its all gone pete tong

mort1768

I have been hanging about reading for a while my debt was 24k on credit cards (gambling what a bloody idiot) and wife didnt know. Having read the posts i contacted payplan and then told the wife the bad news (not good but nobody to blame but me).

Payplan have gone through my debts they also include a 25k loan and 2k overdraft so about 52k in all. Having worked out my outgoing and the wifes bits and pieces they say i have a disposable income of £120 a month so advised a DMP. This will take for ever to pay!

Now i have worked out what money we have against what we need and i say we have £900 left a month from that if we pay £400 into an iva we have £500 for food and stuff for the month which we think we can do.

Can we refuse a DMP and ask for an IVA ? if not can we pay more per month on the DMP to get it down a bit quicker. Also doe it make any difference that the 24k credit cards were mainly gambling debts.

Nedd to sort this out life sucks for now but least the wife didnt pack me bags and make me sleep in the shed

$17mma

mort1768 wrote:

Nedd to sort this out life sucks for now but least the wife didnt pack me bags and make me sleep in the shed

Oh Mort1768

Well done you! and you still have a sense of humour...the end bit did make me chuckle....not that I would wish that of course!

Dont know much about IV thingy mjiggy but have you tried contacting/writing your creditors yourself and coming to an arrangement with them? this could also be an option.

http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

I am sorry I cant offer much help re: DMP or IVA but I wish you all the best in sorting it out..

Dont worry though someone will come along soon and offer you LOADS of advise! and support.

kickingkay

mort1768 wrote:

I have been hanging about reading for a while my debt was 24k on credit cards (gambling what a bloody idiot) and wife didnt know. Having read the posts i contacted payplan and then told the wife the bad news (not good but nobody to blame but me).

Payplan have gone through my debts they also include a 25k loan and 2k overdraft so about 52k in all. Having worked out my outgoing and the wifes bits and pieces they say i have a disposable income of £120 a month so advised a DMP. This will take for ever to pay!

Now i have worked out what money we have against what we need and i say we have £900 left a month from that if we pay £400 into an iva we have £500 for food and stuff for the month which we think we can do.

Can we refuse a DMP and ask for an IVA ? if not can we pay more per month on the DMP to get it down a bit quicker. Also doe it make any difference that the 24k credit cards were mainly gambling debts.

Nedd to sort this out life sucks for now but least the wife didnt pack me bags and make me sleep in the shed

hi well done welcome to my world lol!!
just wondering i know you say you have 120 something desposable each month but you think you can stretcg it to 400 how will you pay your bills do you have a mortgage etc
have you already listed your priority debts so the more cleverer peeps can work it out as for and iva;
it might have an opening fee to arrange also once signed thats it if you default you can be in worse problems as they can file for your assets now this can be for up to 60 months but in some cases longer then in the 4th year if you own your home they look into yourmortgage and then will expect you to release the equity to pay off your debt
i hope this helps if payplan say they can do it then go with them save up what you think you can spare for debts then pay a lumpo sum off (ie birthday gift from family) each yr then you are yourself knocking a bit more off each year then if you face hardship or profit you are not tied into something you can not get out of
i really hope this helps being a cc gambler i know exactly how you feel (hangs head in shame) if i bought the amount ive lost id have 3 brand new cars on the drive but i dont what a bloody waste but i will pay it all back and im determined i wont gamble again its been a week which really is great for me so i know im going well its still dead hard but im doin my best
take care klare x

southernscouser

Hi Mort and welcome to MSE.

You've started to take the right steps so :T to you, but may I suggest you also contact someone like gamecare. They are a registered charity that help people with gambling addictions.

http://www.gamcare.org.uk/

Can you list a SOA (state of affairs) so we can see exactly what position you are in.

Take a look at this thread then post back here and we will see what we can do to help.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

Good luck,

SS

moneysavingplumber

You can apply for an IVA via any insolvency practitioner, but it may not, overall, be the best option for you. Creditors do take into account the reason for your difficulties when agreeing or not on an IVA and they may look unfavourably on the gambling from a viewpoint of whether or not they think you are likely to actually complete it successfully. It's similar, as far as I know, in bankruptcy, whereby if a creditor argues that you are in debt because of 'reckless' spending they may be able to pursue you much further than if you were the victim of 'circumstance' as such.

