How to do your own free financial check up

We take you through the steps needed to give your finances a once-over.

Thankfully, a lot of people will never need to use our service. They may have a debt or two, but they can stay in control of the situation and ensure it never becomes a problem.  

But in today’s economic climate, a little extra careful planning can help you to stay in control of your finances. If you’re not struggling at the moment, or don’t even have any debts, everyone can benefit from looking over their finances and making sure they’re all in check.

So in light of today’s CCCS MoneyAware #debtday tweetathon (where we’ll be highlighting our counselling sessions), we’re going to take you through a typical CCCS counselling appointment.

What do we discuss with our clients and how do we reach a conclusion? Read on, so you too can understand the steps needed to give your finances a CCCS-approved once-over.

1. We need to know about the caller, but a lot of the basic data capture is done at the Helpline stage, to maximise the time our clients have to speak with our counsellors about their debt solution. So information about income, priority expenditure and level of debt is already recorded before the Counsellor speaks to the client.

2. After discussing the background of the situation and the cause of their financial difficulties, we take details of the household composition. The budget can then be based around the number of people that need to be included. All our budgets are per calendar month to ensure consistency.

3. We can’t talk enough about the importance of a budget, so this is the important part of the call - the opportunity to review all areas of spending:

-       Where can they save money? For example, if they’re paying for more than one prescription per month, could they save with a pre-payment certificate? Could they benefit from shopping around on utility costs, or cutting their Sky package?

-       Why is certain expenditure higher than normal? Are there priority arrears (such as council tax, water or gas) to consider? Is there an arrangement in place? At this point we’d suggest realistic repayment plan to get back up to date.

-       We use guideline expenditure figures which are compiled using figures from the British Bankers’ Association, so if outgoings sound unrealistic and there isn’t an explanation for this we might suggest improvements. We include for expenditure that isn’t monthly, such as hair cuts, visits to the dentist, car tax or the cost of an MOT.

-       Income – if it seems as though there’s something missing we might look at benefit entitlement or refer them to our Welfare Benefits team.

4. Once the budget is realistic and sustainable we look at the level of debt and consider whether there are any assets, lump sums or windfalls that may become available in the near future.

5. Depending on the outcome of the budget, now is the time to consider all available options. Whether it’s bankruptcy, IVA, a Debt Management Plan (DMP), token payment arrangement, a Debt Relief Order (DRO) or an Administration Order, all possible solutions need to be considered.

6. We always talk through the standard debt collection procedure with the client and describe what is likely to happen over the next few weeks. A common problem we come across is the right of offset, so we recommend changing bank accounts.

7. We finish off by reminding the client that we’re always available for ongoing support, no matter what the solution might have been.

This is just a little insight into our counselling sessions, but if you’d like to know more about the individual cases that we’re dealing with, don’t forget to follow us for our second #debtday tweetathon.

You can read more about our first #debtday on our blog, where we reported on £109,820,768 of UK personal debt in one day.

And if you need more than a DIY financial makeover go through our online debt advice service or give us a ring.