Preparing for your
debt advice session
If you are having
difficulties in dealing with your debts you have a choice.
You can either have a debt advice session with the Bureau or use our
self help guide. If you wish to seek help from us please
Click Here for
more information on how to contact us. If you wish to use our self help
guide
Click Here
Whether you phone or drop in to see us, you will have an initial, short
interview to establish your needs. Usually you will be offered an interview
by appointment either face to face or on the telephone.
Gathering together your
paperwork
Prior to your appointment
it would help if you could gather together any paperwork
to help us sort out your finances. This involves collecting together all of your
unpaid
bills, bank statements, pay slips, unopened mail benefit or pension, and any
other
documents that you can find that relate to your finances.
Once you collected your paperwork, you will find it helpful to sort the
different types
into piles and then put each of them into date order.
Here is a rough guide to the paperwork you will need:
- 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 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
Starting to put together
your budget
Have a go at putting down
your income and expenditure in a budget. You can either do this by
hand using a booklet available from the Bureau called "Dealing With Your Debts"
published
by the Money Advice Trust, or by
Clicking Here.
This guide will help you to prepare for your
interview deal with your creditors, but don't worry if you find it too
complicated - we are here
to help you.
Although there are many different ways of dealing with debts, depending on your
situation,
only one or two options may be available to you.
Gathering paperwork
Before you begin, it is good idea to sort through all of your paperwork. In
order to successfully
deal with 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.
Completeing a personal budget
Once completed, your budget will provide you with a complete overview of your
current financial
situation, showing where you get your mney 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 as
a 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.
Please Click Here to
activate the online budget calculator
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, completeing each task before moving
on to the
next one.