Confused & concerned!

shell_lou

Hi all,

I need some advice please peeps! My husband and I have a mortgage and also a secured loan. At the time the secured loan was the best way out of a bad situation as I am a stay at home mum and my husband is self employed it was the easiest loan to get.

I had another baby in December 07 then 2 weeks later my husband broke his ankle badly and was unable to work for almost 3 months. We had little money coming in and stupidly didn't take out any payment protection as we had been told they wouldn't pay out unless he was off for 30 consecutive days. We naivley thought he would never be off for this length of time!!

So as you can imagine we fell behind with our payments. We ended up 4 months behind with the mortgage and 5 months behind with the secured loan. We have caught up a little and are now 2 months in arrears with the mortgage but they have agreed to spread the arrears over 6 months. Even though they think they have helped they haven't really as now our payments have gone up by almost £200 a month. The secured loan we caught up with a month so are still 4 months in arrears. They have flatly refused to help us until we make 2 consecutive payments. I have tried explaining to them that if I could do that I would have done so already.

Is there some sort of letter I can send to them to try and persuade them to give me some time/help?

We have had 2 default notices from them and they said yesterday that they will escalate to reposession if we don't pay within 14 days!

HELP!!!

GeorgeUK

Hi Shell - may be worth posting this up in the debt free wannabe board (DFW).

The most important thing to do is to make payments towards anything related to your house. If you are currently paying towards non-secured debts, put the money you are putting towards these to your secured loan.

There are also free debt charities that will be able to advise you on the best course of action.
(Taken from Fermi's signature)

Professional, free and impartial advice on debt problems can be obtained from several charitable and 'not for profit' organisations. They never make a penny from the advice they give, which means it will be given with only your best interests at heart. You can contact:

Your local CAB Office and ask to speak to a 'money advisor'
The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) - Tel: 0800 138 1111
National Debtline - Tel: 0808 808 4000
Payplan - Tel: 0800 917 7823

They will also want to know your income and expenditure - this is a good tool for working it out. Post it up on the DFW and we'll see if there are any savings you can make as well as possibly what to do next. CCCS or Payplan may also be able to help set up a debt management plan (DMP) for you.
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html