missed payments, had threatening letters or phone calls or just can’t sleep at night worrying about the debts then talk to us. We are pretty confident we will be able to help you clear debt but you are under no obligation at all to use our personal debt services and can walk away if you do not wish to proceed. Our initial advice is free, our ongoing services are chargeable.
- We think that once you hear what we can do to help people, you will be very pleased to act on our personal debt advice.
You can get in touch by calling FREE from a land line using 0800 018 6868. Advice is available for people residing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland UK.
With the uptake in usage of electronic cigarettes, cash strapped smokers who are also in debt are finding that there is something worthwhile about these little battery operated e-cigs!
- The direct financial cost of smoking for the average smoker is approximately £200-£300 per month.
This is based on the average smoker using 15-20 cigarettes per day totalling approximately 600 cigarettes per month or 30 packets of 20. Couple this with the odd night out each week or month and you could increase the 30 packets a month to maybe 35 or even 40.
The usage of alcohol combined with cigarettes shows that people do smoke more when enjoying a tipple, even if they are moderate smokers.
The bill for this habit usually costs a smoker around £240 per month and this is based on the average packet of traditional cigarettes now (February 2014) costing about £8.
If you then consider that the average individual has outstanding credit cards or payday loans or even overdrafts and catalogue balances that may total around £3-£4k, you can see how the cost of some peoples smoking is similar to other people’s property mortgage payments.
- If you multiply the £240 per month by 12 months, in one year the total cost of smoking can be £2880.
- This is just the financial cost!
- Most smokers are actually spending approximately, between £2500 – £3500 per annum with the added packets included for the holidays, nights out and pub quiz etc.
- This money could go to clearing the average person’s debt over a 12 to 18 month period.
The old ways are always the best and if you are a smoker that can throw your packet in the bin and never pick up another cigarette then good luck to you, however, most struggle with this will power and the nicotine itself is one of the most addictive drugs available so it is no wonder why most people fail to quit smoking.
With the widespread usage of disposable e-cigarettes and electronic vaping e-liquids and equipment, a smoker who is also in debt should seriously consider switching to an electronic cigarette or alternative.
- We are in no way advising people that these e-cigarettes or disposable and rechargeable electronic cigarettes are good for you.
- The nicotine within some of these products is the same addictive poisonous drug as it is in a real cigarette, however, if you take the savings available to a household who has very little disposable income left at the end of each month, then electronic disposable cigarettes or electronic smoking devices really do become worth investigating further.
- Especially if both partners smoke!
Smokers who currently utilise the services of a debt management company may find that if they switched to rechargeable cigarettes or disposable e-cigarettes, they may not have to continue paying into their debt management plan as they will regain a large percentage of their disposable income that they are paying out on smoking traditional cigarettes each month. By switching to rechargeable cigarettes those funds can then be directed towards creditors and in turn reduce their personal debt faster than would be expected of them whilst continuing to smoke traditionally.
If you are struggling financially and need help to clear debts without taking on further credit or loans, then call our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence;
- Call 0800 018 6868 Now!
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Your call is usually free from a UK land line.
- From mobiles it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
- There are sources of free debt advice and services. You can find out more by contacting the Money Advice Service on 0300 500 5000 (8-8 Monday to Friday, 9-1 on Saturday)
- You should have been advised on all the options for dealing with your debt. Protocol compliant providers will explain all the options that are open to you (e.g. bankruptcy, debt relief order, individual voluntary arrangement, debt management plan). The advantages and disadvantages of each will be discussed with you so that you can make an informed choice.
You will know the estimated total cost to you of the arrangement and the time it will take for your debts to be paid. Protocol compliant providers always give you this information. If your provider does not, you must ask to find out. Any money you pay to your provider to cover their fees will not be used to repay your debts. Think carefully if more money is being used to pay your provider than your creditors.
Your provider will go through a full and accurate budgeting process with you. This is vital to make sure that the payments you are asked to make are affordable for yourself and fair to your creditors.
If you are not happy with the service you receive, you can complain. You should refer such complaints to the provider first to give them a chance to put things right. They should tell you clearly how to do this. If they are a member of the DRF or DEMSA they will also tell you how to use their own conciliation and complaints scheme as a second step. You can be repaid any fees charged and may be awarded compensation by these schemes. If you are still not happy with the outcome, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service which is an independent service who will look into your complaint and can award you compensation if they decide in your favour.
- You can call our personal debt helpline in confidence using 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
Here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management we speak to many people daily about their personal debt problems, it never ceases to amaze our compliance department the amount of bad financial advice that vulnerable consumers are receiving regarding the clearing of personal debt and the associated problems they may have.
Lewis Alexander can reveal that one of the large debt charities is in fact offering debt management plans as a more viable solution to vulnerable consumers than a Debt Relief Order to clear their debts, this is for those that qualify for both.
For a simple and short explanation, if a person owes under £15k to unsecured creditors and can afford no more than £50 per month as a total contribution, then this person, subject to having no assets totalling a worth greater than £300, can apply for a Debt Relief Order. DRO’s or Debt Relief Orders clear debts within 12 months and any remaining debt is usually written off by the respective creditors after the 12 monthly payments have been made. These Debt Relief Orders or DRO’s do not suit everyone but most clients will qualify for a number of solutions when an income and expenditure statement is taken, at which point the debt advisor should offer the best advice based on the consumers current and predicted future personal circumstances.
The Debt Relief Order is just like a mini IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement but has timescale and debt value differences. It allows people with less debt to clear the total they owe sooner than a personal debt management plan normally would allow.
As stated above, DRO’s do not suit everyone as they are a form of insolvency. However, why is such a prominent debt charity not offering people who qualify for both a Debt Management Plan and a Debt Relief Order the option? Is it because they get more fees if the client pays back via a debt management plan or arrangement?
- Why has the “free to client” sector got the government to impose restrictions on the fee charging sector (who in the main are mostly compliant) when they cannot follow simple guidance and employ compliance themselves?
We choose the words “bent” & “crooked” carefully and hope that those that speak to a so called free debt charity also take a wider view on advice available and seek it.
- The saying “Cheap is dear” springs to mind!
- More DMP (Debt Management Plan) clients for a debt charity means more fees, when will the press understand this?
- Everyone is happy to refer people to the debt charities but who is policing these charities? Anyone?
So, here is a final solution for the FCA to consider;
- Should a personal debt be to an accountant what a legal claim is to a solicitor?
Should we make sure that any debt advice is only given out by a Chartered Accountant? Forget just a Mortgage Advisor as we have seen the damage that can be done in the past but a Chartered Accountant tends to be a different type of individual, usually more focused and committed to the detail. Yes, of course you will find “bent” & “crooked” accountants but not as often as you will find “bent” & “crooked” laymen! A solicitor still needs to underwrite a legal claim in some way regardless of who has introduced the case or work.
Could this act as “food for thought” for the FCA and OFT whilst they are conducting a handover and the industry remains plagued by non conformity!
- Finally, why should you be visited in your home by debt advisors?
Do they need to measure you or your carpets? Do they need to know what you look like? Identity checks can be done without face to face meetings and for the last 10 years, the only client that any member of Lewis Alexander staff has ever met is the client that stars on our national TV advert. Do not succumb to high pressure sales tactics in your home with regards to your financial situation as it is harder to say no face to face than it is to someone selling to you over a telephone!
Lewis Alexander is considering a ceremonial public burning and hand back of our Consumer Credit License as we do not see it is worth the paper it is printed on with no industry policing in place! All press will obviously be informed and invited should we make such a final decision 🙂
The middle years of Queen Victoria’s reign abolished debtors prisons and now it seems to be the bad debt advisors that have re opened them in the UK. By offering bad debt advice, the vulnerable consumer seems imprisoned by a life that may be incorrectly forced upon them and this can be for a great length of time for some involved!
- Have the OFT “washed their hands” of all “Debt Management Company” compliance monitoring and enforcement whilst waiting to fold their operation once the FCA takes over in April 2014?
- Will it be a situation of “no case to answer Your Honour” after the OFT ceases to exist and the incorrect restrictions placed on small entities are left to go uncorrected?
- Is this another good reason to start a small UK business that involves licensable activities? Shame on the authorities or is it a conspiracy?
The calls we enjoy the most are the calls from existing clients that have cleared their debts through Lewis Alexander and are thanking us for the help and support we have offered them!
If you are struggling with personal debt problems and require sound advice and help from a trusted debt consolidation company with over 10 years successful experience of helping others, then call our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence.
- Our lines are open 24 hours / 7 days – Call 0800 018 6868.
- Your call is usually free from a UK landline but mobile call costs may vary.
- From mobiles you can call 0161 872 3383.
May we take this opportunity to wish all our clients, twitter followers and friends, a very happy, healthy and wealthy 2014!
It was reported by DEMSA (Debt Managers Standards Association) on 19th September 2013 that Mr Ray Watson will be joining Demsa as non-executive Chairman.
Lewis Alexander Limited was involved with many dealings with the OFT dating approximately between 2007 and 2012; this was also around the time that Mr Watson was head of UK Credit at the Office of Fair Trading.
Lewis Alexander was originally contacted by the OFT around the time that the OFT had launched their 2nd investigation into the Debt Management Industry in approx 2008. The first guidance was set out by the OFT for the debt management industry in 2001. When we were contacted it was with reference to audits required for which we complied with explicitly in a speedy fashion, without question.
Our attitude here at Lewis Alexander was that if the OFT could get a fair playing field for all and disclaimers were being given to vulnerable consumers regarding potential downsides involved by entering into any personal debt consolidation solution, then the industry would possibly get a better reputation than it had enjoyed and the vulnerable consumer would get consistent advice regarding personal debt issues.
Lewis Alexander was subject to some requests by the OFT and we agreed to comply in good faith and to assist their cause. The problem is that since the OFT placed such requirements some 5 years ago, there are still a number of recognised operations that are failing to comply. This is not limited to the fee charging sector and a charity is also responsible. This could be seen as the OFT failing to enforce requests on others due to our competitors having deeper pockets and being able to afford great legal defenses, it may simply be down to ignorance on behalf of some traders. We at Lewis Alexander then ask ourselves, why would an authority with such power in this land; concentrate its efforts and resources on such a small operator as Lewis Alexander? Based on the limited reach Lewis Alexander has when compared to its larger competitors, our large charitable and fee charging competition could potentially do more damage financially to vulnerable consumers in one afternoon to what would most probably take Lewis Alexander one year to effect. The use and spend of government resources regarding the personal debt management industry seems to be misplaced and misdirected which in turn could be leading to a waste of tax payer monies.
Please note that Lewis Alexander believes firmly in what the OFT was set up to do and has taken from dealings with them, many guarantees that the operation is not corrupt or without good and fair intent, however, when it comes to the dealings between Lewis Alexander and the OFT over the last 5 years, questions are starting to be asked.
The problem you have as a business in the UK when dealing with a government authority is that if you wished to take legal action, it would normally be carried out by means of a Judicial Review, these can be very costly and we have been advised a starting cost could be around £50,000.
This is not possible for Lewis Alexander Limited and we do not believe that it will be entirely necessary. The digital age is allowing us to get our message out there and we are getting contact from other debt management operators and financial journalists who have related concerns.
- Demsa are actually just a trade association set up by founder members of the debt management industry!
- On 28th September 2010, it was published that the OFT wrote to 129 debt management companies advising that they face losing their consumer credit licenses unless immediate action was taken to comply with its Debt Management Guidance.
Lewis Alexander is proud not to be associated with either of the two debt management industry trade associations; this is based on a number of different factors but originally was due to fees for memberships not being pro rata to individual company turnover levels. We did not see why we should pay the same registration fee if turning over under £200,000 to that of a competitor turning over more than £15 million per annum.
We are now aware that the trade associations may have changed their respective membership fee structures but cannot confirm this. There are other reasons why we have not applied for membership but will omit these from this blog post to avoid any legal or defamatory claims. The guidance set out by the OFT is good enough for Lewis Alexander and we adhere to it tirelessly.
The new debt management protocol is being dealt with by the Insolvency Service and the selection of auditors for this protocol may be worth Lewis Alexander investigating further! You now have the OFT with their debt management guidance and the Insolvency Service with their protocol, neither of which seem to be effective. Self regulation will not and has not worked; one will always ruin it for another!
In fact, one of the largest (FREE TO CLIENT & NOT FREE!) debt charities had a complaint raised against it for lack of compliance on a national TV advert this year. Is this lack of compliance actually possible for such a bona fide, compliant, long standing consumer facing charity? Or is it blatant disregard for standard compliance? Are they above the compliance? Does the vulnerable consumer deserve as much information as possible from the time at which the marketing call to action provokes their initial enquiry?
Paragraph 1.10 of the debt management guidance sets out that ‘the guidance applies to persons who provide debt advice, debt management and/or credit information services. It applies to standard licence holders and applicants (and their employees) providing advice and assistance to consumers on how to deal with their debts and the range of debt management options available to them. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes all debt management businesses (whether profit-seeking or free-to-client service providers), insolvency practitioners (IPs), approved intermediaries for Debt Relief Orders (DROs), Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS) approved money advisers mortgage arrears counsellors, independent financial advisers, introducers and other intermediaries, lead generation and claims management businesses, which are engaged in the licensable activities of debt counselling, debt adjusting or the provision of credit information services (including credit repair).‘
The OFT expects all such businesses to adhere fully to the guidance, where applicable
Does the above paragraph mean that a father or mother of an 18+ year old child cannot give them personal debt counselling or adjustment advice as it is a licenseable activity? Or is the parent covered by parental advice laws even though their child is no longer classed by the state technically as a child?
Let’s get back to the title of this post now we have some background, why would Lewis Alexander have such pressure inflicted upon it and furthermore its ability to market reduced massively when there were differences internally at the OFT based on what they felt reasonable to require from Lewis Alexander without internal standardisation to decide such?
Why is an upstanding member of society that was involved in the running of an authoritative UK public body going to work for a particularly unknown private trade association? Could this in turn be perceived as a conflict of interest with his past role and the dealings continuing from matters effected under his reign at the OFT?
What is going on in the good old United Kingdom? Who is doing what at the highest level to make sure that these public offices are acting in line with the law? Who is regulating the regulators?
We have posted this today as we were called by Jenny from DEMSA this morning offering us an invite to their open day in February 2014, we rang DEMSA to explain thanks but no thanks and Angela the “office manager” dealt with us just as she did when we rang 8 weeks ago to ask for Mr Land who has not taken our calls. She was told by a male in the background to put the phone down after we asked to speak to the new CEO there.
For the record Angela, there are no “sour grapes” just a requirement for your operation to act as it would be expected to! We were not aware that the new DEMSA spokesperson is the Office Manager! When asked for her confirmation in writing that none of her DEMSA members were non-compliant this was objected to!
