Please help......

in_despair_3

oh, and if my lottery ticket comes up at the weekend, I will definitely remember my new friends!!! LOL

tattooed_lady

There will be no set time to repay your debts, it will be however much you can afford per month divided by all your debts. Our debt of 10-11,000 took approx 6 and a half years to pay off with payments that started at £120 per month and then increased a few years later after they did a review and decided we could pay more. It really does depend on individual circumstances. Rest assured though, you are left with a very realistic budget to live on and to be honest with you, the time whizzed by when I was with them. The best thing was having no hassle from creditors and actually seeing your debt decrease every time CCCS sent through a statement.

cornerclose

in_despair wrote:

I have called them, but my appt is next friday 3rd Feb. In the meantime, I am going out of my mind with worry!

I've no idea what the CCCS will say or do - I don't even know what all the Cs stand for! But I've read plenty of threads on this board and the general impression is that people feel tremendous relief when they've seen them.

Please don't worry so much - they won't eat you, and your situation could have been worse as you've been sensible and asked for help before exceeding credit limits and getting ccjs and so on. Try and focus on finding out if there is anything (however small) you can do to cut your expenses. You are in the right place here.

crystal_clear

Hi Just_Despair

I have not dealt with CCCS but others who have will correct me if i am wrong I seem to have read somewhere on site in the past that CCCS will accept you for a DMP providing you have 3 creditors and a £100 p/m expendable income.
So from what i have read you are well in the clear to being accepted. This is a horrible time for anyone with debts taking the lightbulb moment, but if it helps you are doing yourself no favours or your family stressing like this. No matter how much you stress the problems do not go away. I know I got to this very low pitch like you a few months ago and it was terrible. Then one day still all the debts looming I woke and thought to myself STOPPPPP this is killing me and tearing my family up. what will be will be and I wrote to creditors and told them I was ill and unable to work and could not afford the payments, then contacted CAB for backup. I make £1 a month payments to all as a temp arrangement until I can go back to work and screen all phone calls via answer machine. I am not comfortable with this situation but I wont beat myself up over it anymore and make myself ill.
I do hope you can gain some comfort from this in some way
Please stop panicking and stressing it wont resolve anything only make you ill.
(((((((hugs)))))))) crystal

ozzyfan_2

in_despair wrote:

I have called them, but my appt is next friday 3rd Feb. In the meantime, I am going out of my mind with worry!

mines not till 7th feb & I rang up over 2 weeks ago :eek:

I was going out of my mind with worry too & still have my moments but I think now I'm actually looking forward to having a realistic budget to live on as by keeping my debts all up to date I've not had enough to buy food & afford proper heating etc for a long time now. So I know it will get easier for you

At the top of the page there are links to CCCS & National Debtline. On the CCCS site there is some useful info on the options that they may or not suggest to you DMPs, IVAs etc so it could be helpful to read up on these before your appointment.

The National Debtline link has some very useful info on preparing a budget, suggested amounts for each person for food etc.

I'm hoping to get a DMP I have £21000 in debt & have worked out I have £230 a month to offer for payments, so fingers crossed! Its going to take a long while to pay back but at least I can have a life while I'm doing it! You & your family are the most important things as thebestthingsinlifearefree says, so try to look after yourselves & take some time out together.

good luck & keep posting

in_despair_3

I know, you are right that I should not stress about it, and I know that there is action that I can take to help the situation... I just cannot turn it off in my head, no matter how hard I try...

A question "when was your lightbulb moment"? was asked elsewhere on the board today... my lightbulb moment was three weeks ago, and now the damn bulb wont turn off!! I have had my head in the sand for so long, and now it is time for a reality check, which has hit me hard.

My final solution, as opposed to bankruptcy, is to sell the house, and put the £30k capital onto the credit card and natwest loan. This, together with the little bit of money that we have in the bank, will mean that we would only have the one large 23k loan left. The repayments are £280 per month,so not insurmountable.
I am worried about the immediate future - paying for food and nappies is my main concern. Everything else can take a back seat!

ozzyfan_2

Just a thought but does your daughter have any baby clothes or equipment she has grown out of? If you need money urgently you could advertise in your local paper (ours has a free advertising section for under £100 maybe yours has something similar?) people are always on the lookout for baby things. Or anything else you could sell? This would probably be the quickest way to get some money as ebaying would take a few days to receive payment

novice_money_saver_2

You mentioned you are a teacher - 2 things:

1. Are you in the Teachers Pension Scheme? If so, check with your pension administrator whether critical illness cover forms part of the TPS. If so, then you could still have the cover without paying extra for your own policy.

2. You didn't mention what ages/subjects you teach - any chance you could tutor for some extra ££ ?

Hang in there in_despair, we're all rooting for you. Hopefully you'll be able to change your user name before too long...

maforduk

Sorry about mensioning bankrupcy earlier, it wasn't meant as a scare!
'm rooting for you aswell as I don't know how many others.
Good Luck x

cornerclose

in_despair wrote:

I am worried about the immediate future - paying for food and nappies is my main concern. Everything else can take a back seat!

I'm a fine one to advise you here, as I haven't any kids, but I've seen programmes on TV advocating re-usable nappies, which nowadays look pretty much like disposables but go in the washing machine. Just a thought!