The advantage of the DMP is that it's far more flexible if your circumstances change. I would have opted to stay with this if I didn't have major tax liabilities, but it's impossible with tax, but luckily a tax settlement can be included in an IVA, so I opted for this myself and two years on it's been ok. I still have certain credit use that I had before, and I don't have collectors phoning me every week asking me to increase payments. My credit rating won't be great once it's finished but then once you've defaulted on credit cards it's pretty much shot for six years anyway.

Willsnarf1983

southernscouser wrote:

Hi Mort and welcome to MSE.

You've started to take the right steps so :T to you, but may I suggest you also contact someone like gamecare. They are a registered charity that help people with gambling addictions.

http://www.gamcare.org.uk/


SS

totally agree, you need to get a control on the illness and either have gamcare or gamblers anon . Give either of them a call.


Will

mort1768

Thanks people i have got my documents from payplan today and spoke to them and i agree i cant afford anything but a DMP. Its rare that in the job i do i have a flat month and i get paid every 4 weeks rather than monthly so i will have a bit spare to send them.

As far as gambling is concerned i have spoke to GA and not had a bet now for 10 days. My problem however was online not down the bookies online casino,poker and betfair took my money. These accounts have all been closed and when ever i go online i am on WIFE WATCH so its no longer a problem (God willing for ever)

Its a long road but its my own fault so lets start walking

kickingkay

mort1768 wrote:

Thanks people i have got my documents from payplan today and spoke to them and i agree i cant afford anything but a DMP. Its rare that in the job i do i have a flat month and i get paid every 4 weeks rather than monthly so i will have a bit spare to send them.

As far as gambling is concerned i have spoke to GA and not had a bet now for 10 days. My problem however was online not down the bookies online casino,poker and betfair took my money. These accounts have all been closed and when ever i go online i am on WIFE WATCH so its no longer a problem (God willing for ever)

Its a long road but its my own fault so lets start walking

hi Mort it is really hard and as i sit here now typing the urge is still there but the lust for it has passed (at teh moment) my gambling was really bad due to my dad dying and not being able to truly cope now that his funeral has passed im trying hard to cope with the mess ive made and the panic and fear of him dying etc has eased which is why i feel a bit more in control
i also called GA and didnt feel comfortable talking to them my OH still doesnt know how much ive lost and to be honest why should i off load that on him to relieve my guilt he doesnt deserve that but he is supporting me totally as im sure your wife will do, have to say though had it been him not quite sure i would have been so reasonable as he has
anyway if you ever need to chat about the dreaded onliners club you can pm me
take care to you both stay strong
klare x

southernscouser

mort1768 wrote:

As far as gambling is concerned i have spoke to GA and not had a bet now for 10 days.

:T

Well done mort. You are taking all the correct steps which is brilliant. I know it will be a long road (I'm on it myself debt wise) but you can and will do it.

Just keep coming back here whenever you need advice, encouragement, someone to have a rant to, or a kick up the !!!!!!! It's amazing how many people are willing to help.

SS

System

Hi mort

I haven't dealt with payplan myself, but I think if they say you can afford £120 a month, I'd respect their experience and go with that. You can always increase your repayments in future. Give it 6 months and see if payplan have vastly overestimated how much you need for your day-to-day living. If you constantly end the month with a large cash surplus, you know you can afford to increase your creditor repayments. Best to be cautious than over-commit yourself.

As for the gambling, this is something I've always been very careful to keep at arms length - even with the lottery. My dad was a bookie and got into money trouble via his own gambling.

With online gambling, does it help if you take the sites out of your favourites folder? Is there anyway you can block them outright with your ISP, such as a "parental control" option? Appreciate you've probably thought of those!

Best of luck anyway.

Dave

matrix999

$17mma wrote:

Oh Mort1768

Well done you! and you still have a sense of humour...the end bit did make me chuckle....not that I would wish that of course!

Dont know much about IV thingy mjiggy but have you tried contacting/writing your creditors yourself and coming to an arrangement with them? this could also be an option.

http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

I am sorry I cant offer much help re: DMP or IVA but I wish you all the best in sorting it out..

Dont worry though someone will come along soon and offer you LOADS of advise! and support.

Just had a look at the snowball link and thought it was very good!!!

Cheers for that