Money Debt & Credit In The Media

UK Debt Statistics

In 2006, there are estimated to be 15 million people in the UK with debts over £15,000...

Guardian 'A debt of gratitude'

Mel Batten, a 27-year-old single mother-of-two, was pregnant with her third child when she spiralled into £22,000-worth of debt.

Her spending started four years ago, buying clothes out of a catalogue for her then three-year-old boy. She applied for a Visa card, then for a £5,000 loan through Lloyds TSB, followed by a second loan for £4,000.

Although Mel was unemployed for a time, she took a job as a cashier in a petrol station where she has worked for two years.

She says: "I got carried away with buying for the children and my problems grew from there... I owed money to 10 firms including catalogues, loans and credit cards."

Mel was struggling to pay her creditors between £800 and £900 a month when she decided to contact IVA specialist, Money, Debt & Credit, after seeing an ad in a newspaper. "They wouldn't say an IVA would be suitable until they had looked at everything. They were very good at explaining things, so I understood everthing."

Money, Debt & Credit contacted Mel's creditors and negotiated an IVA. Her monthly payments have gone down to £260, which she'll have to pay over five years.

During that time, she will not be able to apply for any credit, including a mortgage. But after that, she won't have to pay a penny more.