We also told Angela that we have heard Mr Watson is a lovely man so this is not against him, we are not concerned about personalities we are just bothered about a level compliant playing field for all regardless of the banner they fall under re trade associations.
DEMSA requested the information on their non-compliant members, we advised that if we have this information, it would only be disclosed to the Debt Management Enforcement team at the OFT which is the correct procedure should we find anything so serious to report.
This blog post is in response to the meeting held at the Parliament Select Committee rooms in early November 2013 relating to the proposed regulation of the payday loan and lending industry.
One of the questions that seemed to be asked in many different ways was;
- What is the motivation of a payday lender or payday loan company?
- Most business minds would expect that the motivation would be commercial as these companies are lenders that can only earn if they are lending!
This payday lending phenomenon has great synergies with the economic theory of supply and demand, whilst we accept scarcity as being the real fundamental economic problem, scarcity directly relates in this case to the lack of cash in the pocket of the general public. Given the current economic climate and couple that with current levels of personal debt and changes in personal circumstance for a great percentage of society since the so called “credit crunch”, we could possibly be hopeful enough to expect some concept of morality behind the motivation to lend by any lender or payday loan company.
However, Lewis Alexander Financial Management believes that the actual motivation is in line with the supply and demand theory relating to the main USP or unique selling proposition that exists for payday lending which is the element of “Quick Cash”; this is something that the high street banks are no longer giving out!
- If one cares to look back over the last 10 years, payday lending in the UK is not new, it has just become main stream.
Lewis Alexander has worked with reputable payday lenders such as Payday UK or MEM consumer finance since 2004, the main well known payday organisations historical turnovers show a definite chronological alignment between banks slowing personal lending around 2008 and the payday loan market bursting into the product of the moment at the same time.
We believe that since 2008 the payday loan became the replacement for the personal overdraft, such as it has done in the United States over the last 15- 20 years, sometimes known also there as a wage day or pay roll advance.
As the payday loan became the overdraft “stand-in” this also benefited the high street banks balance sheets as all the overdrafts that were normally outstanding each month and never actually traded out of by the individual account holder would be no longer, thus creating a better position on paper for a bank. The banks had overdrafts outstanding to people who had no intention of buying property or borrowing on a personal loan basis. The overdraft was a “loss leader” that in the past did attract a great number of people to switch or open first time bank accounts that then went on to take out mortgages with that bank.
One thing that Martin Lewis kindly put over honestly was that the APR for payday loans are only high due to the short term nature of the loan, the shorter the repayment period the higher the APR will show. This has previously been blogged about by Lewis Alexander and we believed that with all lending to any vulnerable consumer, the only way you can make sure that the playing field is level in terms of what the consumer will understand is if you decide to make a compliance rule that the potential borrower can fully understand the total amount repaid which would highlight to most the cost of borrowing.
Where “Pounds to Pocket” have been clever is that the period of the loan can be stretched out over 12 months and possibly longer. This creates a lower APR that the consumer is now conditioned to hunting for on any advert! Is this actually misleading the vulnerable consumer on a mass scale?
With regards to regulation “too many cooks spoil the broth” and this is so true when you look at who and all that are monitoring, questioning and actually responsible for licensing this sector of the finance industry.
Martin Lewis did not enjoy being branded or compared to an Entrepreneur but come on Martin, you did recently sell your website to the people that you affiliated with for click through commissions from visitors to your site, you also got some really good free press from TV networks over the years as the Money Saving Expert and drove traffic to your site to send on! But come on, how prominent was the warning of how your site earned its money, it was there but we had to delve into the depths to find it, for someone so above board and compliant it shows that the committee were not miles away with the “Entrepreneur” comment. However, we do like you Martin and agree with most of your public advice so good luck to you!
- The limit of lending has to be based on affordability with a central unsecured lending reference point that is updated electronically in real time.
Peter Tutton from Stepchange Debt Solutions made a very fair point re lenders stopping the problem by allowing lenders to share data with reference agencies. However, this needs to be done as the payday loan is funded, Lewis Alexander believes that there should be a central payday loan and short term loan lending reference unit controlled by the FCA or a Governmental body that is updated electronically as the loan is funded. This would mean that if Mr Jones took out a payday loan at 1400 hrs on the 28th of a month, the next lender he applies to that very same afternoon would be privy to the info of his earlier loan and have to make an informed decision with regards to responsible lending. This would be based on the prospect still having enough available affordability to justify the funding of another loan that very same afternoon.
(By the way Peter, Is there any prominent trigger point compliance on your national TV Advert yet? Are you still advertising the same life changing debt solutions to vulnerable consumers that the rest of us menial fee charging operators are who have to adhere to trigger point compliance?)
A few points we want to add are as follows,
- When we look at credit card companies minimum payments, are they also “never ending rollovers” similar to those that the payday loan industry is being reprimanded for? Are we going to limit the number of months a consumer can pay minimum payments on credit card, store card and catalogue repayments?
- Statistics showed that approx 7 million people in the UK were expected to take out or consider borrowing by means of a payday loan in 2012/2013.
- When the committee got onto the subject of advertising on daytime television and in particular during kids cartoons and programming, we did not feel that Martin Lewis got the point over.
- Daytime TV or “Day Parts” are the most demanded TV advertising slots and this is the case for many reasons, the main reason being that daytime audiences offer advertisers a good selection of society and can be refined further by programming. Single mums and stay home mums usually have the TV on if the kids are at home and would usually have a kids program on and not Mastermind! Therefore the advertiser and advertising agency sees a genuine benefit in targeting the “mum” through the kids channel, we do not believe that any lender credible enough to be advertising on such a scale would ever actually want an under aged child to be brain washed with the ease of available credit. It would not have enough of an impact on lending volumes, the daytime TV and kids channels simply offer very affordable target marketing via a direct response from a call to action.
- To avoid a CPA or automatic payment collection of a payday loan from your debit card, simply call your bank and ask for a replacement card, if the debit card number changes and the old card is terminated, the payday lender cannot always collect monies from your account.
- Most consumers do not understand compliance, this is a massive problem as they make a rod for their own back and go basically with what they want to hear. The protection has to be put in at a higher level, a possible look out scheme that government could create on the consumers’ behalf. But one that looks out and monitors! As Brian Binley said “Constant policing is required”.
- GCHQ could assist FCA on a global monitoring basis as most non compliant activity is done through websites and telephones!
- A persons’ affordability today does not mean that they will be able to repay a loan or credit commitment dated at any time in the future, this is due to unforeseen changes in personal circumstance.
- Payday loans are secured against the next payday; they are in fact secured loans marketed on an unsecured basis! CPA or continuous payment authority is a back up for security against obtaining the secured salary that may be over committed!
- The committee wants a regulator that regulates, there is nothing wrong with that and it is quite strange they should ever be posed with such a requirement being MP’s themselves as surely they have the ability above everyone else to make this happen. But what about the small companies like Lewis Alexander who has been the “meat in the authority sandwich” for the past 5 years? What compensation do we get for not seeing a level playing field industry wide in regards to compliance?
- Gillian Guy from the CAB most probably has the toughest job in the industry, this due to the CAB dealing with far more than just personal debt, the CAB is the best public outfit as most personal finance industry created problems are mopped up by the CAB teams!
If you need personal debt consolidation advice or help please contact our debt helpline using 0800 018 6868,
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days.
- Calls are usually free from a UK land line.
- Mobile call costs may be less expensive if you call 0161 872 3383.
- Paying the new Government Bedroom Tax?
- Are you finding you have less money spare each month due to the new Bedroom Tax?
- Would you benefit from the advice and help of a trained personal debt consultant?
Many people around the UK are currently experiencing a reduction in disposable income due to the new bedroom tax imposed by the UK government.
This bedroom tax is being blamed for making many people fall into the cycle of personal debt due to them having less money spare to pay for normal monthly living costs.
If you then take into account that each individual affected by the bedroom tax more than likely has a few credit cards, store cards or catalogue accounts then you will see how the arrears can and are starting to build up.
Lewis Alexander undertook market research (June 2013) into the expected level of rent arrears that the new bedroom tax would create. Many property landlords expected and accounted for an approximate 10% default rate on monthly rentals, leading to accumulated arrears. Lewis Alexander believed this would be closer to 40% at the time the survey was conducted.
- Well, if you read the news today both we and the landlords were wrong!
- The figure is closer to 50% partially defaulting on monthly rentals.
A big worry is that people are actually prioritising credit card, overdraft and loan repayments over these rental arrears and the problem we think will only grow.
If you are struggling with personal debt problems and have been affected by the new bedroom tax, contact our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence.
- Call FREE from a UK land line – 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls from mobiles may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
- Trust Deed in Scotland failed or about to fail?
- Are you worrying about how to find solutions to manage debt now a Trust Deed has failed?
- Can you afford to contribute anything towards your creditors on a monthly basis?
There are solutions available to people who have failed a Scottish Trust Deed!
The personal debt solutions available are those that would have also been available to the person in debt prior to them selecting the Protected Trust Deed route / option.
- Informal Debt Management Plans
- Debt Arrangement Scheme or DAS Scotland (Scotland only)
- Sequestration (Bankruptcy in Scotland)
LILA – This is an Insolvency scheme which acts as a route to avoid longer term bankruptcy / Sequestration, the name LILA means “Low Income Low Asset”. To qualify for a LILA solution you need to meet the following criteria.
- Weekly earnings need to be less than you would get if you worked a 40 hr minimum wage week.
- You cannot have assets that are worth more than £10,000 in total.
- No individual asset can be valued at £1,000 or more.
If you have suffered a further change in circumstance and your Trust Deed in Scotland has failed or about to fail, please contact our personal debt helpline today in confidence using 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls are usually free from a UK land line
- From mobiles calls may be less expensive using 0161 872 3383
- Did you enter a debt management plan with Smooth Finance or The Debt Advice Centre?
- Have you been advised that the company Smooth Financial is now in administration?
- Concerned about what this means to you as an existing client or customer?
On 2nd August 2013, Smooth Financial (also trading as The Debt Advice Centre) instructed A B Coleman and R M Withinshaw of Royce Peeling Green Limited as Joint Administrators. This is due to a petition by one of Smooth Financials creditors to wind the company up and the winding up hearing is due to be heard on 19th August 2013.
What this means for existing Smooth Financial Debt Management Plan clients
If you are using a Smooth Financial debt management plan your plan will now be managed by Money Expert, who has arranged to take over the running of the existing client base or book.
- You do not have to stay with the new owners!
- You are free to seek advice and help wherever you choose!
- There should be NO CHARGE to move debt management service if you are using or selecting a compliant trader!
- If you are charged to move debt services be very careful about your selection!
- Other debt solution companies will and are offering free debt help and free debt management plans to existing clients of Smooth Financial who find themselves in limbo with the recent news!
- How can you offer free debt services when you are paid to do the job normally?
- Are these predatory debt companies looking to see if they can switch you from your current debt management plan into an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement which could mean that your newly selected debt company could earn more money for dealing with your case!
- Beware that the advice you get is correct!
Try our impartial debt solution finder available at www.help-debt.co.uk and find out in under 2 minutes which debt solution or debt solutions you actually qualify for. Then you can decide which is best suited to you! Find out if you are currently utilising the correct or best solution for you!
What this means for existing Smooth Financial IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement clients
If you were advised by Smooth Financial to enter an IVA and did so, the administrators will make sure that the cases are now managed. You should find that the conditions of your IVA are not affected and the new supervisor or existing that may remain will not change the plan you agreed to.
What can Lewis Alexander Financial Management do to help you?
Lewis Alexander is proud to be connected with Royce Peeling Green Accountants who are responsible for the administration of Smooth Financial, we have used the accounting services of Royce Peeling Green Accountants since our incorporation back in 2003. We are celebrating our 11th year of service to vulnerable UK consumers requiring debt consolidation help and support.
If you were paying Smooth Financial on a monthly basis to manage your debts, we can help you by re starting your debt management plan and re negotiating with your creditors, we will not charge for this initial work.
- Call our debt helpline today, free and in absolute confidence using 0800 018 6868
- Calls from land lines are usually free
- From mobiles it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
- Did you know that the Payday Loan is quickly taking over the well known “Bank Overdraft”?
- Have you taken advice about having too many payday loans or advice about what to do next about being unable to repay a Payday Loan?
Here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we are specialists in helping people consolidate and clear payday loan debt, most people cannot afford to repay multiple payday lenders in one go.
The problem of having too many payday loans can escalate when the money you have for one loan repayment has gone on other expenditure!
- If you got paid twice for one months’ work everything would be okay! When did this last happen to you?
When we speak with people who have multiple payday loans, we understand that it can be difficult for them to see how debt consolidation can work for them. They are unable to borrow more money due to being over committed and do not understand that personal debt solutions such as debt management plans or Debt relief Orders and Individual Voluntary Arrangements / IVAs can be viable routes out of the problem they face.
People naturally think of taking on more credit to get out of the credit they have. However, when aware of other means of consolidation such as a personal debt solution, the only reason someone should take on another loan is if they need the money for something else apart from to clear the payday loan debt or they wish to protect their credit rating!
Usually, the person who has borrowed the payday loan funds is unable to borrow any more due to other credit commitments such as credit cards and store cards or bank loans and overdrafts. They are also likely to have an impaired credit rating or bad credit history.
- This is when people need help to find debt solutions that work!
If you have too many payday loans and are struggling with debts such as unsecured loans and credit / store cards, then contact our debt helpline today in confidence using;
- 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls are usually free from UK land lines
- From a mobile it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
Payday lenders are now generally, trying to be very compliant with regards to lending practices and there are very few lenders in the market place. Most payday loan operators are either lead generators or are brokers of some sort.
A decent, reputable and bona fide payday loan broker will actually only recommend the well known payday loan lenders and people tend to find that once they have had one or two payday loans, they generally know or have awareness of the places they qualify for such credit from.
The less pleasant side of payday loan collections is still finding its feet as far as the debt collection industry goes and most decent and trusted payday lenders are trying to make sure that the debts they fail to collect internally are collected responsibly and in line with debt collection guidance set out by the Office of Fair Trading by appointed 3rd party debt collection companies.
If everyone understood APR’s and companies presented their APR’s more transparently with added triggered explanations, then the press would stop using the APR as a beating stick!
“APR” – (Meaning)
The term annual percentage rate (APR), also called nominal APR, and the term effective APR, also called EAPR, describes the interest rate for a whole year (annualized), rather than just a monthly fee/rate, as applied on a loan, mortgage loan, credit card, etc. It is a finance charge expressed as an annual rate. Those terms have formal, legal definitions in some countries or legal jurisdictions, but in general;
- The nominal APR is the simple-interest rate (for a year)
- The effective APR is the fee plus the compound interest rate (calculated across a year)
Source of above APR meaning and further / full information of an APR can be found at Wikipedia
- Is it because you are entering a debt management plan that you need to move banks?
