This is fine with gardening in hot weather but is potentially very damaging in many other instances.
Last Saturday I had a relaxing lie-in while many other Sheffield United fans began queuing some 9 hours before tickets went on general sale for the League one Play off Final.
Six years ago, I queued up from 4am on two occasions for FA Cup and Play off tickets. Three years ago I queued in the rain for four hours for the privilege of watching my beloved Blades lose to Burnley.
Whilst in that queue, I vowed to plan ahead and either spend the £1 a week to become a super draw member or book tickets in my name and accumulate loyalty points, which would allow me to book my tickets over the phone or on the internet at my leisure. Alas, three years later I had my tickets delivered to my door on the morning that I could well have found myself half asleep in the Bramall Lane car park!
What has this got to do with Debt Solutions I hear you ask?
Not a lot really but the same principle of thinking ahead and not putting yourself through unnecessary hardship certainly applies to a recent referral from one of our introducers.
The client was a lady who was facing repossession of her house and was months behind with all of her credit commitments. We spoke to this client 10 months ago, her situation was bad but she felt that in spite of a reduction in income she could still manage even though her reduced wage meant it was actually impossible to do so.
When we explained the likelihood of what would happen if she didn’t either reduce her outgoings or increase her income and because she chose to carry on as she was, she now finds herself in a situation far worse than before.
We have now agreed a debt management plan where she is paying what she can afford after her priority debts, such as her mortgage and car loan, have been paid and have helped her negotiate with her mortgage provider to stop the pending repossession and put an arrangement in place to have her arrears settled as quickly as possible.
The moral of the story here is that if your client is struggling with their unsecured debts, don’t put off seeking alternative ways to help them in the hope that either a loan product will appear or that they will continue to manage as they are.
Oh, and always make sure that the debt management company you refer your client to is a little more successful than Sheffield United!
