Please help, we've hit crisis point

shezza

Hi, many thanks to everyone who has suggested ways to help us out of our current situation. Tonight I have gone through the debt remedy section on the cccs website and I will ring them tomorrow to see what advice they can give me. Some of the spending reductions that they have recommended, were suggestion that many of you have already mentioned. I am concerned that they will not help me as I can not reduce some of the spending that they recommend. The site indicated that I spend to much on petrol but I have an 80 mile round trip to work each day and I already carshare, can some one who has dealt with cccs tell me if they are flexible with their suggestions please as I don't want to get kicked out because I can't reduce some of the recommendations. I still feel sick everytime I complete one of these forms (the SOA yesterday and this tonight), when I see it all written down I just dispare. I had an argument with my mum last night, as I had to admit that I couldn't afford to do a night class anymore (and this was going to help me change careers) and my mum just went off on one, I already felt rubbish and she just made me feel so much smaller. She doesn't know the extent of my problems and I am not going to tell her, my parents can not help me and my mum would just worry herself to death. My dad is much more perceptive and although he hasn't said anything I know he knows me and my OH are in a pickle.

I know we have made the first step to sorting this all out, but I feel like I have a brick in my tummy. I just hope that I don't burst into tears when I ring the cccs, I'll not get anywhere if the person on the other end of the phone can not understand a word I'm saying.

One good thing that we did look into yesterday, after someone thought that my OH nursing registration was high, we had a look at the paperwork. In the past he has had to pay for 3 years at a time which was why we thought we were going to have to pay £240 out, but they have introduced an annual payment of £76, so we are just going to pay that this month, it may be a little more to pay annually, but for this year it will be a small price to pay to know that he is still going to be able to go to work, and maybe next year we will be able to pay the 3 years, many thanks Jacks for questioning this.

Merlot

shezza wrote: »

Hi, I posted a couple of days ago asking for help in finding a company who would give me and my OH a loan so that we could consolidate all our debts in one place. However, everyone who replied said not to consolidate and post our SOA. So I went to the site and did my SOA, and boy did it make me cry. I knew we were in a bad way but seeing it all written down in front of me just broke my heart. We have nothing left by the time everything is paid, so emergency or unforeseen things just knock us for six. Our credit cards are to the max, so no help there, and no one will give us either a loan or a 0% balance transfer credit card, so I quite literally can not see how we can get out of this mess. My OH is a nurse and his registration bill came in last week and they want £240 which we don't have (we thought it was due next year), and if he doesn't pay it he looses his registration and therefore his job.

So here is our SOA:

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1480
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1320
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2800

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 494
Council tax............................. 91
Electricity............................. 106 - Gosh, this is high
Gas..................................... 10
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 27
Mobile phones............................ 80 - get rid of today
TV Licence.............................. 11.61
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40 - get rid of today
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 25.87
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Other travel............................ 48
Other child related expenses............ 166 - what is this?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.1
Buildings & contents insurance..................... 21.31
Life assurance (with mortgage).................... 78.37 -too much, Life and mortgage insurance is very important but this is far far too high.
Other insurance......................... 6
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 10

Total monthly expenses.................. 1667.26


Unsecured Debts [FONT=&quot]
[FONT=&quot]Description.................... Debt...... Monthly...APR[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Halifax (SA).................. 6000...... 140....... 15.9... (minimum payment)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Halifax (NF).................. 4500...... 120....... 15.9.. (minimum payment)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Halifax (Loan)................ 3395...... 134....... 12.9[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Car loan........................... 2821...... 217....... 12.6......(13 payments left)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Barclaycard.................... 30........ 10........ 15.9....... (3 payments left)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Moorcroft...................... 170....... 85........ 0............ (2 payments left)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fraser card.................... 190....... 10........ 19.9..... (minimum payment)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Egg card....................... 1200...... 25........ 21.9....... (minimum payment)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]TSB loan....................... 4000...... 190....... 12.9[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]TSB card....................... 8000...... 152....... 15.9.... (minimum payment)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Total unsecured debts........30306.....1083......[/FONT]

All help would be greatly received. We were woundering if contacting someone to get a DMP or a IVA would be the answer but I really don't know how they work.

[/FONT]

Welcome to the board, I have added some comments in above, do you have children? If so, do you recieve child benefit etc.

Your SOA in all honesty doesn't look all that bad really, you are wasting at over £100 per month on non essential . e.g mobile, sky and life assurance is too high.

I can see a DMP working for you.

Contact one of the Debt charities, they will help you.

Merlot.x.

Merlot

shezza wrote: »

The insurance is linked with the mortgage, it includes all the life insurances, sickeness and unemployment cover and critical illness that you have to have with a mortgage, which is probably why it is so high. We have had to use it in the past as my OH was off for 11 months a couple of years ago, and I have to say it was a godsend at the time.

