debt solutions south west information menu

DSSW is authorised by the Ministry of Justice to provide claims management advice.

DSSW is fully licensed by the Office of Fair Trading to provide debt management and credit broking advice.

Debt Solutions Southwest Ltd is a debt management business based in the South West of England, providing a full debt management and credit advisory service to individuals and businesses.

DMPs are a way of repaying all your debts. Usually this is achieved by paying smaller monthly instalments, but over a longer period. To arrange a DMP you need to enter into individual arrangements with all or most of your creditors. The arrangements with creditors are ‘informal’, in so far as they may not be legally binding, nor are they sanctioned by the court. 

When agreeing to a DMP, your creditors are usually agreeing that you can reduce your monthly payments, but they are not reducing the total amount you owe them. In fact, because more interest will accrue over the longer payment period, your total debt will probably increase.

As you can see, DMPs are not for everyone, particularly as they can be merely a way of delaying (at your cost) your inevitable IVA or bankruptcy. Also, your creditors may change their minds about the payment terms and demand immediate full payment. Furthermore, even when informally accepting reduced payments, creditors might still issue default notices against you, thus damaging your credit rating.


First and foremost you could get out of debt in the longer term without going through any formal arrangement such as an IVA or bankruptcy.


You could arrange the DMP yourself direct with your creditors, thus avoiding professional fees.


Having more time to pay could mean you can prevent the downward spiral of borrowing more to pay existing debts: that is ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’.

There is an informal agreement in place but, because you are paying less than their standard terms of credit, your creditors could still issue default notices against you, thus damaging your credit rating.


Creditors might not freeze interest and you could be digging an even bigger debt hole than you had before.


The payback period could appear interminable, with no end in sight.


You don’t really have full peace of mind, because creditors could change their minds about the arrangement and demand full payment from you at any time.

A DMP is not for everyone. You would need to be very sure that you can meet its terms and live with its uncertainties before you decide to try and put one in place.

If you believe that your income position will improve quite significantly in the short term, a DMP may be a good idea for you, as it will buy you some time until your situation improves, which will enable you to catch up with your payments.


Similarly, if you have good reasons to believe you might come into a lump sum (for example, through an inheritance, or pension payment), a DMP will buy you some time until this happy day comes. Your belief that you will win the lottery in the next three months is not, however, a good reason to enter into a DMP!

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