Still cannot bring myself to do it.

jamtart6

don't beat yourself up too much photo! there are SO many people on here who will be able to help you. People have cleared thousands of pounds of debts, with a bit of willpower and support, you can do anything you desire. Speak to one of the debt charities as said above. Best of luck Today is your 'lightbulb moment' and the beginning of the rest of your new life on the journey to becoming debt free

anniecave

Take a deep breath. Get a mug of tea/coffee/ beverage of your choice.
Go through the letters.
Either get several sheets of paper, or excel or word on the computer. Make a note as follows for each
Company chasing you. If on behalf of someone else, who is it on behalf of. date of letter. balance due at that point. Reference number with original company. Their ref. any other useful note (eg final demand letter, default letter, sending someone around etc)
Go back at least 3 months
Any duplications in the original references means you don't need to record again
At the end of this you will know who is currently chasing you
Then think if there are any other companies you may owe money to, who may have temporarily forgotten about you. Make a list of any, and then look further back for these another day!

At least then you have an idea of the scale of the problem.

When you refer to the fact you can't work, I presume you mean you have health problems yourself, not that you have a child to look after all the time. Some companies are more flexible than others if you are sometimes able to work and sometimes not. It all depends on what sort of work you would be able to do.

Photo_Stylus

I have not seen any court papers, so i presume they have not done that yet?

Final Demand, Formal Demand, Statutory Demand? What are these? One letter said the statutory demand had expired and court proceedings will commence, This was dated almost 12 months ago.

Bankruptcy scares the hell out of me. But being on benefits i am unlikely to be able to make any reasonable offer of payment. If faced with the choice of something or nothing what are the collection agencies likely to say? I have not found all the paperwork yet but realistically i doubt i could afford anything more than 2 or 3% spread over 2 years or would they insist on a lump sum or even say if you can afford that amount then you can pay it until you die. Going without for a year or 2 would make sure i never got into debt again but having nothing at all forever doesnt bear thinking about.
oops started waffling again.

Sorry and Thanks for the help.

chevalier

Just so you are aware, the CCCS have a thing called Debt Remedy on their website. So you can put all of your debts into that and it will give you an opinion on what is the best option for you. It would save the initial phone call to the CCCS, and mean that you could start moving forward with this over the weekend.

Secondly, there are various ways of earning money from the web which both of you could do. Eg
survey sites - which pay either in cash, or points
free scratch cards - most bingo sites have a free scratch card too. There is a thread on this on this site.
doing reviews on sites - eg dooyoo qype. If you are interested in them then I can refer you to dooyoo. Means I get a few points.

All of this can add up over the course of a year. Even if you just saved the vouchers you get for presents through the year....

Entering competitions which if you win you can either use the items as presents, or sell them on ebay. There is a whole competitions forum on this site. Even though I don't enter alot I have still won a few thing on there.

If you are unsure as to who has control of what debt, then you can do the following. Join www.quidco.com. This is a cash back site (ie you use their links to go to other online providers and when you buy something, they give you cash back on the sale price). They have a link to Experien you can sign up for a free trial and get your credit history and score from them (just remember to cancel the trial as soon as you get your credit history from them). This will show who has what debt, whether there are defaults etc, and also what the current amounts are now.

Finally regarding the charges on your card, the reclaiming of unfair charges, is NOT on hold with regards to unfair charges on credit cards. So I don't think you have anything to lose than to send off for your 6 years worth of statements from MBNA (and enclose a £10 postal order), to start the reclaiming process. If they fold (which they will), that would mean that that £3000 of charges would be refunded plus interest.

You can also ask for BANK charges to be reclaimed on the grounds of hardship. So this might help as well.

Are you up to date with your priority bills ie
mortgage/rent
council tax
utilities
car insurance
house contents insurance?

these are the ones you pay first. Anything else that is left can go to creditors.

good luck and I hope that what I have said helps
chev

Photo_Stylus

anniecave wrote: »

Take a deep breath. Get a mug of tea/coffee/ beverage of your choice.


When you refer to the fact you can't work, I presume you mean you have health problems yourself.

Silly me, Sorry yes my employer had to terminate my employment due to my health. They did keep my position open for a full 12months though. There is no possibility that i will be able to return in the near or forseeable future.

Have been looking for something i can do from home but it appears everybody has already had the same idea. Ebay appears full of sellers with every idea i have thought of.

Photo_Stylus

chevalier wrote: »

Just so you are aware, the CCCS have a thing called Debt Remedy on their website.

Are you up to date with your priority bills ie
mortgage/rent
council tax
utilities
car insurance
house contents insurance?

these are the ones you pay first. Anything else that is left can go to creditors.

good luck and I hope that what I have said helps
chev

I do love this website. Your all GREAT!
I did fill in the CCCS website ages back and it said contact us now urgent i think. I left my number but i could not answer the phone just in case.

Nearly all bills are upto date, When i was 1st off work sick i was barely out of bed and did not eat much for about 2 months. This is partly what annoyed me with mainly MBNA and CITI who would do nothing to help except keep telling me they wanted between £70 and £200 NOW!.
Council tax has been paid upto date and we are paying the rent off a little bit each week, Owe less than £200 now.

If we do not have the money left over after paying the bills and food shopping we go without. We go shopping at odd hours to avoid sitting in traffic and wasting precious petrol, Also use internet coupons found on this website.

Thanks

chevalier

I believe that you can email CCCS and organise a time for them to call that way. Then you would know the call is from them. But I am sure that I have heard of some one on here that set up their DMP with CCCs entirely via email, so maybe that is something you can ask them.

If you have nothing left over after you have paid the priority debts I have mentioned above, then you should go bankrupt. Your credit rating is shot anyway by now, so that is not something you need to protect. If you are on benefits I believe (but I don't know) that you can get the fees for bankruptcy either significantly reduced or waived completely. You can ask you local court about this.

And assuming you are in the UK go and get some sleep mate! I am on a different time zone hence why I am up.lol
cheers
chev

10past6

Photo_Stylus wrote: »

Final Demand, Formal Demand, Statutory Demand? What are these?

These are important letters, it's very important you know where you're up to with ANY action a creditor has taken.

Sort the letters out into individual creditors.

The letters with the latest date on i.e recent dates are the important ones.

Post here for further advice any letter that states "Your account is now terminated or any letter that states "This is a Statue Demand"

The alternative is to obtain a FREE credit report from Experian and see what's been registered, click here and complete, remember to CANCEL within the 30 day limit.

Any questions, post back.

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hiya my lovely,

I just wanted to add my support. It's so hard even to get started when you feel overwhelmed but take it in baby steps and keep calm and you'll get there.

Keep posting on here and the lovely people on this board will help in any way they can.

There's a form letter you can send to stop the phone harassment. ( Example in the fab 10past6's post.) Once you've got your current state of play worked out from all the letters perhaps you could make sending those off to your creditors the next job?

Failing that Chev is right you can email CCCS and ask for a booked appointment so you can answer the phone at the appointed time without worrying.

The bottom line is honey - they can't take money you don't have, so our main aim here is to stop them harassing you in the first instance and then get them to go away.

I agree with DWUL and Chev - bankruptcy could well be your best option. When you feel up to it, post your situation on the Bankruptcy board and see what they have to say. I bet someone there can reassure you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=136

Jenni75 has a great overview of how the experience of bankruptcy has been for them here:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1476913

Good luck hon, and keep posting.

Love Jacks xxx

debttornado

Hi, just wanted to wish you the best of luck with all this. I only started recently - we had a box too! and a towering pile on top of the fridge. Now things feel more positive. Things will get better - if BR is the best route for you then at least you can move on with your life.