HELP! Lots of debt! Can I keep my house?

Daisy4478

Thank you! Everybody seems so nice :0)

Feel ashamed really that things have got this bad. My partner drinks a lot (though will not admit that he has a problem) and has never given me enough money to pay the bills. I got a loan to help meet living costs...then another to meet the loan reypayments...then another to meet those payments and so on..... till i find myself where i am today. 30 with 2 small children, stuck in a job that pays just over minimum wage although i have a degree and a masters.

Have tried to make extra money by selling on ebay, car boots and signed up for a load of mystery shopping companies but it only pays little bits and not frequenly. I cant do extra hours because i have a baby and a six year old. I changed my job so i could work at night because the child care for my youngest was cosing £8000 a year so although i dont earn a great deal now we are still a little better off.

It came to a head when i was going to have to apply for another loan to get by and i realised that i dont want to live the resy of my life like this. I want to pay off my debts but just cannot manage at the minute. As soon as my youngest is at school i am more than happy to return to work full time but where we live nursery fees are really expensive that combined with before and after school clubs for my eldest makes it practically impossible.

Dont mean to go on... proberbly sounding really sorry for myself lol. Just nice to get things off my chest!

I have done my SOA but dont know how to put it on here for people to have a look.

Burlesque_Babe

don't feel ashamed - we've all been there, done that, signed for the consolidation loan.

The thing to focus on now is that it is in the past, draw a line under it and look to put together a plan to move into the future.

meerkat2007

I don't know if this will help, but my situation was to find myself in around £92k's worth of debt round 2001, of which around £25k was the mortgage on a house worth around £100k then. I could have sold the house and started again with a clean sheet, but I didn't want to lose the house as I've lived here all my life.

I went through all the hounding on the phone, the torrent of demands and threats through the post until, in 2001, I confessed all to a fantastic friend who has been wonderfully supportive. She told me to start writing letters to my creditors to explain the situation - falling behind with my payments due to an extended period of unemployment, then find a job that only paid around two-thirds of what I had been earning prior to the period of unemployment.

Most of my debts had been passed on to DCAs, who were relatively easy to deal with, in that I was able to make arrangements to pay lower amounts than the minimum payments I had been trying and failing to make, and the two credit card companies I was still dealing with froze the interest and never applied it again - I've now paid both of those off.

In 2000, pre-LBM, I did fall into arrears with my mortgage, by about 3 months. A lady came round from the Nationwide to talk to me about it, and to be honest, she was very nice. I was due to start back into a full-time permanent job soon after the appointment, so she made an arrangement for me to pay the arrears back over a number of instalments on top my regular payments.

I told her that I didn't want to lose the house, to which she responded that they had no interest in selling the house, as they would rather have the mortgage repayments - I appreciate that this may well have changed in the current climate!

In summary, by contacting my creditors I was able to make arrangements to pay my debts in instalments I could afford. I'm still paying the majority, and I hope to be debt-free after 53 more pay-days, and that includes the mortgage. I'm still in the same house, still paying the same mortgage, which is, I'm very happy to say, bang up-to-date, and I've even been able to overpay slightly each month, just a few pounds, but it all helps. I increase the payments on my other debts as and when I am able to do so, but thanks to this site, I can now stand up to their bullying when they demand more money at times when I can't afford to give them more.

Assuming I stick to my spending plan, I'll have two more creditors paid off in full by about April or May of next year, but roll on 2013!

It is possible to make arrangements and still keep your home. And don't forget, if you haven't got the money, you can't give it to them.

Daisy4478

Thank you Meerkat 2007! I have started doing a letter to my creditors to try and arrange lower payments. I think i will feel better when everything is arranged things just seem a little uncertain at the minute. Keeping the house is my main priority as i dont want to unsettle the girls. I did look at renting but to be honest rental prices in this area arent that much lower than the morgage so it seems a bit pointless. Hopefully the creditors will agree to the proposals and things will start to get better :0)

meerkat2007

Good luck, Daisy4478.

Things will be a little difficult while you get arrangements in place, and creditors will probably try to get you to commit to higher repayments, but always try to stand your ground.

Another tip is to request that all communication is in writing. I had reason to call one of my creditors today - long story, and I won't bore you with the details - and during the call, they asked me for a phone number, as they didn't have one on record.

This proved that my request to have my number removed from their system was actioned. I then lied through my teeth about the phone number being due to change, which put them off the scent successfully.

Hope this helps.

RAS

Daisy

Given your situation, it is really important that you speak to NDL or CCCS. With no equity and rental versus mortgage being even, the best thing may be going BK. You would have to buy back the beneficial interest but thay might only be a thousand or two and it would relieve you of a lot of debt.

coolcait

Hiya Daisy and welcome

You didn't mention where you live. If you happen to be in Scotland, you might want to look into the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). This thread tells you a bit about it:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1164297&highlight=DAS

Wherever you are, I'd echo the advice you've been given about speaking to CAB, CCCS etc. And you'll also get a lot of advice and support on here.

Daisy4478

Thanks Coolcait. I live in the Midlands. People have been really helpful on here and really nice :0).

blind-as-a-bat_2

RAS wrote: »

Daisy

Given your situation, it is really important that you speak to NDL or CCCS. With no equity and rental versus mortgage being even, the best thing may be going BK. You would have to buy back the beneficial interest but thay might only be a thousand or two and it would relieve you of a lot of debt.

I have to agree with RAS, if your sure your property is in zero equity then your option,s are DMP or BK, an IVA would be pointless as you have nothing to protect asset wise from what you have posted.

Which will be most suitable would depend on what surplus is left on your SOA after all priority payments/Essential living costs have been taken of.

Once you have spoken to to NDL or CCCS you will have a better picture of where you stand

meerkat2007

Daisy4478, you will get lots of very sound advice here.

The actions I took may not be the most appropriate for your circumstances. They may not have been the most appropriate for my circumstances at the time, but back then, I didn't have access to the fund of knowledge on this site. There are an awful lot of very knowledgeable people here, who can give you far better advice than I can, given your circumstances and the current climate.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the very best of luck.