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Financial planning, coping with debt, advice for students
If you have debts that you are worried about, contact the free advice services mentioned in this website before you go to a commercial debt consolidation service, many of which are advertised on the TV. These free advice services will help you to deal with your situation without charging you any money. You will also find local money advisers at your Citizens Advice Bureau, and probably in your local authority or university or college.
- Business Debtline - free, confidential and independent advice for self-employed people and small businesses, includes online free information pack "Dealing with your Business Debts" which gives a step by step guide to tackling a multiple debt situation, including drawing up a budget, dealing with tax, and making offers to creditors. Freephone: 0800 197 6026 Manchester Business Debtline operates under licence from Birmingham Settlement and covers Manchester, Tameside, Salford, Trafford and Bolton. Their telephone number is 0161 237 4040
- BBC Onelife - simple and useful money management information and advice including general budget calculator, useful archive section of past questions answered
- Care Leavers website - advice on managing money and other key information for young people, from Solihull Council
- checkmyfile.com - online access to your public credit file (requires fees), also online vehicle check for small fee
- Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) - specialist free advisory service, with a free telephone helpline, tel: 0800 138 111
- Financial Planning - offers suggestions for financial planning for different life stages including a student section on avoiding or managing debt, a section on starting work, a quiz, forms to help with identifying your own situation, news and links
- Financial Services Authority (FSA) - includes consumer help, comparisons for financial products, financial planning advice, personal budget calculator and quiz, useful section on credit and debt, leaflets and factsheets, service to find out if a financial service is a regulated, approved service, teaching and learning resources for parents, teachers and adults
- Financial Services Education for Consumers Limited - useful site for personal financial planning information with general information on various lifestages, quizzes, forms to help determine your financial situation (for printing), useful explanations and links and a monthly competition
- Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Ireland) - advice and information on debt and budgets, including loan calculator, Euro convertor, online leaflets, articles and policies, also find your local office from this site
- Money Unlimited - general advice on finance including savings and issues for all ages, including a section on ethical money, and comparison tables, from the Guardian newspaper
- National Debtline - providing free confidential and independent telephone advice and support to people in debt in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to national standard level. Site includes information pack, repayment calculator and personal budget sheet, sample letters, FAQs, debt advice (England and Wales, Scotland) and factsheets. Service now open Mon-Fri 9.00am-9.00pm, Sat 9.30am-1.00pm. Self-help materials and information by telephone at freephone 0808 808 4000 and at 0121 703 6912/13/14/15 and by email at advice@nationaldebtline.co.uk
- National Debtline Factsheets and Information Pack - provide a very large selection of factsheets on debt issues including HP issues, business debt, avoiding debt at Xmas
- Office of Fair Trading - consumer information and business information, also market studies, news and information, from the Office of Fair Trading
- Starting work - very clear and useful advice on how to understand and deal with money when you start work, from the Citizenship Foundation
- Students, income and benefit - information on learner support funds, grants, loans and financial support from the Child Poverty Action Group
- TheSite: money - general advice on finance, including advice on what to do if you are in debt, useful information and advice if you are refused credit, money management, also you can search for local advice centres, although they may not all have qualified money advisers
- Time out for students - within the welfare rights bulletin section, there is a useful section on students rights to benefits if they take time our from their courses
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UK Bankruptcy and Insolvency Website - includes advice and FAQs
Consumer advice, savings, general financial information, financial organisations
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- All About Giving - information about giving to charities
- APACS (Association for Payment Clearing Services) - site includes a useful 10 point Internet shopping list for anyone buying goods and services. For more comprehensive advice on your rights under UK law, see also the Office of Fair Trading site.
- Association of British Credit Unions Ltd. (ABCUL) - find your local credunion, information sheets and statistics, events and training, news and discussion forum for members
- Classic 164 Currency Converter - multi-lingual currency converter, tools include expense report manager, currency trading game
- Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) - includes information, research, mortgage calculator, research and links. Also factsheets and information on the Mortgage Code
- Debt on our Doorstep - an alliance of local activists and public organisations campaigning for change to lift millions of people in the U.K. out of debt, includes policies, campaign pack and consultation responses, news and discussion forums
- FIND - Financial Information Net Directory - useful for all personal finance links
- IFA Promotion - finding Independent Financial Advisers,
- LETS systems, local and Interest-Free Currencies, Social Credit and Microcredit - links to various community schemes, projects, theories and organisations
- Letslink UK - information about Local and Interest-Free or Alternative Currencies, Social Credit and Microcredit, Local Employment Trading Schemes, including newsletter, finding a local group and best practice guide
- National Money Advice Training Unit - provide training, publications, research reports
- Money Advice Association - key organisation for money advisers mainly in the public sector, voluntary sector and education. Website includes information on financial statements, policies and links
- Money Advice Scotland - the national voluntary organisation for money advice in Scotland. Membership information, information on training including self-study and distance learning options and SVQ in Advice, research reports, including difficulties faced by homeless people, publications, conferences, links.
- Money Advice Trust - general information on where to go for money advice. Raises funds for the seven major advice agencies in the UK
- Moneyweb - including FAQs from the uk.finance newsgroup, articles, information for advisers and investors
- Moneyextra - guides, large financial directory of contacts
- NASFAA - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators ,US organisation, information on choosing education and financial aid, mainly for US residents
- NASMA (National Association of Student Money Advisers) - mainly for HE, site includes events, links, members' area
- The Public Law Project - includes clear summaries of significant cases in the field of public law, and on the public law aspects of specialist subject areas, such as benefits and money advice, human rights and other aspects of public law, also commentaries and articles, training, publications. The project provides advice lines for advice agencies and solicitors practices only. There is a useful links section.
