Worry ‘not the answer to debt’

Worrying about debt is not the answer, whereas taking practical steps is, an expert has said.

Commenting on the issue, hypnotherapist and life coach at Mypartnerisdepressed.com Caroline Carr said: "Do what you can to take steps to sort your finances. It's ok to ask for help. Once you have done what you can, let it go. Worrying about it does not actually help or alleviate the situation."

Those who are in particularly deep debt may find one way out of a very stressful situation is to seek an individual voluntary arrangement, or IVA.

An IVA works by negotiated reduced (and more manageable) repayments with creditors, leading to debt being frozen and the new amounts being paid over a period not exceeding five years.

While these new payments do have to be maintained with discipline, those taking on an IVA can find it frees them from the stress of being chased by debt collectors or bailiffs and can help take away the prospect of repossession.

And having some kind of control over a situation is important, Ms Carr said, because "money issues can often seem to be way out of our control".

IVAs are binding on all creditors as long as three quarters of those owed money agree to the proposed revised payments.

The level of consumer debt was revealed to be £55,822 per household including mortgages, with this still amounting to £8,042 when secured lending is discounted, according to Credit Action's October statistics digest.

And there are also 154 mortgage possession orders issued every day as many fail to stay in their homes.

Posted by Paul Thacker