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Dealing with Debt: an online guide Welcome to the Bureau on-line guide to dealing with your debts. This step-by-step guide will help you to deal with your creditors and regain control of your finances. Although there are many different ways of dealing with debts, depending on your situation, only one or two options may be available to you. We strongly recommend that you seek advice from a Citizens Advice Bureaux if you are having difficulties in dealing with your debts - please click here for more information on how to contact us. |
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Gathering paperwork Before you begin, it is a good idea to sort through all of your paperwork. In order to successfully deal with a your debts, you will need to gather and collect as much information as you can find to illustrate your financial position. See the list below. Completing a personal budget Once completed, your budget will provide you with a complete overview of your current financial situation, showing where you get your money from, what you spend your money on, how much money you owe, who you owe it to and how much you can afford to pay them. Working out a personal budget is an essential means of dealing with any debt problem and will not only help you to choose the best options to deal with your debts, but it can also be used to help you negotiating tool with your creditors. Using the Bureau-online budget calculator With the Bureau budget calculator, completing your personal budget is made easier. Over the next few pages, we will give you instructions on how to successfully complete your budget. All you will need to do is follow the on-screen instructions and enter your information in the spaces provided. Once you have activated the online budget sheet, you can start entering your personal details. In order to carry on using this site while the budget sheet is in use, simply minimise the budget sheet window, and carry on moving around using the links provided. Please make sure that you do not close the window until you have completely finished all four pages of your personal budget, or any progress that you have made will be lost. Also, make sure that you print each page (or save it in a word document) as you go along, or again, any progress you have made on a previous page will be lost, once you move on to the next page. Work through this guide one step at a time, completing each task before moving on to the next one. Each Step is listed below: Step 1 - Your income Step 2 - Your spending Step 3 - Listing your debts Step 4 - Prioritising your debts Step 5 - Negotiating with your creditors Paperwork to collect In order to complete your budget accurately you will need to check your paperwork. This involves collecting together all of your unpaid bills, bank statements, loan agreements, letters from your creditors, credit card statements, pay slips, unopened mail benefit or pension books, and any other documents that you can find that relate to your finances. Once you have collected your paperwork, sort the different types into piles and then put into date order. Use the following list as a rough guide: Your last 4 to 5 pay slips Your Benefit or Pension books (and any letters relating to them) Mortgage details Secured loan details Details of Rent (such as a rent book or current tenancy agreement) Details of Ground Rent or Service Charges Council Tax bills (and any letters relating to them) Gas and Electricity bills for the past year (and any letters relating to them) Water charges bills (and any letters relating to them) Details of any insurance policies - Life, Buildings, Contents, Endowments, etc Details of any Occupational, Personal or Stakeholder Pension policies Your last 4 to 5 telephone bills Bank Statements Credit or Charge card statements Store card statements Details of any catalogue or Hire Purchase (HP) agreements Details of any Personal Loans or Overdrafts Any court papers that you may have Details of any other company or person (including family members) that you owe money to Any other information, letters, papers or bills that you think may be important | |