- Have you got too many bank charges adding up in your existing bank account?
- Do you think your social benefits should be protected from these bank charges?
Here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we get many calls from people struggling with bank charges and wondering if they can reclaim the charges that are accruing daily, weekly or monthly.
We also get many calls from clients entering debt management plans with other debt solution providers. These people have been advised to move to a new bank and are usually doing so because of them starting or entering a debt management plan in the UK or simply because they have too many payday loans.
When moving bank, people usually ask which one they should choose, our answer is simple;
“They are all as bad as each other! It is usually, only the artwork above the door that helps you tell them apart!”
This is obviously a lighthearted approach to answering such a question but when moving banks, people usually have a negative balance at the bank they are leaving and this can be due to charges that have accrued whilst the individual has been suffering a change in personal circumstance.
When entering a debt management plan, you may be advised to move bank accounts and open a new account with a bank you have no lending with. This then creates what our debt consolidation industry calls a “safe haven” (meaning a place of refuge or security) for your next salary or monies received. The “safe haven” being the new clear bank account is where all your money would now be paid into, creating a managed situation for you to manage your funds in their entirety as opposed to other credit companies / creditors taking what they wish to from your available funds.
By moving bank account when entering a debt management plan, you are ring fencing your next money / monies received and taking back the control of ALL of your funds that you may have recently lost or been losing.
The old bank account with the negative balance then becomes classed as another unsecured debt that can simply be added to any compliant UK debt management plan.
- Many people ask us if they can enforce Section 187 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, when considering their consumer rights and dealing with bank charges that are deducted from state benefits paid into a personal bank account in the UK.
There is a very clear explanation of this by Mr Tom Brennan, a Barrister that has taken the time and bother to publish via Consumer Wiki, the information basically comes about from people thinking that Section 187 protects their benefits when they are paid into a personal bank account with a negative balance. They believe or are led to believe that these benefits are not allowed to be taken by their respective bank against charges they may be owing or that remain outstanding, especially when the account is already overdrawn.
- You can read the full article by clicking this link!
- THIS IS NOT CORRECT! They do not mean Bank Charges, they mean Interim Charging Orders placed against properties and their owners or an Attachment to Earnings imposed order by a court or court hearing.
The following is the article by Mr Tom Brennan that is published on Consumer Wiki.
A Barrister’s view:
I researched this topic some time ago, and my understanding of the application of this section is as follows:
Any assignment of your state benefits or pension is void and unenforceable. That is to say, no person or organisation can collect your state benefits/pension in your place as settlement of a debt (subject to certain exceptions involving state institutions). As a result, you could not instruct the DWP to pay your benefits to a 3rd party, and a 3rd party could not enforce any agreement that gives your state benefits to them. This was introduced at the end of the 1800s to stop the first state benefits (such as war pensions) being taken by unscrupulous 3rd parties, which happened an awful lot.
However, under current banking law, once your benefits (or indeed, any other income) is paid into your account, it is no longer classified as your benefits; it becomes part of a generic monetary debt owed to you (if your account is in credit) or owed by you (if your account is in debit). Think of your benefits as a glass of water, and your bank account as a water tank. S.187 effectively strikes down any agreement that stops your weekly glass of water going into your water tank and/or going to somebody else’s water tank. That water is for you and you alone. However, once you have put it into your water tank, it is just becomes part of the whole collection of water that is in there, and can no longer be protected. The practical reason is that you couldn’t identify which of those water molecules (your pennies) that came from your glass (benefits), and which were in there already.
The only way to protect your benefits is to have them paid into a separate account with a separate bank, which avoids any set-off (think of this as the bank linking up any water tanks that you have with them to get the overall amount of water you have stored with them or borrowed from them). A number of banks work with fast transfer payments, so you should be able to move your money from your benefits account with one bank to another account with another bank (such as your house or bills account) within two hours. This is the best way to protect your benefits from everyone and anything.
Tom Brennan, Barrister
- The above is published by www.consumerwiki.co.uk
For further help and advice on how best to deal with personal debt problems, please contact our debt helpline using;
- 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls from a UK land line are usually FREE
- Calls from mobiles may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
- Are you struggling to find money to pay minimum monthly debt and bill payments?
- Do you have too many payday loans that you are struggling with?
DO NOT BORROW ANYMORE MONEY – PLEASE READ ON
- If you are struggling financially you will not help yourself by borrowing more money!
The fact that you are looking for money to pay normal monthly living costs should identify to you that there may be more going out of your pocket each month than you have coming into it!
You must take advice about your financial situation if refused a loan, most people find after taking debt consolidation advice that they understand what they have to do to make things better. It is not always possible to make things better over night.
People in debt tend to have different personal circumstances to each other but financially they are all still struggling – This is usually due to either a genuine change in personal circumstance or general lack of care about budgeting on a weekly or monthly basis.
When we speak to people who are struggling with monthly repayments, there is usually a personal debt solution we can find to help them. These financial solutions very rarely include the funding of further loans as someone who is struggling does not represent a good risk to the potential lender!
If someone approached you requesting to borrow money and you knew that they had not repaid other people you know for a previous or earlier dated loan, would you then go ahead and still lend that person some money?
Some people applying for finance are more genuine and serious than others and can show greater grounds for considering a loan personally but when it comes down to making an application, lenders do not care about emotional problems or personal reasons as to why you may be in the position you are, they only care about the here and now and what your credit report / previous repayment history says about you.
Your personal credit report will usually cover the last 6 years financial activity in your name. The myth of a credit “Blacklist” is exactly that, a myth! Each individual has a credit rating and this can be found by contacting a credit reference agency such as Credit Expert operated by Experian.
- If you continue to get refused for loans to clear debts, you should consider taking financial advice from a trained personal debt consultant.
Lewis Alexander offers help and advice regarding personal debt consolidation solutions available in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- You can call us free from a land line using 0800 018 6868
- From mobiles it may be less expensive if you call 0161 872 3383
- Our lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
Semaphore Conseil is an independent company specializing in consulting, research and competitive intelligence in bank marketing.
- After reading our blog posts with interest, the agency decided to write and publish an article about our new debt management software in their newsletter on innovation and best practices in the banking and insurance world.
- Below you can find the article in French and then in English, however, the article in English has corrections due to errors and lost communications that occurred during translation of the interview.
Une gestion low cost et automatisée des dettes: le logiciel du courtier Lewis Alexander. Selon un sondage conduit en 2012 par l’association de consommateurs Which?, 2,3 millions de foyers britanniques (10 % du total) ont été en situation de défaut de paiement (crédit à la consommation, factures ou prêt immobilier/loyers). De plus, 1,5 millions de foyers ont eu recours à un découvert non autorisé ou à un “payday loan” (prêt d’une durée maximale de 30 jours avec des TEG très élevés) pour parvenir à la fin du mois. C’est dans ce contexte morose que le courtier spécialiste du rachat de crédit, Lewis Alexander a annoncé le lancement en novembre 2013 d’un logiciel permettant aux clients une gestion automatique de leurs dettes, une première sur le marché britannique. Le logiciel “Financial Debt Check and Health Test” actuellement dans sa phase beta permettra aux particuliers d’identifier eux-mêmes la solution la plus adaptée et de gérer leurs dettes de façon autonome.
L’O3i a sélectionné cette nouvelle pour les raisons suivantes :
Une tarification “low cost” grâce à une automation poussée du processus de négociation de dettes. Si le test en ligne et le pré-remplissage de la demande de faillite personnelle sont gratuits, la gestion automatique de dettes est facturée à 19,99 livres/mois, tarif très compétitif comparé aux frais moyens de 89 livres/mois facturés sur le marché britannique du RAC, selon notre contact à Lewis Alexander
- The following article is the same as above by Semaphore Conseil but is translated into English;
A low cost, automated debt management plan: the software agent is Lewis Alexander.
According to a survey conducted in 2012 by the consumer association Which? 2.3 million UK households (10% of the total) were in default of payment (consumer credit, bills or mortgage / rent). In addition, 1.5 million homes have been using an unauthorized overdraft or a “payday loan” (a maximum loan period of 30 days with very high TEG) to reach the end. It is in this context that the specialist credit redemption broker, Lewis Alexander announced that in November 2013 a program allowing customers an automatic management of their debts will be launched, a first for the UK consumer finance / personal debt market. The “Financial Health Check and Debt Test” software, currently in its beta phase will allow individuals to self-identify the most suitable solution to manage their debts independently.
- The O3i selected this news for the following reasons:
Solution “all inclusive” and completely automated: the first screen prompts the user to learn about the various debt solutions under UK law (CAR debt restructuring, bankruptcy, mortgage equity, etc..). The user is then asked to answer simple questions: length at current address, occupation, monthly income, amount of debt, number of creditors, the amount of current monthly payments, any difficulties encountered during the repayments, delays in the payment of rent or mortgage repayments, etc. Based on this information, the most suitable debt solution is recommended (bankruptcy, debt restructuring, etc. In case of bankruptcy, the official application form pre-populated with the information collected is made available to the user. The customer only has to add the missing information, print and send the document to the competent authorities. If the RAC is recommended, the software offers the service of “automatic debt management.” If the customer purchased the product, the software calculates the reduced monthly payments and automatically sends emails to creditors with proposals weekly / monthly. In case of refusal by creditors, a new email will be sent to them with a new proposal, etc. Once the creditors agreement is obtained, monthly payments will be automatically deducted from the customer’s current account and redistributed to creditors. Customer service representatives will answer Skype client questions 24/7 in case of difficulties. Lewis Alexander is positioning itself as a “turnkey” personal debt consolidation solution with client support for any eventuality (personal bankruptcy, debt restructuring, debt management, IVA, Trust Deeds, etc.).
Pricing is “low cost” through extensive automation of the process of debt negotiation. If the online test and pre-filling the application of personal bankruptcy are free, automatic management of debt is charged at £19.99 per month, very competitive price compared to the average cost of £35 per month charged on the market British RAC, according to our contact Lewis Alexander.
- For help and advice regarding personal debt problems please call our personal debt helpline using;
- Call 0800 018 6868 Free
- Calls are free from most UK land lines but mobile call costs may vary!
- From mobiles it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS SENT TO US HERE AT LEWIS ALEXANDER FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT BY A UK CONSUMER WHO HAD CONTACTED US FOR ADVICE. THE INDIVIDUAL ASKED IF WE WOULD PUBLISH THIS POST ON OUR DEBT MANAGEMENT BLOG FOR OTHERS TO READ AND WE AGREED TO DO SO.
- I may not have gone to university and studied politics
- I may not have a higher education
- What I have done is worked since the day I left school. I have tried running my own small business and now I find myself out of work and having to look for government help just to live.
So I may not be a politician but I do have life and work experience as a normal woman who finds herself at 34 years old with no money and over 18 years work experience.
You may say I should have saved some money over the years, well now I am learning that I really wish I had.
Nobody ever taught me at school about hard financial times and changes in personal circumstance that could affect me in my future. I also wish they had prepared me for this and some of the basic life difficulties we can expect to suffer.
From when I was 16, I worked to go out socialising, buy clothes and go away on holiday. Sometimes 3 holidays a year! So yes, I lived and yes, I spent all my money on clothes and nights out within the space of my first 2 weeks of a payday.
At times I went on self destruct and spent every penny I had. It started small with credit cards and store cards and ended with so many different types of loans it got completely out of control, not once but twice! I wish I had been taught about living within my means, I wish I had been forced to save some money for a financial emergency like I face now. I am actively seeking a work and I am applying for up to a minimum of 5 jobs per day. The problem is that there are so many unemployed people applying for the same jobs that more often than not I do not even hear from them. I have never been out of work, I want to work! I do not want to be supported by the government but what else can I do?
I have lost my business and my employment all within the last 12 months. I lost my house and split up with my long term partner. I now find myself under so much pressure to find a way to pay my rent and council tax which has fallen due and I can’t even pay my water or electricity bills or buy food.
I wish that from when I had started working there was a governmental compulsory savings scheme (GCSS) that deducted an amount from my wages on a weekly or monthly basis so that if you ever had such a financial emergency like I face now, I could claim back some of my savings to pay my utility bills and food and maybe even a suit for job interviews.
If I had been forced to save a minimal amount of say £25 per month since I had started working, there would be £5400 for my utility bills food and a smart suit for interviews! Get my point?
I wouldn’t now need to be supported by the government and I could be using my governmental compulsory savings scheme to pay my living bills. Why won’t the government make you save a very small percentage of your earnings per month, any pro rata percentage would be helping me at this difficult stage in my financial life.
You could say I should have been responsible enough to do this myself but I wasn’t and it is when you get to the position I am now in that I wish I hadn’t wasted the money I have.
- I wish I hadn’t bought a house
- I wish I hadn’t opened a small business
- I wish I hadn’t gone on all the holidays I couldn’t afford
- I wish I hadn’t bought a car I couldn’t afford
- I wish I had not just lived way above my means like the rest of the country
I can’t take back how I have lived but my biggest wish is that I had honestly been taught at school about the hardships I could face and someone had forced me to save a percentage of the money I wasted.
I want to work and I am actively seeking. I hope to have employment again very soon but with the added stress of worrying about how I will pay my bills and the collection companies calling me regarding my outstanding utility accounts the pressure makes the job hunting so much more stressful.Why does the government not put a compulsory savings scheme (CSS) in place and then so many people wouldn’t need supporting when an unexpected hardship arrives?
I am desperate to take a job. I am applying for jobs with salaries of £14000 less than what I am used to. If I had more time I could be looking for employment in a job that wouldn’t only pay my utility bills but would also allow me to pay some of my creditors and put some money back into society.
What’s likely to happen is that I may be lucky enough to find a low paying job that allows me to just scrape by and not pay off debt whilst left unable to raise the required £700 bankruptcy fee and not even being able to afford to enter a debt management plan.
- I will be living on toast and never having any quality of life.
- Do the people growing up now, trying to work for a living, need to make all the same mistakes I and many of my friends have?
- Why did the government not put time and money into teaching us to save and live within our means or even organise a compulsory saving scheme? Why wait until it is too late?
- If you never came into financial hardship your compulsory savings could be added to your pension so at least at some point throughout your life you may have been able to use it.
Unfortunately for me and many others, we have had to learn in the worst possible way through experience and yes I had some good holidays, some great nights out but now I can’t even afford to do or buy anything. If I do manage to get a job I will be scraping by and trying to save a bankruptcy fee. If a compulsory savings scheme existed, it would surely prevent us from needing governmental support, at least for the people that had already been working for a period of time before requiring access to it.
- Think of all the government money saved on all the unemployment funding!
