It depends on your circumstances. It's important to keep up with your regular monthly payments, or your creditors may cancel the agreements we have made on your behalf. This is why we will work out an affordable monthly payment, based on your earnings and expenditure.

Once up to date balances from your creditors have been received, your monthly payments between them are pre-portioned based on how much each is owed. A statement showing how much each creditor will receive will be issued. This remains fixed unless your circumstances change. You will be issued a quarterly statement showing all transactions on your account. In addition to this, you will still receive statements from your creditors.

No. We neither lend you money nor pay off your debts. Your payment plan is a solution that allows you to repay your creditors at a monthly rate that you can afford. If you do not make payments into the plan, we cannot make payments to your creditors.

No. Since we do not lend you any money, we do not need to credit check you.

Yes. You can even use the plan to make payments against any existing CCJs that you have. Just make sure that we know exactly what your current situation is when you talk to us before coming on plan.

No. It makes no difference whether you are a tenant or homeowner or even if you are still living with your parents.

No. To be accepted onto debt management, you only need to have a surplus of income above what you need to live on.

No. Some of your debts may be regarded as priority debts due to serious consequences if payments are not made. An example is your mortgage or utility bills. These will be taken into consideration when calculating what amount is available to distribute to your other lenders and it is very important that you continue to pay these in full yourself.

A secured debt is a debt secured against an asset that you own. Typical secured debts will be a mortgage, a secured loan, a car loan, etc. An unsecured loan is any loan not secured on an asset, such as a bank overdraft, a personal loan, a credit card, store card, etc.

Creditors do not have to accept any offer of repayment below the contracted minimum. However it is our experience that they are prepared to accept reduced repayment offers where we are able to demonstrate that the offer is reasonable and that you are committed to repaying your debts by use of our debt management service.

Because coming on plan will result in you not making contracted repayments on your unsecured debts, you should expect that your credit rating will be adversely affected. However, your credit rating may already be poor if you have arrears or a history of missed or late payments.

Certainly in the short term, your creditors will continue to take action to recover your debts. Do not ignore them. Deal with calls politely, informing creditors that you have appointed ourselves to act on your behalf. You should forward any letters to us to deal with on your behalf.

Because you are making reduced payments on your debts, it will take longer for your debts to be paid off. As part of our initial consultation with you, we will provide you with an estimate of the likely time you will be on plan.

All the costs associated with your debt management plan are included in the payments you make into it. You don't pay anything extra. At NDC, we are committed to being totally clear, open and fair to both you and your creditors about our fees and any other costs that may be incurred. We will fully inform you of the proposed fees for your particular case before you enter into the debt management plan.

Because a Debt Management Plan is an informal arrangement, it is easy to change it as your personal circumstances change, and even to replace it with an alternative arrangement if that becomes more appropriate at a later date.

A creditor cannot refuse payments from a debt management company and then take you to court for non-payment. Some credit companies may prefer not to deal with us so they can apply more pressure to you, however you have a legal right to have anyone you wish deal with your finances.

Employees of a creditor's collections unit have one job, to try to get you to pay money. Unfortunately, some will do this any way they can. Once they acknowledge we are dealing with the account, they know they have to negotiate through us. If they tell you they have not heard from us then they have more leverage. If they make you think we are not doing our job properly, they will convince you to cancel the agreement with us, and then they can use any tactics they like to get the money from you. If this happens inform them that we are dealing with your affairs, contact us immediately and we will then issue a further copy of correspondence to them. .

No. A bailiff can only be instructed and sent by a County Court or Sheriffs office, this means a bailiff can only call if you default on a court order. A debt collector may try to trick you by saying, "if you don't pay this bill, we could send a bailiff round" this is not true unless you've defaulted on an earlier court order.

Normally the answer to this question is yes, especially at the present time when so many people find themselves in debt. NDC has a well-established record of dealing with creditors on behalf of people in debt. The Office of Fair Trading encourages representation. They express the view that when a consumer appoints a representative to negotiate on their behalf, it is an unfair and improper business practice on the part of the creditor to operate a policy, without reason, of refusing to consider such a request. It is a principle of law that creditors cannot refuse to accept payments tendered by someone on behalf of someone else.

Yes. All you have to do is give us 1 month's written notice of cancellation.