Are you trying to free yourself from the claws of debt? A lot of people feel hopeless in such a situation. But do not give up. These days, you have a lot of debt relief options and it’s easy to avoid bankruptcy. You can also hire professional services, like debt settlement help, if you need it. So there is no reason to panic.

How to start?

To begin with, you should call up the customer care executives of the financial institution. They are often authorized to help the consumers who are under distress. For instance, you might have a new repayment plan or a lower interest rate. Emphasize on the fact that you do not want collection agencies to handle your account. If you are sincere and honest, most financial institutions would listen to you.

Credit counseling agencies

It is possible that certain creditors would refuse to lend you an ear. In that case, you should approach a non-profit credit counseling agency. Credit counseling agencies have a good professional relationship with most financial institutions. Therefore, the financial institutions usually do not refuse to talk to them.

Credit counseling agencies negotiate with the creditors for better terms and conditions. You can consolidate your debt with the help of these agencies. They would discuss repayment plans and negotiate interest rates with the creditors. The credit counseling agencies also help the debtors with better money management, financial information and debt calculators.

Debt settlement and bankruptcy

These are pretty serious debt relief options for people in acute financial crisis. Many debtors find themselves in a situation where paying off the entire debt seems out of question. Debt settlement and bankruptcy are options for these people. Let’s have a brief look at these two options.

Debt settlement: A debt settlement company negotiates with creditors for reduction of debt. If the negotiation is successful, your debt can be reduced by more than 50%. Debt settlement is definitely a better alternative to bankruptcy, but it would temporarily affect your credit rating.

Bankruptcy: This should always be your last option. Bankruptcy will eliminate your secured as well as unsecured debts, but it will also stay on your credit report for 7-10 years. Getting loans in future will be quite difficult for you.

You can definitely get out of debt without undergoing the trauma of bankruptcy. Just know your options and approach the right people for help.

Guest Blogger: Shannen Doherty

Author’s Bio: Shannen Doherty is a financial writer associated with Oakview law group, she has completed her post graduation in finance. She writes on various topics on finance like debt settlement, debt consolidation as well as on personal bankruptcy etc.

Yorkshire people are proud. We know because we are a Yorkshire company and proud to be so. We are independent and self reliant people but what happens when circumstances beyond our control leave us in serious debt? A victim of the recession maybe? In the process of a divorce or separation? A death in the family? A loss of job? Whatever the reason help is at hand and there is no need to feel ashamed or embarrassed. You are not alone. 372 people a day will be declared insolvent or bankrupt this year alone. That equates to 1 person every 4 minutes. If you get help now you may be able to avoid a permanent scar on your credit record. More than 87% of our clients have avoided bankruptcy altogether and are taking advantage of a Debt Management Plan.

A Debt Management Plan (DMP) is a method used in various countries for paying personal unsecured debts. Typically, such debts are out of control – payments are late and/or take too large a portion of income, or even exceed it. A DMP usually involves a third party organization that looks at all or some of the debts, assessing income and budget, and re-negotiating interest rates and payments with the lenders. The negotiated rates and payment plan is based upon the probability of a higher likelihood of collection by the lenders in light of the debtor’s more realistic monthly repayment.

DMPs are typically a managed arrangement with creditors through a third party. The debtor may use a free creditor-sponsored DMP organisation or a fee-charging DMP company. Accepting any terms of a DMP proposal put forward on behalf of the debtor is always at the discretion of the creditors. A good debt advice service recognises this and will only suggest a debtor pays what they can realistically afford after their priority expenses are met. Priority expenses usually include mortgage or rent, food and utilities. Creditors usually request a review of the debtor’s situation annually to ensure they are paying as much as they can reasonably afford.

We keep it simple so you can get started on a plan as soon as possible and get your life back on track and under your control.

No more credit cards or loans, a sensible solution to your debt problems.

Our experienced debt advisors are always on hand to provide support and hold your hand through the whole process. Why not give us a call to see what we can do to help you? 0113 322 0292 – We’re in this together!

Congratulations to Mr P from Sidcup!

His claim for injury compensation resulting from a road accident  has been settled today for £3200 !

Result!

Have you had a road accident that wasnt your fault? Are you suffering from a liability dispute and feel as though your car insurance company isnt fighting your corner? Perhaps you are only insured third party fire & theft and your insurance company is refusing to deal with the damage? Why not give us a call 0845 2997790 or send us a quick call back request. Whatever you need we wont pressure you or try to mislead you. All we promise is a straight answer!

Ok so the first response is in and guess what? Capital One is denying liability that they mis-sold me my PPI in spite of the fact that I was self employed at the time.

Their answer:

‘Your client applied for an account with us via an internet application form on 13th May 2005. As part of the application process we do indeed offer the option for your client to show an interest in purchasing the PPI. Our records indicate that your client did tick the box to show an interest in purchasing the PPI policy.

However your client didnt complete the PPI section on the internet application to confirm they wanted to purchase the PP, so it wasnt aded to their account at this time.

Your client purchased the optional PPI policy via the telephone on 30th September 2005. During this conversation we would have presented your client with the features and benefits of PPI in a clear, factual non-misleading manbner. Your client would then have given us their explicit consent for the policy to be added to their account”.

They are refusing to deal with the claim or provide a transcript or tape of the conversation and advising ‘go to the ombudsman. Interesting.

My questions:

Who called who? (I suggest it would be they called me on a marketing call – cant see me calling them??)

If there is no impropriety on their behalf why not provide the transcript?

If they are dont make any advice why call me?

