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I am making this topic as I feel it may useful to somebody.

I have recently been looking into consolidating my debts, however I have had a bumpy ride due to having a low (or no) credit rating. So below is a couple of things to bear in mind if your going to consolidate your debt.

First things first, do not under any circumstance get a payday loan, e.g Payday Express, Wonga, Quick quid, as they will apply all kind of charges if you dont repay it back, however there is a way out of these if u have them along with other debts. Read below.

As my research has gone on, I have learnt that you can go on a DMP (Debt Management Plan) before somebody takes out a CCJ (county court judgement) on you as long as your debts equal to approx £2000.00. Otherwise there are other alternatives for you.

What I have found out is that, there are certain things you can and can't put into a Debt Management Plan, the only thing you can put into a DMP is unsecured debt. For example, unsecured loans, payday loans, credit cards and overdrafts. The things you can't put on it are guarantor loans, secured loans (either against your home, car or jewellery) or car finance.

Guarantor loans are a good way out, (i.e. FLM loans) however you have to find somebody who will be your guarantor, who is a UK homeowner, has a good credit rating and is younger than 67.

Jewellery loans I personally wouldn't go through as you run the risk of not getting your jewellery back if it is of centimental value (i.e. If the company goes into administration).

Obviously secured loans on your home and possessions can be very risky, because if you default on it, they may have the right to take your home and possessions to pay off outstanding debt.

I have also found out that you are not able with some companies to be in arrears with your debt before they take on your creditors. With a debt management plan they freeze all interest on your debt and you pay a monthly fee (subject to status and your position) that monthly fee that you pay them goes stragiht to your creditors to pay off your debt, however a small sum, of usually 17.5% of the payment goes to the company who is dealing with your debt.

If you want anymore advice off me, as I feel with my research I have a good knowledge of this, just pm me, and I will try and help.

As it happens, I am now in the process of consolidating my debt with a company called McCambridge Duffy into one lower monthly payment.

Best advice for someone with debts that is struggling, is to go and see the CAB - they will both help to you arrange affordable repayment plans with your creditors, and refer you to other agencies who specialise in debt - and they don't charge any fee for this service, in fact the CAB can actually pay admin certain costs for you, so you dont have to. Most of these "debt consolidation companies" add their own fee's etc on top of what you already owe, or cream off from your monthly payments.

My best advice is though, simply don't get into debt you can't afford to pay back - never affected me or my lifestyle all these years. If you are sensible with your finances from the word go, then you don't have to worry about becoming sensible later on.

Yes Matty, nice advice there, but sometimes it takes you to make these mistakes before you learn from them. And all the advice I have just given you came from the CAB as that is where I was advised to go.

So yeh staying out of debt is probably easier for some than others.

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good luck Nikki. Yep, it sometimes takes an error to learn and most of us have been there. It takes will power to do without stuff that you don't really need. My mate has just lost his house through debt consolidation to beware. I tried to warn him against it but they convinced him it would sort things out, less than 2 years and it didn't. Hope you don't learn the hard way.

It should be pointed out that in order to provide debt advice, one should really have a consumer credit licence from the OFT to cover such activities. It's a nice offer, but a bit of online research can't ever replace qualified advisors, such as CAB, etc.