SOA - Can I Be Saved from Bankruptcy??

Jaelor

Have posted before - I'm the idiot with the stupidly huge FirstPlus loan and with little choice, so I think, but to go bankrupt. However, I've updated my SOA below;

Income
£1450 - Me
£993 - DH
£75 - child benefit
£88 - tax credits (will decrease to £48 in September)
£2606

Expenditure
£901 Mortgage (£158k outstanding, 32 years to run!)
£175 DH employee car scheme - will be downgrading in 9 mths to £110
£35.67 Car insurance
£27.54 Home insurance
£50.46 Life insurance - incl critical illness
£25.00 Broadband - NTL (DH won't budge on this)
£25.00 BT
£125.00 Council Tax
£90.00 Electricity (increased from £34 a month as used extra heat for baby)
£13.36 Pet insurance - 2 cats with Tesco
£10.99 TV Licence
£215.00 Food, toiletries, baby milk & nappies
£150.00 Petrol
£1829.02 Total

Debts
£99.62 Cahoot flexible loan - balance £4981.16
£5.00 MSDW credit card - balance £20.00
£6.87 Virgin Credit Card - balance £2017.82 (0% til June)
£5.00 Egg Credit Card - balance £225.32
£661.65 FirstPlus - £55k borrowed + £13k for payment protection.
£778.14

£1.16 overspend each month...that's without any 'unforeseen' things, MOT's, etc. We are sailing very close to the wind. Our house is on the market, and we plan to sell up and rent - this should save us around £200 a month as renting will be slightly cheaper and we won't have to pay for life insurance, house insurance, etc. DH is looking to get a better paid job but our real problem is bloody FirstPlus. This loan is set to run for another 19 years, so on a borrow of £55k plus the £13k PPI they flogged us, we are paying back a total of £158,796k :eek: outrageous. They have said that if we sell, they will convert the loan into an unsecured one, but I know they will put the interest rate up. I've been looking at perhaps getting a Tesco loan for £25k over 10 years at £276 a month...FirstPlus are sending me a quote on paying off £25k, but they have said that they generally shortern the length of the loan in these circumstances rather than lower the monthly amount.

I really don't want to go bankrupt - it is an option, but I want to get out of this myself if I possibly can. I'm willing to knuckle down and pay off debts for the next 10 years, but I can't keep on paying £661.65 for 20 years...my little boy will be grown up and gone by then. I honestly can't believe we signed the paperwork for this loan - was pregnant at the time and guess it was the hormones oh, and the promise of a "5 month payment break" from the broker which strangely enough didn't apply to this loan after we'd signed.

Sorry, have waffled - has anyone got any suggestions for me??

silverelephant

Just wanted to say keep your chin up and I'm sure someone more experienced than me will be along soon with their pearls of wisdom :grouphug:

D&DD

Hi Jaelor so sorry to hear how you're struggling at the moment have you asked firstplus to take off the ppi from your loan?
re petrol I presume you use the car travelling for work at least are you getting tesco points or nectar points for this much usage? It'll help a bit with the shopping bill
The electric seems high is this only temporary or is it likely to stay at this level?

Broken_hearted

£90 for electric seems very high. I've had two kids, one was prem and he didn't bump up the heating that much.

CLAPTON

what price is the house likely to sell for?

peterg1965

Hi Jaelor,
A few questions:
a. How much is your house realistic worth? ie what is your bottom line sale price?
b. Can you cancel the FirstPlus payment protection? There is loads written on here about PPI and basically it seems to be a rip off.
c.Your outgoings seem pretty reasonable (ie nothing stands out to be cut back) but you sepnd a lot on petrol. Can you downgrade the car early? worth asking.
d. I assume you have all electric heating/cooking etc - no gas.
e. Check out cheaper lie insurance - have you looked at cavendish or lifesearch?
f. Likewise with house insurance. If you havent claimed for a number of years try and find cheaper policy and cancel current. Dont take out accidental damage ......worth a try.

Dont dont go down the bankruptcy route.......

Pete

kevker

Broken_hearted wrote:

£90 for electric seems very high. I've had two kids, one was prem and he didn't bump up the heating that much.

No Gas quoted, so i would imagine that all heating, cooking etc is on electric. My combined gas/electric works out about £70 ish a month, just for 2 of us, so I would say that's about right (and yes, before anyone asks, that's the cheapest I can get it).

Jaelor

Clapton - sorry, there was such a lot of info to get down I knew I'd forget something...house is on the market for £180k, but its fairly slow round here, so I reckon we'll get around £175k.

Broken hearted - we have no gas, so everything is electric. We were paying £34 a month for a year or so, and didn't really use the heating. Since DS came along in September, we've had it on all the time and at night plus I'm here all day on the computer :rolleyes: and with the TV on. Also, we have ceiling heating which isn't the most efficient. We have to £90 for a year to work off the 'backlog'.

D&DD - I asked FirstPlus a few months ago about cancelling the PPI. They offered to refund £4k of it, so we didn't bother as we would of lost £8k. Also, they are suppose to give you back the £13k after 5 years. If we got the £4k back, it would save us around £40 a month. If we extended the loan to the maximum term, it would save us another £40 a month.

Petrol is high at the moment as DH has a very nice car on his scheme - but he knows now this can't carry on and we have to continue paying until December, he will then get a cheaper car at £110. We don't have to pay service cost or tax, just petrol and the insurance and this will be cheaper. We also have a J reg metro as a run around.

Broken_hearted

My gas and electric are £60 combined.

Credit_Card_Kate

Hi there,

Have you spoken to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service or the Citizens Advice Bureau? There are alternatives to bankruptcy. One, offered by the CCCS, is called an Individual Voluntary Agreement (IVA) I think. The CCCS will liase with your creditors on your behalf and help you to draw up a budget so that you pay back what you can afford each month. Definitely worth a go. Martin has details of the CCCS and others on his site. Never go to one of the so-called get-out-of-debt agencies that advertise on TV.

Good luck. You are not an idiot. You are just like the rest of us - trying to get through life!!

Hope this was helpful

Kate

angchris

hi there jaelor, well done for trying to face up to your debts, its a long hard struggle believe me ive been there! what is dh`s car scheme? im sure car/home and life insurance could be reduced if you spend a few hours looking online and comparing prices, i saved a fortune doing this. your leccy seems very high to me, cant you just put a extra jumper on baby instead of cranking thermostat up to max? also i would get rid of pet insurance if need be i would put a fiver a month away in a jar or savings account and save up for any pet/vet expenses.
you dont say in post how many of you there are in your family but im sure you could cut down on your food bill by cooking from scratch and looking at the reduced items in shops also check out ebay for reusable second hand nappies because this will save you a fortune it just takes a little bit of extra washing. with regards to your credit cards try and pay the 2 smaller ones off first so you have less to worry about then come june look around for another 0% card to transfer your virgin balance to. in the mean time look around your house and pick up anything you dont use be ruthless because its money sitting there doing absolutely nothing! anything decent ebay it anything else sell in your local paper or carboot it, throw any money you make straight at credit cards, to make extra money i scour carboots for brand name (gap/next) stuff kids clothes mainly buy it for 50p then flog it on ebay even if you only make a pound profit its all in the right direction It takes a little bit of time to get used to listing but let it build up in paypal then throw it at a debts as its money you didnt have before, your first plus loan is a biggie! im not entirely sure what to suggest but im sure someone will come along with good ideas, best of luck with trying to deal with it all it is daunting i know just keep your head down and think do i really need this before you buy anything, just keep plugging away at your debt and if you are frugal in every way possible you will free up spare cash to pay them off, might take a while but you will get there
angchris