Just had my LBM!

Struggling_with_debt

Hi everyone. I have just had my LBM and need some help! I am struggling so much with my debt. I added it all up and it comes to just under £5000! To some this may not sound like alot, but to me its a fortune! Its all my fault but I now feel at the stage where I need to sort out my problems. I am getting charges left right and centre and am at the stage where I simply ignore my phone unless I know who is calling. My list of debts are as follows...

Npower gas and electric £786.10
Anglian £203.73
E&S Water £85.44
Provident £357
Littlewoods £716.62
Littlewoods Direct £556.24
Grattan £296.32
Studio £449.37
Additions Direct £334.14
Vanquis £300
Capital One £229.34

Total debt owed = £4920.30

I have ignored and not paid these debts for too long but don't know where to start! I am on Income Support at the moment and am struggling so much. I know I cannot ignore these debts forever and here I am making the first step, actually admitting I am in trouble!

rubyslipper

Hello and welcome to the boards! :j

You're absolutely not alone in dealing with all this and well done for taking this massive first step!

There are loads of amazing people on here (much more experienced/knowledgeable than me!) who will give you tons of great advice. As a starting point, you might want to fill out a statement of affairs (SOA) to give an accurate breakdown of what your outgoings/income is. If you post that up here, people will be able to help you see where you might be able to make some real changes to start cutting down your expenditure and also how to manage your debt.

Here's the link: http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/soacalc.html

Good luck!!

Struggling_with_debt

Thanx for the link, now off to fill out my SOA!

rubyslipper

Struggling_with_debt wrote: »

Thanx for the link, now off to fill out my SOA!

Good for you. It's much less scary once you start talking to the genuinely caring, fab people here.

Ruby xx

Struggling_with_debt

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 799.4
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 799.4
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 80
Gas..................................... 80
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 21
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 200
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 6.48
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Tobacco................................. 24
Total monthly expenses.................. 802.48

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 200

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Provident......................357.......84........189.2
Capital One....................229.34....10........26.48
Vanquis........................300.......10........47.89
E&S Water .....................85.44.....0.........0
Anglian .......................203.73....0.........0
Npower ........................786.1.....0.........0
Additions Direct...............334.......0.........0
Studio ........................449.37....0.........0
Grattan .......................296.3.....0.........0
Littlewoods Direct.............556.24....0.........0
Littlewoods....................716.62....0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........4314.14...104.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 799.4
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 802.48
Available for debt repayments........... -3.08
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 104
Amount short for making debt repayments. -107.08
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,314.14
Net Assets.............................. -4,114.14
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

rubyslipper

Struggling_with_debt wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 799.4
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 799.4
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 80 Electricity and gas seem really high. Is that £80 each?? You should research switching providers via the main page of this site and get that right down.
Gas..................................... 80
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 20 Do you definitely need both? Could you maybe look at combining mobile/landline/broadband with one provider to bring the costs down?
TV Licence.............................. 11
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 21 See above - or maybe make do with Freeview for a while?
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 If there are only two of you in the household you could use meal-planning to bring this cost down.
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 40
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 200 Is this every month?
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 6.48
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Tobacco................................. 24 I smoke so I'm NOT going to preach but there's an obvious point to make here!
Total monthly expenses.................. 802.48

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 200

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Provident......................357.......84........189.2
Capital One....................229.34....10........26.48
Vanquis........................300.......10........47.89
E&S Water .....................85.44.....0.........0
Anglian .......................203.73....0.........0
Npower ........................786.1.....0.........0
Additions Direct...............334.......0.........0
Studio ........................449.37....0.........0
Grattan .......................296.3.....0.........0
Littlewoods Direct.............556.24....0.........0
Littlewoods....................716.62....0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........4314.14...104.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 799.4
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 802.48
Available for debt repayments........... -3.08
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 104
Amount short for making debt repayments. -107.08
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 200
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,314.14
Net Assets.............................. -4,114.14
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

I've put a few comments in pink but I'm sure there are other people who will be able to really help you out a lot more with suggestions on how to cut expenditure. It's an obvious point but you do need to try and start making payments on those catalogue/utility debts if you can. Perhaps look into a setting up a DMP? You can find loads of info about that kind of thing on this board if you do a bit of research.

Ruby xxxx

Sunny_Donny

Hi
Wow that is a lot to spend on catalogues. Don't buy anything else - look on freecycle or ebay for things you need. Do you use everything you bought? Sell anything you don't on ebay to help clear some of the debt. It is free to register items at 99p or less.
Groceries - meal plan, take the downshift challenge and get onto the Moneysaving oldstyle site and get recipes and ideas there. They are all really friendly.

Wow when you are in a position to pay off the debts - hit the Provident - the interest rate is astronomical!!!

Struggling_with_debt

Hi Sunny Donny and thanx for the advice. Won't be spending anymore on catalogues because I doubt they would let me! Gonna raid my house for stuff to put on ebay over the weekend. This is gonna be very hard!

Keeping_Positive

Hard but Im sure its doable. Just keep lurking and posting and there is loads of helpful advice to hep from setting up your own DMP on going through CCCS, Payplan or CAB. Check you motoring costs as they seem very high and there is definetely room to cut back on Groceries - take a look at the grocery challenge on the old style thread.

Good luck

fatbelly

Hi SWD

On Income Support there is rarely any spare money to pay creditors with, so you need a debt management plan here. If you can afford £5 per creditor per month, then CCCS will take you on. If even that is too much, then your local CAB may be your friend here, with £1 per month token offers.

And if you are lucky enough to find one with a decent debt specialist they may even be able to assist in finding out whether those catalogue debts (Additions, Studio, Grattans, LW x 2) are enforceable. If the accounts were opened before April 2007 and they did not get a signature, then the debt cannot be enforced in court and any payments you choose to make are voluntary. Of course you're not in a position to make payments to unenforceable debts...

The figure for Provident already has interest front-loaded so that figure will only reduce with payments and they are very easy for the CAB to deal with, so they don't deserve any priority either.

Cap One and Vanquis need to be persuaded to freeze interest and stop charges asap.

The strength of being under 5k in debt is that if any of these were to issue a ccj you could apply for an Administration Order, which is a really neat way to deal with your debts.

I don't think any of them will (give you a ccj) but knowing about them takes the sting out of the threats and harassment you will probably get when you default.

Paul7349

Think the best thing for you to do with Npower is ask them for pre payment meters before it gets worse. I had them fitted and it was a big help knowing that i wasnt getting in more debt and was at the same time paying off my balance. Must say they changed them back when i asked with no problems