THE ABOVE LETTER WAS SENT TO US HERE AT LEWIS ALEXANDER FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT BY A UK CONSUMER WHO HAD CONTACTED US FOR ADVICE. THE INDIVIDUAL ASKED IF WE WOULD PUBLISH THIS POST ON OUR DEBT MANAGEMENT BLOG FOR OTHERS TO READ AND WE AGREED TO DO SO.
- Call 0800 018 6868 for advice in confidence, lines open 24 hrs 7 days!
- Or take our 2 minute debt solution finder test now!
You can speak to free debt charities and fee charging debt management companies, you can even make an appointment to see your local citizens advice bureau to get help and advice about personal debt problems.
All these options take time and in a busy world where time is money, what better than an automated debt solution finder that can help you assess your best direction in under two minutes?
- That’s right!
- Only 2 minutes!
Lewis Alexander has launched a simple debt solution finder and brief knowledge base. This allows a UK consumer to input their details within a twenty question drop down selection form and obtain information on personal debt solutions that may be directly suited to them.
The process can be completed in less than two minutes and is totally confidential and private. There is no need to register for the service or pay, it is totally free, information gathered is not shared with other companies and the consumer will not be bombarded with offers via text or phone from companies they have not agreed to sending private and confidential information to. Only Lewis Alexander Financial Management will make contact,
All too often the advice a consumer can receive is contradictory to what they have received elsewhere.
This adds to confusion that is already in the mind of the consumer and does not help them to make an informed decision.
The Lewis Alexander debt solution finder should hopefully be a good starting point for any consumer who wishes to identify which personal debt solution may be best suited to their financial situation.
This debt solutions finder is a good entry point for consumers who wish to use our debt management and consolidation software that is currently in build stage and is due to launch later this year.
For help and advice regarding any personal debt issues please call Lewis Alexander Financial Management FREE from a UK land line.
- Call 0800 018 6868
- Lines are one 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls from UK land lines are usually free Calls from mobiles may be less of you call 0161 872 3383
Whilst many debt consolidation services or debt management companies may struggle with the new debt management protocol, Lewis Alexander Financial Management openly embraces this new and long overdue initiative.
The recently released Government protocol relating to personal debt management plans in the UK is not only designed to ensure that debt consolidation companies involved in the industry are compliant with OFT (Office of fair Trading) debt management guidance but most importantly to ensure that the vulnerable UK consumer receives the best possible advice and service at the most competitive cost or price.
The new debt management protocol asks that clients initial payments for a debt management plan are not retained by the debt consolidation service or debt management company they have selected but are in fact dispersed to creditors immediately, it is also expected that any initial set up fee charged would be taken out of no less than the first 6 monthly contributions from the client. This is meant to reduce the clients debts more rapidly but is based equally upon the clients respective creditors also adhering to the protocol with regard to interest and charges currently being applied to the consumers accounts, if any. The practice of retaining initial payments has usually been used by the debt consolidation industry to cover the internal administrative costs involved in setting up a consumer debt management plan.
Lewis Alexander Financial Management is currently developing a “turn key” personal debt consolidation platform which will be available online for UK consumers. This pioneering, Internet based, consumer self managed, debt solution environment will offer a highly efficient and cost effective option which will dramatically reduce if not eliminate the initial administrative set up costs that apply to current fee charged debt management plans in the UK.
It is envisaged that usage of the personal debt consolidation and management software will be charged at approximately one third of the current monthly fees on offer, this is when compared to the average fee charged debt management plan currently available when using conventional debt consolidation services or debt management companies.
The Lewis Alexander Internet based, self managed debt solution is being designed to be as user friendly as possible.
The online resource will provide compliant best advice for the consumer relating to the different debt management and debt consolidation solutions available.
When a user registers, they will be asked to complete a simple questionnaire outlining their personal and financial circumstances. This information will be dynamically translated by the system in order to identify the debt management or debt consolidation routes available to that specific user.
- Faced with potentially more than one debt consolidation solution to choose from, the user will be able to gain online financial debt advice via the systems knowledge base.
- However, personal and conclusive advice will be available if required via email and telephone to assist a prospective client to make their final decision.
Having chosen the desired debt management or debt consolidation solution, the user will be able to set up their own online file which will already contain their financial statement and particulars based on the information they have provided in the initial questionnaire.
- Their file will also contain all the relevant creditor correspondence and templates thus enabling them to activate their own debt management or debt consolidation solution.
Based upon bespoke, tried and tested internal debt management software developed by Lewis Alexander, it is envisaged that the online system will provide all of the facilities to the user that is currently available to an internally based adviser at Lewis Alexander Financial Management.
Should you be struggling with personal financial problems and require the help and advice of a trained personal debt consultant, then please call our personal debt helpline in absolute confidence using;
- 0800 018 6868
- calls are usually FREE from a UK land line.
- From mobile it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
- Will a Government approved debt management protocol assist consumers in the search for compliant debt consolidation help and advice services?
- Does a Government protocol that is not compulsory to sign up to, offer enough protection to a vulnerable consumer in need of personal debt advice and help?
- Can an industry that has had such bad press for over a decade, self regulate itself to a point that it automatically identifies and excludes companies that employ bad or non-compliant business practices / models?
At Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we strongly believe that the one answer to the above questions is YES!
The recent launch of the Governments Debt Management Plan Protocol on February 7th 2013 has been widely accepted by compliant DMC’s or Debt Management Companies throughout the UK.
The new debt management protocol is basically a set of rules set out by Government for debt management companies to follow when offering and servicing, fee charged, consumer debt management plans in the UK.
A document named “Debt Management Guidance” has been in place for over a decade now. This guidance is created, updated and policed by the Office of Fair Trading. The guidance and debt management industry itself is not regulated but the OFT debt management guidance is a concise set of guidelines for any consumer credit license holder to follow if they wish to carry on the activity of debt adjusting and counselling on a commercial basis. The new debt management protocol set out by the Government will run alongside and add to the debt management guidance for the time being. There is also a sister document named “Debt Collection Guidance” that is also set out by the OFT for creditors and debt collection agents to follow for the opposite industry practices they carry out.
- The new government debt management plan protocol is welcomed and embraced by the team here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management.
Some of the new debt management protocol compliance requirements have been strictly adhered to by Lewis Alexander and in place for some time prior to the protocol being released, such as the requirement to inform consumers about free to client debt services available, we have been doing this verbally for some 5-6 years! Operators who wish to mislead and feed off vulnerable consumers may laugh at this but maybe this honesty is what makes our clients select and continue to utilise the debt consolidation services of Lewis Alexander Financial Management.
There are certain parts of the new protocol that will put a stop to the bad practices of some debt management companies or lead generators. These companies will no longer be able to afford to advertise for clients that get churned within the first 3 months and never seem to obtain a back end debt management service.
The new debt management protocol requires 1st payments / set up fees for a debt management plan to be taken over no less than a 6 month period. This will have a detrimental negative cash flow effect on any company attempting to operate a “churn model”! A long overdue and welcomed move by the Government!
It is expected that with the general roll out of the protocol and the uptake in companies adhering and signing up to it, that potentially non compliant debt management operators will have to find other ways of extorting vulnerable consumers suffering with personal debt problems.
- Consumers will be able to identify a protocol compliant debt management company. This is likely to be as simple as a “protocol approved” logo on the respective debt management companies’ website.
One debt management consultant / company has been reported to say that “The failure of a consumer to establish if a fee charging debt management provider that they may be about to select is a member of one the two trade associations such as the DRF or DEMSA will mean that the provider is most likely to be a non compliant debt management provider / operator.
- THIS STATEMENT IS NOT 100% CORRECT!
Lewis Alexander is NOT a member of any of the above debt management trade associations. The main reason for this is due to membership fees being the same for companies who have massively varying turnovers and subsequent varying profitability! We have stated before that when the membership fees are in line or pro rata to a companies’ turnover, Lewis Alexander will acknowledge and join the mentioned association/s.
With the wide acceptance of the new protocol and the already well established debt management guidance, the only requirement for the industry now should surely be a policing structure placed within an authoritative body! This could potentially be funded by replacing association membership fees with an annual charge as a percentage of turnover that mirrors the great or small potential damage / risk that a respective company presents to the industry.
As previously reported, Lewis Alexander Financial Management is due to launch a revolutionary online debt consolidation software solution / platform, that will enable consumers to self manage debts, self diagnose and subsequently go on to clear personal debt problems. The new debt management protocol is an integral part of the new Lewis Alexander, online debt management software soon to be available.
(The following information is published by the Insolvency website from the UK Government as a guide to dealing with debt. It will be required as part of the protocol that each debt management consultant / provider will have to inform a potential client about the existence of the free to client debt services / charities).
- Dealing With Debt – 5 Things You Should Know
- There are sources of free debt advice and services. You can find out more by contacting the Money Advice Service on 0300 500 5000 (8-8 Monday to Friday, 9-1 on Saturday).
- You should have been advised on all the options for dealing with your debt. Protocol compliant providers will explain all the options that are open to you (e.g bankruptcy, debt relief order, individual voluntary arrangement, trust deed in Scotland, debt management plan). The advantages and disadvantages of each will be discussed with you so that you can make an informed choice.
- You will know the estimated total cost to you of the arrangement and the time it will take for your debts to be paid. Protocol compliant providers always give you this information. If your provider does not, you must ask to find out. Any money you pay to your provider to cover their fees will not be used to repay your debts. Think carefully if more money is being used to pay your provider than your creditors.
- Your provider will go through a full and accurate budgeting process with you. This is vital to make sure that the payments you are asked to make are affordable for yourself and fair to your creditors.
- If you are not happy with the service you receive, you can complain. You should refer such complaints to the provider first to give them a chance to put things right. They should tell you clearly how to do this. If they are a member of the DRF or DEMSA they will also tell you how to use their own conciliation and complaints scheme as a second step. You can be repaid any fees charged and may be awarded compensation by these schemes. If you are still not happy with the outcome, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service which is an independent service who will look into your complaint and can award you compensation if they decide in your favour.
If you require the help and assistance of a compliant, licensed debt consolidation service when dealing with debt, then please call our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence, your call is usually free from a UK land line but mobile call costs may vary.
- Call 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Getting confused by advice you have received about different debt solutions that could actually work for you?
- Do you need professional, trusted, reliable and reputable financial help to select a debt solution that WILL work for you?
At Lewis Alexander Financial Management we help people daily to consolidate debt problems via personal debt solutions that are suited and then tailored to their personal needs.
Not every debt consolidation company or service will operate with the consumers’ best interest at heart. This can create problems for consumers that do not educate themselves correctly regarding their situation as they can be mislead by debt advisors that are not offering the best advice, especially if the debtor has too many payday loans because they are more vulnerable and in need of a quicker solution!
Fortunately, the personal debt consolidation industry has cleaned itself up somewhat over the last ten years and most large operators within the industry do operate a best advice model for the consumers they serve. The OFT or Office of Fair Trading has been responsible for setting out guidance that both debt management and debt collection companies respectively have to adhere to. These companies are required to adhere to the guidance set out in order to continue to comply with ongoing compliance when carrying out licensed activities.
- To select a personal debt solution that can work for you, it is important to find a company to take advice from that has a proven track record.
It is also very important to make sure that you are prepared to accept some advice that you may not like or wish to hear. Usually when faced with financial problems, the actual best financial solution that can assist you tends to be the one you don’t prefer or that you have tried to stay away from as much as possible for one reason or another.
Most personal debt solutions that work do so for two main reasons;
- 1) The debt solution company selected does what it says it will do for the consumer.
- 2) The consumer does what the debt solution company expects of them!
When we questioned internally at Lewis Alexander one of our most established and time served financial management consultants, we asked him why he thought debt solutions he advised people on some ten years ago actually worked for the clients that selected them. The simple answer we got was that he believed that any client that had been committed and remained so to helping themselves, had actually cleared the debt problems they had via the solution they initially selected post the advice stage.
It really is quite simple; most debt consolidation companies that operate compliantly, can and will get an individual out of a debt problem they face.
Debt solutions that have and continue to work for clients of Lewis Alexander Financial Management are as follows;
- Informal Debt Management Plans
- Individual Voluntary Arrangements or IVA’s (Not available in Scotland)
- Protected Trust Deeds (Scottish equivalent to an IVA)
- Debt Consolidation Loans
- Re-mortgage or Secured loans
- Debt Relief Orders
- Administration Orders
- Bankruptcy
- Sequestration (Scottish Bankruptcy)
It can be very confusing when you have to select a personal debt solution that works. This is even more difficult when you actually qualify for two or more solutions. You are then at the mercy of the quality of advice you have received which should hopefully enable you to make a correct and informed decision.
Whether you live in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, there is a personal debt solution available that will work for you.
The UK government has approved schemes in place to help people struggling with debt problems such as the IVA or Debt Relief Order and Bankruptcy.
If you require help to find a debt solution that will work for you, please call our Lewis Alexander debt helpline in absolute confidence and speak with a personal debt advisor who can assist you to start an organised, financial future.
- Call Free: 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24hrs / 7 days
- Calls to our 0800 number are usually free from UK land lines
- Call costs from mobiles may vary!
- As previously stated, Lewis Alexander Financial Management is currently developing a new, customer driven Debt Management Plan, Insolvency and PPI Claim software solution that will act as a “turn-key” service for UK consumers to clear personal debt problems online.
The launch will happen as soon as Lewis Alexander Financial Management is sure that the resource will be capable of dealing with the volume of traffic expected. The new online client controlled personal debt consolidation software is not designed to be a “one size fits all solution” as many clients may continue to choose conventional personal support with their debt management plan and the company remains committed to providing this level of personal service.
The original development and implementation of Lewis Alexander’s unique and efficient debt management software enabled the company to pioneer “fixed fee” solutions in the debt management industry over 10 years ago and will continue to enable the provision of cost effective traditional, personal and client supported debt management solutions in the future.
As a result of Lewis Alexander’s pioneering web based solution, the company has received a huge amount of interest regarding the web enabled software from potential franchise partners. This interest has predominantly come from commercially mature franchise orientated individuals with financial expertise and the investment capital to support on-going client attainment and support. In web enabling it’s existing, purpose designed, debt management software which was originally created to support Lewis Alexander’s core client offering of personal and supported debt management solutions, the online solution has the potential to also offer client managed services by accredited individuals, regardless of their geographic location.
“Given the strategic partnerships we have now established with IT specialists we believe that the efficiencies driven by Lewis Alexander’s existing software systems with 10 years operational security and service could now be migrated to provide individual franchise opportunities”
Other personal debt management franchises do exist but due to the unique way in which the software will allow a potential franchisee to manage client accounts, the franchisee will have greater efficiencies within their franchise than we believe is currently available elsewhere.
- Not all franchise opportunities offer the back up and support that Lewis Alexander Financial Management is planning to offer potential franchisee prospects. This, coupled with an affordable franchise fee should enable a great number of people from different sectors of society to consider this opportunity as a future career.