Will keep you posted!!

LEGAL EXPENSES COVER – VITAL!

This is perhaps the biggest con out there. Once again the British Public are being conned into thinking that they would be liable to huge legal bills in the case of a liability dispute. So we pay anything from £20-£50 for legal expenses insurance.

Firstly – If you have an accident and it’s not your fault you are entitled to free representation anyway as the costs are borne by the at fault insurer. This includes passengers in the fault vehicle. Secondly – The driver in the fault car can’t claim compensation anyway as he basically can’t sue himself! So why would he incur legal costs?  The only time it would be useful would be if your insurer refused to fight liability but you felt you had a good case. In this instance – ask an independent company such as Rescue Accident Assistance. They will tell you if you have a chance. If you do they would take it on for you free and if not at least you are getting a straight answer. If you don’t have a case why would you want to pursue it anyway?? Save yourself the £50!

Of course I haven’t even touched on the fact that in the event of a non-fault accident your insurer would sell your claim on to a third party company anyway to deal with repairs. They even have an agreement to use their own name when calling the customer so you think it is still your insurer – just a different department. Ever wonder why it’s a separate number?? Insurers have this nailed because for the privilege of dealing with your claim they will get a cool £800-£1200 per person on top of your £50. So they get paid twice!…Remind me again why insurance is so expensive???

Congratulations to Mr V from Bathgate!

His claim for minor injury compensation resulting from a road accident  has been settled today for £1244 without the need of a medical exam!

Result!

Have you had a road accident that wasnt your fault? Are you suffering from a liability dispute and feel as though your car insurance company isnt fighting your corner? Perhaps you are only insured third party fire & theft and your insurance company is refusing to deal with the damage? Why not give us a call 0845 2997790 or send us a quick call back request. Whatever you need we wont pressure you or try to mislead you. All we promise is a straight answer!

Congratulations to Mr P from Charing Cross!

His claim for injury compensation resulting from a road accident  has been settled today for £2000.

Result!

Have you had a road accident that wasnt your fault? Are you suffering from a liability dispute and feel as though your car insurance company isnt fighting your corner? Perhaps you are only insured third party fire & theft and your insurance company is refusing to deal with the damage? Why not give us a call 0845 2997790 or send us a quick call back request. Whatever you need we wont pressure you or try to mislead you. All we promise is a straight answer!

Congratulations to Miss S from Sidcup!

Her claim for injury compensation resulting from a road accident  has been settled today for £2200.

Result!

Have you had a road accident that wasnt your fault? Are you suffering from a liability dispute and feel as though your car insurance company isnt fighting your corner? Perhaps you are only insured third party fire & theft and your insurance company is refusing to deal with the damage? Why not give us a call 0845 2997790 or send us a quick call back request. Whatever you need we wont pressure you or try to mislead you. All we promise is a straight answer!

IF YOU HAVE AN ACCIDENT AND IT WASNT YOUR FAULT YOUR INSURER WILL ARGUE LIABILITY

Oh Dear if you believe this one I’ll tell you another! The truth is every claim that is reported to an insurance company is categorised very quickly. Despite what the customer may say the ‘notification agent’ will make a quick deduction as to who is at fault and allocate the claim accordingly. Read the small print – your insurer has final say on who is liable – not you. Not to mention the fact that it is often cheaper for the insurer to accept liability straight away than it is to argue it. The quicker an insurance company accept liability and deal with repairs the less likely a personal injury claim will arise or a solicitor will get involved, escalating costs. In addition they can control the costs of the repair to the other vehicle. Excellent.

Just one problem…what happens if you genuinely are not liable for the incident and the other party is lying? Once everything is paid and the claim is closed, how likely is it the insurer will continue to fight for you? Even with no claims protection it would still go down on record as having been your fault. Not to mention your excess?

Think they will appoint a solicitor for you? After all you paid for legal expenses. Unlikely – the solicitor they would appoint would also be acting for the insurance company. Slight problem with conflict here as your insurer isn’t fighting liability!

Also when it comes down to it are they really going to stump up all the investigation costs? Locus Reports, Witness Statements and so on? It all costs more money. If you think a large insurance company can process on average over 400 claims a day…you do the math!

What Your Insurance Companies Don’t Want You To Know!

Firstly I’d like to say thank you to Rescue Accident Assistance for allowing me to guest post on their blog. I have known Lisa for some time and she is probably the most open person I know-  but it takes great courage to allow someone to write an article such as this and make it public. Perhaps more courage than I have so for the moment I shall just be referred to as ‘The Insider’.

Interestingly enough my background was primarily in sales until I made the leap into the insurance industry securing a position as a claims manager in a large insurance company. Dont get me wrong – I knew insurance companies were ruthless but truth be told I had no idea until I started working in the claims sector just how bad it actually was.

Nevertheless one has to admire their skills. One thing the insurance industry is very good at is fooling the general public into thinking that they can be trusted. Despite a ridiculous amount of bad press, disastrous reports from friends and/or family and consistently poor service from foreign call centres, we the British Public are still it seems afraid of taking matters into our own hands and forcing our insurers to submit to our will. We are after all, the customer are we not?

With this in mind I thought it would be useful to dispel a few myths in respect of our car insurance and accident claims which insurers have worked so hard to embed in our consciousness.  Primarily so we can make a much more educated approach to deciding our next course of action should we be unlucky enough to be involved in a vehicle incident.

I will be adding a different part at regular intervals as there is far too much to put in one complete post. But all comments are welcome and any questions you may have are happily answered.