In serious debt trouble

fonay1805

I've requested the court accept my voluntarly repayment offer for the attachment of earnings and am waiting to hear back from that. I'm no further forward with the charging order and feel that they will end up having a charging order put on the house.

fonay1805

I believe I've been accepted for a halifax account as I got an email with a unique password. I've also managed to clear up the logboook loans loan, with some help. I've spoken to the local British Gas rep who has agreed to take £50 for each account and will arrange to fit pre-payment meters to help clear up the remaining debt. I've sent letters to everyone else detailing my current financial situation with a payment offer. We await their response.........fingers crossed they accept it.

lemma1968

Good luck. It really can get a bit better but it will hurt in the short term.

Just think of how much more peace of mind you will have though.

laurasbump

I just wanted to say well done on being pro-active and dealing your debt. Your post really touched me. Being under so much pressure must be exhausting. Many people would have just stuck their heads in the sand. It's never too late and I've been helped immensely during the year that I've lurked on these forums.

One thing I would say is to get your wife involved. Empower and give her responsibility. I never thought I'd say this but I relish meal planning and the subsequent shop. I do all of my shopping online. Not only because shopping is so much hassle with children (and I've only got the one!) but also because I can avoid being impulsive when seeing the 'deals' and 'bargain buys'. We are guilty of wasting food in this house and buying lots of snacky things so this month I've joined the Feb Grocery Challenge on the Money Saving Old Style board.

I'm already getting good at comparing prices, I've moved to a cheaper supermarket and I'm buying own brand products. I must admit that I didn't like Tesco or Sainsbury's nappies, they either leaked or were mega bulky. However, I wait for the supermarkets to have their deals i.e. Asda currently had 132 size 4 Pampers for £12. That's 9.1p per nappy. On the other hand, all of the laundry, loo rolls and household goods are Asda and brand and I can't fault them. My aim is to reduce our food shopping bill by a third over the course of the next 3 months.

I hope your positive actions start turning things around for you soon.

Laura

kimdegsidash

Hi Fonay
Just read your post from first to last and want to pass on my best regards to you. You've done absolutely the right thing by coming on here. I too am in financial dire straights, but with the help of this forum and by contacting the CCCS I am determined to get back on track. At times it can feel like everyone is against you, ignoring calls, unopened mail, not talking to your partner or family about things. That's why this forum really helps, because you can be honest and anonymous. Take one day at a time, set yourself daily targets, and be optomistic about one day being debt free. All the advice so far has been spot on. I don't know if you're male or female,but you are in a similar situation to me, I have two children age 4 and 8mths and a husband who doesn't work, merely because my wage should and could cover all our needs apart from the [EMAIL="bl@@ming"]bl@@ming[/EMAIL] debt!!
I had my LBM last week and have decided to finally take charge of my debts, wholly because of this forum and website. It would be great if we could get out of this together, perhaps? I won't post my SOA for the moment as I am on maternity pay so it looks horrendous, but my unsecured debts total £22k and I am proud to have only just acknowledged that this week.
I too was/am in arrears with gas, electric, council tax, sky - in fact the lot. Speaking to CCCS has made me realise that I need to prioritise my debts and have made steps this week to clear council tax and utility debts. All the others can sing.
Maybe we can pass on words of encouragement and advice to each other. Well done and keep posting! :T

fonay1805

I just looked at my SOA and realised that I haven't edited it since I found out we also have around £1500 worth of catalogue debt. I knew that there were catalogue but not the extent to which we owed them money. We have already sent them the same letters and offered a payment for each catalogue. What amazes me is the amount that nearly all the people we owe money too can add as charges/interest on the unpaid debt. Looking back through the letters myself and my OH have been ignoring, the charges are unbelievable. Hey ho.....

I'm really pleased that I spoke to my wife about the seriousness of our troubles as she has been a god send in helping to start sorting it out. We spent months and months rowing about the fact that we never had any money, when we finally came to head and I showed her the trouble we were in she completely changed her tune and has even enlisted the help of her mum and dad who were in a similar situation many many moons ago when they first married. Her Dad has been really helpful in helping us make some sort of sense of it all.

My council tax arrears as already being paid off as I sorted something out with them in August last year. My other debt with the council goes back to when we had our first child in 2005 and I found that because at the time I was on a low income I was entitled to housing benefit to help with my rent. Unfortunately they mis-calculated and overpaid us by about £800, which they now want back, hence the fact they have requested an attachment of earnings order. I'm hoping our offer of repayment will be accepted.

If our offers are accepted by all companies we owe then my wages and and our child benefit etc is enough to cover everything. Allowing any overtime that I can do to be used for some family fun time with the kids/repayment of debt quicker on a fifty fifty split.

The only debt that I am unable to sort out at this moment is the charging order against the house. I have a court date and I will be going to request that if the charging order is granted that they introduce a clause requesting no further action is taken until all the children have left home. This will hopefully give me plenty of years to make sure it is paid off!! Once more, I cross my fingers and hope!!

fonay1805

kimdegsidash wrote: »

I had my LBM last week....I won't post my SOA for the moment as I am on maternity pay so it looks horrendous, but my unsecured debts total £22k and I am proud to have only just acknowledged that this week.

Hi Kimdegsidash,

Excuse my stupidity but whats an LBM?

I found that just acknowledging the debt was a massive weight off my shoulders and that once I had done that I was ok to try and sort it all out regardless of the time it would take and the problems the companies might send my way. I don't know if this is similar to how you now feel or not? Is your husband involved in helping you sort it out? If he is great, if not then I highly recommend getting your OH involved as the fact your not on your own also helps to relieve the pressure:D

combo81

Good luck.:T

Looking at your debt, remind yourself its not an unfeasible amount once you get those arrears under control.

RAS

You are obviously making massive progress financially and personally.

Your prioroty is that charging order - can you pm 10past6 as s/he has been providing as massive amount of help to people on these recently. Once that is done get all the paperwork together so you can respond to requestd for info. Can you scan documents?

Then get the missus signed up to www.freecycle.org (mis-spelt that earlier) and get her to do the reclaims on all the charges see
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/

Concentrate on credit cards, laons and catalogues. PPI on any of these? reclaim it.

Naarwich

Hi Fonay. LBM - Light Bulb Moment!

Really glad to see you've made the first steps towards getting it sorted. It's a strange feeling however knowing exactly where you stand is so much better than ignoring it. You can start to make the positive changes to get it all under control. Having your wife and family on board is important and it's great as well that ypu've been able to share it with people who've been in a similar situation. Really wish you luck going forwards.