Share your debt problems with someone, there is help out there

When you are just making do, all it takes is one serious accident to suddenly mean you can’t make do. For hardworking Duane, it was a back injury that took him out of his timber mill job and while he recuperated his ACC income was 20 per cent less than usual.

Throw in a global pandemic when he was just getting back into fulltime work, along with his wife losing her job, and you have a seemingly insurmountable financial blizzard.

“It’s been a hard three years,” says Duane. “When I had my accident, I talked with my employer to give me light duties, but we couldn’t make it work. I’m not really suited for being in an office with sales reps.”

Throughout the years the family had accumulated a few bills, bank loans and credit card debts. When Duane recovered from his injury and was back at work, everything looked manageable until Covid hit. 

“We thought we were on top of things, but Covid made us realise how bad things had got. We were borrowing from Jack to pay Jill and everything was out of control.”

Duane wasn’t too good at responding to emails and messages, and his wife took on the job of replying to creditors and trying to smooth out the situation. It became extremely stressful; the couple were at their wits’ end, and they knew they had to do something.

Their son suggested they consider a No Asset Procedure, which led them to contacting Citizen’s Advice Bureau. They were referred to a financial mentor at a budgeting service who interviewed them a couple of times and needed them to tell them everything about their debts, income and expenses.

Duane says laying everything out for others to see was difficult and their financial situation didn’t look pretty but the mentor put everything into perspective for them. When they were referred to Debtfix the financial mentor passed on their information, and the couple didn’t have to re-tell their story.

They trusted that Debtfix knew the best solution and they opted to apply for a Debt Repayment Order (DRO), a formal agreement with creditors to repay some or all debt throughout three to five years. Duane was a bit daunted by the thought of committing to three years of repayments but once they started making affordable weekly payments, life was much easier. They don’t need to communicate with creditors because Debtfix takes care of all of that, and Duane feels like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders.

“We were running around in circles, paying – spending, and it was such a headache.”

Sometimes Duane feels like they have made a bit of a cop out, but he says they never could have repaid their debts without arranging a DRO. They’ve had their eyes opened and now have bank accounts to trickle small amounts of money into, so they have savings and back-up cash for unexpected expenses.

“We were affected like so many New Zealanders by the last lockdowns, but we had some money in the bank to do a little bit of shopping.”

Their youngest daughter is in her final years at high school, which is an expensive time. In the past, they would have borrowed to pay for the things she needed and Duane would have taken on more overtime to cover the loan repayments but now, they can dip into their savings. Also, dreams of travelling to Australia to visit another daughter have become a reality.

“Travelling to see family is achievable and that is definitely a highlight of working with Debtfix.”

Duane suggests people feeling swamped by money problems should take a breath and ask questions.

“There’s help out there, you’ve just got to find it. Don’t keep money problems to yourself. You don’t have to tell the world but tell someone.”