The franchise opportunity on offer is not only scalable based upon the current economic climate but also comes with a ten year proven track record and UK trademarked brand.
Some people understand franchising better than others and the number of franchisees Lewis Alexander intends to recruit will be based on each applicant’s respective ability to control a given area.
A potential franchise partner could expect to recoup their initial franchise investment within the first 12 months of trading. This again will be subject to the initial franchise fee based on the geographical area/s franchised. Some areas / franchises will differ in size as mentioned above but an initial 12 months is our best guide at present based on the current requirements of interested partners.
If you are struggling with debt problems and think you would benefit from the help and assistance of a licensed, personal debt consultant, you can call our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence using;
- Call – 0800 018 6868 – Free
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days a week
- Calls are usually free from a BT land line
- Mobile calls may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
- Have you found that you are struggling to find the money to meet only the minimum payments for credit card debts?
- Is the balance on your credit card hovering or increasing even though you are making minimum payments?
Credit card companies make more money when you fail to repay on time. These companies have designed the cards they offer to compound with interest over time so the balance will not reduce if you are only making the required minimum repayments to these credit cards on a monthly basis.
When we speak to prospective clients at Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we find that most people think that because they are meeting the minimum payments on credit cards that they are not actually in debt!
- This is a very common misconception regarding how credit cards work and to actually reduce credit card balances you must pay more than the minimum required.
When people say they are not in debt, they are advised that the meaning of debt is something owed such as money, goods or services. It is an obligation or liability to pay or render something to someone else. The minute you borrow money you are technically in financial debt.
The higher your credit card balances become the harder it usually is to keep up with the repayments, this is because they are compounding with interest at such a rate that you cannot start to pay down anything more than the minimum because the repayments are eating too much of your monthly income. This is the pattern the credit card companies make more money from and if everyone repaid their credit card balances in full every month the credit card companies would make little or no money at all.
All you are doing by paying the monthly minimum payments on credit card debts is actually renting the debt from the credit card company!
This is the cycle of debt that people find themselves in and when they then incur a further change in personal circumstance it tends to create a personal financial problem.
Lewis Alexander has helped many people over the last 10 years to start to and finally clear personal credit card debts and personal loan commitments. If you do not take action and solve your financial problems they will also compound and increase in severity.
The sooner an individual seeks the financial help or financial advice required and commits to a plan of action to reduce the debt, the better it is for their financial future. People who do not take action immediately tend to be unable to explore personal debt solutions that could have been initially available to them.
If you are struggling to manage credit card or loan repayments and need help to clear the debts and start reducing what is owed, please contact our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence using
- 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls are usually FREE from UK land lines
- Calls from mobiles may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
- Are you unsure as to why you do not qualify for or are unable to get a debt consolidation loan?
- Would you benefit from an alternative type of personal debt consolidation solution?
Currently, people are struggling to get unsecured debt consolidation loans from lenders such as the high street banks.
This can be for several different reasons and people are usually refused debt consolidation loans by the main banks due to not having enough disposable income to repay the new proposed debt consolidation loan.
However, in many cases, we are seeing more and more situations where a high street bank has refused an individual for credit and the individual seems to have the ability to repay the loan that they have applied for.
- Have the banks actually got the money to lend?
- Is the risk just too high for these banks to take the chance that the customer will repay?
- How will the banks make up for the revenue they are losing by not lending?
The above questions lead to banks looking for further security from the borrower when lending. If the person borrowing is a home owner, the bank would then try to secure the loan against the customers home as that would provide far more security for the bank should the customer default and be unable to repay the debt. If the customer has little or no equity in their home then the bank is not in a position to take the home into account as security for the loan.
You should always be careful when using your home as security for a new loan. You could be in danger of losing your home through repossession if you fail to keep up repayments on a loan or any other debt secured against your property.
The following are some other reasons for people being refused debt consolidation loans by high street banks;
- Defaults on the consumers credit file.
- Missed or late payments on credit accounts including credit card debts and loans.
- Not enough disposable income to repay the new loan should you have time off work due to sickness or a general reduction in income.
Some people who have never borrowed before cannot understand why they are being refused a loan or credit for other purposes than that of debt consolidation, this is usually because the new lender has no ability to judge the borrowers repayment history as they have no previous borrowings, this problem of having no credit history can be as bad as having a poor credit history when searching for loans or credit cards.
Credit Expert is a service available that allows you to check your credit file and take a glimpse at what lenders would potentially see when deciding if to lend you money. It is run by Experian, a very useful and well respected credit reference agency in the UK.
Other personal debt consolidation solutions are available for people to clear debts if they have been refused a debt consolidation loan; these solutions include but are not limited to the following;
- Debt Management Plans
- Iva or Individual Voluntary Arrangements
- Bankruptcy
- Debt Relief Orders
- Debt Consolidation Scotland
If you have been refused a personal debt consolidation loan and need help or advice to clear your personal debts, please call our personal debt helpline today in confidence using;
- 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls are usually FREE from a UK landline
- Calls from mobiles may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
- Are your monthly credit card repayments higher than your monthly mortgage payment?
- Will you still be able to afford the minimum payments on your credit cards and loans in 3 months time?
- Do you need help to manage and clear credit card debt and unsecured loans?
- Are you paying credit cards and loans before you pay your mortgage each month?
Some consumers are finding that the payments they are making to credit card and loan commitments each month are getting, or have already gotten higher than the payments they are making to their mortgage or rent.
This is a very common problem but most people think they are the only people suffering with this problem until they seek professional debt consolidation help or advice.
The problem is common because the credit card payments and balances are compounding with interest and charges. It is a fact that if you are unable to earn two months money in one month, you may never get ahead. This is because the cards are designed to increase if you are not paying more than the minimum payments.
Most people think that by paying the minimum payment each month on a credit card that the balance will stay the same or reduce, this is not the case. You need to pay more than the minimum otherwise you are only servicing or renting the increasing debt. The aim is obviously to reduce and clear it.
The UK consumer is conditioned to living with some sort of unsecured debt or borrowings, be it a loan, credit card, store card, overdraft, catalogue, or some other form of unsecured credit but this is not the best way to be if you desire a future without financial problems.
Here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we see mortgages as a “life debt”, this is because at some point in life, most UK residents over the last 50 years were educated to believe that owning their own home, is or was, the best way to end up in life financially. We are not here to argue that point and when we look at other large European countries such as Holland, home ownership is on the decline and renting is of preference to most of the population.
The real problem is that consumers are not prioritising the secured mortgage or 2nd charge secured loan payments on their home over the unsecured contractual credit commitments they may have.
If you are doing exactly this, making sure your credit cards are paid so you can keep using them, then you need financial advice, immediately.
We cannot stress how soon the financial advice should be sort as your home is at risk if you do to keep up repayments on loans or other forms of debt secured on it.
Which would you prefer to lose if you had to make the choice, your credit rating or your home?
- If you fail to pay your mortgage you can lose your home!
- If you fail to pay your credit cards, only your credit will be affected in the short term!
We are not saying that you should ignore your credit card or loan companies you may be borrowing from! You must simply prioritise your secured loans such as a mortgage, over these other unsecured debts. Then you can come to an arrangement with your unsecured lenders to repay at a rate you can afford without sending yourself further down the line of possible mortgage arrears.
It is not often that we hear that a client has been told to prioritise their mortgage payment over the credit card payment by the credit card companies they owe money to. We cannot change the way they work but we can off the correct personal financial advice to a consumer.
- When we explain how the priority works for secured credit over unsecured credit, consumers are often pleasantly surprised. It is a principle of law that secured or priority debts do take priority over any unsecured financial commitments a consumer may have.
The most common situation at the moment for homeowners in the UK is that they are struggling to manage their credit card and loan repayments and because of this, balances are compounding against them and growing at an uncontrollable rate. The consumer then starts to miss mortgage payments, be them interest only or repayment as they wish to try and keep the credit card and loan companies happy.
You must accept that if you find yourself struggling with the above problems you need to take the financial advice mentioned above sooner rather than later.
There are a number of personal debt solutions that can help you to control, manage and subsequently clear the debt you may have which should leave you without mortgage arrears and give you some sort of end to the financial difficulties you may be facing.
Find out about Debt Management Online
Find out about an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement in England
Find out about Bankruptcy in England
Find out about Debt Solutions in Scotland
Find out about Debt Consolidation Loans
Find general Debt Help and advice
If left, the personal debt problem will only get further out of control, unless that is, you are lucky enough to win the lottery or get paid for several months work in return for a normal months effort, which, is unfortunately, unlikely to happen!
- Do not leave it any long to seek professional advice if you have mortgage arrears or other secured loan problems.
- The longer you leave it to take advice, the less able anyone will be to help you.
Sometimes, we have to tell people that have left it too late that the only help they could get is from the mortgage company who is actually pressuring them. If you do not fall behind with the mortgage, you will not have to make that call, so do not make the mistake of prioritising unsecured credit card and loan repayments over your monthly mortgage payment or repayment.
- The advice we are offering above relates to interest only and repayment mortgage arrears.
We are not offering mortgage advice in this blog post but advice on dealing with mortgage arrears that are affected and created by other unsecured credit agreements which we would usually be able to help you clear and control.
If you find yourself struggling with the above personal debt problem and feel you would benefit from professional debt consolidation help or advice from a trained debt consultant, please contact our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence.
Call 0800 018 6868 free today
Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
Calls are usually free from a UK land line
Calls from mobile may be less expensive if you call 0161 872 3383
Do you know what other debt consolidation help, advice or solutions are available to clear personal debts in Scotland UK, apart from a Protected Trust Deed?
- Are you Scottish and wondering how you can clear personal debts without utilising a Trust Deed?
- Have you taken any trusted and professional debt consolidation help or advice yet?
- Confused by certain options you are being told are available to clear debts in Scotland?
When we are contacted by Scottish residents, the most important part of the advice we can offer is that debt help, advice and solutions available in Scotland differ to those available throughout the rest of the UK.
People across the UK are being called daily by companies that claim to have all sorts of magical ways to wipe out personal debt problems for consumers.
- We are proud to state that Lewis Alexander Financial Management is NOT one of those companies!
There is plenty of free debt advice in Scotland available from the National DebtLine Scotland.
- The main Scottish debt solutions available are as follows;
Protected Trust Deeds – (Scottish equivalent to the English IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement)
A Trust Deed in Scotland will usually take about 3-5 years to complete. You are asked to pay one monthly payment for that period and after such time any remaining debt is usually written off by the creditors. All interest and charges are stopped during this period and creditors would usually contact the Trustee / Insolvency Practitioner who is managing the case and not you the client directly. This is a voluntary agreement but is formal and legally binding. Trust Deeds in Scotland differ as some are protected and some are not. It all depends on the quality of who is managing the case for you. A Trust Deed in Scotland becomes protected as long as;
- No more than half of your creditors object to your Trust Deed!
- No more than one third of creditors in debt value object to your Trust Deed!
Creditors cannot pertition you for Bankruptcy once your Trust Deed is Protected!
A Trust Deed will be recorded on an individuals credit record and it would be expected that you do not apply for further credit whilst the Trust Deed is in place. It may take some time for your credit rating to repair once the Trust Deed is over. If you own a property, you may be expected to release any available equity from that property whilst the Trust Deed is in place to make a greater contribution to the overall repayment the creditors would receive. There is no court hearing or need to appear in court when setting up a Protected Trust Deed in Scotland. Find more information about how Trust Deed Fees work.
Sequestration – (Bankruptcy in Scotland)
This is conducted through the Sheriffs Court, your creditors can either pertition for your Bankruptcy or you can apply directly for voluntary Sequestration / Bankruptcy. During the Sequestration process all of your assets or savings including cars and homes are passed to the Trustee or Insolvency Practitioner as part of the arrangement and remain under Trustee control. They are allowed to be sold to make the contribution back to your creditors larger. If you cannot afford to repay your debts in a reasonable amount of time, you may be expected to pay a monthly amount to your Trustee for up to 3 years. If you cannot afford to make a monthly repayment due to a negative disposable income, you will not repay monthly and the period of Sequestration would usually last for 12 months at which point you would become debt free and debt remaining would be written off by the Sequestration process.
- You cannot borrow more than £500 whilst in Sequestration.
- Your employment could be affected so you should check with your employer first.
- Your credit rating will be affected.
- If you are self employed you may not be able to continue trading.
- Members of Parliament, Schools, Councils and company Directors will not be able to continue these practices whilst in Sequestration.
- Windfalls and inheritance will be taken into account should you be so fortunate whilst Bankrupt in Scotland.
DAS / Debt Arrangement Scheme – (Only available in Scotland)
The Debt Arrangement Scheme is a relatively new personal debt solution for Scottish residents to clear personal debts. It is a Scottish government approved and run Debt Payment Programme.
Debt Arrangement Schemes allow you protection from your creditors from legal action and allows you to repay at a rate that you can afford. All interest and charges on your debts are frozen if the DAS / Debt Arrangement Scheme is approved. A Debt Arrangement Scheme can last for a reasonable amount of time and if you are a Scottish resident and have one debt or more that you are in difficulty with, you may qualify for a Debt Payment Programme. You must be able to contribute an amount monthly that you can afford to repay.
If you fail to pay for 2 months or more, your Debt payment Programme can be ended and you can become liable for all the interest and charges that were previously frozen.
Debt Management Plan – (Also available in England, Northern Ireland and Wales)
A debt management plan is an informal arrangement between you and your creditors to repay what you owe. Not legally binding but conditions do apply and credit ratings can be affected. Usually offers one monthly payment. The company you chose to conduct your debt management plan can often make the difference to the plan being successful or not. Read further about debt management online.
- Please remember that you have to be committed to any personal debt solution for it to work and if not, the debt simply will not clear itself!
For UK debt advice and consolidation help regarding personal debt solutions available to clear debts in Scotland, please contact our Lewis Alexander personal debt helpline in confidence.
Call 0800 018 6868 Free today
Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
Calls are usually FREE from a UK land line
From mobiles it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
Lewis Alexander Financial Management has received an unprecedented level of interest regarding the proposed launch of the company’s new online customer driven debt management plan software.
This interest has made Lewis Alexander more committed to providing the online service as a significant sector of potential and existing clients have continued to express a demand for a more cost effective and controllable method of personal debt management.
- One of the most frequently asked questions have been “when will I be able to log on and use the software?”
Lewis Alexander remains committed to providing the online service by the end of the 2nd quarter of 2013. In order to achieve this objective the company intends to web enable its existing, purpose designed, debt management software. This unique debt management software was originally created to support Lewis Alexander’s core client offering of personal and service supported debt consolidation solutions. The key aspect of the online debt management software is its ability to maximise efficiency in processing client data, together with the dynamic production and generation of personal financial statements, creditor communications and payment distribution, therefore dramatically reducing administration costs.
- Many potential users have also asked “how simple will the new online software be to use?”