You do not have to have critical illness or unemployment cover, infact you do not have to have any mortgage insurance.

You need to look at this...critical illness cover in alot of cases isn't worth the paper it is written on.

But you need basic mortgage insurance, I am not sure if a DMP would allow the amount of your current mortgage insurance?

Merlot.x.

Hopeful1

That's good news about the registration. Sometimes it takes someone else to point these things out as they're so easy to miss.

You should give yourself some credit - looking at your SOA you'd already started working on getting yourselves on track by reducing your credit card balances. You know how many payments you need to make to clear the accounts, which is more than i know and i've been working on my debts for over a year!

Don't be too hard on yourself and take a breath. You will get through this.

Just an afterthought, do you have any charges on any of the cards or loans you could reclaim?

Pinkpegasus

Hello, What about ringing your utilitiy comppanies and asking if they can temporarily reduce the monthly DDs by a small amount for a few months?

Also have you considered challenging your creditors re the debt and CCAing them, also contacting them to reclaim any OTT charged that they may refund?

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hi again honey,

I'm ever so glad about the registration thingummy - that's one less worry isn't it?

As for worrying about CCCS's guidelines - don't fret honey, It's all flexible..

They work out everyone's expenses individually. In the same way that your mortgage might be more or less than someone else's -your essential petrol spend will be different as well.

I feel your pain honey. We live in Hampshire and Hubby works in Hertfordshire so he does good 100 miles every day and our diesel bill just seems to go up and up. :eek:

This is the stressful part sweetie, once you get a few balls rolling you'll start to feel much better I promise.

I'm sorry about the tension with your Mum. When mine got on my case about something that I had wriggled out on the grounds that we couldn't afford it I just told her that with the current financial climate we're trying to be sensible and not take any extra expenses on.

She was huffy for a bit but she came around. I hope your mum is the same. You can't turn on the telly for doom and gloom about the credit crunch and the cost of living going up so when she thinks about it perhaps she's realise that you're just being careful - like most people at the moment.

Love Jacks xxx

Bismarck

shezza wrote: »

I had an argument with my mum last night, as I had to admit that I couldn't afford to do a night class anymore (and this was going to help me change careers) and my mum just went off on one, I already felt rubbish and she just made me feel so much smaller. She doesn't know the extent of my problems and I am not going to tell her, my parents can not help me and my mum would just worry herself to death. My dad is much more perceptive and although he hasn't said anything I know he knows me and my OH are in a pickle.

it's unfortunate that concern comes out in unhelpful ways sometimes...it's sometimes a no-win situation but if you can't do it, you can't do it....glad to hear the news about the registration fees though.

bridget81

I'm a nurse and my registration is £76, i would advised him to contact UKCC and check that is correct, i know recently it changed to annually.
Also re his phone, if he uses it for work, they should either provide him with a work phone, but i know that doesnt always happen. I used my personal phone for work for a period, i work in the community and on the back of our travel form i used to write down how many phone calls work related made, date, time, legth etc and they paid me back the following month with my travel. So ask oh to ask his line manager about this, also i didnt get taxed on it as i had already paid tax on the money first time round if that makes sense.
Good luck

lynzpower

The site indicated that I spend to much on petrol but I have an 80 mile round trip to work each day and I already carshare, can some one who has dealt with cccs tell me if they are flexible with their suggestions please as I don't want to get kicked out because I can't reduce some of the recommendations. I still feel sick everytime I complete one of these forms (the SOA yesterday and this tonight), when I see it all written down I just dispare.

One suggestion i have is that if you are buying petrol, make sure you are fully tapped up to all the loyalty schemes

BP & Sainsburys give nectarpoints
Shell has its own loyalty scheme that gives boots vouchers
Tesco gives clubcard vouchers.

Nice to get a bit of a backkick esp with fuel costing so much.

LoulaBelle

Hi there Shezza,

I've just read through your posting and you actually have a lot of money coming in (£2800) and after your 'general' outgoings you have a lot left over - just over £1000 - its those pesky credit cards/debts.

I don't think that anyone on here has mentioned getting a part time second job - think about doing one just for a little while - is this possible for a while? I know that you travel a lot for your job (80 mile round trip) - is this mon - fri? can you find a little something to do maybe on either a saturday or sunday? I used to do my 'day' job in an office and then on Thur/fri/sat nights I used to work in a nightclub - it was hard at first but I used to get so dressed up (as much as you could with the uniform) and it felt like I was going on nights out just being in the atmosphere.

I wish you all the best and just think when your debts have gone - your gonna be rich!

Are either your or your partner due a payrise??

With regards to presents for birthdays and christmas - can't you just say that you are only buying for the children in the family this year due to 'credit crunch' crisis - you don't have to go into detail - I am sure other people will welcome this. And as for haircuts - how about going to a student training night? it all helps. If I think of anything else I'll post