Scottish Debt Help
Our debt advice is tailored to the individual needs of residents in Scotland.
Do I Qualify
May not be suitable in all circumstances. Fees apply. Your credit rating may be affected.
Free debt counselling, debt adjusting and providing of credit information services is available to customers by contacting MoneyHelper.
When looking for debt help in Scotland, there are a few different options for clearing your unaffordable debt and the ones that you will be suitable for will depend on your own personal circumstances.
If you are struggling with debt, it is important that you receive debt advice that is tailored to you, as a Scottish resident, as the solutions for the other countries within the UK vary.
Trust Deed Scotland® are the No.1 rated for debt advice in Scotland and we’ve already given debt help to thousands of Scottish residents since 2009.
Find out more about us and how we became the most trusted debt advice company on TrustPilot.
As specialists in Trust Deeds and the Debt Arrangement Scheme, we aim to provide you with the advice and support that lets you make an informed decision on which formal debt solution is right for you, or not.
A Trust Deed is a voluntary but legally binding agreement between you and your creditors where you agree to pay back an affordable portion of what you owe, whilst protecting your home and car.
This debt repayment model allows you to make payments towards your debt in a fixed timeframe, typically over 48 months (4 years).
Trust Deeds can only be arranged and administered by a licensed Insolvency Practitioner (IP) who will take on the role of ‘Trustee’.
It’s the IP’s job to administer the Trust Deed and deal with your creditors for the agreed period, leaving you to get on with your life, without worrying about your debt. When you enter into a Trust Deed, you will make one affordable monthly payment towards all your unsecured debts, your creditors are not legally allowed to contact you for any further payments.
Once the Trust Deed is completed, any remaining, qualifying, unsecured debts will legally be written off. Your creditors can no longer pursue you for the remaining amount.
Give us a call to find out more about the advantages and disadvantages of Trust Deeds and how Trust Deeds work.
With the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), you repay your debt through what’s known as a Debt Payment Programme.
If approved for the Debt Arrangement Scheme, you commit to the Debt Payment Programme (DPP) through which you will pay back what you owe in regular payments. Importantly, your repayment plan will be based on your disposable income, so will be manageable amounts.
Through a DAS, you will be protected from your creditors taking action against you to recover the debt. When the Debt Arrangement Scheme is in place, all interest and fees are frozen and will be written off if you fully complete the debt payment programme.
Find out more about the advantages and disadvantages of the Debt Arrangement Scheme by contacting us today.
Your New Monthly Repayments
Here’s how a reduced monthly payment might look for you using a formal Scottish debt solution.
Credit Cards
£4,500
Personal Loan
£3,500
Store Cards
£2,000
Council Tax Arrears
£808
Total Debt £10,808
Old
£303
New
£118
Payment
Reduction
61%
* Subject to creditor acceptance * Payment subject to individual circumstances * Credit rating may be affected * Example debt payment programme only
If you do not have all your debt information to hand, that isn’t a problem. With your permission, we’re able to help run a search on your credit file and get all debt information on your behalf.
It’s 100% encrypted, secure & confidential. Unlike other companies, we will never sell your details to 3rd parties. Use the Trust Deed Wizard® tool to get started.
You may have seen an advert online offering government debt help, or government-backed schemes and assumed that it’s the Scottish government themselves that you should contact for debt help.
People are misled by these adverts into thinking that these debt consolidation services are free or official. It is a wrongful suggestion that the creators of the adverts are running their ads on behalf of the government.
While it’s true that Trust Deeds, Sequestration and the Debt Arrangement Scheme all use legislation created by the government, it is either a licensed insolvency practitioner or an approved Money Advisor that does the work involved.
The Accountant in Bankruptcy (AiB) is the Scottish government agency responsible for administering the process of personal insolvency and corporate bankruptcy, overseeing Protected Trust Deeds procedure, and administering the Debt Arrangement Scheme. The AiB implements, monitors, and reviews government policies and diligence.
You can get interest and charges frozen by using any of the legislated Scottish debt relief solutions – Trust Deed, DAS or Sequestration.
When it comes to the question of how do you get a debt written off in Scotland, it depends on how much you owe and which solution you use. Be wary of messages that concentrate on debt write off amounts as it may not always be in your best interests.
More importantly, it’s about you and your personal circumstances. It’s about you getting the best debt advice available, and ultimately it’s about your affordability and long-term prospects.
Sometimes it is possible to ask your creditors to write-off debts, citing exceptional circumstances such as a critical illness.
Creditors do not normally agree to write off the debt. The debt still shows up on your credit file and affect your ability to get credit in the future. Creditors may choose to not pursue the debt but refuse to put this in writing. There is no guarantee they won’t chase you for the debt in the future and finally, if you have unaffordable debts to a number of creditors, some lenders may refuse whilst others you owe to will agree.
If you were to enter into a Trust Deed, any unaffordable debts would be written off after a typical period of 48 months. All legislated debt solutions should ensure that at very least, further interest and charges are written off.
In Scotland, there is a time limit of 60 months or 20 years (depending upon the type of debt) on taking legal action to claim monies owed.
This includes credit card debts, store cards, unsecured personal loans, catalogue debts, old utility bills, finance company loans and similar agreements or student loans taken out before September 1998.
These types of debts are known as ‘Simple Contract Debts’.
You may have had a debt with an unsecured creditor that you have not heard about for a very long time. Commonly this happens because you have moved address and stopped receiving letter from them, or thought that the debt had been written off.
You should think carefully about any action that either you or the creditor has taken over the last 60 months.
It can be argued that the debt is eligible to be written off, or ‘extinguished’ if:
This means that it no longer exists and there is no debt for the creditor to pursue.
If the creditor can prove that you wrote to them admitting the debt, or you or anyone else owing the debt made a payment before the debt was extinguished, then the five year limitation period would start running from the date you last made contact or made a payment.
The Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973 sets out the rules on how long a creditor (who you owe money to) has to take certain action against you to recover a debt. The time limits do not apply to all types of recovery action. Also, the time limits are different depending on the type of debt you have.
Limitation periods for debts are important, because if the creditor has run out of time, you may not have to pay the debt back.
Where a debt isn’t classified as a simple contract debt, which may include Council Tax Arrears, Mortgage Shortfalls, Income Tax/VAT and ‘Income Contingent (Post 1998) Student Loans.
Find Out More
Contact Trust Deed Scotland® for tailored debt advice and Scottish debt help or learn more in our FAQ section.
We are here to help you decide the best course of action to suit your individual needs and support you every step of the way.
If you would like a fresh start, get in touch today.
Further Information
We provide wide and varied debt advice services to our customers. Below is some related categories.
Many Trust Deed Scotland® customers who come to us looking for debt advice; often asking for more information on whether they can write off their debts. Can You Write Off Debt without entering into a debt solution? In some rare cases, you may find that creditors (the people you owe money to) may be willing … Continued
