Case Study - Georgina's Story

After separating from my partner, I found myself with just over £15,000 of debt. Initially, I turned to a charitable organstion for help and got the usual advice about paying £1 a week to each creditor for the rest of my life. They didn't look into refinancing my debt or restructuring it in any way and IVA's were not an option then.

I was sent paying-in books by my creditors, which I had to use each week at the post office. At this time, I had lost my home and had to move into a council house, which involved yet another weekly paying-in book. I was also using electricity and gas prepayment meters with rechargeable cards, which at the time could only be topped up at the post office.

So there I was, I had lost my home and my self respect and seemingly spending hours each week at the post office, all for no particular fault on my part. I was even going out of the village to another post office where no-one knew me, to make my regular payments to creditors, and I felt humiliated going into the neighbourhood office to pay my council house rent. My life was a shambles, I had three children under six and I was pretty miserable.

After working part-time for a year, I took the plunge and went full-time with my employees, so I decided to ring every single creditor and negotiate an agreement (and at that time much of my arrears has been sold on to debt recovery firms). I asked each of them what was the minimum amount of my outstanding debt they would accept, in order to write it off in full and final settlement. In the main they asked for between 70% and 75% and gave me a window of 28 days to respond to the offer, otherwise it would be withdrawn, which seemed to be normal at the time.

The ball had started rolling and I took the bull by the horns and went to my bank, who I'd been with for a year, and asked them for a loan, given that I was now in full-time employment. I got approval for around £10,000 and I was able to repay all my creditors and my debts were settled. I already had default notices placed on my file by creditors (although thankfully no County Court Judgements), so I didn't have the temptation of continuing to spend on credit. Several months later, I had my credit files amended to say that I had made full and final settlement, so that was that. It was a daunting and unhappy experience, but it has given me the insight to help others with their debt problems now.