any help or pointers??

tealady

Hi. Don't be too upset by CCCS, as Jacks says every one has an off day. Changing your bank is VERY important, it means your current bak will just have to join the queue of creditors instead of taking what they want 1st.

rubydoiwannabee

Hi there,
I have just read your thread and wanted to pop in and say hello and welcome. It sounds to me like the cccs were assuming!! you wanted or would be suitable for a DMP (debt management plan) where you pay agreed reduced payments monthly to cccs and they pass the payment on to your creditors in agreed percentages depending on the amount owed. In this case one of the first thing they advise you to do is set up a new bank account and have your income paid into it. This new account has to be unassociated to any of your current creditors so that they cannot dip in and help themselves when full payments have not been made. It might be worth you considering opening a new account if your current bank account is with the same company as your unsecured loan.

When you have your full interview with cccs they will run through your whole budget, circumstances etc and agree a course of action suitable for you. It may not be a dmp or anything like that.

We called National debtline and got advice and the sheer fact of doing the SOA and seeing the accurate position made us FOCUS and start making changes quickly. At one point we were looking at a DMP with only £105 a month to 5 creditors (£25.5K) debt. But with a complete change in our mindset, and some drastic cutting on our budget we have managed to avoid going down that route for now. We did things like moving our mortgage to INT only, cancelling insurances that were not essential, cutting our food bill drastically, stop spending on anything at all that isn't essential. It has made the world of difference and we are now paying £580 a month towards our debt instead of only the £105 we thought we could afford.

I wish you every success with your chat to CCCS, but listen hard then come away and have time to reflect and think about what is best for you and your family before making a decision.

Best wishes and sorry for rambling on.

DelhiBelly_2

Also just so you know that I'm not talking out of my bottom two years ago tomorrow I had just worked out that we owed £97,600 in unsecured debt plus a £91,000 mortgage on a joint monthly income of £2644 with two teenagers and a grumpy cat to feed!

All I could do was stare at the numbers and keep repeating Oh. My. God. over and over again.

But thanks to the fab advice and unflagging support on this site and a bit of hard work and research we are on schedule to be debt free in the New Year of 2009. (and then we tackle the mortgage!)



Hi Jacks

I know that this is a little bit off subject but I'm interested to know how you will be able to clear nearly £98k of debt in two and a half years. Even if you paid every penny of your £2644 income for 30 months this would still only be £79,320 so what's your secret. I am not trying to be offensive but this just seems too good to be true

tallyhoh

Can't help seeing your house/contents/life insurance is way over what I pay. Please check out a comparison site to give you a good idea of the lower charges available. If you are in the middle of a contract, change them ASAP.

Kandipandi

Hi hon, couldnt just read and flee.
The advice Jacks has given is what i would have said (aint she great!!). Sorry about CCCS i dealt with them a couple of years ago and they were fine, and joining the debt managment plan was the best thing i ever did.

No amount is too much you can chip away at it and once you start on this path of actually being honest about what you owe and dealing with it you will feel so much better.
Its a new start for you both, try to get you wife excited :j about it and focus on all of the positives. Start small and you will be suprised what you can achieve.
The amazing people on this site will continue to support and give their help you you if you keep in touch and let us know how you get on. Take care and (well dodgy!) hugs to you both :grouphug: X

Jacks_xxx

DelhiBelly wrote: »

Hi Jacks

I know that this is a little bit off subject but I'm interested to know how you will be able to clear nearly £98k of debt in two and a half years. Even if you paid every penny of your £2644 income for 30 months this would still only be £79,320 so what's your secret. I am not trying to be offensive but this just seems too good to be true

:wave: Hey lovely,

I'm not offended at all!

That was then sweetie - It's like I'm always saying on here. "things change"!

One of the first things I did was jack in my job. :eek:

When we looked properly at our finances we were horrified to see that the cost of childcare and running a second car was almost as much as my take home pay. When we factored in work clothes, bought lunches and enforced socialising - It was MORE than my take home.

I worked in a bar/restaurant so I went through shoes, tights and lipstick like you wouldn't believe. Plus we had to buy lunch at work as there was nowhere we were allowed to eat a packed lunch (at a minimum of £5 a day 6 days a week) and if you didn't go on a staff night out at least once a month you were considered "not a team player" and frowned upon.

So I got a local part time school hours job which eliminated the need for childcare but paid the same, and we sold both our fairly shiny newish cars and bought one old banger which freed up some money to pay down the debts.

We got as much debt as poss onto 0% - either by BTing or by asking the lender to freeze the interest.

We ruthlessly slashed all our bills and I recheck every 3 months to ensure that we're still getting the best deals possible. (We've had £100s from Quidco.)

Then I got a second job, and a third, I babysit, carboot, Amazon, eBay & mystery shop etc.

My daughter does lots of little jobs around the house to help me have more time to eBay etc. She helps me pack, keeps me company in the Post Office queue and enthusiastically accompanies me on all food related mystery shops!

My hubby does small removals, gardening, computer trouble shooting and small house clearing jobs at the weekends with help from my son.

