Many financial journalists are advising people to make certain that they give their mortgage payment priority over credit card and unsecured loan payments.
Could this be construed as prefering one creditor over another?
No - a secured loan has to take priority, as failure to do so would constitute the loss of an asset - usually a home.
And a preference is only effected, where it can be shown that there was a desire to place one creditor in front of the others (unless the payment was to an associate, where the desire is always assumed).
Basic stage 1 debt advice tells people to divide debts into priority and non-priority. Priority debts are mortgage or rent, utilities, council tax etc. Personal loans and credit cards go straight to the bottom of the pile.
More of a figure of speech than a technical term really but most of the recognised counselling methods include it as a fairly early stage eg MAT Step 4 CPAG Step 2.
CPAG defines priority debts as those where non-payment could result in 'homelessness, the loss of goods or services or the threat of imprisonment'.
So in other words basically no different to what John's original post was quoting journalists as saying, and nothing wrong in it as far as I can see and preference would not arise.
I'm sure some of these debts would give an IVA a headache, they include such things as Tax Credit Overpayments, Magistrates Court Fines and Council Tax Arrears !
Best Regards, Simon
Sorry MAT = Money Advice Trust CPAG = Child Poverty Action Group
I thought that it was probably something like that Simon, but thanks very much for the clarification. I have actually heard the term used before, and often wondered exactly what it meant!
