Citizens Advice Guernsey Money Advice Service

Make an appointment                                          

Contact Citizens Advice on 242266, or call in our office at the Grow Hub in St Sampsons. Ask to make an appointment with a Money Adviser. You need about a week to allow time to fill in some income and expenditure forms.

Our Money Advisers are specifically trained volunteers. They can help with personal debts and also any business debts for which you are personally liable. They cannot advise on limited companies, liquidation etc.

You will usually see the same Money Adviser throughout the process.

Generally, an appointment can be arranged for a weekday or early Wednesday evening, though other arrangements may be possible. You will be sent some forms or can download the Income and Expenditure forms

We can help you more quickly if you bring:

• our income and expenditure forms, filled in as much as you can
• a list of who you owe money to and how much
• bills or statements from the people you owe money to e.g. electricity, loan company
• two or three of the latest bank statements from all your accounts
• two or three of your latest wage slips
• any other relevant letters or documents

We need these to understand how best to help and to have evidence we need for our licence to give money advice.

The interview

The service we offer is both free and non-judgemental. We are more concerned about how to help you rather than how the problems arose. Nothing will be done without your agreement.

Your Money Adviser will explore your problem by asking questions and using the information you have brought in. This may include checking that you are liable for the debt, and whether there is any insurance or benefit that you can claim. Once they have all the information, they need they will discuss your possible solutions.

They will always make sure that you are left with enough money to pay for basic needs like rent, food and utilities although you should expect to have to cut back on some other areas of your spending.

The Money Adviser will use their experience to discuss the levels and types of expenditure that creditors are likely to accept. They will make a note if you need to spend more than usual for a reason.

We need to include all the people you owe money to and will offer all of them a fair share of what you can afford.

Our advice is given freely, and you can withdraw at any time. We are happy to support you if you want to negotiate with the creditors yourself. If, however you prefer us to do it for you there is a form you will need to sign which gives us permission to act for you.

What will happen next?

The Money Adviser will make a confidential record of all that they discussed with you.

If you have asked them to negotiate on your behalf, they will write to your creditors to explain that we are helping you and to confirm the exact amounts that you owe. If you agree that Citizens Advice contacts your creditors it is possible that this may affect your credit rating and ability to borrow in future.

It may take about a month to get the replies, but once we have them the Money Adviser will enter all the figures and produce a Financial Statement. This is a detailed summary of all your income and expenditure and will show the amount, if any, that you have left to offer your creditors. This amount is then shared fairly between your creditors depending on how much they are owed. Your repayments will usually be due monthly.

You will be sent a copy of this Financial Statement so you can sign if you agree it is correct.

You will be offered a chance to discuss this further with your Money Adviser, usually by phone.

You can then decide whether you want us to negotiate the repayment offers with your creditors or would prefer to do this yourself.

Offers to creditors

 If you would like our help, the Money Adviser will write to each creditor making the repayment offer shown on the Financial Statement.

We will always ask that interest and other costs are suspended although creditors do not have to agree.

Even if the creditor has not yet agreed we advise that you start paying straight away and make sure that you keep paying regularly. If you don’t, the creditor would still have the right to demand immediate payment of the full amount.

Any credit or store cards will need to be destroyed and you must not take on any new debts.

From time to time you may need to complete new income and expenditure forms. This could be if your income increases or decreases, or because a creditor has asked for an update. Your Money Adviser will then contact the creditor and renegotiate if needed.

Please forward any letters you receive to us, and do not get pressured into making higher offers. Your Money Adviser will deal with all the correspondence from creditors and will forward copies of any letters they receive.

Important Information

• Creditors may not agree to accept reduced payment
• While we are acting for you, creditors may continue to contact you, send default notices or take legal action
• Creditors can apply to the court for a lien (charge) on the value of your house
• Your credit rating may be affected if you cannot afford full payments to creditors

We promise:

• To deal quickly and appropriately with all correspondence on your behalf
• We will inform your creditors if we are no longer acting for you