Sinking Quicker than the Titanic! Help!!!

elsie52

:T:T:THi,

Well done for taking these first steps...its quite daunting and scary but I can assure you from personal experience it will get better. You have realised that you have a problem and are starting to deal with it. There are lots of people on this site who will offer good advice. Mine would be to contact Payplan, we have been with them for 9 months and at last I can sleep at night, and actually have more money for food etc than I have had in a long while. Good luck and keep smiling.

;)

10past6

fluffthecat wrote: »

I will still not sleep well tonight but glad I found this website. Thanks everyone for listening and sharing help and tips.

Your priority is to your secured debts, i.e mortgage / secured loan, these can put your home at risk if not paid.

Next in line come your utility bills, gas / electric / water / council tax, again, these must be paid in full without fail if possible.

What's left is paid out between your creditors, these are NOT a priority and can be paid with token payments if required, DO NOT PAY THESE IN FULL BY NEGELECTING THE ABOVE BILLS.

insider66

Hi there,

firstly, an iva or bankruptcy are to be avoided in your circumstances.
an iva is unlikely to be accepted as your creditors would get more money making you bankrupt, in any event, it will leave you with unservicable secured payments in year 4. Bankruptcy will result in losing your house.

a debt management plan is the answer here, it may take a long time but should help you sleep.

lots of luck

slummymummyof3

You could probably get your grocery shopping down by cooking from scratch and freezing extra portions. Bulk out spag bol and chilli etc with red dried lentils and porridge oats - there is loads on this site about cutting your grocery bill.

Have you advertised that room yet? Perhaps put a card up in the newsagent or supermarket.

Your difficulty is that you can't really cut back on your outgoing mortgage and secured loan payment (even ignoring your credit cards, you don't have enough income to meet your expenditure - not that you need me or anyone else to tell you that!!!!!) You need to up your income and as you rightly said renting out your spare room and perhaps getting another job.

Have you approached your cc company's and asked them to freeze interest?

I'm sure there will be someone more useful than me along soon.

Take care and enjoy a bottle of wine!

fluffthecat

I've not approached any credit card company yet with my problem. I'm not sure if I should phone them or write a letter? I've heard that they try to delay you before they eventually stop interest. I will be able to pay all of them something in the next month or two but I will be selling lots of my luxury items that will just have to go! Watches, camera etc. I never thought I could get this low in my life. Fluff

elsie52

You are not alone Fluff....I think the majority of the people who post on this site have probably had to sell something to get some extra cash in, I know I have, and I have also voiced those same words - how did it come to this. But, chin up, that will change, keep posting and reading the other posts, it really does help.

fluffthecat

Sorry, just another thing. On two of my cards, should I cancel my PPI insurance before I tell them to stop the interest? I've been misssold PPI on my secured loan as well, I'll write to them on Monday for that one. Fluff.

insider66

fluff,

you'll probably find it easier to do if you get help from cab,cccs or payplan.
dealing with the credit card companies alone may very hard and scary.

it can be done, but you will need to be very tough...

insider66

if you're not making the contracted minimum payments, the ppi on the cards will not be in effect - so cancel, yes

fluffthecat

On Monday I will call CCCS for advice. I also have a Citizens Advice nearby.
Not sure about Payplan yet! Then I will contact my 9 credit card companies...I'll need a drink after that one I think. Thanks for the encouragemnet Elsie52, cheered me up a bit :-)