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Okay, so you've worked out your financial position and made your creditors an offer to repay your debt at a reduced rate. But your offer is refused.

What's gone wrong? Well, there are three main reasons why reduced repayments are refused.

Number One: The proposed amount is just too little, compared to the amount of income that you have to repay your debts.

Number Two: They might not agree with some of the figures in your statement of means. Just because you can prove that you need a car for your job, this does not mean that they'll accept that you have to run a large, prestige car. A smaller more economical car would do just as well. You might not like it as much, but that's hardly relevant to someone in your position.

Number Three: Your case might have been dealt with by a clerk in the office who has not been trained to deal with people in financial difficulty. This shows how important it is not to accept their first answer. Keep trying until you get the answer that you want, even if this means moving on to someone higher up in the organisation. Because when it comes to money, no rarely means no!

If they refuse your best offer, all you can do is to pay them what you have offered, keep telling them that it is all you can afford and hope that they don't take any further action.

If I can say one thing to put your mind at rest, it's this; the nearer your repayment offer is to the current monthly repayment amount, the less likely they are to take any legal action. If you're due one creditor $50 a month and you offer them $30, they might decide that formal legal action is not in their best interests. It would be time consuming, costly, uncertain and they might take longer to receive less than you're currently offering them. They might not like the position, but it would be commercial madness not to accept it.

Always offer to pay as much as you can realistically afford ' even if this is only a few dollars a month.

by Stuart Laing

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