Hi many thanks for that advice. The majority of my direct debits do come out around the time i get paid however there are one or two that don't come out until a week or two later and these are the problematic ones. I was unsure if i could speak to the bank regarding the bank charges i am incurring after the recent bad press about bank charges. Maybe that's also a possibility. I may indeed have to speak to my debt management company to reduce my monthly amount, even for a short period of time until i can get myself on an even keel again. I have reduced the amount on a couple of occasions but must always "catch up" over the next 2 months, i.e. i pay them £500 a month and have reduced the amount to £250 but then over the next 2 months i must pay them £625 to pay back what i now owe. Anyway, i've my fingers crossed for a 2nd job and hopefully this will help me buy the christmas presents my children are expecting!!

Thanks again for your advice

Hi

The banks and other organisations can appear to make debt worse by applying this sort of punishment in the form of fees or charges.

I think you need to do the following.

1) Do a full budget of your expenses and look into any savings that you could make. And I mean every item on the list including food, transport, gas & electricity, Insurances etc. Budget advice see http://www.cccs.co.uk/budget/budget.aspx

2) Write down all the direct debts in the date order that they are due to come out. Is it possible for companies to change the date direct debits are debited from your account? Can they change the DD dates to nearer the date that you get paid? If you got paid on say the 1st of the month, it would be better for most of the DD's to come out as early in the month as possible. It might not leave much to pay for you to live on for the rest of the month, but atleast you would know what you have left and will not incur the fees/charges.

3) If your budget is trimmed to the bone and your reasonable expenditure is more than your earnings, I would suggest that you go back to the debt management company, to review the current repayment plan. If the debt managers are in agreement with you, they should be willing to write to creditors to negotiate revised payments.

In regard to 2) you will find than most companies are flexible on DD dates these days. Amend the ones you can and for others, just make sure you keep enough money in the account to service these.

Hope this helps.

Huckster

I am currently paying my debt off through a debt management company. I don't have any loans or credit cards anymore. My bank won't give me an overdraft and it keeps charging me between £150 - £300 a month as my account keeps going in the red. I get charged this amount as the bank wont pay my direct debits while im overdrawn and i then incur fees. Then because my direct debits aren't paid the companies write to me and charge me a fee on top of the missed payment, i.e. car insurance was £29.19 but the company then charge me a £20 fee so i end up paying £49.19. I can't get any overtime in work because there isn't any and at the moment i am trying to find a 2nd job to boost my income. Any advice would be greatly appreciated because i'm sinking fast!!