We're bankers... and in a complete mess..

saskia1

Hi all

firstly - what a fab site. Found it by complete accident but already am hooked.

Both me & my husband work for major high st banks - no we're not the 'city' types who became greedy with everyones elses money - just a clerk (me) and a sales manager (hubby)

income for both - £2900 - outgoings £4000 ! permanently overdrawn and have spent the last year robbing peter to pay paul (one card for another) and it has finally caught up with us.

have taken a day off work to start sorting this mess out! have finally had the 'lightbulb / head out of sand moment' and realised we have to do something now.

i think what is quite frightening for me is that the bank i work for cannot help me - have applied for a personal loan to consolidate the bank lending only - they refused - said i failed scoring - the only option they can 'look' to do is what is called a 'managed' loan but that clears the o/draft and bank credit cards and will not be allowed debit cards.

now that doesn't sound too bad does it - but it still leaves £35k of other unsecured debt -our only option is to offer reduced payemnts to our creditors but after working that out today i can offer each £50 - highest debt is £10k - i think they will refuse.

we are mortgaged up to the hilt - took out a secured loan many years ago - NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!! but with our income all our priority debts are covered + c/tax, utilities etc.

anyway -thanks for reading - have my parents coming for diiner tonight - we are going to tell them everything (they can't help - not that i would ask) but i just have to be honest and upfront.

I'm ashamed & embarrassed to be in this mess - but also feel quite strong that i will not let it beat us!

sassy

kindofagilr

(((Hugs)))

I cant offer you any advise but the experts will be along soon

I know they will ask you to post up a SOA http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

boo80

Hey Sassy, don't panic, it's going to be ok! Well done on your lightbulb moment. You say you can offer each creditor £50 each, but if you go on a debt management plan you'll be offering pro-rata payments, so you'd pay a £1000 debt a lot less each month than a £10000 debt. As Kindofagilr says, post your SOA and we'll all have a look and see what we can suggest. Boo.x

10past6

Hi & welcome to the forum :hello:

saskia1 wrote: »

now that doesn't sound too bad does it

Yes, it's never a good idea to borrow your way out of debt.

boo80

Oh, and I owe nearly 6k on a loan and pay them £35 pm atm, so they may well accept £50 pm on a 10k debt if thats all you have. B.x

saskia1

But with entering into a DMP - doesn't that mean you automatically get adverse info listed against you? - need to avoid that as we both work for banks and don't want to lose our jobs!

also - where do i start with DMP?

i will post my SOA - its quite scary.

homeaway

You have come to the right place. You will need to post a soa so that others will be able to help you,but there are probably areas that you can reduce your spending without noticing the difference too much. One of those is food shopping, Aldi and Lidl are great places to get the basics or you could try downshifting which means that you shop in your normal supermarket but dont buy brands, buy the supermarkets own brand or the lower equivalent. There is the old style board on here for ideas as well. Good luck i am sure somebody will be along soon.

MissKJ

hi and welcome. You really shouldnt worry at this stage about them accepting/not accepting. I am on a dmp and have had payments on £18,000 loan accepted at £15 per month. Fact is, if you dont have it, they cant have it. The most important thing is to get help now. Dont pay any more. Just write with a token payment of £1.00 and tell them you will obtaining advice fom a third party debt management agency. This gives you some breathing space to sort out your DMP with Payplan or CCCS and in the interim get the car serviced/catch up with tax payments whatever, or just save for an emergency fund. It is imperative that you know what your priority payments should be, and cccs/payplan will tell you this. And also open a new bank account with no OD. Thos prevents them offsetting your wages against the loan and taking all your money out.

Good luck, just start at the beginning and do your SOA first before making the decision.

boo80

You will probably have defaults on your account, but I don't think these stop you working in finance? I know you can't if you have been bankrupt so understand that this is not an option for you.
You can organise your own DMP, you contact creditors and let them klnow you are having problems, make them offers of pro-rata payments and handle the whole thing yourself, or you can use CCCS or Payplan (debt charities), give them all the info and pay them a lump sum at the begining of each month and they pay your creditors. Each method has pros and cons, depends what you would feel more comfortable with, I'm a control freak so do my own lol

MissKJ

By the way, your credit rating is probably already trashed, and a DMP will damage it further, but you dont want credit, you want CONTROL. If you are upfront with your employer (and it sounds like they already know) you should receive support, and DMPs are viewed as you taking control and not being iresponsible. That is my experience anyway. Although there could be some restricitions on postings within the bank at some stage to prevent opportunity for corruption.

It is embarrassing,I agree, but hey,people do worse things than get into a mess with money! I doesnt make you a bad person.

MissKJ

You know boo80, I am thinking I should transfer from Payplan to my own plan, for that very reason, nothing wrong with them at all, but they do delay sending my money, which is probably where they make money. Also, you have to keep track anyway, as I have had a couple of mistakes by them.In the beginning it was great, as i was so stressed with it all,and i am very grateful to them, but I am learning and have calmed down a bit now. Do you find it time consuming or a hassle? Sorry to hijack thread!