Lewis Alexander’s intuitive debt management software was originally designed and further developed to be used by trained and experienced personal debt consultants. One of the key challenges in the development of the new online software solution is the provision of knowledge and advice usually provided by a trained debt advisor. It is proposed that this level of guidance and assistance within the new resource is provided via tutorials and content within the knowledgebase aspect of the online software. This aspect of the service is crucial as it will not only enable clients to use the software effectively and efficiently but will also ensure that they are given “best advice” at all times in line with OFT (Office of Fair Trading) guidance and compliance.
Lewis Alexander is working with external strategic partners from within the software industry and is aiming to have a “micro model” of the new online, client driven debt management software available for user testing and OFT compliance consultation during the 1st quarter of 2013.
- If you are interested in potentially enrolling in one of Lewis Alexander’s future user testing focus groups call 0800 018 6868 to register your details.
The new online client controlled debt management software is not designed to be a “one size fits all personal debt consolidation solution” as many clients may continue to choose conventional personal debt management support and the company remains committed to providing this level of personal service that it has for the last 10 years.
The original development and implementation of Lewis Alexander’s efficient debt management software enabled the company to pioneer “fixed fee” solutions in the debt management industry over 10 years ago and will continue to enable the provision of cost effective traditional, personal and client supported debt management solutions in the future.
Should you require help to manage personal debt problems or simply wish to register your interest for our debt management software testing focus group, please call us today in confidence.
- Call free using 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days a week
- Calls are usually free from a BT land line
- Mobile calls may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
Lewis Alexander Financial Management, a Manchester based personal debt consolidation company, intends to launch an automated Debt Management Plan, IVA and PPI Claims Service online, via a consumer driven software solution.
The company has developed a 3 phase implementation plan initially focusing on the organisations core competency of Debt Management Solutions.
Many UK consumers in debt do require personal assistance to manage their debt and financial situation and the company is committed to providing this service on an on-going basis. However, in line with increased accessibility and familiarity with Internet technologies, Lewis Alexander has identified a shifting pattern in consumer demand.
Not all consumers will feel comfortable using the new online software which is why Lewis Alexander remains committed to providing the quality personal management solutions they have for over 10 years.
Having said this, statistics show that many individuals not only have the capability and IT know how to manage their own debt solutions but may in fact prefer to do so to retain privacy and anonymity. This group of users will find the new service simple to navigate and will undoubtedly find the financial savings to be gained via utilising the new service and software, reason enough to manage their own personal debt management plan or IVA.
The aim is to deliver phase 1 of this new online financial service to market during the first quarter of 2013. The project is being scoped and developed in conjunction with Not Normal Media who operate as advertising consultants and are wholly owned by Lewis Alexander. The company is also working with external strategic partners from within the software industry who have a wealth of knowledge and many years’ experience in online education and compliance management.
Compliance requirements have been highlighted as the most important part of each phase, each phase leads on to a final turnkey solution which will facilitate users to manage and clear personal debt online without the need for conventional call centre contact. The proposed online personal debt, financial and PPI claim management knowledge base / university within the resource will offer everything a consumer needs to achieve a self-managed personal debt solution.
- Overall timescales are not set in stone but the entire project completion should be delivered to market by the second quarter of 2013.
Lewis Alexander is aiming to provide this turnkey software solution via its current Internet based infrastructure, offering the tools to enable consumers to self manage personal debt and provide a facility for consumer data to be analysed so Lewis Alexander Financial Management ensures that users get the best advice at all times.
Whilst accepting that this will affect our main core business as a fee charging, service orientated operator, it is definitely the future for certain clients who prefer anonymity and wish to retain some form of privacy when faced with personal financial problems.
Lewis Alexander’s discussions with a reputable insolvency practitioner are on-going regarding the automated process of the IVA / personal insolvency process to be developed in tandem with the new proposed online solution as they will ultimately be responsible for the licensed process.
If you are currently struggling with personal debt problems and think you would benefit from the help and assistance of a licensed, personal debt advisor, please call our personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence.
- Call 0800 018 6868 now!
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days a week
- Calls are usually free from a British Telecom land line
- Mobile calls may be less expensive if you dial 0161 872 3383
- Would you benefit from understanding how others have succeeded or failed when trying to clear debts with a debt management plan?
- Have you checked the main reference points to identify if a company you are intending to use is a bona fide debt service?
First off, it is important to accept that clearing debts with a debt management plan is not a 5 minute or overnight solution. Even if you were eligible to declare yourself bankrupt and wipe off any debt you may have, that bankruptcy process will still require paperwork being completed that goes through your local county court and can take a couple of months to conclude!
There are NO overnight solutions to clear personal debts, one could argue that if given a debt consolidation loan, that could act as an overnight solution if the individual used it to immediately consolidate but most people who qualify for a debt management plan do not qualify for a debt consolidation loan, fact!
Here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we are proud to have been helping UK consumers clear personal debts with debt management plans for the last decade.
The following example information explains different outcomes of clients on a Lewis Alexander Debt Management Plan.
“Client A” joined Lewis Alexander in October 2006, this client has 2 payments left to make to complete their debt management plan, it will have taken this client 6 years or 72 months to pay off approximately £12,500 of unsecured personal debt. With our fee of £35 per month included within their monthly repayment of £200 per month, they would have had £165 per month distributed amongst their creditors by Lewis Alexander on an industry accepted pro-rata basis, this means whichever creditor is owed the most gets the highest relative share of the clients monthly disposable income. The total repaid by this client would be approximately £15,000 which when compared to other debt solution costs is relatively reasonable.
A debt relief order would not have been possible for this client as they have assets that exceed £300 (the debt relief order was also not available in 2006!)
An IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement would have been an option but the client could afford to repay the debt so they were not insolvent. They also protected their credit rating from registered insolvency and the opportunity cost of this was that they repaid the full amount they owed with a debt management plan instead of having a percentage of debt written off, which is what an IVA offers.
- Insolvency or an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) is recorded on your credit file
- Debt Management Plans can create defaults/ccj’s on credit files.
- Most debt management clients already have defaults before entering a debt management plan.
“Client B” joined Lewis Alexander in December 2003 and has 13 payments left to make to complete their debt management plan, it will have taken this client approximately 10 years or 120 months to pay off approximately £41,000 of unsecured personal debt. With our fee of £65 per month included within their monthly repayment of £400 per month, they would have had £335 per month distributed amongst their creditors by Lewis Alexander. The total repaid by this client would be approximately £48,000 which when compared to other debt solution costs is relatively reasonable.
A debt relief order would not have been possible for this client as they owe more than £15,000 and have assets that exceed £300 (the debt relief order was also not available in 2003!)
An IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement would have been an option based on timescales but the client had a house worth £200,000 and no mortgage, the IVA in this case could have meant the client having to re-finance their property to release equity to increase the overall contribution back to the respective creditors. The IVA would have also been of greater detriment to the credit rating than an informal debt management plan.
If an individual resides in Scotland, a Protected Trust Deed is the Scottish equivalent to an IVA.
The average unsecured debt that people we speak to have is approx £20,000.
51 is the average number of monthly payments people make to conclude a Lewis Alexander debt management plan.
Some debt management plans are never completed, this can be due to but not limited to the following reasons;
- Client has had a further change in circumstances and can no longer afford to repay.
- Client is not committed to clearing debt and is just looking for another delaying tactic.
- Client has gained friend / family assistance and they are in a position to clear the debt in full.
- Client has won the lottery! (Believe us, it happens!)
New clients requiring debt management plans at present are recorded as having lower debt values when compared to the past 10 years. This is due to most people having much smaller loans but more of them, for example, too many payday loans and short term cash loans.
Mortgage owners are becoming increasingly vulnerable to financial problems especially those that are suffering further changes to personal circumstances. Wages are not going up but living costs are and most mortgage owners do not take advantage of reduced interest rates and continue to spend what they should be benefiting from.
This cannot be sustained if mortgage owners have a further negative change in circumstances or if interest rates go up.
What to check about a company you intend to select to help you clear personal debt.
- Does the debt service have a current /valid consumer credit license issued by the Office of Fair Trading? check here
- Is the personal debt consolidation service registered at Companies House in the UK? check here
- Has the debt consolidation company registered with the Information Commissioner under the Data Protection Act? check here
If you are currently struggling to identify which personal debt consolidation solution is right for you to explore further or possibly start, please call our personal debt helpline today in confidence.
- Call 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- From a UK land line calls are usually free.
- From mobile phones it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383.
- Are you looking for a personal debt consolidation solution that does not require you to take on another loan?
Most solutions available to clear debts do not require the consumer to take out another loan or increase borrowings any further, most are personal debt solutions designed to help those that have previously or recently been refused credit and in particular those that have been refused a debt consolidation loan.
The following is a short list of the main debt solutions available and commonly used that help people to consolidate or clear debts without a loan.
- Debt Management Plans
- IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement
- Protected Trust Deeds (Scottish IVA)
- Debt Relief Order – (Debts under £15000)
- Administration Order
- Bankruptcy (Sequestration in Scotland)
Debt consolidation loans will require you to go further into debt to try and get out of it!
Monthly repayments with a new debt consolidation loan may end up being lower when compared to those minimum payments that you are presently used to paying each month.
Personal debt solutions such as those mentioned above (excluding debt consolidation loans) do not require the consumer to go through any credit check process to be accepted. Acceptance is based on the best solution at the time and each case file has a disposable income which dictates what is the best solution for that individual to explore.
If you have been trying to consolidate personal debts without a loan and have become confused with financial advice you have taken, please call our personal debt helpline today, all calls are dealt with in absolute confidence.
We are specialists in helping people who have been refused a loan to clear and consolidate personal debts without having to increase their borrowings any further. This also applies to people with too many payday loans.
We help people in debt who are experiencing all different types of changes in personal circumstance to consolidate debts without a loan.
These include but are not limited to;
- People getting divorced
- People going through a pension crisis
- People who are ill or suffering from stress
- People who have been made redundant
- Women who are pregnant in debt
- People who are disabled
- People working in the armed forces
- Expats living abroad
- People with gambling debt problems
- We may be able to help you clear debt without a loan!
At Lewis Alexander Financial Management, our debt advisors and personal debt consultants have helped numerous UK residents over the last decade to clear and consolidate personal debts without another loan in the UK.
- Call 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Calls from a UK land one are usually FREE
- It may be less expensive from a mobile to call 0161 872 3383
- Been looking to claim back Mis-Sold Payment Protection Insurance / PPi on credit agreements you may have paid off or still have outstanding?
- Currently on a Debt Management Plan and wondering why fee charging PPI companies are not falling over themselves to take on your PPi Claim or case?
When you claim back PPi or Payment Protection Insurance that may have been mis-sold to you, the lender will pay you back the money they owe in full.
If you still have an outstanding balance with the particular lender that you are claiming back mis-sold PPI from then this lender has the right to reduce your debt by what they owe you instead of sending you the funds directly! This is why fee charging PPI claim companies struggle to get paid their fees if you are in arrears or on a debt management plan.
It is often the case that the money you get back as a result of winning your PPI claim does not add up to more than what you may have outstanding, therefore you will have to find the fee to pay the PPI company which can be up to 30%.
For example;
- John B owes £4500 to Lloyds TSB Card Services
- He wins a PPI claim against Lloyds TSB for £1000
- He has used a PPI claim company that now require £300 or 30% of the £1000 won as their genuine fee for making Johns claim.
- John now owes Lloyds TSB £3500, but now also owes a PPI company that won his claim £300 which he does not have!
- John is also on a debt management plan so the fee he owes the PPI company will have to be added onto his debt management plan, this in turn means that the PPI company has to wait a long time to get the fee they are owed by John paid back in full.
- This is why most fee charging PPI companies do not want to make PPI claims for people in arrears or on debt management plans.
At Lewis Alexander we are licensed under the Consumer Credit Act by the Office of Fair Trading, this allows us to carry on the activity of debt adjustment and counselling, we are NOT licensed or regulated by the Ministry of Justice in respect to Claims Management Activities so we do not engage in the fee charging sector or services of mis-sold PPI claims.
- We offer our clients who are on a Lewis Alexander Financial Management Plan the benefit of our knowledge and get them the forms they need that enable them to understand how to claim back PPI for free themselves.
- All it costs is their time.
The information required to enable someone to claim back mis-sold PPI without paying a company a fee is readily available on the internet from sites such as “Money Saving Expert” and “Which” the consumer campaign organisation.
However, it is always reasonable to get a company to do the job for you as long as you can afford the fee they charge and have the funds to pay if your accounts you are claiming against still have outstanding balances.
- Some people genuinely struggle with forms and finding the right way to get claims processed so this is another reason why we get the forms for our debt management clients free of any charge.
- Our clients conduct the claim themselves and this way save any PPI claim fees.
When people switch debt management plans or move debt management company or service, they are often re-charged another set up fee or arrangement fee by the new debt management company that they have selected for the debt help.
This is not the case when switching debt management plan to Lewis Alexander Financial Management. We do not keep your first payment when you move debt company or services to one of our debt management plans; this is only if you have made a normal monthly payment to any other debt management company or service within the last 3 months of joining us.
This means your creditors will receive a distributed payment from the first payment onwards that you make to Lewis Alexander Financial Management. Again, this is limited to clients who have made payments to other debt management services within the last 3 months.
- Our debt consolidation help has a proven track record!
- We are specialists in debt management help and help to clear payday loans!
If you would like help with debts or simply wish to move debt management company or services and see if there any benefits for you in doing so, then please call our debt management helpline today using;
- 0800 018 6868
- Lines are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week
- Calls are usually FREE from a UK land line
- From mobiles it may be less expensive to call 0161 872 3383
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What personal debt solutions are available to consolidate personal debts in the United Kingdom?
- Which are the best personal debt consolidation solutions available?
If you are looking to consolidate personal debts and cannot find a personal debt consolidation solution that seems to suit you, it is worth taking further advice to see if you have been given all the information you need to enable you to make an informed decision.
There are long term financial implications to consider when choosing or selecting a personal debt solution and these should be considered before making a final decision.
You may have been advised to enter an IVA or even a Personal Debt Management Plan, whichever personal debt solution you have been advised to enter, you should always obtain a second opinion.
- Not every Debt Management Company will be honest with you!
- Lewis Alexander Financial Management is an established personal debt consolidation service operating nationally throughout the UK.
- All advice is given in the best interest of the respective client and all calls remain confidential.
Personal debt consolidation services and debt solutions available will differ based upon those individuals personal circumstances who are applying. If you are working you may be eligible for a debt solution that someone who is not working cannot consider, this is usually due to the person being employed and having a regular income.
There are personal debt solutions available for people who are on long term or short term state benefits but again these debt solutions will be available to people subject to the level of personal debt they may have.
