Hello

Itsallgonepearshaped

Hi. Just joined up today. Been looking at the forum for a while now so thought I'd take the plunge and say hello. Tried to set up my own business trading the financial markets 18 months ago and it's all gone a bit wrong. Had my head in the sand thinking everything was going to work out but now the debts have just got completely out of hand. Any slagging off for this choice won't be anything nearly as bad as I've been saying to myself! My first impression from reading the boards and looking at my level of debt is I may have no option but to go down the bankruptcy route which I really don't want to do cos it's not in my nature to give up but I just think I've let things go too far to salvage it at the present time. Anyway, i've managed to book an appointment with CCCS for tomorrow to go through my problems so thanks to everybody on here that has recommended them - the guy I spoke to to set up the appointment was very helpful. I'll update the thread on how it goes if anybody's interested. Cheers :beer:

MrsTinks

Why not post your SOA here so we can see how bad things are and then you'll have the figures ready for tomorrow

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

lunar

Good luck for your appointment, and well done for posting. you will get loads of good advice on here if you stick with it. will keep an eye out for your SOA if you decide to post it.

Itsallgonepearshaped

I'll sort it out this afternoon - thanks

Itsallgonepearshaped

Here's the SOA - as they would say in Father Ted, I think em !!!!ed!

[tt]
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet



Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 0

Partners monthly income after tax....... 1800

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 1800



Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 1450

Secured loan repayments................. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 225

Electricity............................. 50

Gas..................................... 50

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 40

Telephone (land line)................... 15

Mobile phone............................ 35

TV Licence.............................. 13

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40

Internet Services....................... 25

Groceries etc. ......................... 500

Clothing................................ 75

Petrol/diesel........................... 150

Road tax................................ 15

Car Insurance........................... 40

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20

Car parking............................. 10

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 15

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 60

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 70

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 100

Total monthly expenses.................. 3048



Assets

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 400000

Shares and bonds........................ 500

Car(s).................................. 4000

Other assets............................ 0

Total Assets............................ 404500



Secured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 301000...(1450).....0

Total secured debts........... 301000....-.........-



Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Credit cards...................103200....3096......0

Loans..........................42000.....700.......0

Overdraft......................5000......0.........0

Total unsecured debts..........150200....3796......-



Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 1,800

Expenses (including secured debts)....... 3,048

Available for debt repayments........... -1,248

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 3,796

Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -5,044



Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 404,500

Total Secured debt...................... -301,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -150,200

Net Assets.............................. -46,700

[/tt]



======== Enter any other useful information below ========



2 adults & 2 children + 1 cat in the household, 2 cars but I've got one up for sale at the moment which I'm hoping will go before the next mortgage payment is dueI'm currently desparately going round agencies trying to get work for myself but it's not the besr of times. I stopped the trading to stem the losses but I can't get any benefits as I wasn't up to date with my NI payments.I have applied for council tax relief and we're waiting to try and get tax credits which I haven't included above.As and when I get back to work (I'm a management accountant believe it or not!) I should be able to clear £4k a month but I have to buy myself some time to get a job.I've written to all my unsecured lenders asking for an interest freeze and if they'll accept a nominal payment so I'll have to see what happens.and thats it !

bargain-hunter-uk_2

wow. A long chat with the CCCS is certainly in order. Every situation is different, but each is able to be sorted, so dont worry, just keep thinking methodically, and things will get back on track. good luck!

scaredy_cat

Itsallgonepearshaped wrote: »

Here's the SOA - as they would say in Father Ted, I think em !!!!ed!

[tt]
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet



Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 0

Partners monthly income after tax....... 1800

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 1800



Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 1450 - that's a large payment!! have you got a mansion! - can you go on interest only?

Secured loan repayments................. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 225

Electricity............................. 50 - can you chnage supplier and get a switch deal?

Gas..................................... 50 - as above

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 40

Telephone (land line)................... 15

Mobile phone............................ 35

TV Licence.............................. 13

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40 - not really needed - but can you get a sky packed with tv/ internet/ mobile 7 landline?

Internet Services....................... 25

Groceries etc. ......................... 500 - very high , can you cut back be down branding?

