What is debt management

A debt management plan is designed for those who are experiencing financial difficulty and are struggling to make contractual payments to the lenders they owe money.

Many people believe bankruptcy is the only option for those struggling with debt, it is not, a debtsmart debt management plan could be the answer to see you on the path to a debt free future.

A unique debt management solution

A debt management plan from debtsmart is a unique debt management solution, an informal arrangement put in place to help you manage your debts. It is not just another loan and we don't buy the debt from your original creditors.

Rather than you taking out another loan, a debtsmart debt management plan will provide you with a unique solution to assist you in regaining control of your finances. With a debt management plan from debtsmart, you will make one monthly payment to us, based on what you can afford, which we will then distribute to your creditors on your behalf.

A debtsmart debt management plan is specifically tailored to your needs. By being tailored to your needs, a debtsmart debt management plan will simplify your monthly debt payments to help you get out of debt as fast as you can realistically afford.

Dedicated debt management advice and assistance

With a debtsmart debt management plan, you will be assigned a dedicated Financial Solutions Advisor. It is the job of your Financial Solutions Advisor to guide you through the debt management plan. They will be on hand throughout the duration of the plan to provide you with practical assistance and advice, and will be able to answer any queries you may have.

It will be your Financial Solutions Advisor who will provide your first consultation to find out exactly how much you owe and which companies it is owed to. Once we know how much you owe, who it is owed to and how much is owed to each creditor, we will then assess your financial circumstances. We will look at your monthly household income and then compare this to the essential expenditure you have to make each month. Essential expenditure is usually food, clothing, council tax, gas, electricity and water bills, and costs involved with travelling to your place of work.

You Financial Solutions Advisor will then look at the money that is left over to determine what you can realistically afford to pay towards your debts each month. Once they know this amount, they will divide it between your creditors and will then approach the creditors to negotiate lower payments. Your Financial Solutions Advisor will also negotiate with your creditors requesting they either freeze or reduce interest and charges on your accounts to stop your debts increasing further. There is no guarantee your creditors will agree to these requests, but presenting a clear plan, shows your creditors you are serious about repaying your debts and solving the debt problems you have, so they usually will want to provide assistance.

Once your financial circumstances have been assessed and negotiations with your creditors have taken place, your Financial Solutions Advisor will put together a clear payment plan that will show how your debts will be paid off. Your payment plan will comprise of reduced monthly payments to the companies you owe and will clearly show when and how your debts will be reduced.

One monthly affordable repayment

When a debtsmart debt management plan is put in place, you will only need to make one monthly payment for all of your debts. Send this payment to us and we will then distribute it across all of your creditors.
With a debtsmart debt management plan, all correspondence, statements and other communication from your creditors will be dealt with by us.

So you can keep track, we will send out a monthly statement to you, which will list your creditors, the monthly repayment that has been made to them and our 15% (£30 minimum) monthly charge. We will also keep you regularly informed, notifying you of any changes by creditors, if there is any.

We understand financial circumstances change, so every six months, we will renegotiate with your creditors if required. After a year, we will send you a statement showing payments made to date and balances outstanding, so you can clearly see how your debts are being reduced.