With more and more people struggling to keep up with the cost of living, thousands are suffering from bad credit across the UK. In fact, many are opting to sign up for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA). This makes unsecured debt (such as credit card balances, personal loans and bank overdrafts) become frozen at 0% interest, and asks the companies involved to agree to repayments spread over five years. In many cases, as much as 70%* of the debt is written off at the end of the IVA. However, sticking to an IVA is tricky – the repayments are based on what the debtor can afford to repay, but leave very, very little spare cash each month. And of course, if someone has bad credit, getting even small loans would be nigh on impossible.
In fact, getting further unsecured credit is not allowed during the IVA, so setting a budget and sticking to it is absolutely critical. A Cashplus MasterCard® prepaid card can be a brilliant help with this. That's because cardholders can keep track of spending and the Account balance 24/7 online, over the phone and via text – particularly useful if the customer is out and about and needs to know what they can sensibly afford to spend. And with a MasterCard, the route to bargains on the internet is open. In fact, the card can be used anywhere that the MasterCard logo is displayed – from supermarkets to ATMs.
What's more, if the customer has debt with a bank that will be included in the IVA, he or she will need to set up an alternative, new account elsewhere to accept wages and make payments. High street banks can be wary of setting up accounts for people with bad credit, but again, prepaid cards can be a great help.
A Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard® card is an excellent alternative to a traditional bank account because it's easy to have wages paid into it. What's more, it also provides a Direct Debit service, so the customer can use it to set up Direct Debits and Standing Orders to pay everything from his or her rent or mortgage to electricity bills and mobile phone contracts.
In fact, with free low balance text alerts and no penalty fees if Direct Debits are bounced, this Direct Debit service is probably twice as good as any other currently offered in the UK.
It's as easy to open a Cashplus prepaid Gold MasterCard Account as it is convenient to use one. Even if the customer has bad credit, as long as the applicant is 18 or over and lives in the UK, acceptance is guaranteed. There are no credit checks involved to open an Account. Ordering a card takes just minutes online and after it's been paid for, it will arrive through the post in just three to five business days.
So, anyone that has signed up to an IVA, or is about to try to have one put in place, and therefore needs to keep to a tight budget, should consider ordering a prepaid card as soon as possible.