When considering or exploring which personal debt solution is the best for you to proceed with, it is worth thinking about the changes you may encounter whilst that personal debt solution is in place.
- Are you due to retire in the next couple of years?
- Will you have health issues that affect your income?
- Do you receive state benefits that may stop or be reduced?
The above are just a few possible changes in circumstance that people go through whilst progressing with a personal debt solution, usually over a period of a couple of years.
If you do not consider possible future changes to your personal circumstances then you could actually fail to select the best debt solution that is right for you.
If you need help to clear or consolidate personal debts and are struggling to find the right personal debt solution, then please contact our debt helpline today in confidence.
- Call FREE using – 0800 018 6868 today!
- Lines are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week
- Your call is usually FREE from a UK land line but mobile call costs may vary.
- There has never been so many ways to get hold of financial information online about all sorts of things. Advice is not a problem to get hold of, getting hold of reliable information can be though.
- At Lewis Alexander Financial Management we have the kind of financial help and advice you want …reliable and accurate!
Most people struggling with personal debt problems say that the financial problems they have start to control their lives and in turn can keep them awake at night worrying about future financial security.
If you live in England, N Ireland, Scotland or Wales (UK) and are finding it difficult to successfully clear your debts, then take five minutes to read this blog post and then we hope you will be in a better position to make informed choices about your financial future.
We are focused on helping UK residents solve debt problems by ensuring we employ the best practices available to form a reliable debt reduction solution that works for our clients.
Debt Management Online
A debt management plan may take many equally effective forms and are built and designed on an individual basis for each and every one of our clients taking their own set of circumstances into account. They are informal and are not legally binding.
Taking all your debts and putting them together and making one, monthly repayment can be an effective way in it’s own right of clearing problem debts for many people. Many people in the UK have used this method of debt consolidation help and it works well for most of them. It is not always the best answer for everyone however. Let a debt advisor at Lewis Alexander help you decide what is the best debt help solution or service for you.
If you’ve been refused a loan, there can be alternative solutions!
There are multitude of possible reasons why you may have been turned down for a loan in the past. We can help you find out what those reasons are and then help you understand if you could actually get or qualify for a personal loan.
Individual Voluntary Arrangements
Individual Voluntary Arrangements are formal agreements that structure a repayment program over a fixed term with the end result of your final unpaid debts being written off by your creditors. Because of it’s formal nature however, an IVA will be recorded on your credit history file. All interest and charges are frozen and all correspondence from creditors is stopped.
Get more advice about other debt related issues and be armed with everything you need to get out of and clear debt. There are solutions available for anyone in debt, whether they have small, short term debts or large, long term debts which have far reaching implications for them, their family and friends.
- Do you live in the UK and need help with your personal debts?
- Have you been trying to cope with debt alone and feel you are failing?
- Are your debts making you feel unwell?
If you feel that any or all of the above questions apply to you then we can help you without a doubt. You will not be judged and you will not have to worry about your friends or family finding out.
We operate a confidential service so you can be confident of absolute discretion throughout all our dealings.
- call 0800 018 6868 today,
- Calls are usually free from a UK land line, mobile call costs may vary.
- Could we find another way to relieve the many unemployed benefit claimers or the disabled on DLA etc who are suffering with personal debt problems and the associated stresses?
When we speak with our new clients daily at Lewis Alexander Financial Management, that happen to be claiming state benefits of some kind, we ask them at what point they borrowed the money they owe to their current creditors.
Some respond and say that it was when they were working but most respond by saying it was when their circumstances were the same, however, the borrowing dates back a number of years.
It is unfortunate for people that have and do suffer changes in personal circumstance and when this happens most financial commitments need re arranging.
If however, the individual has had no change in circumstance and they are on state benefits, the chances are that the borrowing that they were involved with was most probably at the time of 2005-8 where irresponsible lending was big business and many were caught up in believing that they could afford to borrow and that it was okay to consider borrowing against state benefits considering them as a regular income.
- State benefits are not given out with the intent for the recipient to use to borrow against, they are a short term or long term supportive measure from the Government!
The suggestion we have at Lewis Alexander is for the Government to consider in a selection of trial cases, paying off directly to the lender by means of settlement in full and final, a clients debt who is currently receiving state benefits, therefore hopefully obtaining a discount for the early settlement on behalf of the client.
Yes, this would involve maybe more quantitative easing but would then be possible for the Government to reclaim the monies owed by the client by deducting it from the clients benefit payments at source. This claw back would have to be at an affordable rate to the consumer but would most probably work out less each month than currently committed to and would offer certainty of an end to the problem.
(A debt relief order was brought in for people with debts under £15000 and is a great personal debt solution but does not suit all situations.)
This may create the need for cross referencing between government departments but it would certainly relieve the pressure and stress from the individual client and add some positive cash flow to any respective creditors involved. It would also put a needed end to some of the ridiculous personal debt situations that people have found themselves in today!
Brief benefits to above suggestion;
- Consumer peace of mind
- Creditor cash flow
- Government reduction in benefit payments
Here at the Lewis Alexander debt consolidation service, we believe that only an economist, analyst or someone of such a qualified standing would be able to work out further if our suggestion has any potential benefit to any party involved.
If you are struggling to clear personal debts and find that you need the help of a debt consolidation service or financial management company, then contact our Lewis Alexander personal debt helpline today in absolute confidence.
- Call 0800 018 6868 today!
Your call is usually free from a UK land line, however, mobile call costs may vary, please check with your service provider before calling.
The amount of debt currently being managed under the wings of Lewis Alexander Financial Management escalates into many millions of UK GBP.
The average client being managed by Lewis Alexander Financial Management owes approximately £21000, whilst the amount of disposable income averages approximately £221 per client, this disposable income is offered as repayment to unsecured creditors after deducting normal and expected monthly household and living expenditure.
The repayment plans for many would identify that an IVA would be the best advice for the client but due to property ownership and other financial investments, most clients choose to stay on an informal debt management plan whilst leaving the option of the IVA (individual voluntary arrangement) open for a later date, there is nothing wrong with the client making this decision as long as the correct advice has been offered to allow them to make an informed decision.
- Client choice can and does overrule best debt consolidation help and advice!
This could be changed in the future which in some cases could be beneficial as we don’t always want to do what is best for us in life even though we have the correct advice or information to hand.
If you are struggling with personal debt issues and would benefit from the advice or help available from a debt consolidation service then please call our debt helpline which is available by dialing;
- 0800 018 6868
- Calls are usually free from a land line but mobile call costs may vary.
- Is this due to rising minimum credit card and loan repayments or down to a reduction in household income, or both?
- It could even be due to another change your in personal circumstances!
At Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we speak to many people daily who do not understand that the mortgage they have should take a priority regarding repayment over any unsecured credit card or loan or other unsecured borrowings.
When dealing with credit card and loan companies, you should be advised that your monthly mortgage payment is the most important but this information is not always forthcoming!
The reason why your mortgage should take priority over your credit card debts or other unsecured borrowings is because the mortgage / secured loan is secured against your property meaning that if you fail to keep up repayment you could be at risk of losing your home due to repossession.
- Falling into the trap of paying credit card and loan repayments before your monthly mortgage repayment is very dangerous when looking at the financial and legal implications.
If you find yourself in the above position you should take advice immediately from a personal finance consultant, your income and expenditure will need assessing and once this has been done, you will not only know what you can afford to pay towards your outstanding credit card and loan balances but you will also know if you are able to sustain your current spending plans as the assessment can identify what is going wrong. You may know what the problem is but if you do not deal with it, the problem will escalate and become quite unmanageable.
Credit cards and loans and other unsecured borrowings can be put into one monthly repayment using different forms of debt consolidation.
Debt consolidation services can help you to consolidate all your unsecured credit cards and loans and store cards and overdrafts into one monthly repayment. This is done sometimes with another loan but usually if the client is struggling, a debt solution such as a debt management plan or IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) can be more suitable or appropriate.
Debt consolidation services can help and assist you to clear financial problems without increasing your borrowings any further.
- If you require assistance with credit card or loan repayments contact Lewis Alexander Financial Management today, your call is usually free from a land line – 0800 018 6868.
Half a million people could be affected by the plans of Government to change the DLA benefit over to a new structured Personal Independence Payment (PIP).- The new system is due to replace the disability benefit later this year. Currently people receive disability living allowance for help and assistance in moving around and it is based on capability not sickness.
The Government has information to hand that suggests that DLA claims have risen at a rate that does not relate to statistics in other areas of daily life monitored closely by government offices.
- A 30% rise in recent years has been calculated for DLA claimants.
- The annual cost of benefits in UK is soon to reach £13 billion!
One problem has been continuity of DLA payments without re-assessment, if people were previously awarded DLA; they usually were never questioned or re-assessed again. Some DLA benefit may no longer be justified under the new Personal Independence Payment or PIP system and this could involve a possible half a million people currently claiming DLA or Disability Living Allowance in the UK.
Living with personal debt problems whilst on Disability Living Allowance or DLA can be a struggle in itself and here at Lewis Alexander Financial Management we understand the problems faced.
People usually struggle with cash loans and catalogue debts and unsecured credit agreements with high rate lenders when in personal debt on DLA.
This type of lender will prey on the vulnerable in society and this can end up in people utilising most of the DLA they receive to repay credit and interest.
If you are making multiple payments to credit and loan companies each month and are struggling on benefits such as DLA or Incapacity, you may wish to consider getting advice or help from a financial management company.
Once you study who your money is being paid out to each month, along with a consultant or debt advisor that can assist, you may be able to find a way to reduce your payments and make the money you get stretch further for living costs and daily life.
This should certainly be considered if you find that your DLA payments will not be as much, if at all, once the new Personal Independence Payment or PIP gets introduced.
- Call our personal debt helpline using 0800 018 6868 today.
Speak with a trained personal finance consultant and obtain further advice and help to clear personal debt problems whilst on DLA or benefits.
- Lines are open 24 hours and your call is usually free from a UK land line, mobile call costs may vary.
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The last 2 weeks have been most ironic for news regarding PPI Claims in the UK.
First off, the BBC called upon a fee charging debt management and insolvency company director to offer advice on the breakfast show about how to claim back your PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) for free.
The personal debt management and insolvency company director was not heard rushing to recommend the free to client debt charities that can help with self debt management plans such as the CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) or the National Debtline etc.
The BBC are regularly reporting on the problems within the personal debt management sector.
The fee charging side of the debt management industry who mostly are and do remain compliant get a tough ride from the news and it is rare to see an independent compliant industry member given the opportunity to publicly share views regarding compliant fee charging operations.
Why did the BBC simply not decide to have an IFA (Independent Financial Advisor) who has no commercial fee charging connection or gain from the personal debt / insolvency industry offer advice on how to claim back PPI for free?
What the BBC seem to have done is recruit a number of local professionals “up north” who make guest bookings easy for the news channel and gives them industry content for the business news, better research would ensure the correct message reached the correct people with what we believe should be a balanced message.
A comparable analogy for what the BBC did with the PPI industry last week as referred to above could be viewed as asking an active Political Dictator to advise another currently democratic electorate on policies that should be undertaken and implemented for the benefit of that currently democratic state.
The BBC did not come over as balanced in reporting about the good PPI companies if mentioned at all, no defamation is meant as this is written by a fully paid BBC TV License (2012) holder!
Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert has teamed up with the consumer action / review group Which to offer free advice on how to claim back PPI for free, or doing it yourself.
We have been led to believe without confirmation that money saving expert run by Martin Lewis operates by receiving a commission for a link or click through for savings and offers as referral payments for sales generated by the money saving expert site.
- Does the link up with Which not get Martin Lewis extra revenue at the end of each day?
- Is this now a bandwagon that all are jumping on for whatever gain is possible?
- Who can be trusted as 100% transparent?
- Why is he not mentioning this on Watchdog when commenting on other financial organisations?
- It would be leading by example if Martin put his “how the site is funded” info at the top of his site with transparency and equality regarding prominent compliance.
As with anything in life, you can either pay for a service or decide to do it yourself.
Let’s consider some choices in daily life that we face on the above decision making basis;
- Car Servicing – Do it yourself or get it done by a mechanic?
- Breakdown Cover – Use the RAC / AA or call a mate to collect you?
- Health Care – BUPA v National Health Service (NHS)
- Dentist – Dental insurance plan, visit a dentist or pull your own teeth out?
- Washing – Do it yourself or visit a Cleaner or Dry Cleaner Service?
- Job recruitment – Find a job yourself or use a recruitment agency?
We can go on listing many silly and relevant arguments for the above question of doing something yourself or paying for a service.
Usually when you employ the services or enlist a professional to undertake work for you, it is with peace of mind that the service will be a bona fide one.
Affordability, time and personal choice along with ability are the four main factors that dictate the mental decision process of enlisting paid for help or going along the DIY route in life!
When consumer groups talk about people not being aware about PPI companies charging fees we can quite understand this, however, there are bona fide PPi companies out there. Also out there are the bad ones that are exploiting the industry.
- As with anything, the consumer must beware.
Then we have to consider the vulnerable consumer, who unfortunately due to a number of reasons actually can make what we call a “rod for their own back”
Most vulnerable consumers will wish to hear that what they actually want or think is right for them, is actually available to them!
- This is where the problem starts.
- A compliant and bona fide company will try to explain with conviction that the service or product (when considering the financial services industry) the vulnerable consumer is applying for is not actually the best solution for them.
- A non-compliant company would try and sell the consumer something as close as possible to what they enquired for originally whilst still matching the vulnerable consumer to a service or product they purport to be able to deliver or supply.
The news reported that banks may win some consumer bonus points as they are writing directly to the consumer to offer PPI claim repayments where they internally evidence the client may be due a refund.
Why then, did the banks previously spend millions of £’s legally trying to win a Judicial Review to stop the requirement for Payment Protection Insurance refunds where applicable?
We appreciate the commerciality of the decision made by Banks but when taking into account the recent and current global economic problems, will it ever become policy or law for big business to incorporate a moral obligation into their business models?
Introducer and offer / savings styled websites such as Money Saving Expert, tell you to go direct to the people that miss-sold the PPI to you originally then legally tried to avoid having to repay it to you and are now offering you to deal directly to claim it back!
Are the bona fide PPI companies and debt management providers merely being reduced to the “Meat in the Sandwich” of the authoritative and media driven “big feast”?
Let’s accept the truth, if the banks did not make the error of miss-selling PPI originally and the credit companies did not overload people with unaffordable loans and credit facilities, the debt management companies and PPI companies would have nothing to do!
- Chicken or egg scenario?
If you are suffering from any personal debt problems and feel that you would benefit from the assistance of a fee charging professional bona fide and time served established debt consolidation company then contact our;
Lewis Alexander debt helpline today in absolute confidence using 0800 018 6868.
- Lines are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
- Your call is usually free from a UK land line.
- Mobile call costs to our debt helpline may vary.
