A mate of mine has just been made rundundant ..he is worried about bills..any advice or suggestions?

Question

A mate of mine has just been made redundant and he is panicing as he has a number of monthly commitments..mobile phone bills etc as he is under contract. is there any way he can get out of paying these bills or can he ask the relevent network to lower his monthly charges so that he can still meet the terms of his agreement without falling behind and defaulting as he will have nowhere near the level of income he used to have when he was in paid work.. i have told him he will have to find the money whatever the situation but am i wrong

Answer 1

Dump all the expensive 'optional extras' NOW.

Contact the Mobile Phone Company, explain that he can no longer afford the payments and needs to move to a 'Pay as you Go' tariff. Cancel the Direct debit.

The following MUST be paid :-
Mortgage (contact the Mortgage Company, explain he is in temporary difficulties and ask for a payment holiday)
Utilities (Gas/Water/Electricity) .. go one-line and find cheaper suppliers ..
Rates.

The following can be dumped now :-
Gym, Magazine Subscriptions etc.

If he has other loans , make an appointment with Citizens Advise (CAB) to talk about Debt.

Answer 2

The first two answers are good advice. I'd just like to add that he or she should try to cancel the mobile contract and stop using it. Use landlines either from home or from coin boxes. But what about mortgages, rent, credit card interest? Surely these are also problems.

As long as his or her partner does not work 16 hours a week, your friend can claim Income Support as well as Jobseekers Allowance and Council Tax Benefit. Also, do not be ashamed to flash the UB40 in shops and other places and ask for discounts for the unemployed. If you don't ask, you don't get, but research has shown that four out of ten places will give a discount if asked. Also take Imogen's advice, call every creditor and offer to pay reduced amounts.
If things get really tight, pay some creditors one month and others the next. They can't take you to court if you do that. That way one can avoid the infamous County Court Judgements (CCJs) that are kept for seven years and ruin your credit rating for all that time. Never, ever, take up a consolidation loan - I think they should be made illegal to protect the innocent. Those lenders make it sound so great but they can and will take your friends home as soon as they can. They then sell it at auction for less than waht it's worth and the building society will send your friend a bill for the outstanding balance. Consolidation loans are evil.
Finally, work hard to find a job and don't just rely on job advertisements. Make speculative approaches to firms he or she would like to work for. Companies do direct mail, why not ordinary people when they want to sell their talents? It might dig up an unadvertised job where there is no competition for it.

Hope these ideas help and my best wishes for getting your friend back to work fast.

Answer 3

House of cards anyone ?

Sorry to sound negative, but this is the big stumbling block of our oresent economy.... It's eay to opt in to payments and things, but the minute it goes wron, youre in trouble.

Tell matey to ring them all and talk to them, if youre honest, and keep them up to date with the situation, most companies will cut you a little slack for a month or so.

Hope he has luck finding work soon.

Answer 4

tell him to contact everyone he pays bills to and explain his situation , and ask to have the contracts stopped

and keep a copy of what he tells them

if they dont let him out of his contract or let him pay over a longer period then thats there fault

he has told them his situation and that he is unable to pay

if they hound him for payments , and if it goes to court , show them that you explained that you couldnt pay ( thats why you copy what you have told them ) but they didnt listen

the court will throw it out

all the best
Ian