Please help - I don't know where to turn

Kron

Hi everyone

I desperately need your help. I wish I could explain how hard this is for me to write and if my children weren't here I would be in floods of tears.

My husband and I are up to our eyes in debt. We have loans, overdrafts, credit cards, catalogues. We don't own our house (we rent privately).

I sort all the money side out and we can no longer afford the minimum payments.

We have four children age 7, 6 and 4.

I've tried to do a summary but I don't know what % we pay on our credit cards. We can no longer get any more credit.

Can anyone please advise me what to do? Should I ring someone like CCCS and speak through the problems?

Any advice would be gratefully received as I feel like I'm drowning and I can't live with my head in the sand any more.

Karen

Deep_In_Debt

Hi
Welcome and well done for posting.

I would strongly suggest that you call CCCS, CAB or National Debtline and discuss your options with them.

Also, post up on SOA on here and we can see where we can help you save money and offer advice.

Good luck and keep posting.

Please don't dispair. We've all been where you are now.

MummyOnAMission_2

Hi Kron I totally understand how you are feeling. My OH and I are in the same boat. Loans, credit cards, catologues, o/drafts everything really!! And family members as well.
I did the SOA and didnt have my % etc either so just do it with what info you have it should still help you.
We had been hoping we wouldnt have to go thru a DMP but now as we arent able to make payments we are going to have to. I rang CCCS and got an appt booked to speak over the phone. Or if you dont want to do that you can do it online and they give you a recommendation of the best thing to do.
Ive finally realised there are hundreds of us out there n the same situation so dont think you are alone!
In the mean time just pay token payments you can afford and if any creditors bother you just tell them you are dealing with CCCS.
Hope that helps, (im new on here u see) please try to not worry.
Good luck

Kron

Thank you so much for your comments. I will do a SOA and put it on here.

I will definately ring CCCS too.

Back soon.

Karen

MummyOnAMission_2

And have a cuppa whilst your at it!!
Good luck wth the phone call.

sarriep

Hi Kron,
You'll get LOADS of advice and support here. I felt like the bottom had dropped out of my world a few weeks ago but now with support from CCCS and the advice on here I'm quite optimistic about our future. Posting your SOA is a good start and the debt remedy at CCCS like MummyOnAMission said is good -you can adjust the figures and see what would suit you best.
Only making token payments has allowed us to regain a little financial control this month and our DMP starts on the first of November.
Keep posting!
Sx

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the forum you have definately come to the right place.

We all understand how you are feeling as we have been there too.

The best place to start is to post up your SOA. You will be amazed what advice comes your way.

Calling CCCS is a really good idea, I haven't used them myself but I know lots of people on here have and I have only heard good things about them.

Good luck.

Kron

Ok here we go. I have no idea of interest rates on credit cards, o/d etc but do know that none of them are 0%.

Rent 610.00
Council Tax 121.00
Contents Insurance 14.00
Water (both) 56.50
Gas 25.00 (per month)
Electricity 60.00 (per month - on key meter)
Phone / internet 22.00 (all calls included)
Mobile 20.00 (just changed - saving 25 per month)

Insurance (female) 9.00 (cancer insurance for women)
Life Insurance 15.05 (from old mortgage - cover £50k)
Insurance 75.00 (for hubby - health, life insurance)

Littlewoods 43.00
Sky 20.00
Contact Lenses 13.00 (incl cost of check ups)
Car Insurance 19.40
TV license 11.61

Wildwood 5.00 (this is a local animal park and gains us free
entry for all 6 of us - used alot)

TOTAL £1,497.38

This total doesn't include payments for any credit cards etc or food, petrol, clothes.

Debt

Loan has 2.5 years left and £9,400 left to pay. Never defaulted.

Lloyds CC (mine) £549
Lloyds (hubby) £1,400
Barclaycard (mine) £3,041 (one payment behind)
Barclaycard (hubby) £3,800
MBNA (mine) £1,977
Tesco (hubby) £2,100

None of these have been paid this month as I have no money left.

Catalogues

Vertbaudet £120.03 (behind with payments)
La Redoute £170.34 (behind with payments)
JD Williams £711.89 (behind with payments)
Simply Be £206.62 (behind with payments)
Next £1493.08 (behind with payments)

None have been paid this month.

Overdrafts

RBS £900
Lloyds £3,000 (recommended by the bank to pay off part of hubby's cc but we can't pay any off each month and just end up going over limit).

Income

Hubby's wages approx £2,300 (commission can vary so no usually more than this)
DLA £179.40
Tax Credit £130.93 (just reduced by £200 as they think they overpaid
last year)
Child allowance £225.80

This doesn't include food, petrol, clothes or anything else.

Food probably averages around £80-90 per week. It really depends on whether I have any money. Otherwise I try to eek food out.

Petrol £10-20 per month. I'm fortunate in that my dad borrows my car quite regularly and puts petrol in for me.

Car repairs - non so far thankfully! We don't save or budget for anything like this.

Clothes - I sell bits from home on ebay and use the small amount I make to buy the kids their clothes.

Home repairs - we live in rented accommodation but internal repairs probably average out at £10 per month.

Every month we incur charges of around £150 - £200.

A little bit of back ground might help. I have four children age 7,6 and twins of 4. My eldest has diabetes and coeliac disease and we receive DLA for this (up for renewal at the moment). One of my twins is waiting to have another biopsy for coeliac as her bloods were positive. We get quite a bit on prescription for the gluten free food but this does add quite a bit for our food bill. Our food bill is approx £80 per week. One of my twins is still in nappies at night.

I can't think of anything else to put on. I'll answer any questions as well as I can.

Karen

monkeyintrouble

Kron wrote: »

Ok here we go. I have no idea of interest rates on credit cards, o/d etc but do know that none of them are 0%.

Rent

Can anybody give this lady a link to the SOA?

Kron

Sorry I pressed the wrong button. Hopefully it is showing properly above!

Karen

climbingoutoftheabyss

The first thing to remember is that many of us have been in your situation and we understand how you are feeling, you won't find anyone judging or criticising.

Second thing to remember is that you are in a pivotal moment of your life, things are going to be tough but eventually they will get better and there will be a point where you look back and are glad you've met your problems head-on.

In terms of your SOA you need to revise that including absolutely everything you spend money on, from groceries through to hairdressing, clothes, car repairs - everything.

From what you've indicated so far, I do think you will need some professional help, CCCS are great but otherwise I would recommend Payplan who have been great with me.

Keep your chin-up and tackle your problems and things will get better - keep visiting this board for support and tips