Don't let the threat of home repossession threaten your family's Christmas

Typically, when we think of Christmas time we think of presents,
Christmas trees, Santa, family and that all important slap up
meal - turkey, stuffing, pretty much any vegetable you want,
those little sausages, stuffing and gallons of gravy! Well not
gallons as such, but you get the picture.
However, the festive season also means additional financial
burden for a large percentage of households. The nature of the
holiday season means that overspending and debt go hand in hand
with all the glittering promotions and gimmicky adverts - the
Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG - http://www.imrg.org) predicts
that this year, 24 million UK citizens will spend a total of £5
billion this Christmas - that's just online, and a 20 fold
growth from 2000!
This will no doubt leave a lot of us with a temporary feeling of
satisfaction, but the New Year hangover tends to last a little
longer as we are very much a nation in debt, and that debt is
getting larger. Total personal debt in the UK broke the £1.1
trillion barrier in June 2005 - only 11 months after breaking
the £1 trillion barrier (source: http://www.cr
editaction.org.uk/debtstats.htm).
While managing debt month by month in this period of relatively
low interest rate is easy for some, it quickly becomes a
nightmare for those who over commit themselves and start
defaulting on repayments and consequently both charges and
interest soon mount up along with the threat of county court
judgements and worse still, the threat of house repossession.
For people who are trying to sell their property during the
festive season it can be very hard as there are few buyers in
the market at this time of year.
Consider a quick property sale scheme to release equity from
your house
One solution could be a company like A Quick Sale (http://www.a-quick-sale.co.u
k) - property investors who offer a quick property sale
solution. Although you may receive less than the open market
value of the property, the turnaround on the service is much
quicker than selling your property through an estate agency -
you don't have to wait to find a potential buyer.
This can be an excellent solution for people who are facing
eviction or repossession - you can release the equity in your
house (within a matter of 5 working days) and even arrange to
rent your property back so you don't have to move out - there's
even a future buy back option where you can agree a set buy back
price with the company.
By allowing consumers to free themselves from their debt,
particularly during the Christmas period, services such as this
can give people options where there were none before. No doubt
clearing all your debts can be a huge relief and reduce a great
deal of stress - but it also enables you to set up for the
future - to regain financial stability before returning to the
property ladder at a later date (when you otherwise would have
been still paying off debts and no doubt accumulating more
interest in the process). Credit Action report that "20% of us
are still paying off our Christmas splurges up to six months
later, and one in ten is still paying for last Christmas in
November 2005" - why be part of those statistics if there are
other options you can take?
Managing debt is an important part of modern life that many
people fail to prioritise effectively until it's too late, which
is one of the key issues that has resulted in the rapid increase
in levels of bankruptcy within the UK. There are lots of
independent organisations set up within the UK that can help
with debt related issues, most of which don't charge for their
services - these include the Citizens Advice Bureau (http://www.adviceguide.org.u
k) and the National Debtline (http://www.nationaldebtl
ine.co.uk) - the BBC also has a good list of organisations
that can help out with personal debt - http://new
s.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4441882.stm.
Debt problems are a very private issue that people rarely
discuss openly with friends and family members - it is this
hidden stress that usually creates more issues. If you are
having problems with debt you are by no means unique. Problem
debt shouldn't carry the taboo that it does. By discussing ways
to manage your debt issues with either friends or family members
(who may surprise you with their wisdom) or with professionals
skilled in these matters, you can find that the most painful
aspect of debt can be lifted - the mental burden of feeling
swamped and out of control. From there, it is just a numbers
game and over time you can work towards not being part of the
statistics anymore.