Money Matters
Free, practical and confidential advice to those experiencing personal financial difficulties
Money Matters provides free, practical, independent and confidential advice to help people who are experiencing personal financial difficulties, in debt or who need help to control and look after their money.
What is Money Matters?
Money Matters is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are also affiliated to Community Money Advice which is a national Charity supporting over 150 advice centres across the country – providing training, IT software and support for our service and advisers.
How Can We Help?
Are you struggling with debt or have money worries?
Do you have problems with budgeting and money management?
Are you worried about money?
Would you like to talk it over?
Being in debt or having money worries can be a frightening experience and many people try to ignore their money problems. It is a big step to ask for help, but many people feel a sense of relief once they have found someone to talk to about their situation or money problems.
We are here to help you to take the first step and we can give you professional, impartial advice.
We can help if you are having problems with budgeting, whether or not you are in debt, and we are also able to review your income and look at benefits that you may be entitled to.
Individuals and families who struggle with financial issues find it hard to ask for help. There are feelings of embarrassment at not being able to manage their finances. Financial pressures put relationships under a lot of pressure. It’s hard to talk to those we love when we feel inadequate about money. May be you can’t face talking to family or friends, but want to talk to someone.
Whatever your financial difficulties, if they are of concern to you, then we want to help.
How We Work
The process can vary as each individual’s needs are different. All actions will be discussed to suit your individual needs. (The following is an outline)
An initial meeting is offered at Trinity Cheltenham (This usually lasts around an hour and a half)
We will go through your current financial circumstances in detail to work out what is going on and make any immediate suggestions.
We will then take the information away and prepare a financial statement (budget) and to look at possible courses of action. The statement and a summary of advice is sent to you for review.
A follow up meeting is usually suggested to go through the Financial Statement and the advice in detail (Actions can include: applying for benefits, dealing with the people you owe money to, looking at forms of insolvency)
Further meetings can then be arranged, if and when necessary to provide further help or to review your situation.
Money Matters is overseen by Duncan Harkness who is an experienced Money Adviser and he also worked in the finance industry for over 15 years. All members of the team are professionally trained and are supervised by Duncan.
Confidentiality
Anything you say to a member of Money Matters will be treated as and held confidentially within the team. Occasionally the person helping you may need to consult with their overseer (pastoral or professional) either in order to provide the best possible advice or to prevent a clear and immediate danger to someone. (There are certain circumstances in which we have a duty of care to take further action).
What should I do to get help?
Get in touch by completing the contact form below.
Call 01242 808946 or 07906 628981 to make an appointment. You can leave a message on either of these numbers as they are both checked regularly.
Email moneymatters@trinitycheltenham.com with the information requested.
Someone from Money Matters will contact you to briefly discuss your circumstances and, if we can help, arrange a time to meet with you.
You may find it helpful to start looking at your income and your spending, try and complete a budget – download the one below.
Also start looking at who you owe money to and put the papers together.
People who attend Trinity
If you are a member of Trinity Cheltenham, everyone is encouraged to be in a life group where they can meet regularly with others. From time to time, you may experience problems or difficulties in your life which your life group may be able to help you with – beyond this, there is specialist advice and support available.
Money Matters can also provide talks for small groups, for example ‘How to handle your finances with Biblical principals’. If you would like more information about the talks we offer, please contact us.
Contact Form
If you wish to have assistance from the Money Matters team, please fill in the form below.
Get in touch
Want to get hold of us or find out more? Drop us a message, we’d love to hear from you!
Duncan Harkness
moneymatters@trinitycheltenham.com
01242 808946
