Can anyone advise me about my debt?

suzukibabelynda1972

This is a long story and I really dont know where to start but i'll give it my best shot......
A few years ago I found myself in about £35k debt, was a single mum of 3 and suffering from mental health problems. I was desperate to keep our family home but had a mortgage of £1400 per month, luckily I was awarded a decent maintenance payment but this didn't cover the morgage let alone the rest of my committments. I took out an arrangement with Chiltern and I must admit they have been great. I pay £175 a month and have never missed a payment. (I know they take a cut of my money but with my health probs there is no way that I can deal with this alone).
Anyway, further down the line I did have to sell the house and lost most of my equity to early repayment charges. I was in a relationship and so my partner and I decided to set up home together. I could not get a normal mortgage rate and didn't really have enough for a deposit on a property of my own so we decided to buy a house in my partners name and just add the small amount that I had to his deposit. I had prev checked with Chiltern if the proceeds of the sale had to be used to repay some of the debt but they confirmed that as long as the money was being used as a deposit that would be fine.

Now a couple of years further down the line I have married my partner. I have not informed Chiltern of this as I am scared that they will take more from us than when I was on my own. I hate being in so much debt and it feels like we will never pay it off. My husband did have an excellent credit rating but since marrying me and adding me to his bank account this has got much lower.

We do not have much spare money each month and I do not want him to suffer by having his income assessed to pay off my debt from a previous life. I badly need help and don't know who to turn to - has anyone an ideas?

TotallyBroke

You don't have to do it on your own. CCCS or payplan can help you and they won't charge you.
Also look at https://www.makesenseofcards/soacalc.html it'll let you see where your money is going each month and you maybe able to cut back yourself.

Well done for posting and I'm sure others will advise you better than I can

edinburgher

Please fill in a statement of affairs (SOA) with as much information as you can, giving us a chance to offer the best possible advice. The calculator has recently been updated too and can be found in a stickied thread (top of the page).

Have never dealt with the CCCS personally, but Payplan are incredibly helpful folk. My only negative point to bring up for Payplan is the fact that the amounts they allow you for living expenses are incredibly frugal and impractical in some cases.

A spreadsheet/hand drawn chart of expenses will help you a lot too, if you don't appreciate all this technical malarky.

Don't worry, there's a wealth of good information to be had here

suzukibabelynda1972

Thanks for your ideas but what do you think about not mentioning that i am now married?

Am I ruining my husbands credit rating?

RAS

Hi

Three things

1. Do not even think about lying about yor relationship.

2. Being married does not affect your husband's credit rating. Having a joint bank account will wreck it. So please separate your accounts and he will be OK.

3. It is suggested here that CCCS have more generous alowances than Payplan and you do not have to do a joint SOA, they will base your DMP on your income and expenditure, so they may be some slack in your husband's income.

And welcome.