how can i get out oh this mess

deptfreeatlast

Hi all
i am new here and all advice would be welcomed.
Some time ago i was living with my girfriend and i took a loan under my name
but ofcourse both of us would repay.
We have split for some time now but the loan stayed ofcourse under my name.
The amount is £7000
I had to make some expencies when i mooved to my new house which is a rented flat.

The expencies is about £1700 in 2 credit cards £1600 in one of them and £100 to the other.

I pay £157 for the loan and £50 for both the cards
I have a job that gives me £1037 a month but my expencies dont add up.
My monthly outgoings are £1250 and without me having any personal expencies.

I dont know what to do it seems every month i go deeper and deeper.
I though to try these dept free advice services but i havent done it yet.
Are they any good?does anybody has any experiance with them?
With all thse depts i dont have personal life at all.
I have even though to live the country and go somewere else dept free at last.
Any advice would more than welcomed.
Thanks in advance

Alleycat

Hi, firstly well done for starting to tackle your debts. Try not to stress too much on the past, but look to the future!

The best thing to do, would be to post a statement of affairs. Basically list your full income and outgoings each month. It would also be useful to list the full details of your cards and loan, i.e. total outstanding, credit limits, apr's and monthly repayments. People can then help you get it sorted.

dmb37

AWWWW ((((((((hugs))))))) as Alleycat says................post your Statement of affairs (SOA)........there are wat=ys of getting out of debt.....you have made the first move.

deptfreeatlast

Thanks for your responces
my outgoings are as follows
rent 350
council tax 80
gas electricity 60
bt 30
internet 24
sky 24
food 100
house 50
loan 157
credit card1 40
credit card2 10
car 100(insurance and petrol)
tv 10
personal only if i can afford it 200
what i mean by personal is cigs most of them some pints on the pub,clothes.
but as you can see i cant afford even that.

Total outgoings (with personal expencies)£1245
Total income £1037
-£188
Without personal expencies -£8
even if i cut the personal expencies i will be still in trouble.
This month i had to cut them anyway i had to pass the car MOT and tax it total cost for both £208.
There is no light coming from anywere ,you know how these things are,always something will happen.
Please your advice guys.

magentadreamer

Have you checked to see if you can get your Gas and Elec cheaper? Also are you out of your 12 month contract for your internet? If so I'm sure you can get that alot cheaper - Tiscali and Bulldog do packages which include phone and calls for under £20. Can you ditch sky? Perhaps get Freeview? Is your food bill to feed just you? You might find you can do it cheaper by shopping in places like lidl/aldi etc -also taking pack lunches to work etc can all save money. Also check for cheaper car insurance etc.

I managed to save loads by blagging a cheaper broadband/call package from NTL, swapping my house insurance and ditching stuff I didn't really need.

Bloke_with_a_simple_life

magentadreamer wrote:

. Can you ditch sky? Perhaps get Freeview?

Cancel sky - but keep the box & dish - you will stil be able to get digital tv (BBC channels and loads more), news and the radio channels without paying the monthly fee - and no need to buy a freeview box.

£24 for Internet? Mmm... seems a bit high.. should be able to get a decent 1 or 2 meg pacakge for about £15 or £16. Look here for advice...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities

Gas & Elec - a bit high... do you have a balance with them in your favour? Get on the phone and ask them to refund it! BT...consider using another provider or one of the companies who provide cheaper calls... and don't phone mobile numbers! Let the mobiles phone you. Read here for MSE best advice on phones and electricity: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities

Start shopping about for insurances... start here to find out how http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance

& how about your ex - let her pay for the loan too! What was it for? Who had benefited from it? Not just you I presume

Good luck!

lynzpower

My advice if you are not on speaking terms with your ex, is try and find a voluntary mediation service to find her, and flesh this one out and get her to pay half of the money. It seems crazy that you are struggling to pay her share. What was the loan for?

Definately cancel your Sky and cut back as the others here have suggested.

Is there anything you can sell? Im selling a few bits & pieces on ebay and making about 70 a week ( altohugh my stocks are now dwindling a bit) which is enough for my smokes, newspapers all those things I want but dont NEED

good luck with it

Bokken_2

Welcome to MSE
You won't like this much..
Recently in Martins programmes on "Make me Rich" he highlighted the hidden cost of smoking.
This was done in several ways and the savings were pretty big well into the tens of thousands.The main area in which you would save is health insurance,car and house insurance,travel insurance ans several other I can't recall.
It is hard cutting back and getting rid of debts so it is upto you.
you may not see the benefits for a while as you would have to pay for patches etc but it is a long term gain.
Any way it something else to consider.
good luck

ceegee

Can you increase your income at all? For instance, could you get a second job? Doesn't have to be anything special, as long as it brings in more money. Also, as a one-off, do you have anything that you could sell, either on e-bay or at a car boot sale or even by putting an advert in a local shop window?

Do not go to a debt consolidation company. Despite the clever way they word their adverts ("pay off all your debts with one easy to afford payment" :eek: :mad: ) doing it that way will end up costing you much much more in the long run.

There is plenty of excellent free advice from the Citizens' Advice Bureau, Consumer Credit Counselling Service, National Debtline, Payplan (links in blue band at top of this page) and, of course, on this brilliant website!

You can do it! :A