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Aileen Sumner

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Review of the StepChange, Debt Management:

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They saved my life-literally!

At the age of 51 i was made redundant & for the first time in my life found myself unemployed. After raising my child alone in poorly paid work i had accrued around £30k debt! We lived a frugal lifestyle however i lived in the country & needed a car for work, it would need repairs, that would go on the credit card till the end of the month, then the washing machine or something would break or my daughter would need shoes so it accrued. Working it out over the years the actual total debt minus the snowballing interest was around£7/8k!! I knew i was being made redundant & contacted my creditors to try & arrange a payment freeze or a payment plan until i got on my feet; this was met with a stone wall of i had to default & then they would send debt collectors or bailiffs! I, understandably, was distraught & when my job finally ended, suicidal-luckily one of my creditors mentioned Step change. Step change really did save my life, they explained it all to me & i arranged a DMP once i had a new job three months later the wage was a third of my previous wage so it was going to take me until i was nearly 70 to pay off. Step change kept me reassured when two of the debts were sold to debt collections agencies & they themselves were happy to deal with Step Change. When the bank id been with for 35yrs since i was 16 put the interest up from around £18 a month to almost £100 a month because i was paying less!!, Step change recommended the ombudsmen, i fought the case, lost, appealed & then won & the interest was stopped. They were there on the end of the phone for help & reassurance. Over the past five years, i have retrained & ended up in a fantastic job with an equally fantastic wage, as my wage grew, Step change helped me adjust my budget & pay more every month without leaving my core living expenses short. Last month, o received a bonus at work & made a final payment & now am finally debt free for the very first time in 30yrs! I can honestly say if this service did not exist, i probably wouldn't either as they compassionately helped me out of a black hole i could see no way out of. Reviewed on: 22nd July 2021

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