- UK Home Repossession Page - site includes home buying, arrears, blacklisting, repossession, legal rights, help and advice links, interview advice, email service for updates to website
- Which? Online - consumer information and advice, some free + subscription information,
Tax advice and information
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- Inland Revenue's tax tools and converters - including tax checker for students, company car and car fuel calculator, marginal relief rate calculator, pay adjustment calculator, PAYE reference converter for electronic payment, statutory maternity pay calculator
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- Low Incomes Tax Reform Group - good general advice on tax, including sections for students, pensioners, low income workers, foster carers and other carers
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- Money Unlimited - general advice on finance including savings and issues for all ages, including a section on ethical money, and comparison tables, from the Guardian newspaper
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- Tax Central - complete an online tax return form, also range of online income calculators, planning calculators, benefits in kind calculators, investment calculators, purchase calculators, also quizzes, news, guides, tips and articles and other resources
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- Starting work - very clear and useful advice on how to understand and deal with money when you start work, from the Citizenship Foundation
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- TAX+U - a useful online booklet from the Inland Revenue, covering student loans, students at work, working abroad and being a parent (pdf format only)
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- TaxAid - offers free tax advice to people in financial need, providing telephone helpline and appointments, tel: 020 7803 4959 between 10 - 12 only and provides online information about a range of tax issues
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- Taxation issues for students - useful information for students from the Inland Revenue, including getting overpaid tax back, working as a student and a student tax checker
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- Tax Help for Students - includes student loans, employment, income, benefits, making complaints and information, reports and links on your rights, from the Chartered Institute of Taxation
Tips for Budgeting
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- Spend some time planning your income and expenditure
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- Prepare or use a budget sheet
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- Recognise what you might be worrying about, what you might overspend on, what your needs are, how your lifestyle affects your money etc. Dealing with money is very emotional!
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- List essential expenditure at least once a month, maybe when your bank statement comes in.
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- Try to keep a record of everything you spend, including bank and credit card statements. This helps identify regular and occasional spending patterns and you may need them to apply for emergency funds from your college or university.
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- Consider setting up standing orders and direct debits where you can, e.g. for telephone, utilities bills and other regular payments. These can help you to plan and ensure that you are making consistent regular payments to all the places you need to.
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- Save (where you can) and plan for extra expenditure such as start of year costs, special occasions, family birthdays etc.
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- If you have debts, or feel you are getting into debt, or are about to borrow money but worry about paying it back, don't ignore the situation. Go for advice as soon as possible to a welfare rights or money advisor in your college, university, local authority or Citizens Advice Bureau. They will help you to deal with the priority debts and help you make the best decisions and manage your budget.
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- If you need to borrow money, use only interest free overdraft facilities, where you can and if you have to pay interest, check you are getting the best rate. Compare bank and commercial loans with credit cards and other forms of credit.
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- Open a student or graduate bank account if you haven't already got one. If you are unable to get an account with overdrafts because of debts or any other reason, consider a basic banking account.
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- Try not to withdraw money too often, for example, withdraw money for the week
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- Consider where buying books is essential and check out second hand options, libraries and sharing. Also, check out food prices as supermarkets may be more expensive than other shops or markets.
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- Check out all student discounts and find out about emergency financial help, including Learner Support Funds (FE), Access to Learning Funds (HE), Financial Contingency Funds (Wales) and money advice in your local college or university. The website may also have useful local information.
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- Find more tips and resources on opening a bank account, on budgeting or improve your knowledge through games, exercises and information about financial skills on this site.
Adapted from the DfES checklist available on the Access to Learning website 2004.
Budgeting for students and others
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- BBC Onelife - simple and useful money management information and advice including general budget calculator, useful archive section of past questions answered
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- Budgeting and housing - suggested student budget and online budget calculator with helpful student categories, also useful housing quiz to help understand your rights, from University of London
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- Budget Planner (DfES) - personal monthly budget planner to print out, for calculating monthly expenditure, includes family expenses, on the Career Development Loan page
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- Cost of living calculator - online interactive budget planner, aimed more at adults with families, to make it easier to plan your finances, from Aim Higher
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- Money Matters to Me - a good online practical guide to family finance, which includes what records to keep, making short, medium and long-term decisions, issues relating to different life changes, also, very clear interactive tutorials on how to use an ATM (cash machine), how to read your meters, tips on saving money around the home and word games on money issues. The site also has a pop-up calculator, interactive budget, interactive calculators for savings, loans, mortgages repayments, a link to a pensions calculator and an automatic letter for creditors within "useful tools"
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- nusonline - large amount of essential information for students, from the National Union of Students, including advice sheets, section for international students, managing your money and budgeting, fee and loan rates, avoiding cheque fraud, good advice on insurance issues, credit cards, bills and debt, income and tax and lots more, including health, housing and education advice
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- Studentmoney.org - site includes good interactive tools for calculating monthly repayments for student loans and other loans, for budgeting, a wage predictor and a search for scholarships and awards, also database on financial aid, how much you might earn with your career choice
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- Student Money Net - advice on financing further education, including borrowing, saving, scholarships and sponsorships, insurance, accommodation, lifestyle, budget planner, investment calculator, investment property guide and links
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