Finally admitting I need help....

BlueIsTheColour

As you can see this is my first ever post, I have been a lurker for a long time, or perhaps in denial is a better description!! Anyway I have recently started going down the self negotiating route, as CCCS/Debtline said I didnt have enough disposable income to go on to a DMP. I wrote to my creditors enclosing a budget statement from National Debtline website, to offer pro-rata payment and request interest be suspended, so far, M&S have accepted my payment and agreed to suspend interest, Barclaycard have refused the payment and refused to suspend interest, so have just written a 2nd letter asking them to re-consider, Egg asked me to send in the budget, as my first contact was through the secure mail service online, AmEX acknowledged ny secure mail communication and said someone would be intouch but as of yet they havent been and Sainsburys haven't responded yet...

I have yet to tell Halifax that my salary will no longer be going in to their account, having just opened a new A&L account and transferred it to there, this account has no overdraft, thankfully!! Have moved all my payments to the new account and am going to send my pro-rata payments via cheque tomorrow, regardless of if I have heard from them or not.

My debt rules my life, and I hate it, I used to be precious about my credit rating, but finally realised what was the point, I dont want any more cards I just want to clear my debts, even if it means going to defaults etc.

Having read lots of threads on here, I was finally inspired to seek help and actually admit my problem!!

I wasnt going to put an SOA as I hated seeing it in print, but have got over that now!!

Any help, support or advice would be most welcome

Thanks in advance

Blue

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1734
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1734

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 702
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 73.5
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 55
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 10
Telephone (land line)................... 18
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 5
Petrol/diesel........................... 65
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 35
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 16
Life assurance ......................... 22
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1403.5

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 130000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 137000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 121000...(702)......5.65
Total secured debts........... 121000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard....................5929......126.......18.9
american express...............2250......55........5.9
egg............................1433......43........17.9
ge capital (car hp)............15000.....297.......16.9 This is monthly car payment, 4 years left to run of HP agreement
halifax........................15.9......0.........15.9 This is overdraft
sainsburys.....................3100......60........19.9
m&s............................1980......50........18.9
Total unsecured debts..........29707.9...631.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,734
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,403.5
Available for debt repayments........... 330.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 631
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -300.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 137,000
Total Secured debt...................... -121,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -29,707.9
Net Assets.............................. -13,707.9

jacnorm

Welcome to this forum. You are in the right place to get advice. It is not great when you first sit down and work out what you owe but, with time things do settle down and some of our creditors did give us a hard time at first but, that also settles down after a while.

Cleosmum

Are balance transfers to 0% cards an option?

How many people does the grocery bill cover?

BlueIsTheColour

jac/norm wrote: »

Welcome to this forum. You are in the right place to get advice. It is not great when you first sit down and work out what you owe but, with time things do settle down and some of our creditors did give us a hard time at first but, that also settles down after a while.

Thank you, it feels better just having posted.

@Cleo'sMum - Dont think BT is an option, got turned down for a CC a while ago, so think my credit rating not great, and M&S have said they are issuing a default notice within 28 days in order to be able to suspend interest.

Food bill is part of very complicated story to do with OH, so is an area I know I need to work on reducing, am just reading the old style board for tips

Thank you both for replying

PigginSkint

Hello and welcome! You have come to the right place - you will find that you are definitely not alone. There are plenty of us here who are in similar positions.

Some of the clever bods will no doubt be here soon to give some constructive advice, but if you have a read round the boards you will find there are loads of ways of increasing your income and decreasing your outgoings.

BlueIsTheColour

PigginSkint wrote: »

Hello and welcome! You have come to the right place - you will find that you are definitely not alone. There are plenty of us here who are in similar positions.

Some of the clever bods will no doubt be here soon to give some constructive advice, but if you have a read round the boards you will find there are loads of ways of increasing your income and decreasing your outgoings.

Thank you, this forum is great but a little daunting, there are so many threads its hard to know where to start,I guess a little at the time is the right way....

CLAPTON

how much are you offering to your creditors in total?

BlueIsTheColour

CLAPTON wrote: »

how much are you offering to your creditors in total?

On the form i did from Debtline it was

Barclaycard £28.46
AmEX - £10.67
Egg - £6.80
M&S - £9.39
Sainsburys - £14.70
Halifax - will be, when I tell them - £9.49

All are pro-rata'd amounts based on the £79.50 it said I had left available

Cleosmum

My suggestions would be to cut the grocery spends and look at lowering the mobile, can you go PAYG and aim for £10 a month?

Well done for posting, it is daunting, I still get lost amongst the threads and tend to stick to a few I know, like the small DFW daily thread, which is a great help with keeping focused.

BlueIsTheColour

Cleosmum wrote: »

My suggestions would be to cut the grocery spends and look at lowering the mobile, can you go PAYG and aim for £10 a month?

Well done for posting, it is daunting, I still get lost amongst the threads and tend to stick to a few I know, like the small DFW daily thread, which is a great help with keeping focused.

Yes think you're right, am going to look at groceries, mobile is under contract until end Sept, so can look then at changing to better tariff.

You're right it is very daunting and has taken me ages to do it, I guess its the embarassment factor of admitting what a mess of finances you've made!

CLAPTON

i'm a little confused as to the situation.

you are saying that you only have £79.50 for debt repayment but produce an SOA showing £330.
Now 330 is clearly unreralistic so why not produce a real SOA showing what you need to live on as your current one is not sustainable over the period that you need to repay the debts.

You mention an OH but why is their financial impact on your situation?

You have equity in your house, is selling an option

with 29k of debt, your current repayment plan will take about 15 years... after you redo the SOA maybe bankruptcy should be considered an option too.