Debt reaching crisis point

rprinter

NatWest also offer a basic bank account according to other posts here. Take some ID along & you should be able to open one at a branch straight away.

If it were me, I'd contact Payplan NOW for advice then get organised with the bank account once you've decided to proceed this way.

It'd be a weight off to have this organised before your new arrival and they won't contact any of your creditors until you've agreed with them what you're going to do.

r

rprinter

This is a good thread about CCCS which is very similar to Payplan. I believe Payplan have a lower workload at the mo, but both are Free and respected by the banks...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=95468

r

carpenter

Robert Sterling,

The figures quoted were approximations but the rates are very close to being those quoted.

The loan of £2500 will cost me £4500 to repay over full term

The loan of £3000 will cost me £5040 to repay over full term.

I agree that a loan at 30% would not help me. But a reduction in my monthly outgoings from current level of £525 to £250 that a loan at 15% apr would produce would make an enormous difference.

rprinter

carpenter,

that 50% & 40% is not APR. APR is Annual Percentage Rate, not the total amount of interest over the length of loan. How long your loans over? Looks like your real APR is around 10-14% you won't get much of a better deal by borrowing more money, if you can.

r

southernscouser

Carpenter, dig out all the old paperwork and list a full state of affairs. The more accurate you are the better you can be advised! We will need all companys, APR's, loan terms, how long left, minimum payments, CC's limits, balances, APR's. Leave no stone unturned!

List all incomings and outgoings and start a spending diary noting every penny spent. Even on a newspaper or pack of chewing gum.

carpenter

Just checked on Barclays website and my £2500 loan at Barclays over the same period of 36 months attracts an apr of 18.9% which converts to £89 a month compared to the £125 I am currently paying.

Thats suggest to me that my apr is not 10-14% but is nearer the 50% I quoted.

The Barclays example would be £35 a month less than I pay now.

If we apply the same to my loan of £3000 which is also over 36 months then the monthly repayment would be £108 which is £32 less than I pay a month.

In fact if I were able to borrow £7000 at Bacrlays and consolidate all my debts I would pay £227 a month for 36 months instead of the £276 I am currently paying for £5500 of debt. My other debts as it stands will cost me £260 a month for the next 12 months and will then be paid off. Therefore my current position is:

£536 a month for the next 12 months
£276 a month for another 18 months after that

Improved position if I could get a loan would be:

£227 a month for next 36 months.

This would mean paying my debts for 8 months longer than currently and taking into account payments already made would increase the total amount paid back by approx £800 but right now it seems a fair trade off for a good nights sleep.

I appreciate your input r printer and thank you for being interested enough to post but I still believe my figures add up.

Its all a moot point anyway as I cant get the loan which is frustrating because I do want to pay my creditors I just desparately need a way to do it that will take the pressure off my family.

Its too easy to say but like lots of people who end up in my situation I never wanted this to happen and it wasnt due to a lavish lifestyle on my part (redundancy/ill health in the family and bad luck all played a part).

Alleycat

Hi Carpenter,

When you've checked the figures out on the website, have you taken into consideration any loan protection you may be paying? This can sometimes affect the monthly figures quite significantly. Anyway, it would still be useful to know what the exact APR's are so people are in the best position to advise. You should have something on your statements, if not give the companies a ring and ask them.

I got confused recently trying to sort myself out as it only said the monthly percentage rate which was 1.22%. A kind soul on here worked it out for me at 15.6% APR.

Alley

carpenter

To anyone who can help/offer advice current monthly stats are:

Income £2030

Expenses

Rent 695 (up to date UTD)
Council Tax 110 (UTD)
Car Insurance 55 (UTD)
Elec/Gas 35 (UTD)
Water 30 (UTD)
TV Licence 10 (UTD)
Specsavers 15 (UTD)
Denplan 15 (UTD)
BT 40 (UTD)
Car HP 237 (UTD) (borrowed 7800 over 48 months 12 payments made, total repayment will be 11378)
Citifinancial Loan 125 (UTD) (borrowed 2500 over 36 months so total repayment will be 4500, 6 payments made - lender advises 2100 to settle now)
Welcome Finance Loan 140 (UTD) (borrowed 3000 over 36 months so total repayment will be 5040, 10 payments made, lender advises 2200 to settle now)
Friends Provident 60 (UTD) (borrowed 500 over 14 months so total repayment will be 825, 6 payments made, lender advises 350 to settle now)
Capital One credit card 70 (lender agreed to accept 70 a month for next 3 months/frozen interest and charges and then review - outstanding balance is 1350)

Bank overdraft 100 (bank has demanded repayment at 100 a month with 10 interest added each month, amount outstanding is 900)

Total expenses each month equals 1732

Income is 2030 plus child benefit of 112 so sum left for food/petrol etc is 410 per month.

No loan protection on any of loans

Can anyone come up with ideas to improve that for me???

southernscouser

Well I know people will say your water and elecric/gas is a bit high. Afraid I don't know but someone will be along to help with that.

I know you said selling car wasn't an option but what is it worth? If you get something with a smaller engine, tax, petrol and insurance would all be cheaper aswell! Have you shopped around for cheapest insurance?

Spec savers and den plan? Don't really know much about these. Again someone should be able to advise!

Have you been on the Old Style boards for help in getting your foos budget down? If not, do that straight away! How many mouths are you feeding?

Get yourself on the utilities board for phone cost aswell.

Alleycat

I'm no expert on the loans/cc's front, but looking at your figures, there are several things that stand out to me.

Firstly, your phone bill is extremely high at £40 per month. What plan are you on? I would suggest switching to a basic phone line at £10 per month. You can use 1899 etc to cut the cost of calls. Just register for it (all the info is on Martin's site, plus more on the phones board) and dial 1899 before you make calls. This will drastically reduce your bills.

Also, tbh I don't think £410 per month is that little to spend on food, spends etc, you should be able to cut this down a bit. There are a lot of wonderful and helpful people over on the Moneysaving Old Style board who can help with ideas on cutting food bill etc. Do you cook from scratch, use vouchers, shop at market etc? Feeding two adults and a child on £150 per month or less isn't too difficult. We survive on around £140 per month groceries for the same amount of people (plus a cat!!).

Is there anyway you could get £350 together to make a final payment to your Friends Provident loan? At least that would be one debt cleared and you could put the £60 per month towards paying off one of the others. Sell anything you can on Ebay, books on Amazon, can you do any overtime at work?

Why are you paying £15 per month to Denplan and Specsavers? Could this be reduced, put on hold for a while?

Have you tried checking if you would be entitled to any assistance with your rent? Have a look on https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see if anything. Its not conclusive but will give you a decent idea.

Phew, thats it for now! I'm sure there will other along later who can help with the more financial side of things.

Alley