- Please check before calling with your service provider.
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Are you one of the million plus people in the UK facing increased mortgage repayments? -
Do you think you will struggle to make ends meet with increased mortgage repayments?
News in the domestic financial mortgage industry reports that over one million UK homeowners are set to face increased mortgage repayments from today onwards.
Banks have been putting the reason for rate increases down to the general state of the economy and the fact that in a weak economy this is more of a requirement for them!
NatWest, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Halifax are just a few of the mortgage lenders that intend to increase rates, these increases are expected to be no more than 0.5%, some being lower!
Other banks intending to follow suit are Clydesdale, The Co-Op Bank and Yorkshire Bank.
Even though the Bank of England has kept base rates at a low, it seems that the banks have made the decision to impact a great number of existing customers.
- This 0.5% rise is expected to increase the average monthly mortgage repayment by approximately £55 on a mortgage of around £200,000.
Responsible lending is being policed by the financial authorities and moving mortgage provider may become difficult for those who have fallen into mortgage arrears or possibly have negative equity in the property they own.
- If you are struggling with mortgage arrears and other forms of personal debt, these financial problems need dealing with urgently as they don’t go away without a decent sized lottery win!
Personal debt consolidation companies can help you to clear mortgage arrears and restructure your personal unsecured credit accounts so that the mortgage can be prioritised as it should be and other creditors can get a share of what you have spare!
There are a number of debt consolidation options that can assist people in need of financial help due to mortgage arrears.
- If you think you would benefit from tailored financial help then please call our personal financial helpline today, it’s free from a land line and our lines are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
- Call 0800 018 6868
- Mobile call costs may vary!
- Trying to find a fast way to pay off debt?
- Need help to understand how quickly a debt consolidation service can get you out of debt?
Lewis Alexander is a personal debt consolidation service.
We help people to consolidate personal debts with or without loans and the individuals personal circumstance dictates which personal debt solution is best suited to that person.
With all the financial adverts telling us about personal debt and how to get out of it, a lot of people seem to be more confused than ever about what is available and which route is a sensible one to explore when trying to clear personal debts.
Contacting a debt consolidation service is one way of dealing with problem debts, this can help an individual when they are unsure about which way to turn when looking for ways to deal with the personal debt.
If you are struggling with different credit cards, personal loans and catalogues, you may not be even managing to meet the interest payments. After taking assistance from a trained debt advisor at a reputable and established debt consolidation service you could change the way you live entirely.
Many people have consolidated unsecured personal debts into one manageable affordable monthly repayment through a debt consolidation service, which helps and assists them in managing the financial problems they originally faced.
- Have you lost control of your personal finances?
- Do you have to decide which bills to pay and which ones to leave each month?
- Would you benefit from being able to reduce how much you have to pay to creditors each month?
If your financial situation means you can identify with the above statements then serious consideration should be given to how you can sort out your personal finances.
- One way to do this is through a reputable and established personal debt consolidation service.
A debt consolidation loan is a very useful way of lumping together all your debts and making just one repayment each month.
Debt consolidation loans are subject to your personal status
When you have extensive personal debts such as store cards, credit cards, mortgage arrears and personal loans all making demands on your monthly income, it can become very difficult to make ends meet sometimes, especially if you suffer a further change in your personal circumstances.
Getting good financial debt advice before taking out a debt consolidation loan is very important and you should never be charged for that UK debt advice. If you are currently being charged for debt advice, walk away!
- With the help and assistance of a debt consolidation service you could be able to make just one affordable monthly repayment!
If you would like to talk to a trained personal debt consultant to see if a debt consolidation service could help you, please call Lewis Alexander today in confidence and one of our trained debt advisors will assist you.
A debt consolidation loan can form part of an overall personal debt management plan as well as remaining a stand alone solution in its own right. Again this is subject to the person’s personal credit status.
- Read more about how professional debt management services can help you.
- Find out what can be done if you have already been refused a loan to consolidate debts.
- Want to know more about personal loan services?
- Trying to find out if an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement suit you?
- In Scotland you would need a Protected Trust Deed, not an IVA!
- Have you been threatened or thought of going bankrupt and do you wish to know if there is anything you can do to stop the legal proceedings?
Can a Personal Debt Consolidation Service really help me? I think it may be too late!
Even if things have gone too far and a debt consolidation company or service is contacted too late, we will gladly assess your situation and make suggestions in an attempt to help you find a way out of the personal debt and financial troubles you may be facing.
- Our financial helpline is free to call from a land line and our lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- (Calls charges from mobiles may vary, please check with your service provider before calling)
Lewis Alexander is a Financial Management Company operating nationally in the UK.
- We help people who are struggling financially on a daily basis to consolidate personal debts.
We do this by tailoring personal financial management solutions such as Debt Management Plans (DMPs) or Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) to the individual client. These personal debt solutions are particularly useful if a consumer has recently been refused a loan or credit for the purpose of debt consolidation.
Not all financial management companies can or will manage your personal unsecured debts for you.
- Some just refer you onto other services.
At Lewis Alexander Financial Management, we do manage debt after offering advice and our clients tend to find that once the financial problems they have are managed, financial life can become clearer and they can then try and concentrate on how to clear the debts in a shorter period of time rather than dwelling on the fact that they cannot afford the repayments that they are currently being chased for by credit card or loan companies, including banks and other types of credit suppliers.
A professional financial management company will attempt to get the interest and charges frozen whilst trying to reduce creditor contact for a client on a debt management plan (this cannot be guaranteed with debt management) however, with an IVA or Individual Voluntary Arrangement the interest and charges are guaranteed to be frozen and creditors should also be expected not to contact you directly.
- There are advantages and disadvantages that apply when entering an IVA and you should read the following page regarding advantages and disadvantages of an IVA.
A personal financial management plan is a debt management plan. They are also sometimes called structured repayments plans but most personal financial management companies will call them debt management plans if being set up for an individual consumer. You can read the following information about advantages and disadvantages of a debt management plan.
- If you think you would benefit from speaking with a trained personal finance consultant who can then offer assistance, please call us free from a land line using 0800 018 6868.
Lewis Alexander Financial Management is an experienced personal debt consolidation service with many happy and satisfied clients who have already used our financial services to clear personal debts in the past.
If you are struggling financially and think you would benefit from a tailored financial consolidation solution that could offer you one monthly repayment without having to take on any further credit, then contact is today.
- Our lines are open 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and your call is usually free from a UK land line.
- Call 0800 018 6868 now, all calls remain confidential!
- Did you know we help Expats who have tried and are struggling to clear debts?
If you need assistance dealing with personal debt problems and are an Expat of the UK then Lewis Alexander could be able to help you.
We help many Expatriates of the UK who find it difficult to manage the credit cards and loans that they have outstanding in the UK. Not all Expats struggle with personal debt problems and when they do it can be very difficult and time consuming sorting the issues out.
Firstly it can be a struggle due to time differences and secondly many people living abroad are involved in jobs that are also particularly time consuming.
Finding the time to not only get to grips with your financial situation but then subsequently sorting it out can be very hard indeed and in itself takes some weeks even though with the best of intentions you would like to be able to do it over a weekend or in an evening.
Living abroad has its own stress and having a debt consultant in the UK to deal with the problems for you can be a real help. We have helped people based all around the world who have moved permanently or have just temporarily left the UK, they are based in places such as Hong Kong, Japan, Ireland, Brazil, Argentina, India, Thailand, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Austria, Hungry, Saudi Arabia, Russia, South Africa etc…
Lewis Alexander helps many Expats in the Military/Army and also helps Expat Professionals and Retired Expats.
Most cases can be solved with a common and efficient debt solution such as
When the above debt solutions do not seem viable for an Expat, other debt help UK and advice becomes readily available.
If you are an UK Expatriate who requires assistance to sort personal debt problems including credit card and loan debts then contact Lewis Alexander using our personal debt helpline today.
- 0800 018 6868 – lines are open 24 hours / 7 days
- Your call is dealt with in absolute confidence and your call is free from a UK land line.
Calls from other networks or countries may vary, you should ask your telecoms provider about the costs of calling 0800 numbers.
- Do you need debt consolidation help UK and advice regarding payday loans?
- Are you struggling with payday loans and multiple credit card debts?
Did you know that you could consolidate your debts and have one monthly repayment with an IVA or debt management plan and other personal debt consolidation solutions?
Every day we hear from people that need help to consolidate personal debt and they say that they wish they could have found us 1 year ago! Why would they say this?
Maybe because when they speak with us they realise all the recent payday loans they took out no longer make things any better and the financial problems they faced are still there, if not larger now with the added payday loans they have taken on.
- So what can you do?
It all stems back to the time when the individual knowingly inside admitted to themselves that they cannot meet the financial commitments they have that day, week or month. When the individual realises this, it is the decision they then make on how to deal with a debt problem that can create the situation we discussed above.
If someone is struggling with payday loans and other credit cards and overdraft facilities, the worst thing they can do is try to borrow out of the debt problem, unless you have a fabulous income and have had one out of the ordinary month with regards to outgoings and expenditure, then there are arguments for someone borrowing their way out of a long term debt problem, otherwise you need to decide very quickly that another loan is not what you need and it is usually when the individual gets refused loans that they then realise more credit is just not possible and they find themselves struggling to consolidate personal debt.
- So how can you consolidate payday loans?
It all depends on your current financial circumstance, usually you will be struggling every month if you are in the grasps of payday lenders and you need to speak with a debt consolidation company or advice centre about your monthly income and expenditure to find out what is going wrong. You may already know what the problem is (too many payday loans?) so the answer could be to contact the companies you owe money to and make arrangements to repay at a rate you can afford as opposed to rates and timescales that suit those companies or lenders.
Consolidating Payday Loans is not easy because of the way that payday loan companies take the money you owe them back, they do it by debiting the money directly from your bank account at a time very close to you getting paid, leaving you with no money for that month if you have borrowed from a number of payday lenders.
You can consolidate payday loans if you qualify for a debt management plan or IVA / Individual Voluntary Arrangement; these are personal debt consolidation solutions that enable you to consolidate debts into one monthly payment, without the need to borrow any more money.
If you wish to find out if you qualify to consolidate payday loans by utilising an available personal debt solution, then contact our personal debt helpline today which is free to call from a land line using 0800 018 6868, mobile call costs may vary.
- Consolidate payday loans if you are genuinely struggling by calling us now – 0800 018 6868
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Do you know how much credit card debt was written off in the UK last year?
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£3.6 Billion!
Outstanding credit card debt to the tune of £3.6 billion was written off credit cards in the UK in 2011, the figure of credit card debt written off in the previous year (2010) was approximately £5 billion.
- What does this say about the way people are dealing with outstanding financial commitments?
- Are people simply walking away from their credit card debts and choosing an alternative solution to getting out of debt such as going bankrupt.
Sometimes when circumstances change for an individual, personal debt becomes the last thing that they are able to pay as the priority bills such as electricity or gas, water and council tax are also mounting up in the form of arrears.
There are more people enquiring for loans in 2012, for the purpose of funding every day general living than we have seen before in the last 10 years of servicing the personal loan industry in the UK.
If you are struggling with credit card debt and unable to manage your repayments, the most important thing to start with is making sure you are prioritising the right bills and credit agreements, you must not pay unsecured debts as a priority over expenses such as rent or council tax or mortgage arrears.
If you find yourself struggling with debt problems you should take advice, there are very few personal debt problems that cannot be solved, however, the sooner you seek advice, the sooner you can start to clear debts in a structured way, possibly by entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement or Debt Management Plan.
For help and advice regarding personal debt issues and the associated of problems of dealing with debt, please contact our debt helpline free from a land line, in confidence.
Lines are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
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Call 0800 018 6868 today.
Have you found yourself wondering “Is an IVA right for me?”
- This is a question we get asked regularly by clients who are not sure which route would be the best for them to clear their personal debts.
Quite often people find it difficult to decide between an (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) IVA or Bankruptcy and an IVA or DMP (Debt Management Plan).
There are a number of simple questions (above and beyond the financial statement) that need asking to identify if an IVA would be right for you or which solution any particular client would be most suited to. Examples follow but are not limited to;
- Is the client a home owner with equity?
- Is the client in full time employment?
- Does the client have a stable job?
- How old is the client?
- Is the client self employed?
- Where does the client live? – For example, England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
- Is the client committed to clearing their financial problems!
If you find yourself asking “is an IVA is right for me” you must not yet have spoken with anyone who can explain the benefits and pitfalls or pros and cons of an IVA to you based on your current circumstances.
- If you had you would not be asking yourself “Is an IVA right for me?”
You could spend all day deciding “is an IVA right for me” or which route to take or which debt solution would be best suited to you, however, after speaking with professional debt advice services you may find the answer sooner than you expect.
If you do not seek the personal tailored debt advice regarding an IVA being right for you, a bad decision could be made.
Should you wish to speak with a personal finance consultant,
- call our Lewis Alexander debt helpline (free from a land line) using 0800 018 6868
- lines are open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
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Do you need help with personal debt?
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Obtain onfidential help with your personal debt problems from UK debt consultants in Manchester, England.
- Debt that is not correctly managed often just gets steadily worse and very little of what you pay towards those debts actually goes towards reducing those debts.
At Lewis Alexander, we are a team of professional debt advisors whose aim is to help get as many people as possible out of debt. We have a team of dedicated individuals who are specialist debt management and IVA consultants.
We are dedicated to providing confidential, personal debt counselling to financially struggling families and individuals through personal debt management help and advice.
Because there are so many different ways of tackling personal debt we like to talk to the people we are trying to help as soon as possible. Every day lost is more interest and charges needlessly being paid to creditors. Don’t wait a day longer.
Call us right now using 0800 018 6868 and let one of our trained advisors start you on the road to being clear of debt today. It doesn’t cost a penny for the call from a UK land line. It could mean the beginning of the end for your debts though, at “Lewis Alexander” this is what we want for every single one of our clients.
- Are the debt repayments you make each month eating up nearly all of your income?
- Are the letters and phone calls from creditors getting you down?
- Have you had a debt consolidation loan refused?
At Lewis Alexander, when we speak to people who come to us with debt problems they always say how much better they feel even though they have only had the initial talk with a debt management advisor. Once we have discussed their situation and come up with an effective debt management plan for their future, the debt management help and advice makes a great difference to peoples lives.
Use the following links for further debt management help information!
- Find our how debt can effect your health
- Find out how an IVA in England or Trust Deed in Scotland could help you
- Find out how to repair your credit rating
- Find out how we can help you get out of debt
- Do you understand what a county court judgement is?
The debt advice and help is on offer, all you have to do is call 0800 018 6868 today. Talk to our trained debt management advisors and they will give you confidential debt management help and advice to clear your debt.
- Call today in confidence! – 0800 018 6868 – lines open 24hrs / 7 days
