DMP companies

A debt management plan is an informal way of reducing your monthly debt repayments. You will repay your total debt back to your creditors but it is flexible payment plan and will allow you to avoid more severe options such as IVA and Bankruptcy. Usually the creditors will freeze interest to 0% and stop adding charges. If you are able to pay your debts back within a reasonable time frame it is likely that this will be a better option for you than an IVA or bankruptcy. You will not need to declare your assets in this type of plan. For further advice please you should contact a reputable debt solution company to establish if this is the best option for you.

	Charges		Services
	Set up Fees	Monthly Fees	Monthly Financial Updates	Creditor Complaint Hotline	Monitor Int. Rate Negotiations in real-time	Login to client area	Advisor fills out paperwork for you	Online Customer Service Chat
VincentBond * Recommended	2 months payments Token payments are made to creditors	15% (max £100)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cleardebt	2 months payments	17.63%	Update On Request	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
BrightOak	2 months payments	17.63% (min £25, max £100)	Update On Request	No	No	No	Yes	Yes

Fee Charging When deciding on whether to choose a charity or professional company it is worth bearing in mind that you usually get what you pay for. A charity will not be as fast and efficient as a professional company (although not all professional companies provide great levels of customer service!) Check for feedback on forums or on the web before deciding who to go with. Interest Rate Negotiating The MOST important thing in determining how long a debt management plan will last - is not the fees - but the negotiating of interest rates down to 0. This will be the biggest determining factor in whether your debts go down (if they are not negotiated properly they may go up!). You should ask yourself which company you think will do the best job of negotiating with your creditors on your behalf. Charities Most of the debt charities are funded by creditors. These are the same creditors that you owe money to. Creditors fund these charities because they want you to pay as much money to them as possible without you doing an IVA or going bankrupt. However, there is a strong possibility that the charity is not going to be negotiating very strongly for interest rates to be frozen (as the charity is run by the creditors!).

>	Offer Free telephone advice
>	Web chat available
>	Client login
>	Monitor Interest rate negotiations in real time
>	Monthly email and SMS updates
>	Creditor Complaint Hotline
>	Headquarters is based in London