Has anyone had any experience with the debt advisers at the Citizens Advice Bureau?

Are they any good?


What happens?Has anyone had any experience with the debt advisers at the Citizens Advice Bureau?
Yes they were very good, they go through all the paper work with you , they will then see if they can sort things out for you.Has anyone had any experience with the debt advisers at the Citizens Advice Bureau?
To be honest , i did not find them very helpful. In fact by doing what they advised me to do i was worse of , and also that way could of affected my credit rating. so not to pleased with them, i am sorry to say.
not personally,but i know they are extremely helpful. Depending on what type of debt it is depends on the procedure. If you can provide all the paper work relevant to your situation, bank statements/receipts/letters from companies etc. etc. and your current income/outgoings they will invest a lot of time sorting out this problem for you. They will usually come up with suitable solution to correct the problem with little extra outgoings on your behalf. And its free!!! My advice is to go and see them as soon as possible, its usually best to phone before going, to make an appointment, and get this situation sorted. Good luck!
Hello


I was a debt adviser for the CAB!





Every CAB Adviser gets specialist debt training, so a Generalist Adviser will be able to help you. Some CABs have Debt Advisers as the number of debt cases that come through the door is so great that specific debt advisers are needed.





Basically all the advice and information you get from CAB is free and impartial which is more than you can say of other companies.





The Debt Adviser will get all your information and give you all the options that you have available to you.


This might mean an IVA, which they will help you sort out.


Bankruptcy which they will advise you how to file.


They can even help you write to creditors and arrange payment plans.





Depending on what you want to happen then the adviser will help you, they will give you as much or as little help that you need.





The first thing the adviser will do is work out all your creditors and how much you owe them, you then work out how much income and expenditure you have, any money left over (surplus income). This should give you a good idea of what your options are.





If you decide on going for an IVA then your surplus income is then split pro-rata to all the creditors. Letters are then sent to the creditors with the payment plan (along with all you income and expenditure sheets so on)





You must also pay special attention to priority debts. These are debts that can leave you homeless, or with loss of amenities or in prison. (like tax, utility bills, rent so on)





If the CAB start to help you with your debts, they usaully ask you to sign a form saying that you will only do what you agreed with them, so basically you cant get CAB writing all the letters and setting up payment plans only for you to go and change the agreements on your own. The CAB have a decent name and creditors and courts tend to take that into account so its def worth using the advice they offer.





There are other companies that can offer you free advice too, CCCS and Debtline are often used by some Bureaus who have too many Debt clients on their books so you could try them if you didnt like CAB.


And dont forget if you dont find them helpful, you can ask to see another adviser.





Good luck.
yes, they were brill.


they take all your details and then they write to all your creditors(this will stop the lovely letters they send you, in time).then they work out a payment plan for you. then you just pay what your told, when your told to, but a word of advice. never miss a payment, as the creditors take this as your in violation of your agreement with them. if you have problems paying then just ring the creditors and tell them. it should be ok( i forgot to make a payment once until about 5 days later, but i rang them explained and they were ok with it) xx xx
i went to cab for help with my debts in dec last year, they were very help full and understanding. they sat down with me and went through all my finances and offered to write to all my creditors with offers of payment. one thing i can say is that they are snowed under with work at the moment with the current debt crisis that this country seems to be in, and had a back log of cases. because of this they were taking a long time to deal with my creditors (through no fault of their own, they do a very good job just under funded). i was still getting nasty letters and being threatened with bailiffs etc so i decided to write to them myself using information from the cab advice guide on-line. http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/debt.htm


once i knew what i was doing i sent them all offers of payments along with my personal budget and copies of my income, which at the time was just my benefit award notices. thankfully they all accepted the proposed payments and i haven't missed a payment since.





cab is a great place to go for help but its not that hard to do it yourself, i felt a lot more in control as i knew what was going on all the time and once you get talking to your creditors on the phone and they can see that you are genuinely in financial hardship and are willing to make payments they too can be very help full.





hope this helps and good luck in becoming debt free!!!!
Only in so much as I refer clients in my paid job. By and large, they are excellent, non-judgmental, skilled and good negotiators with debtors and the organisations that are owed money. They work out a payment plan and negotiate with your creditors.
Debt Advice is one thing that the CAB does and l am sure they are good at what they do as they get so much practice. An alternative would be more specialist debt advisors. Here's a few commercial and non-commercial ones to consider:





Someone else advised you to use Debt Free Direct http://www.debtfreedirect.co.uk . I can tell you that they are probably the oldest and biggest specialist debt company, so a good contact to have.





Another is the CCCS or debt advisors in the same way the Debt Advice Trust are http://www.debtadvicetrust.org . These two are operated not to make a profit where Debt Free Direct is there to make a profit, but I must add offer regulated good responsible advice.





These are the only contacts I can say I have experience of, but all three are genuinely good.





Good luck!
Yes, they are pretty good but I would recommend Debt Free Direct who are better (and don't charge any fees either in case you are worried about that).


I used the CAB and they weren't as straightforward and easy as Debt Free Direct.


Call them on 0845 2960135


Good luck!