Clothing................................ 75

Petrol/diesel........................... 150

Road tax................................ 15

Car Insurance........................... 40

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20

Car parking............................. 10

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 15

Contents insurance...................... 10

Life assurance ......................... 60

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 70

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 100

Total monthly expenses.................. 3048



Assets

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 400000

Shares and bonds........................ 500

Car(s).................................. 4000

Other assets............................ 0

Total Assets............................ 404500



Secured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 301000...(1450).....0

Total secured debts........... 301000....-.........-



Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Credit cards...................103200....3096......0

Loans..........................42000.....700.......0

Overdraft......................5000......0.........0

Total unsecured debts..........150200....3796......-



Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 1,800

Expenses (including secured debts)....... 3,048

Available for debt repayments........... -1,248

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 3,796

Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -5,044



Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 404,500

Total Secured debt...................... -301,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -150,200

Net Assets.............................. -46,700

[/tt]



======== Enter any other useful information below ========



2 adults & 2 children + 1 cat in the household, 2 cars but I've got one up for sale at the moment which I'm hoping will go before the next mortgage payment is dueI'm currently desparately going round agencies trying to get work for myself but it's not the besr of times. I stopped the trading to stem the losses but I can't get any benefits as I wasn't up to date with my NI payments.I have applied for council tax relief and we're waiting to try and get tax credits which I haven't included above.As and when I get back to work (I'm a management accountant believe it or not!) I should be able to clear £4k a month but I have to buy myself some time to get a job.I've written to all my unsecured lenders asking for an interest freeze and if they'll accept a nominal payment so I'll have to see what happens.and thats it !

your outgoings are almost twice as much as your incomings! Do you not get any child benefits either? or working tax credit? also, can you ask your mortguge provider for a short mortgage holiday til you get a job?

milliemonster

Hiya and welcome, my first thoughts are your mortgage is for £301,000 but the repayments only £1450 a month, I take it this is interest only and it must be a very good fixed rate deal to be this low on such a high mortgage!

At the moment you don't have enough to put £100 into an emergency fund or £70 a month entertainment so I would scrap both of those and focus on having enough to pay the essentials at present (mortgage, utilities and council tax)

£500 a month groceries is a lot, you can easily half that (I got mine from £600 a month to £225 a month from the help I got on here and we have 2 kids and a dog), get rid of your satellite TV and try to get a better deal for your broadband

How much is your house worth in relation to your mortgage?

You should be able to claim Tac credits for your children and child benefit, this would give you a minimum extra monthly income of £265

Itsallgonepearshaped

Hi. Thanks for the feedback folks. :T

It's really good to get this all off my chest - I almost burst into tears when I originally spoke to the CCCS - it's just getting too much for me to cope with.

I've already switched the mortgage to interest only. Most of it is at 0.35% above base so I'm hoping for a big interest rate cut on Thursday as it should all feed through to the bottom line!

I've just switched suppliers of electricity & gas so not much I can do on that.

I'm looking into getting rid of Sky but reception down here is rubbish so I'll have to find an altenative or the kids will go mental.

The groceries was a guess based on guidelines from the CAB - I think it's supposed to include toiletries, cat food, washing powder and all the other bits and pieces. I'm sure I can get it down though (already started by Sainsburys value squash at 18p a bottle for a litre and also value custard creams and digestives which the kids love!)

We do get child benefit so I'll add that on. Waiting for the application forms for tax credits which should be another £150ish a month and. Also going to see the council about getting council tax benefit. My wife has an Ebay shop called Feminine and Fabulous (!) selling things like cosmetics and kids clothes which is turning over quite a lot at the moment but she's tending to reinvest anything she gets in more stock and anything left over she uses to pay her own cards so I've excluded that. Probably need to do a bit more work with her on working out how much she's making out of it to see if we can include anything.

I've asked C&G for a payment holiday but all they were prepared to do at the time was move to interest only (which they chrged me £80 for). I think I'll have to go back to them though - I'll see what the CCCS say tomorrow.

The key to it all is me getting back to work but things have just ground to a halt at the moment with everybody scared to employ anybody. Here's hoping things improve soon ...

scaredy_cat

if you have a spare room in your house, can you get a lodger, you can earn about £4k in rent before you have to pay tax on it.

LoulaBelle

Is there anyway you can downsize your house maybe?