Informal Agreement

What is an Informal Agreement?

An Informal Agreement is an agreement with creditors that helps people overcome their debt struggle without the severe consequences of Formal Debt Agreements, Personal Insolvency Agreements, and of course, Bankruptcy.

It is designed to help people who are unable to meet their original payment obligations and are in financial hardship.

  • Payment flexibility: We have Informal Agreements that range from 1 – 5-year terms which can heavily reduce your weekly or fortnightly repayments resulting in less financial stress.

  • Interest negotiation: An informal agreement can also be a chance for us to apply for a better or zero interest rate, saving you money over time.

  • Debt Management: Your Debt Assist would manage your debts for entire duration on the Informal Agreement and do any necessary reviews etc. This will relieve a lot of stress some of our clients had before doing an Informal Agreement.

Example of an Informal Agreement

John’s expected repayments to his 3 creditors, before his Informal Agreement, come to a total of $953 per month - John could no longer afford this amount. We negotiated with John’s creditors, resulting in repayments of $300 per month.

We were able to demonstrate John’s hardship, his creditors could see that and accepted the Informal Agreement Proposal. We were also able to secure no interest or fees on John’s account for the duration of the agreement.

The Process

Fill out our Debt Consolidation Form and we will evaluate your financial situation so that you can decide whether an Informal Agreement is right for you.

1

Your Debt Assist begins communication with you by email or phone which ever you prefer.

2

We perform a more detailed assessment of your financial situation and determine an affordable repayment plan to have your debts repaid.

3

We have you sign the digital document and setup a direct debit with us.

4

A case manger from Your Debt Assist will be assigned to you and they will contact your creditors included in the Informal Agreement and start the process of getting your agreement setup. This can take from 4 - 8 weeks and in this time your case manager will keep in contact with you and your creditors.

5

Frequently Asked Questions

Anybody making significant sacrifices to their living expenses to be able to keep up with their debt repayments, resulting in considerable hardship.

Common Reasons:

Who can do an Informal Agreement?

  • Poor budgeting skills

  • Overuse of credit

  • A death in the family

  • Loss of job

  • Reduced income

  • Illness or injury within the family

  • Living arrangements have been impacted

  • Divorce or separation

How long will the Informal Agreement last?

The term of the Informal Agreement is customised to suit your circumstances, depending on what you can afford and what your creditors agree to.

What types of debts can I include?

Generally, all unsecured debts can be included in an Informal Agreement. Secured debts can not be included.

Will my creditors contact me?

Once you empower Your Debt Assist to communicate with your creditors on your behalf, we will advise them to speak to us directly regarding any future matters.

Can my creditors cancel the Informal Agreement?

An Informal Agreement is not a legally binding agreement, however, once your creditors have agreed to it, it is extremely unlikely they will cancel it.

The most common reason a creditor will cancel the agreement is because of missed repayments.

As long as you’re honoring the agreement by making your repayments, creditors will have no reason to cancel.