Sinking Quicker than the Titanic! Help!!!

Jesthar

Hey Fluff,

Have you ever had any charges applied to your credit cards? As well as mis-sold PPI, you can reclaim those too, the courts have ruled them unfair.

~Jes

buckeroo

I feel for your situation fluff, you should phone all your credit card providers and give them your income and expenditure details and they should come to some agreement to help you. They may be a little stern with you at first but bare with it until they put you on a repayment programme. This will show on credit file as an agreement but will look better than a default, plus they may help to reduce your minimum payment and suppress interest for a while to help you. They prefare you to go onto a repayment programme with them rather than getting an IVA which gives them less money in the long run - keep in touch and let me know how you are getting on.

Sammy_Girl

Hi Fluff,

Have you contacted CCCS or CAB to communicate with your creditors on your behalf. Please do not use one of these fee paying companies that advertise on the tv, it will cost more in the long run. Have you posted on the Debt Free Wannabee board as they will able to offer great advice.

Contact CCCS over the phone and they will agree payment terms with your creditors. As these are unsecured, you will be ok. It will take a number of years and your credit score will take a bit of a battering, but it can be done. There have been others in a worse position than you. I remember a chap on here who owed £100k, but he is working to pay it off and hasn't had to gone down the IVA or Bankruptcy route.

You have had what we call a Lightbulb Moment. You've taken your head out of the sand and are now ready to tackle the debt. Well done.

fluffthecat

Thanks again for the advice everyone. Over the years I probably have been charged for paying a day or two late. So if I can reclaim a bit back, I'll look into it first thing in the morning. My main problem is dealing the credit card companies and telling them I have a problem and cannot pay them. I can give them token payments pro-rata when I get some more regular income but not now. It's really scary not being able to pay all 9 credit cards even with the minimum payments!!!!!

fluffthecat

Yes Thanks. I'm going to write a lot of stuff down on Sunday morning and call CCCS first thing on Monday. I'm also prepared to talk to the creditors over the phone but it sounds scary! 9 cards to explain! Hope they will stop all interest and my PPiI insurance. I can't pay them anything this month or next. In January I would have sold some items and will give them pro-rata token payments. I can save some money by cancelling the PPI which was misssold to me by BlackHorse, they said I couldn't have a loan unless I took it! Lying scoundrels. So much to do, and I will keep people informed on my progress.

lilly81

Hi Fluff,

The one bit of good advice I can give you is DO NOT give out your phone number to any of the companies you have debts with.

Good Luck

gravitytolls

I agree with Lilly. Contact your creditors by letter, rather than phone, as they will tell you they can't accept a token payment, and basically put the frighteners on you. Enclose a cheque for £1, enclose an SOA, print the one you posted here.

They will either ignore your letter and keep sending bills with notices of charges, or they will begin calling you. You also need to transfer banking stuff to a bank you don't owe money too, or they may decide to withdraw their minimum payment from your account anyway.

You may also need to change your phone number, as you will start to receive calls when it becomes apparent that you really are having trouble paying. Personally, we found CAB to be most helpful, they were face to face, they wrote all the letters, and the creditors were a great deal more amenable with them than they were with us ~ it seems headed notepaper is much more effective than Smart price notepads.

thriftymomma

Could you reclaim your PPI payments and hopefully get a nice wedge to pay off some of your debt?

clearmydebts

Hi,

Just wanted to wish you the best of luck. A lodger should really help you with your repayments. At least you are starting to deal with your debts now, so that is a really positive thing.

PinkTwirl

Good luck!

I had my lightbulb moment about 3 months ago, I can't believe I have spent so much money on rubbish. I left my job when they offered me 3 months redundancy money (left due to bullying, had had enough and HR were rubbish) and I just got a new job, so spent 1 week unemployed in total! The £6K has brought it down to £21K so makes sleeping at night easier.

I hope you get on ok. It's not even so much the mortgage I find difficult, it's the cost of living (flaming council tax) and petrol which make the debts go higher.

Good luck!

:j