My son left college and got a full time job last October and pays keep into the household now (after some discussion! :rolleyes: ) He helps my husband with heavy jobs and does some computer trouble shooting jobs of his own and plays in a band at weddings and parties to earn extra dosh.

One of our rellies paid back the money we'd lent them when they were in dire straits - even though when we made the loan we honestly never expected to see that money again.
And here we are! :j

Our basic income from both our "main" jobs is still £2644 but all the extras have made a world of difference.

I'm sorry that's so long - I still think I might have forgotten some things!

Love Jacks xxx

Jacks_xxx

This marvellous link from Payplan tells you who's in bed with who as it were!

http://www.payplan.com/debt-library/linked-banks-and-creditors.php

Love Jacks xxx

confusedone

well spoke to the peopel in the debt charity. Ahh first may i just say that i wasnt really too bothered about the nasty first contact person, yes we can all have bad days and i did put it down to that, but just sharing my poo experience really!! anyway.....

spoke to a nice lad who seemed really helpful, he looked at our position and discussed the option of debt management, IVA and bankruptcy. His opinion was if we wanted to get out of all this debt and arent really bothered about our house, then bankruptcy seems the more preferable option. what do people think about this? all the debt is in my name so my wife would not be bankrupt, by the way.

now on paper we are getting through it (surviving on previous loans, so it is only a matter of time before we actually miss a payment). We need to raise the money for the bankruptcy court, and the cccs chap suggested just not paying our mortgage or loans, just empty the accounts and use this for the court fees, and for rent and bond we would need to find. this sounds ok in principal, but scary as hell to actually consider doing!!!

what do people think about this route (i went and got the form for bankruptcy and have to talk to the bankruptcy dept at cccs, still unsure if this is the best route, not worried about the house and stuff, just never missed a payment on anything! fair enough i have borrowed and scraped to get the payments, and this is only manageable for so long (about how long i do not know), but still??? what do people think of this???

And may i just say thanks to all the advice and kind words so far, truly you will all never know how appreciated this has been!!

DelhiBelly_2

Jacks_xxx wrote: »

:wave: Hey lovely,

I'm not offended at all!

That was then sweetie - It's like I'm always saying on here. "things change"!

One of the first things I did was jack in my job. :eek:

When we looked properly at our finances we were horrified to see that the cost of childcare and running a second car was almost as much as my take home pay. When we factored in work clothes, bought lunches and enforced socialising - It was MORE than my take home.

I worked in a bar/restaurant so I went through shoes, tights and lipstick like you wouldn't believe. Plus we had to buy lunch at work as there was nowhere we were allowed to eat a packed lunch (at a minimum of £5 a day 6 days a week) and if you didn't go on a staff night out at least once a month you were considered "not a team player" and frowned upon.

So I got a local part time school hours job which eliminated the need for childcare but paid the same, and we sold both our fairly shiny newish cars and bought one old banger which freed up some money to pay down the debts.

We got as much debt as poss onto 0% - either by BTing or by asking the lender to freeze the interest.

We ruthlessly slashed all our bills and I recheck every 3 months to ensure that we're still getting the best deals possible. (We've had £100s from Quidco.)

Then I got a second job, and a third, I babysit, carboot, Amazon, eBay & mystery shop etc.

My daughter does lots of little jobs around the house to help me have more time to eBay etc. She helps me pack, keeps me company in the Post Office queue and enthusiastically accompanies me on all food related mystery shops!

My hubby does small removals, gardening, computer trouble shooting and small house clearing jobs at the weekends with help from my son.

My son left college and got a full time job last October and pays keep into the household now (after some discussion! :rolleyes: ) He helps my husband with heavy jobs and does some computer trouble shooting jobs of his own and plays in a band at weddings and parties to earn extra dosh.

One of our rellies paid back the money we'd lent them when they were in dire straits - even though when we made the loan we honestly never expected to see that money again.
And here we are! :j

Our basic income from both our "main" jobs is still £2644 but all the extras have made a world of difference.

I'm sorry that's so long - I still think I might have forgotten some things!

Love Jacks xxx

And you still find time to post here. I've worked out who you are Jacks:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Jacks_xxx

DelhiBelly wrote: »

And you still find time to post here. I've worked out who you are Jacks:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Well sadly not sweetie. (although I've always liked the outfit! )

I was a complete and utter ignominious failure at the Live On 4K For a Year thread.

When the roof needed repairing I paid out to get it repaired. (I probably should have climbed up there with hammer and a mouthful of nails and sorted it myself.)

When our old banger died and needed replacing, we bought another one. (We'd do without a car if we could but Hubby does 100 miles a day.)

When my elderly nan rang in a tizz not making much sense, I jumped in a taxi immediately. (I'm not even justifying that one!)

When my daughter's school changed the school uniform, I bought a whole new set same as every one else. (They gave us 6 months to phase it in and were relaxed about small trangressions for about another 3 months after that.)

I think I'd spent half of the years 4k by March!

So keeping our budget down to a fixed number?

Can't do it!

But I can spend wisely and work hard - so I do that!

It works for us hon!

Love Jacks xxx