Going round in circles

Crisp_£_note

Its decision time need to make the choice of how to deal with my debts. After spending a week looking into the options with the help of CCCS and Payplan I have 3 choices.

1 To offer a token payment of £1 to all of my creditors (CCCS)

2 To consider bankruptsy (Payplan)

3 To continue as I am and try and cutback elsewhere (me :rolleyes: )

Number one I don't quite understand how that will actually help. Won't it make my debts worse in the long run? For illustration lets say I am currently paying £10 a month to 1 creditor. I f I send them a token payment of £1 that mens I am getting into debt by £9 every month plus their charges? This would worry me and as I cannot honestly see any major additional income changes coming our way then its not going to help as its a temporary agreement I just cant see how we would be any better off?

Number two does appeal to me as I honestly can not see much altering in the next 6 years. Can't see me in a position to be able to afford a mortgage, learnt my lesson on how to save for something I really want instead of getting it on repayment loan, am prepared to stick to whatever I have to do to get through the first 12 months clear and then 5 years beyond.

Number three ok it leaves me no better off I know that and boy is life a struggle at the moment but no one will give us a loan (I know debt consolidation isnt the answer anyway). Although its a massive stuggle I am just about on top of my own debts its hubby who isnt at the moment.

I am going round in circles and have no one to speak to (other than my hubby who either puts up a brick wall if its to do with his business or says he will do it later and never gets it done unless I do it for him)!

I am so confused, frustrated and stressed I am going to blow a fuse soon :mad:



Thanks

IsoChick

Can you afford all the debtors minimum payments? Can hubby afford his?

Are there things you could cut back on (we've given up our entire Sky package - £47 a month better off!)

I spoke to CCCS, and although they recommended a DMP, after discussion OH and I decided that we would cut back as much as possible, shuffle our credit cards around a bit (which we've done) and hang in there.

Although we've got £50k of debt (:eek: ) we're meeting the minimum payments every month, and squiggled the credit around to take advantage of lower rates. We're also using the £47 from Sky to overpay our worst CC debt every month. We'll be able to afford to overpay on most of our cards in another month or so.

The reason we didn't take up the DMP is that in 3 years, our mortgage deal runs out, and the DMP will crash our credit rating and we probably won't get another mortgage. Hopefully, managing it ourselves will stop our credit rating crashing and give me a good hard lesson in dealing with our finances.

IsoChick

Have you presented your OH with an SOA, or a spreadsheet about the debts. This is what I had to do to get my OH on board.

It was only when he saw it written in black and white that he took any notice!

lxpeanut

Its something only you can decide really.

If you are likely to see an improvement in your situation making token payments will mean no court proceedings are taken against you. However if your not going to be able to start paying more within 6 months to a year its pretty pointless. Bankruptcy is a big step the guys on the bankruptcy forum are generally very helpful and there is lots of info on there about what it entails.

In your situation I would possibly make token payments to all my creditors for a short time to give myself time to look my finances and decide if I can continue paying the debts or will need to go bankrupt.

Crisp_£_note

Yes he knows full well that we are struggling. I am just scaping by with my minimum payments each month on 4 credit cards and of course the loan repayments (I have 4 of those also, 1 of which is joint with hubby but as he has no money its me who pays up).

Hubby has 4 cards and a loan. None of which are well managed and they are all chasing him. He has been getting default letters in the post and final reminders _pale_

Thanks