getting started

insider66

Hi sambez,

just a quick question.

Have you applied for tax credits?

dancingfairy

Would defnitely contact the debt charities and see what they advise - maybe you could arrange your own dmp?
df

GeorgeUK

Have you tried reclaiming bank charges or credit card charges?
Is there PPI on the loan? Was it missold?
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/

Have you missed payments on your cards yet?

sambez

insider66 wrote: »

Hi sambez,

just a quick question.

Have you applied for tax credits?

yes we did but they overpaid us a few years ago and said we arnt entitled to anything.

We havent had a lot of bank charges as we manage somehow to pay things each month but have added to the credit cards in order to do this sometimes.

There is no PPI on the loan we refused it.

Think a dmp is the only option but how long do they accept lower payments for usually as it seems like it would be a long term option not a 3 month solution.

No not had any missed payments on cards as yet.

thanks

sam

eyeopener2

Just a quickie but the cable/satellite? Are you still in contract? If not, you need to bin this and go for freeview. You are spending £480-00 a year you cannot afford. I realise letting things like this go is tough, i've done it myself, but you soon get used to it.

Eye

sambez

eyeopener2 wrote: »

Just a quickie but the cable/satellite? Are you still in contract? If not, you need to bin this and go for freeview. You are spending £480-00 a year you cannot afford. I realise letting things like this go is tough, i've done it myself, but you soon get used to it.

Eye

hi

We arnt in contract with sky anymore. but i feel that its all we do have as we dont go out, drink or smoke and tv is all we do apart from internet and thats free. we can drop it down to a basic package. It just annoys me that on the CCCS site they allow for cigarettes in their budget planner but question us for still having sky. if we have to we will have to get rid of sky and buy a freeview box or something.

sam

GeorgeUK

I definately agree that you need to talk to CCCS or one of the other free debt charities. Not sure they will be able to set you up on a DMP as your current expenditure is more than your income, without even taking into account the debts, but they may be able to suggest some alternatives that may help you.

sambez

georgeuk

They have said they cant do anything for us unless we increase our income or decrease our expenditure.

GeorgeUK

Can i ask, with that level of expenditure and income, how you have managed to not miss payments?

I was going to ask if it was possible to get some 0% cards to hopefully transfer some of the debt to but if the expenditure is not being met then i'm not sure this is a good idea.

The only other thing that may make an impact on the expenditure is to get rid of the car, but i don't know if you really need it or if any impact it made would be enough.

sambez

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Can i ask, with that level of expenditure and income, how you have managed to not miss payments?

I was going to ask if it was possible to get some 0% cards to hopefully transfer some of the debt to but if the expenditure is not being met then i'm not sure this is a good idea.

The only other thing that may make an impact on the expenditure is to get rid of the car, but i don't know if you really need it or if any impact it made would be enough.

Hi

The reason we havent missed payments is because i have worked more hours in my jobs so has been luck more than anything else. As I said the income i put for myself is a very basic minimum i would get 9 times out of 10 its more than that. its just i cant see us actually getting rid of the credit card debt at the rate we are paying them, scraping together the minimum payments each month. I know i need to act fast and apreciate its our own stupid fault for over spending and not adjusting our spending when the s**t hits the fan lol.

The car i need for work and to get my daughter to school and the children i look after to and from nursery, i can walk it and i try to in the summer but its a good 25 minute walk there (50 min in total) and its too far for 3 year olds to do 6 times a day.
We downgraded the car in march to an older one so it was less per month, but still reliable. I also sold my other car a 7 seater as we decided we could just about manage with a normal car and obviously running 2 cars is expensive.

sam