Someone please help!

Diamondintherough

I am only 20 years of age, a student and last year when i was living away from home i managed to run up a debt of £7000 debt. When i could'nt make the repayments the banks started calling but i just ignored them.
Now I regret that I did ignore them and I have a crap credit rating and ccjs against me.
I feel as if my life has been turned upside down and that I am just stuck with this debt now, and i have no future with my poor credit rating.
Till now I still have'nt taken any action because i dnt know the best route to go down, bankruptcy? IVA? I dunno...
Could someone please give me advice on what they think i should do to solve the issue, as I hate being in this situation?

Burlesque_Babe

Hi diamond and welcome

The first thing to do is a statement of affairs - which is a complete breakdown of your income and outgoings. This way everyone can have a look to see your full situation and give advice.

This thread will help

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=821791

you do have a future - money isn't everything and if you put a plan into place you will be able to change things around.

GeorgeUK

I would also suggest contacting one of the free debt charities. They would probably need to see a SOA too.

(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

Sue-UU

Hi Diamondintherough and a very warm welcome to the Forum!

You've made the first vital step in getting debt-free and whatever you're thinking right now, so long as you're sensible you WILL get things sorted out and have a good future ahead. I've had a lot more than you to get sorted out and I'm doing amazingly well already! You'll be in this position too soon enough.

As Burlesque Babe says, put your SOA on here via using this site https://www.makesenseofcards.com Be totally honest with all your outgoings and include Christmas, Birthdays ....anything you spend over the year, but put it all on the sheet monthly. Believe me, you only have a small amount compared to so many here and if you really try hard you'll soon start to see light at the end of that horrible tunnel.

Have a look at Martin's (Martin Lewis owner of this Forum) video talk
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan and watch/listen to it thoroughly, it helps so much and will help you put things in perspective. Others will soon be along to help you too, but please do put your SOA on as soon as possible. For now take deep breaths and ask yourself 'what's the worst that can happen' Once you've answered that you'll find things won't seem quite so bad as you first thought.

Is it possible to get yourself a part-time job so you can start to to pay the bills off? Don't live with too many regrets about what you did/didn't do, look to the future after you get rid of the debt. Take care and see you soon with the SOA.

Hugs, Sue.

DawnW

If you are still a student, it will probably be possible to get advice from your college / university. I work at one, and there is a 'student money centre' where students can go for finance advice (it may well be called something else in other institutions). This might be a good first port of call. Also, investigate whether you might be eligible for any hardship funding that is available. Your uni should also have lists of local part time jobs which you could think about. By all means try the other routes suggested as well (CAB, CCCS etc, which are free services). Don't bother going to any company that will charge you for advice / setting up a DMP or anything though. Good luck. It certainly isn't 'the end' in any shape or form, so please don't be too hard on yourself. Unfortunately most students end up in debt now. I was lucky, when I went to Uni I got a grant!

Diamondintherough

Thanks for your help so far, I really appreciate it!

My outgoings are very minimal:

Car Insurance: £140 Per month
Mobile Contract: £60 Per month
Petrol: £120 Per month

Any money I have left just goes on living but I only work in a bar and make roughly £100 a week.

I'm avoiding my debtors at the minute, until I can pay them off fully, but now I think bcos I have avoided them for so long and missed payments I have wrecked my credit file and it will not be repairable?

blackclouds

Hey Diamond

Get a hold of exactly what you owe and to who, work out what you can repay them and make a start.

I made the mistake of thinking that if I left post to build up on the mat, or put it in a drawer the magic fairies would come along and deal with it for me, but infortunately they haven't and I am in the keich as a result.

I am now getting my head around the fact that I am probably going to lose house and stuff but you know what I am starting to look at it pragmatically. If I cant get credit in the future then I cant run up debt.

But in your case you have everything ahead of you so if you start to deal with it now you should be able to stop it before it gets too bad.

Sue-UU

I can't help thinking that you should at least get in touch with all those you owe and be paying token payments to each. If you owe £7000 then I can't think it'll do you any good to not pay anything until you can clear the lot!

Try and get your petrol costs down. Ask for a few more hours at the pub per week. It may only be small savings, but little steps are worth the world when you're in debt as you are. How much longer have you got on your mobile contract? Try to speak nicely to someone there and see if you can possibly get it lowered, they've helped others in your position so it's worth a try. Next time why not go on PAYG! Again, it's all going to help you recover your credit rating which needn't be irreparable IF you get paying small amounts off ASAP then every little bit will help.

Please Diamondintherough, go and chat to the CAB or CCCS and listen to what they suggest you do, they can be great helpers. All the very best and please keep us informed.

Could your parents possibly help you out in the short term?

Sue

moo2moo

At £100 per week in a pub I'm going to assume you're on minimum wage and therefore working 20 hours per week. Would it be possible for you to get a second job, another 10 hours per week would double your income giving you an exta £200 a month towards debt repayments each month.

That £200 a month would snowball to £2400 in the first year making you completely debt free in 3 years.

I understand that you're a student and working 30 hours on top of a degree isn't the most fabulous idea in the world, it all depends what sort of a course you are on. There are always the holidays to consider. Although almost over I would try contacting a temp agency and seeing if you can get a short term position just until you go back at the start of the next year. There will also be plenty of christmas work about.

Good luck!

isgman

Try talking to CCCS (www.cccs.co.uk) they will give you Free Advice, Welcome to this site, It's a wonderful place to start, people here are just great at helping everyone, Good Luck